On the twenty-hour journey from Frankfurt to Melbourne, Satsvarupa
dasa Goswami was Srila Prabhupada's only travelling companion. During
the flight to Singapore, Srila Prabhupada opened one of his
Srimad-Bhagavatam volumes. He read for over an hour and then placed it
in the chair-pocket in front of him. He was mostly quiet, but once,
while looking out at the silver wing he turned to Satsvarupa Goswami.
"It took so much intelligence to build a plane like this," he said,
"so how can they say there is no God? If a plane flies in the sky by
human ingenuity, then how can we say that the planets, sky, clouds and
the whole cosmic arrangement have no brain behind it?" Prabhupada's
observation struck Satsvarupa as wonderful.
Satsvarupa: It was simple, but solid. Here you were, riding with that
person whose task it was to glorify God to the whole world, and even
in his quiet moment he had a Krsna conscious thought and shared it
with you. I was grateful and felt renewed strength.

In the morning, Srila Prabhupada and Satsvarupa dasa Goswami changed
planes in Singapore. As they sat in the waiting lounge, a weary
Satsvarupa kept dutifully checking their tickets and his watch, hoping
that everything would go without mishap. Again Prabhupada was mostly
silent, but when a little child passed with a toy on wheels,
Prabhupada said to Satsvarupa: "I remember being that young. I also
had toys like that." And he added, "I once scraped my knee".

Satsvarupa: Prabhupada tended to be withdrawn during the airplane
trips. He did not feel at home with the karmis and their meat-eating
and smoking. He was not like a businessman, who has a few drinks and
then starts talking loudly or does a lot of office work during a
flight. Prabhupada, at least when I saw him, was mostly quiet, just
waiting with infinite patience to get to the next place for spreading
Krsna consciousness.

As the plane descended through the clouds over Melbourne, Prabhupada
again spoke to Satsvarupa: "When we took off in Germany there was all
green, and now here it's also green. So why do they say that we cannot
travel to the spiritual world, and that there will be no life there,
just as there is here?"

Prabhupada spoke simply, but Satsvarupa took it as unforgettable nectar.

- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu

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