Prayers to the Six Goswamis with Srila Prabhupada

Another special memory I have occurred during the mangal aratik in the dark of night. There were one or two low watt light bulbs hanging and a few candles on the altar. We began chanting the Guruvastaka prayers to the Spiritual Master and then, not far into the chanting, Srila Prabhupada spontaneously began chanting the prayers to the Six Goswamis. We did not have song books at that time, but Srila Prabhupada had recorded some of those prayers. So somehow I had learned the words to this prayer, and I began chanting with Srila Prabhupada—just the two of us singing, with the devotees playing their instruments. I remember feeling like I was in this sound bubble with Srila Prabhupada, and surrounding that sound bubble were all these other transcendental vibrations coming up. For me it was this wonderful reciprocation of kirtan with Srila Prabhupada. He kept his eyes closed throughout most of the kirtan. I remember closely watching him and feeling almost out-of-body. Then at the end of the prayer, he resumed again with the slokas of the morning prayers glorifying the Spiritual Master. The whole occurrence was extremely wonderful and unusual, but not unprecedented. On a few occasions, he did this, and of course, the Conway Hall chant to Narada Muni comes to mind. Srila Prabhupada saw Narada Muni come to our kirtan then. For some reason, here at the Ardha-Kumbha-Mela, he became immersed in the presence of the six Goswamis, and we were fortunate enough to witness this. To this day that beautiful memory remains fixed in my heart.