Svāmījī told me when we were sitting together in Mathurā in 1957, “When I was initiated by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, a śloka came to my mind:
“The Personality of Godhead said: If I especially favor someone, I gradually deprive him of his wealth. Then the relatives and friends of such a poverty-stricken man abandon him. In this way he suffers one distress after another.” [Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.88.8]Which means that Kṛṣṇa favors those who take His shelter by turning them into street beggars. Now He has made me so. I feared that if I will chant more and engage in more devotional practices, Kṛṣṇa will make me a street beggar. Now I see that I am a street beggar.”
July 15, 1996 New York, 26 2nd Ave.