Photographer of Srila Prabhupada, Yadubara Das reveals

Yadubara das met Srila Prabhupada in December, 1970, in Surat, India. He was doing his masters degree in photography on the subject of the origins of Krsna Consciousness in India. Yadubara prabhu had come with several cameras and pretty soon His Divine Grace allowed him to accompany the traveling party for 2 months. From the very start Yadubara felt immensely privileged to take photos of Prabhupada even though he was considered an outsider. But slowly he felt himself becoming a devotee and ended up staying in India for 2 1/2 years, taking initiation in Kolkata in 1971.

From then on Yadubara das served with his wife Visakha devi in different projects to help Srila Prabhupada establish Krishna consciousness in India, especially the Juhu Hare Krishna Land Temple. He was then called back to America by Karandhar das to produce the first documentary film about ISKCON called “THE HARE KRISHNA PEOPLE.” His Divine Grace sanctioned this idea and paid for it from the BBT fund. The film was produced in 1974 and Prabhupada asked Yadubara to produce more films and make them the most popular films. Over the years, he and Visakha produced 4 films that Prabhupada saw personally and 4 more films after his departure, one of which was “Your Ever Well Wisher.”

In 1976, Yadubara das and Visakha devi were with Srila Prabhupada in Washington DC. There, His Divine Grace mentioned that he liked the architecture of Capitol building. By this time there had already been many discussions about the Mayapur project and Prabhupada asked them to take pictures of the Capitol for reference. Later that day, they went and took photos from both outside and inside the famous monument. Yadubara Prabhu gave the photos to Srila Prabhupada and he became inspired to build the Sri Caitanya Chandrodaya Mandir after this stunning piece of architecture. One morning in the middle of Mangal Arati, Hari Sauri prabhu called Yadubara das and Visakha devi into Srila Prabhupada’s room. Not knowing what to expect, they entered, and the first words that escaped His Divine Graces’ lips were: “Take it from, me they didn’t go to the moon.”