We flew together on the aeroplane from Mauritius to Durban. The flight originated in Perth although we boarded in Mauritius. The flight was filled with many South African rugby players who had been in Australia because there had been a match of some sort. Srila Prabhupada and I were sitting together. He was quiet and radiantly dressed in his saffron cloth; I was in my Western dress with my British cap which I always wore on arrival into the South African airports to be inconspicuous to the authorities. We were in a non–smoking section of the plane. There were some rowdy men drinking and smoking behind us. I requested the stewardess to please ask the men to refrain from smoking as this was a non-smoking section of the plane. The men ignored her request. When I began to ask the stewardess a second time, Srila Prabhupada quietly said to me: “ We must tolerate, otherwise, what is the difference between us and them!” He then said: “ Don’t be an ordinary common man.” It was a lesson that I will never forget, even though I still have much work to do in the tolerance department.

When we finally arrived at Durban airport, I was escorting Srila Prabhupada, (in his full sadhu–saintly dress for myself I was dressed in civilian with my cap). Hoping to avoid being turned away by immigration and customs. It was an anxious time for me, I didn’t want to bring attention to myself. I could not neglect Srila Prabhupada and yet I was in jeopardy of being discovered by the authorities. I was travelling to South Africa for the purposes for actually preaching. When asked I told them that I was merely escorting this nice Indian holy man from the plane. Fortunately, I got through the customs by Krsna’s mercy, and I was very surprised to see such a large crowd of Indian people there to greet Srila Prabhupada along with Riddha Prabhu. I did not expect that, and I was also relieved to be through customs successfully once again. My great smile of satisfaction reflected all the tribulation that I had gone through to finally fulfil this desire for Srila Prabhupada to preach the message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu in South Africa. I knew that Srila Prabhupada was extremely pleased and satisfied.

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Srila Prabhupada walked very briskly on a long stretch of open beach. Just as the morning walk was ending, half a mile or so up the coast, Srila Prabhupada stopped and looked directly at the sand below. There appeared a full colour picture of Lord Siva embedded in the sand. It was in perfect condition. It was almost a one in a million chance of that happening. I had been there many times before but I had never seen such a spiritual form. That very day Srila Prabhupada arrived on this Indian Ocean beach, the form of Lord Siva was at his feet. Srila Prabhupada humbly acknowledged this seemingly mystifying event and carried on. The picture some how appeared as if it were washed up by the tide but perfectly intact.