His activities appear very ordinary. Extraordinary things happen in his presence, but his personal behavior is not at all extraordinary. And those of you who have associated with Srila Prabhupada, you must have been impressed how simple Srila Prabhupada lived. His table would just have a few items. And his room, unless someone decorated, would remain bare. His function was he would take a walk in the morning and some students would go with him, and then he would take his breakfast, and then massage, and then answer letters, and bath, and then take lunch, and then take rest, and then some darshan.

And before you knew it, it was time for arati, and the next morning Prabhupada would be at the morning class. At least in the early days, he used to give the morning class. But there was nothing extraordinary about Prabhupada. He would wear whatever he was given. He would eat practically whatever was brought to him. He would live wherever you put him whether it was nice or not nice.

One of the last times that Prabhupada took a preaching journey was in Mayapur when he went to Haridaspur. I believe it was the year I took sannyasa, it was 1976, and we had brought all these big buses from Germany. And so Prabhupada immediately engaged them. We loaded the buses with all the devotees and went to Haridaspur. And the quarters they gave Prabhupada, it was just four brick walls which were not at all very solidly put together. There was no floor, it was just dirt and grass growing inside, and there was no roof. But Prabhupada, he made it appear very palatial and very comfortable and enjoyable. He was exhibiting himself as a parivrajakacharya preaching, but he didn’t feel any discomfort. He was not disappointed that the arrangements were not to the standard which Prabhupada can enjoy in America or in Europe or even in India. He sat there, he took rest there, he took meals there, he gave darshan there, he lectured there. And within a short time, there was no awareness about the defectiveness of the residence for such an exalted personality.

Hansaduta Dasa (from VedaBase)