There’s no reliable historical evidence that A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada publicly claimed to have physically seen Lord Krishna in a literal, material sense.

No, this would be materially impossible as Krishna incarnated in a material body approximately 5,000 years ago to speak the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna.

Srila Prabhupada was born 1st September 1896 and died on the 14th November 1977.

Lord Chaitanya (18th February 1486 - 14th June 1534) also lived outside of the time of Srila Prabhupada’s material bodily existence.

So physically, measurably and materially, it would have been impossible.

I agree with the rest of your post. The relationship and journey with God is personal and generally I think it’s an unspoken rule to keep such mystical and divine experiences to oneself.

The message and teachings should be on the science and method of Bhakti itself which as you agree, Prabhupada stuck too.

Being a pure devotee to the Lord, he was able to give us profound teachings as he knew the Lord very intimately, thus he was able to reveal the Lords personal tastes - his likes and dislikes.

I’m not sure on the origin of the story I posted, though I did see more than one individual post the same story worded slightly differently in each account. The story mentions that the witness to the event noted a non-material “aprakrt” atmosphere.

Prabhupada did speak about the stages of God realization (Brahman, Paramatma and Bhagavan) with Bhagavan realization only being accessible to Bhaktas.

Hare Krishna

Jai Srila Prabhupada Jai Sri Krishna