November 14, 1977. The day our world stopped. The phone call came. Prabhupada had left his body.
Words can’t describe the devastation that we all felt. Hearts broke and tears flowed everywhere. The universe was in sorrow. The pure devotee of Krishna had left the planet. We had lost our master, our protector and our ever well-wisher. Suddenly the universe became dark and cold, and all hope instantly fled from our lives. How could we go on without Prabhupada? It was inconceivable.
No longer could we jump in a van or board an airplane to go see His Divine Grace in person. No longer came the reports of Prabhupada’s latest preaching success or his most recent instructions to the devotees. No longer did the anticipation of greeting Prabhupada at the airport or watching him bow down before the Deities shiver in our hearts. No longer did we have the same youthful confidence that our movement could save the world.
Over the years we have all tried to come to terms with our great loss. In addition we have each struggled to grasp the enormity and significance of Srila Prabhupada’s appearance in our lives. In the process we have had to grow and expand our vision of the spiritual master and his causeless mercy. While he was physically present, Srila Prabhupada repeatedly warned us that he might leave at a moment’s notice, but he also assured us that we need not worry as long as we remain sincere and true to him.
“I will remain your personal guidance, physically present or not physically present, as I am getting guidance from my Guru Maharaja.”
(Srila Prabhupada Conversation, Vrindavan, July 7, 1977)
In this simple sentence we find the answer to our great dilemma. Where is Srila Prabhupada now? He is in our hearts if we invite him there. As we each move closer towards all-devouring death (mrtyuh sarva-haras caham), we are learning that Prabhupada has never left us at all.
“In the spiritual world, separation is more relishable than meeting. In other words, in spiritual life, there is no separation. Separation is eternal, and meeting is also eternal. The separation is simply another feature of meeting.”
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, April 3, 1969)
Srila Prabhupada is as present now as he has ever been. Throughout his books, letters and conversations, Prabhupada emphasized this point again and again, so there should be no cause for misunderstanding. When asked by a reporter in Berkeley in July of 1975 what would happen to the movement after his departure, Srila Prabhupada replied, “I will never die. I shall live from my books, and you will utilize.”
In the Caitanya-caritamrta (Adi 1.35, Purport), Srila Prabhupada explains,
“There is no difference between the spiritual master’s instructions and the spiritual master himself.” Further assuring us all, Prabhupada spoke the following words prior to his departure in 1977: “If I depart, there is no cause for lamentation. I will always be with you through my books and my orders. I will always remain with you in that way.”
Fortunately, we don’t have to go far to hear this same message repeated for our benefit. A Vaisnava is an ocean of mercy, and no matter how much one may drink from that ocean, the mercy is always available. There is no shortage or deficiency on the spiritual platform, and therefore we can all rejoice in our shared good fortune. Srila Prabhupada is forever offering his spiritual blessings to one and all.
“As far as my blessing is concerned, it does not require my physical presence. If you are chanting Hare Krishna there, and following my instructions, reading the books, taking only Krishna prasadam etc., then there is no question of your not receiving the blessings of Lord Caitanya, whose mission I am humbly trying to push on.”
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, June 30, 1974)
Everywhere we look in Krishna consciousness we can see the mercy of Prabhupada. He personally delivered to us the Hare Krishna mantra, the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, Srimad-Bhagavatam, Caitanya-caritamrta, Krishna Book, Nectar of Devotion, the arca-vigraha (Deity form of the Lord), the holy dhamas, numerous temples around the world, Vaisnava association, Krishna prasadam, over 7,000 letters — and the list goes on and on. In fact, we can’t escape the network of his causeless mercy upon the fallen souls of Kali-Yuga. Srila Prabhupada has personally flooded the entire world with Krishna consciousness.
Although it may appear that such a great personality has come and gone from the world stage, Srila Prabhupada has consistently promised us that we can still have his personal association if we remain faithful to his words and instructions.
“But always remember that I am always with you. As you are always thinking of me, I am always thinking of you also. Although physically we are not together, we are not separated spiritually. So we should be concerned only with this spiritual connection.”
(Srila Prabhupada Letter, November 13, 1969)
As we hear more and more from Srila Prabhupada himself, and as we accept him into our hearts, we will experience his transcendental presence and love. Prabhupada used to say that when we eat to our full satisfaction, we don’t need a certificate from anyone else saying that we are full. We will know it ourselves. Similarly, when we have made the Prabhupada connection in our own lives, there is no room for doubts or uncertainty.
“He lives forever by his divine instructions, and the follower lives with him.”
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
(by Padmapani das)
This is very much appreciated thank you.
Why is it that we still live our lives in isolation as if he is not around? Why do we not care for each other the way he taught us, why is it that we are not on the streets doing Hari Nam the way he taught us, why is it that we are not distributing prasadam to the starving masses the way he taught us, why is it that we cannot openly discuss and communicate with each other about our struggles and searches for advice the way he taught us.
Why is it that we are not painting, sculpting, writing plays, publishing books and writing about our realizations and understandings of Krsna and our joys of service the way he taught us. Why are there no out lets for creative Krsna conscious writings like a writers corner.
We are so concerned about conformity that we have stifled our divine creative inspirations because we worry about offending someone. Yet we smugly agree that Srila Prabhupada is alive…somewhere, so we do not have to worry about increasing our efforts to help the world because we are rightly situated. Srila Prabhupada is not a figure head he is an active living leader but he cannot be an effective leader if we are not following his orders en masse. Following independently is fine but the Hare Krsna movement spread with the service of active co operating thousands who loved him. Lord Caitanya employed thousands and thousands of devotees who loved Him. From His association came great leaders and writers. Indeed great activists. We have great limited web sites and home programmes to be sure but even those venues lack true courageous leaders who could step up to embrace all the challenges that Srila Prabhupada still wants us to engage in. We had better break free of our comfortable encampments before we are over run by maya’s soldiers. Srila Prabhupada did not die but for the devotees present service action he does not show much enthusiasm. But that is just my opinion.
Pamho agtacbsp, f-iskcon declared SP dead, so for them HE don’t live forever because they are ignorant of all the power in nirguna form through vani seva,such evil offenders misuse all their small indipendence by taking bhoga in the temples of our guru Maharaj therefore they will suffer very badly all the calamities and dangers of this d
Polluted age without any spiritual support by SSGG,all these dangers are waiting for f-iskcon until they return back whatever they stole to SSGG and then they have to pay the heavy karma for slowing down the revolution of SRI harinam sankirtanam ,I mean is not nice to go in the temple of SP and find all these blind and shameless donkey who wave their flag by eating only sin made by their stinky and fake guru, Sri Krishna also was counting the offences of that donkey of sisupala in the rajasuya sacrifice and when the offence become one hundred sisupala got his head chopped out,in the same way SP is waiting for all these usurpers to go over the limit then all of them are finished.SRILA PRABHUPADA tirobhava mahotsava ki jay.agtacbsp ys haribol
Pamho agtacbsp, JE ANILO PREMA DHANA KARUNA PRACURA HENA PRABHU KOTHA GELA ACARYA THAKUR, HDG ACBSP TIROBHAVA MAHOTSAVA DISAPPEARANCE DAY KI JAY,I agreed SRILA PRABHUPADA IS MORE POWERFUL NOW BECAUSE HE HAVEN’T GOT A PHYSICAL FORM AS SAGUNA BUT IT IS IN NIRGUNA SINCE HIS FIRST DAY OF HIS DIVINE DISAPPEARANCE ,HE WAS ALREADY A TRI KALA JNA BEYOND THE FACTOR TIME BEFORE TO LEAVE MARTYALOKA IN A VERY SUCCESSFUL WAY BY THE MERCY OF HIS GURU HDG SBSSTP, HIS SINCERE FOLLOWERS LIVE THROUGH HIS VANI SEVA UNTIL THE LAST BREATH WE WILL SERVE OUR RESPECTFUL GURU MAHARAJ IN ALL RESPECT NOT LIKE THE BETRAYERS OFTHE GURU HOAX IN F-ISKCON. AGTACBSP YS HARIBOL