Recollecting his initial days in New York when he single handedly cooked prasadam, conducted classes twice a day, fed the visitors with plateful of prasadam, the Sunday feasts etc, His Divine Grace said how he had visited places where common people would normally fear to go.
In this world of competition, people will hardly care to teach others the way to advance or be successful in any field. But here we find Srila Prabhupada very lovingly share how to advance in spiritual life.
Srila Prabhupada then fondly encouraged the disciples who had returned back to the movement after a gap. His Divine Grace said, "Lost child has come. These are good signs."
Srila Prabhupada's unpredictable health conditions, the complications in renewing his green-card etc, delayed his travel to the West. But internally His Divine Grace was developing desire to move out to West.
Every moment in the life of such exalted acaryas like Srila Prabhupada teaches us so many lesson and particularly these mahatmas, teach a lot during their final winding up pastimes in this material world.
His Divine Grace is Jagat Guru who is still delivering so many souls in this world. But just like how a genuine spiritual master always takes great pride to see his disciple excel better than himself, he encouraged each one of them to try to be sincere.
Prabhupada then used the example of his bodily condition in a different way, to illustrate the concept of varnashrama-dharma. He compared the brahmanas to the head, the kshatriyas to the arms, the vaishyas to the belly, and the shudras to the legs.
Towards end of July 1977 Srila Prabhupada's health was declining, but devotees tried their best to make him happy by giving him updates of the preaching, book distribution and ratha yatras happening all over the world.
This is in continuation of the offering, "I Have Done My Part" - which is one of the chapters in the book Srila Prabhupada's Lilamrta. In the previous offering we saw how Srila Prabhupada translated Srimad Bhagavatam oblivious to his bodily miseries. Now we shall see further.
In July 1977 we find Srila Prabhupada very enthusiastically continued with his service of translating the chapters of 10th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, completely oblivious to his physical conditions.
In July 1977, Srila Prabhupada also had to hear the unfortunate news of Mayapur temple being attacked by 300 dacoits. The dacoits were harming the devotees, injuring them and so to defend themselves one of the devotees shot a gun. Though there was no fault on the devotees, the media reported the news in a different manner and the local police had arrested few devotees.
In July 1977 Srila Prabhupada's health condition was neither critical nor improving. He was hardly eating anything and his main treatment consisted of hearing kirtana, Srimad-Bhagavatam, and Caitanya-caritamrta. His Divine Grace was discussing with devotees about the designing of a model universe for the Vedic planetarium - a model based on fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam.
Today is the auspicious occasion of the appearance of Srimati Radharani, the pleasure potency of the Supreme Lord. Our beloved spiritual master HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj says that the word, "Radha" comes from the word "aradhana", which means intense worship.
The sound of mrdangas used in kirtans could be heard only for limited distance. But the brhad mrdangas - the books of Srila Prabhupada speak louder and so His Divine Grace was very pleased to hear the reports of this wonderful sankirtan done by devotees all over the world.
Srila Prabhupada had always shown that Krishna conciousness is not mere sentiment, but it is a greatest science. So whenever His Divine Grace met his disciple HH Svarup Damodar Maharaj, he was never too tired or too indisposed to speak with him about defeating material science. Before meeting Srila Prabhupada, Svarup Damodar Maharaj was a Phd candidate in organic chemistry.
His Divine Grace felt very grateful and thankful for the care and loving service of his disciples and we can see amazing level of humility in him. It is mentioned in the chapter that Prabhupada's moods moved and varied within the realm of transcendental emotions and attitudes.
"That means Krishna desired," he said. "Otherwise, I had no plan to come back. Therefore I took this permanent residency." When devotees inquired whether His Divine Grace regretted coming back to India, His Divine Grace replied, ""No," said Prabhupada.
Right from printing books, translation of books in future, His Divine Grace spoke about every small detail. In this way truly he could say, "I Have Done My Part".
This is very important lesson for us. Wherever we go, even in this material world - our only concern should be as to how best we can serve Krishna in the given situation, circumstance.
This is in continuation of the offering, "I Have Done My Part" - which is one of the chapters in the book Srila Prabhupada's Lilamrta. In the previous offering we saw how Srila Prabhupada was mentioning that our real self-interest or aatma ruchi is to execute Krishna's desires, to awaken this aatma-ruchi in others. Now we shall see further.
"Keep your health very nice," Srila Prabhupada said. "Live as many years as possible. Be Krishna conscious. Then next life you go back to home-permanent life. There is no cheating, no politics, no personal ambition to fulfill. There is not any tinge of any personal salvation.
It is further mentioned in this chapter as to how Srila Prabhupada in spite of his troubling health conditions, somehow or the other picked up strength to speak about Krishna whenever some one visited him.
There is no cause of quarrel between the two countries China and India over land which is not very suitable for habitation, and certainly there is no cause for fighting on this issue.
Ghosts or any other subtle creature cannot do any harm to one who has surrendered or taken shelter at the lotus feet of Supreme Lord, His names and pastimes.
We don't need to bother much for Lakshmiji, as we are limited, our efforts are also limited. But only we need to stick with our chanting genuinely. Rest of things will be managed by Krishna Himself.
The whole world is in darkness, and they are risking their life in the transmigration of one body to another. He does not know that he is eternal and that in a few years this fragment is passing away, this life is just a passing flash.
I was curious to know what was the secret of this transformation. Before even I could ask she told me the reason as to how couple of weeks ago, she had got a book on the biography of Srila Prabhupada and read it till the end.
On the other hand, that literature which is full of descriptions of the transcendental glories of the name, fame, forms, pastimes, etc., of the unlimited Supreme Lord is a different creation, full of transcendental words directed toward bringing about a revolution in the impious lives of this world's misdirected civilization.
This is in continuation of transcription one of the nectaren class given by our beloved Gurudev HH Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj in Auckland, Newzealand. In the previous offering we heard the below points.
i) Satsang programs we attend are all snaps of devotional service for our mind as well as our children.
ii) Save yourself by coming to Sankirtan.
iii) Wherever we go we should carry on with devotional service.
Latest we should get up at 5:30 atleast, quarter to 6 definitely. And there is unlimited expansion for sankirtan movement. Wherever we stay we must follow this.