Srila Prabhupada’s Departure

Devotee: [Inaudible]

Giriraj Swami: So we will do it in the morning? Ok.

Devotee: [Inaudible]

Giriraj Swami: What about not postponing taking rest on time?

Devotees: [Laughter]

Giriraj Swami: Well I mean yes it is true we don’t know if any of us will be here tomorrow but we expect by Krishna’s grace that we will all be here tomorrow if we think that——-well I don’t know. . .

Devotee: [Inaudible]

Giriraj Swami: Shyamasundara is the boss. I am the servant.

Shyamasundara: Who made me boss?

Giriraj Swami: You are talking about Shyamasundara dasa. I am talking about Shyamasundara.

[Laughter]

Giriraj Swami: Nobody made Shyamasundara the boss. He is eternally the boss. [Laughter] 

Alright may be we will——

Devotee: I have one question Maharaja. In the video Srila Prabhupada was mentioning that our body is material and then the clothing that we wear—the body is personal and the clothing that we wear is impersonal. The clothing basically takes the form of the body or the impersonal aspect takes the form of the personal aspect. So in the same analogy can we say that the soul actually projects ourselves whatever we have, we are, is based on the soul—the bodily form is based on the soul actually?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, in a general sense. In other words, the Bhagavad-gītā says that the body is the dress for the soul. So just like the clothing we wear has shape, it has arms and legs and a trunk because the body has form, so the clothing has form. So the body is the clothing for the soul. So the body has form because the soul has form. So that’s true. But it doesn’t mean that if, for example, the body has a male form that in our spiritual bodies we will also have a male form. I mean that but in a general sense yes, just as the clothing has shape to fit the form of the body, similarly the body has shape because the soul also has form and shape. 

Well may be since there seems to be a desire to hear something tonight, I could say something and then if I am able I can say more tomorrow.

Devotees: Haribol!

Giriraj Swami: I don’t want the devotees to be just pleased with you. [Laughter]

So I was going to read a verse from the Tenth Canto, Part one, which I had at your house, I don’t know if—-Mother Yasoda binds Krishna with ropes. Well I guess I will begin then until the verse and the book come. But as we saw in the video or heard in the video Srila Prabhupada left Bombay to go to Vrindavan and many events took place along the way but just may be two days before Govardhana-puja, may be three days, Srila Prabhupada was discussing about going on a bullock cart because His Holiness Lokanatha Swami had come to Vrindavan after traveling to different holy places by bullock cart on Prabhupada’s instructions. So he gave a report to Srila Prabhupada about the group’s travels and Srila Prabhupada was very enlivened by the report and to encourage Lokanatha Swami and to emphasize the program, and for whatever other reasons Srila Prabhupada said that he would like to go on a bullock cart now to visit different holy places. He said he would begin by going to Govardhana Hill to participate in Govardhana-puja with the vrajavāsīs. 

Lokanatha Swami was very enthusiastic and Trivikrama Swami was part of the team that was going to organize the bullock cart. So some of the devotees they were enthusiastic about the idea but others, led by His Holiness Tamal Krishna Goswami and others, they felt that Srila Prabhupada was not well enough to travel. Tamal Krishna Goswami said to Srila Prabhupada that, “We want you to travel. We want you more than anyone to travel but why now? First you should recover somewhat and then you can travel. You just starting to make progress and the medicine is working, so why throw it all away now? Continue to take the medicine and follow the prescription of the doctor and then when you feel better we can travel and go everywhere. So a controversy developed [break]. 

So polarization took place among the devotees. One group felt that the disciples should just follow the orders of the spiritual master. Srila Prabhupada had expressed his desire to go to Govardhana Hill on the bullock cart and the duty of the disciple is just to follow the order of the spiritual master and not question it. 

The other group said that Srila Prabhupada is too fragile to travel on a bullock cart. I mean actually Srila Prabhupada’s body had almost no flesh on it, was pretty much just skin and bones and Tamal Krishna Goswami and others felt that even if we put a mattress on the bullock cart but because the roads were so bad, and just the nature of bullock carts were such that Srila Prabhupada would be jostled on the way and he would feel a lot of pain and could even leave his body on the way. So two groups formed and most of the personal servants, Tamal Krishna Goswami, Bhavananda Maharaja, Bhakti Charu Swami, Bhakti Svarupa Damodara Maharaja, they all felt that Srila Prabhupada should not go; and Hansadutta Prabhu and Baradraja Prabhu and I guess Lokanatha Swami, may be, Trivikrama Swami they felt that we should just obey Srila Prabhupada’s instructions and not question it. 

So one night just before the day of Govardhana-puja, Akiñcana Krishnadasa Babaji Maharaja came to visit Srila Prabhupada and I heard that Srila Prabhupada said that he was a paramahamsa. In any case he was a Vaishnava and he was always absorbed in hari-nāma. So he came to visit and His Holiness Bhakti Charu Swami was in the room when he came. Tamal Krishna Goswami and Bhavananda Prabhu were upstairs in what was Srila Prabhupada’s bedroom when he was healthier, upstairs. So Bhakti Charu Swami wanted to approach Akiñcana Krishnadasa Babaji Maharaja to request him to ask Srila Prabhupada not to go. Meanwhile Goswami Maharaja and Bhavananda Maharaja came down and they said to Srila Prabhupada that, “Srila Prabhupada we are just besides ourselves with anxiety because we don’t think that you can bear the travel by bullock cart to Govardhana Hill.” And Prabhupada said, “So you want that I should stay?” So he said, “Yes Srila Prabhupada, that’s what we want. We want that you should stay.” And they repeated they were too much into anxiety. And Srila Prabhupada said that, “You know you are my right hand—.” part of it he addressed Babaji Maharaja but basically he said, “I don’t want you to be in anxiety. So I won’t go.” And then they were very relieved and jubilant. Then Srila Prabhupada turned to Babaji Maharaja and said, “Just see how much they love me.” 

So the evening concluded very nicely for the devotees in the room and you know we stayed and there was quiet kirtan. Different devotees were massaging different parts of Srila Prabhupada’s body. But when the news reached the others who were of the other opinion, they became agitated and they said, “This is not right. Srila Prabhupada wanted to go and we shouldn’t have asked him not to go.” Again the duty of the disciple is to execute the order of the spiritual master without question. So anyway Govardhana-puja came and went and the next day was a little quiet but devotees were still hopeful and then the day after Srila Prabhupada withdrew his consciousness. At about seven in the morning the doctor asked him if he would take anything to drink and Srila Prabhupada replied in Hindi, “I have no desire.” And then Srila Prabhupada didn’t speak for the rest of the day. He was in internal consciousness and then the Kaviraja said that the signs are such that today may be the last day. 

So things were, sort of, as usual although outside there were meetings or talks about arranging for Srila Prabhupada’s samadhi and then later in the afternoon when it seemed that Srila Prabhupada would not come back to external consciousness, the leaders opened the doors for all the devotees to come in, men and women, anyone could come in then and there was kirtan, continuous kirtan until the end about seven twenty-six and Srila Prabhupada, sort of, opened his mouth and departed and then you know there was kirtan, I mean, crying, a lot of crying and kirtan and some of Prabhupada’s godbrothers came. Narayana Maharaja came and he led kirtan and Babaji Maharaja led kirtan and there was kirtan throughout the night and then in the morning—well as it is Srila Prabhupada was put on a palanquin and taken around the Krishna-Balarama Mandir the same night and then he was placed in his vyāsāsana in the Krishna-Balarama Mandir and we did kirtan at his lotus feet throughout the night and then in the morning he was taken on the palanquin to the major temples of Vrindavan and then he was brought back to the Krishna-Balarama Mandir and put in samadhi. 

So anyway there were different formalities, of course. Tamal Krishna Goswami was the main organizer of all the events then. He went into the hole where the different items were placed with Srila Prabhupada in samadhi. Then devotees all put earth into the samadhi and filled up the hole and then there was a little mound on top and then there was a tulasi plant placed there. And then there was, I think, two weeks later there was a big feast and Srila Prabhupada said he wanted the remnants of the feast to be distributed——oh yes of course everyone would be invited, specifically he wanted remnants of the feast to be delivered to the mahāntas of the main temples in Vrindavan, to the Gosvamis. 

On one of the—may be the next day after he left, may be, the third day, one of the mahāntas from the Radha-Damodara temple came, I think Gaura candra Gosvami and he came to, I guess it must have been near the samadhi but there was some brick way, some pathway, and he came with his cane and he was like sort of banging his cane on the bricks and he was saying, “Swami Maharaja, Swami Maharaja, are you there? I know you are there Swami Maharaja, I know you are there.” So then I guess after two weeks there was like a pandal in front of the temple by the samadhi and different Vaishnavas, Gaudiya Vaishnavas were invited and they spoke. Visvambhara Gosvami from the Radha-Ramana temple spoke very nicely and then there was a feast and then the next morning there was a car, Tamal Krishna Goswami, Bhavananda Maharaja, may be Abhirama Prabhu, myself, we were all going to Delhi to fly to Calcutta with some flowers from the samadhi that we were going to take to Mayapur for the puṣpa samadhi there. So we arrived in Calcutta, went to the Calcutta temple and many devotees came to meet us. I remember Sita Ram Daga who is a good friend to Srila Prabhupada, he came and some of Srila Prabhupada’s children came. I think Vrindavan candra came, Sulakṣmaṇā came and I remember one of them, may be Sulakṣmaṇā, one of them asked, “Now that Srila Prabhupada has gone—like when Prabhupada was there we could always go to him and he would always talk to us about Krishna. So now that Srila Prabhupada is gone who will do that?” And Tamal Krishna Goswami was very serious and said, “That is a good question.” 

We met them and then in the morning we went to Mayapur and there was a big ceremony there for putting the flowers. There was a similar ceremony with a deep hole and then whereas in Vrindavan we would place Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental body there; here we put the flowers. The same thing—fill in the dirt and made a mound and install the tulasi plant. 

From there Tamal Krishna Goswami and I traveled to Bombay to get ready for the grand opening of the Juhu temple. We stayed in the room, I mean, one of the rooms in the ashrama, he and I. There were like two thin mattresses on the floor. I remember one [break] not immediately but after the temple opened Tamala Krishna Goswami stayed and he was preaching according to the system. I guess it was after Gaura-Purnima and according to the system then he was designated as the guru for Bombay. So I remember there was a doctor, Dr. Om Prakash Agrawal, he started coming and associating with Tamal Krishna Goswami and started to think of him as his spiritual master. He was just very enthusiastic. So one day he came and sort of—came for darshan of Tamal Krishna Goswami in the room where the two of us were staying. After he left Goswami Maharaja commented that he was feeling the ecstasy of meeting and we were feeling the ecstasy of separation, something like that. And then the Juhu temple opened, like I mentioned in the video, we really did feel that Srila Prabhupada was present. There was a full page article in Newsweek magazine with color photos. Then the magazines were almost all black and white and they would just have a few pages in color but the page about Juhu had several color photos. 

Coming back to the original story and why I asked for the Bhāgavatam. Although my relationship was more with Tamal Krishna Goswami and the other servants still I wasn’t completely sure about the whole controversy because what the other side said also had truth to it that the disciples meant to execute the order of the spiritual master and not try to question it or change it and they had brought up all the points before to Srila Prabhupada that he may die on the way and so on and Prabhupada said, “I will not die rather I would get cured if I go to Govardhana Hill.” But the same—you know whatever Srila Prabhupada said just seemed to—each side would take whatever Srila Prabhupada said as support of their position. So the side that felt that we should just follow Srila Prabhupada’s instructions said, “See Srila Prabhupada said he won’t die. Rather he would be cured.” So they felt completely confirmed in the position and the other side said but you know, “But what does that mean? You know it means probably he is going to leave his body and that will be the cure. He will get a spiritual body.” So it was just the same controversy in a different form. They were saying, “You know, you can’t interpret. We just to accept the order.” So I wasn’t really quite sure. So may be two days after Srila Prabhupada left, I went into his room in Vrindavan and the second volume of the Tenth Canto had just come and it was in the bookshelf behind Srila Prabhupada’s bed. I chanted for a while. Then I sat down behind the bed and I picked up the volume and I was looking through it and I came to one or two verses that in my mind answered the question at the time. So this is the verse, 10.9.19: 

evaṁ sandarśitā hy aṅga
hariṇā bhṛtya-vaśyatā
sva-vaśenāpi kṛṣṇena
yasyedaṁ seśvaraṁ vase

“O Mahārāja Parīkṣit, this entire universe, with its great, exalted demigods like Lord Śiva, Lord Brahmā and Lord Indra, is under the control of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Yet the Supreme Lord has one transcendental attribute: He comes under the control of His devotees. This was now exhibited by Kṛṣṇa in this pastime.”

So then I thought that is what happened that although no disciple and in fact no human being could control Srila Prabhupada but he voluntarily came under the control of his disciples or the love of his disciples. Many devotees commented including Tamal Krishna Goswami that Srila Prabhupada had acted with us in such a way at the end as to bring out our spontaneous affection for him and bring us beyond just following the rules and regulations so that we would actually feel transcendental affection for him and express our affection for him and the night that Tamal Krishna Goswami and Bhavananda Prabhu came down from upstairs and Bhakti Charu Swami was there with Babaji Maharaja, Tamal Krishna Goswami commented to Srila Prabhupada that the way you are dealing with us we were like practically going mad with anxiety and the way we were dealing with us is just bringing our affection for you more and more and Srila Prabhupada said, “That is my duty.” So in conclusion I felt that was what Srila Prabhupada was doing at the end (cut)