Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance Day

Giriraj Swami: Well, today is a very auspicious day on the calendar. . . Srila Prabhupada said that both the appearance and disappearance of the spiritual master are beautiful; just like the sun rise and the sunset, both are beautiful. But there is an element of sadness in the sunset. It is known in ayurveda that seeing the sunset produces some sadness, and even in western medicine or psychology. I visited San Diego Hospice and Palliative Care. It is one of the leading hospices in the world, and for hospice education it is the leading hospice. It is also situated on a beautiful mountain, overlooking San Diego and the ocean. But none of the rooms faced the ocean. And the administrator who was giving us the tour explained that because the ocean is in the west, and so even though it is very beautiful in a way, but if the patients saw the sunset, it would make them sad. But that sadness in relation to feelings of separation from a devotee are part of Krishna consciousness. Earlier we sang Narottama dasa Thakura’s beautiful song of separation from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates. He felt so much separation. He said: “I will smash my head against the rock and enter into fire.” Similarly, Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, when his spiritual master or at least his śikṣā-guru, to whom he was most attached, Srila Rupa Gosvami – when he left, Raghunatha dasa Gosvami’s world appeared completely different. Raghunatha dasa Gosvami had so much love for Vrindavan. And within Vrindavan, for Govardhana Hill, and at Govardhana Hill, for Radha-kunda. But he wrote that having been bereft of Srila Rupa Gosvami, that Govardhana Hill which was so dear to him was just like a python. And Radha-kunda which was so beloved to him was just like the gaping jaws of a tiger.

So, such feelings are part of Krishna consciousness. And they are not material. Well, of course anything can have a material aspect or a spiritual aspect, but it is an impetus to our further advancement in Krishna consciousness when we feel separation from the Lord, from a devotee, from the spiritual master. And the way that those feelings of separation are mitigated is by vāṇī-sevā, by serving the instructions, by serving the words of the spiritual master. And therefore, Srila Prabhupada always encouraged us. Just as he had taken the words of his spiritual master as his life and soul, so he requested us to take the same instruction through him, in the same way. And that would please the paramparā and please Krishna. And as he repeated again and again – the instruction is to preach, to share the confidential knowledge of the Bhagavad-gītā, that is, to surrender to Krishna without compromise. And by doing so, one becomes dear to one’s spiritual master – yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo, and dear to Krishna. So, there is a description, you could say, allegorical description of the disappearance of the spiritual master in the Fourth Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Chapter twenty-eight. I will read one verse to begin; it is also related to fire.

Yes, I should explain, that in this story the king and his wife retire. They enter the vanaprastha stage of life and go into the forest. But at a certain stage the king leaves his body, his wife can ascertain from the symptoms that her husband’s soul has left. And yes, well, Text Forty-nine. I will read just the translation.

TEXT 49

That most obedient wife thus fell down at the feet of her dead husband and began to cry pitifully in that solitary forest. Thus the tears rolled down from her eyes.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

Just as a devoted wife becomes afflicted at the passing away of her husband, when a spiritual master passes away, the disciple becomes similarly bereaved.

TEXT 50

She then prepared a blazing fire with firewood and placed the dead body of her husband upon it. When this was finished, she lamented severely and prepared herself to perish in the fire with her husband.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

It is the long-standing tradition of the Vedic system that a faithful wife dies along with her husband. This is called saha-maraṇa. In India this system was prevalent even to the date of British occupation. At that time, however, a wife who did not wish to die with her husband was sometimes forced to do so by her relatives. Formerly that was not the case — the wife used to enter the fire voluntarily.

COMMENT

So, many aspects of Vedic culture remained in a sort of corrupted form as people’s Krishna consciousness decreased. So, this system of sati also became corrupted. In the original conception, the wife would feel separation from the husband and voluntarily enter the fire with the expectation that she would join her husband in the next life. It was voluntary and it was spiritual, but not mandatory. And of course, now so much has been corrupted that we cannot even think of those things. Now in Kali-yuga,

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam,

The chanting of the holy name. But this is an aside, we are coming to the point now of the disciple and the spiritual master.

PURPORT (continued)

This indicates that a devotee’s wife must be prepared to act in such a way. Similarly, a devoted disciple of the spiritual master would rather die with the spiritual master than fail to execute the spiritual master’s mission. As the Supreme Personality of Godhead comes down upon this earth to reestablish the principles of religion, so His representative, the spiritual master, also comes to reestablish religious principles. It is the duty of the disciples to take charge of the mission of the spiritual master and execute it properly. Otherwise the disciple should decide to die along with the spiritual master. In other words, to execute the will of the spiritual master, the disciple should be prepared to lay down his life and abandon all personal considerations.

COMMENT

So, this is the real point. Today I listened to Srila Prabhupada’s talk on his spiritual master’s Disappearance Day in 1968; and he recounted the history of his spiritual master giving him the instruction to spread Krishna consciousness in English, and how his spiritual master gave him that instruction at their very first meeting. And then Srila Prabhupada related how very close to the time of his spiritual master’s disappearance, which was December 31, 1936 or January 1st, 1937. So that year, the Disappearance Day was December 9th or 10th in 1968. So, Srila Prabhupada said: “Just about that date he had a thought that he should write to his Guru Maharaja and ask him how he could serve him.” And so, he wrote:

“My dear master, you have so many disciples who are serving you. I am just a householder; I cannot serve you like the others. How can I serve you?”

Srila Prabhupada said that it was just an idea he had to write his spiritual master. And his spiritual master wrote back in the same way: “That you should preach the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the English language. And that will be good for you and for the people who help you.” – that is us in other words. And Srila Prabhupada did; so he took it a little seriously. And then he addressed the devotees, “And you also are taking it seriously. So, I request you to continue to push on this movement. I am an old man. I can die at any time but you are young. So, please continue to push on this movement.” So that was 1968, and now we are forty-four years later. 

So, forty-four years later. So those young boys and girls are forty-four years older, not so young. We are also coming to that stage. So that instruction: “You are young men and women. You take up this mission very seriously.” But, that instruction is continuing through the generations. And that really is Prabhupada’s mercy, the mercy of the paramparā to engage us in service that will be good for us and good for the people who hear us, and come forward and help us. And as Srila Prabhupada wrote in one letter, he repeated the same principle. But one letter struck me when I first joined, that, yes, something like: “I understand how you are feeling separation from me.” He was still present on the planet but he would travel. “I am feeling separation from my spiritual master, but if you follow the instructions of the spiritual master, the feelings of separation will transform into transcendental bliss.”

So, this is certainly something that we can experience. But again, that dynamic is there: meeting and separation. And we have the examples of our predecessors, Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, Narottama dasa Thakura, how they also felt separation. But that separation is purifying, it burns up our material contamination and that qualifies us to enter the eternal association of Srila Prabhupada and our beloved acharyas, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates, and ultimately Radha and Krishna and Their associates. So, it is all good, it is all good. Somehow or other, whatever it is, happiness or sorrow, so-called happiness or sorrow – if the central point is Krishna and Krishna’s devotees, it will purify us and bring us into Their eternal loving service. Hare Krishna.

All right, they are two minutes early. I am also two minutes early. So, when I came in the temple room, I was thinking: forty years we have been worshiping the deities here, for forty years in the same wonderful standard. It is not a joke to maintain the same excellent standard for forty years. So that is only possible by Srila Prabhupada’s mercy and the love for Srila Prabhupada by the devotees. So, it is a great testimony, both to Prabhupada’s potency and the devotee’s sincerity. Archita Prabhu.

Devotee: [Unintelligible]

Giriraj Swami: I was. The feeling of that. . . my feeling at that moment? Well, it was so intense and so surcharged. Saved by the conch shell. To be continued later. Thank you, Rabindranath Prabhu.

Hare Krishna.