Twelve days before his departure, Srila Prabhupada was asked about ISKCON’s future leadership. Expressing concern, a guest asked if a single successor would lead. Prabhupada clarified that no one person would succeed him—instead, all should become gurus and collectively carry forward the mission, as instructed by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Source: https://vanisource.org/wiki/771102_-_Conversation_B_-_Vrndavana
771102 – Conversation B – Vrndavana
Conversations by Date, 1977
771102R2-VRNDAVAN – November 02, 1977 – 19:17 Minutes
Guest: Swamiji apki izzazat ho to mai akele me aapse kuch baat karna chahta hoon. (Swamiji, with your permission I would like to talk to you in private.)
Prabhupada: Kijiye. (Talk.)
Guest: Nahi to in bhaiyon ko. Nahi ye baat apne man ki akele me karna chahta hoon apki izzazat ho to. (No, then these people. No, I wanted to express my feelings in privacy with your permission.)
Prabhupāda: Ācchā. (Okay.) You can go. They will talk with me something.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You want us to go outside, Śrīla Prabhupāda?
Prabhupāda: Yes.
Shri Narayan: Tum baat kar lena acchi tarah se. (You talk to him nicely.)
Ramkrishna Bajaj: Swamiji apne to sab socha hi hoga. Lekin hamari tucch buddhi me ek-do sawaal aate hain. Wo apke saamne pesh karna chahte hain. Baki to aapne apne kaam ko 10 varsh me badhaya hai wo to hum dekh ke ascharychakit hain, adbhoot kaam hai. Lekin huko thodi si chinta hui hai. Kal aapse mile to laga ki aapka bhi dhyan ishwar ki taraf adhik-adhik jaa raha hai. to aise awastha me ishwar aur apke beech kya sampark hai wo hum nahi samajh sakte hain. Lekin ishwar apko kab bula le ye humko maloom nahi. Aapko maloom hai ki nahi pata nahi. Lekin humko chinta is baat ki hai ki itan bada ek sanghatan kayam hua hai. Uske baare me yadi aap nahi rahe tab aapne kuch socha hoga. Uske baare me humko kuch kalpana nahi hai par chinta hoti hai. Ki ek sari duniya ke andar Hindustan ki philosophy hai uske baare me itna bada kaam hua hai wo kahin bikhar na jaye. To iske liye humko kuch maloom nahi hai, humare man me ek chinta hui to humne kaha hum apke samne rakhe. Aapne jaroor kuch soch kar ke uski yojana ki hogi. Lekin kya pata apko bhagvan kab uthaye, utha sakta hai, bhagvan ki marzi, tab phir kya hoga. (Swamiji, you must have thought out everything. But in my limited intelligence I have 1-or 2 questions that I wish to present before you. Otherwise you have spread your message in 10 years for which we are surprised, it is amazing work. But I am a little worried. Yesterday when I met you, I felt your attention getting drawn towards God more and more. So in this situation. The relationship between you and God cannot be understood by us. When God takes you away is not known.
Whether you know it or not is not known. But my worry is that you have established such a big institution. In regards to this, when you are not present, you must have thought about it. I don’t have any imagination about it but I get worried that throughout the world there is Indian philosophy, and such monumental work has been done, it should not be destroyed. So I don’t know anything about this, but I was worried and wanted to present this before you. You must definitely have thought and planned something. But who knows when God will take you away. He can take you away, it is His will, then what will happen?)
Prabhupada: Nahi, ye log karenge. (No, these people will do it.)
Guest: Ye log karenge sab lekin isme se koi ek vyakti aapka sthan le sakta hai kya? Ya 5-10-20 log milke lenge. (These people will do it alright but can any one person take your place? Or 5 to 10 to 20 people together will take it.)
Prabhupada: Chaitanya Mahaprabhu aise nahi bola ki ek vyakti le le. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ki agya hai ki sab koi guru ho. aisa nahi. Jo sab guru bano baki mai jaisa keh raha hoon vaisa karo . . . (Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not say like this, that one person can take it. Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s order is that everyone should become a master. Not like this, that everyone becomes master and do as I am saying.)
Guest: Kyunki Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to akele rahe, aap bhi akele hi hain. (Because Caitanya Mahāprabhu was alone, you are also alone.)
Prabhupada: Ye akele hamara shakti nahi hai. tumlog aake humko sahyog karo, karke sara duniya me prachar karo. ye Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ka agya hai. (I cannot become powerful alone. You all come and support me, and preach to the whole world. This was the order of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.)
Guest: Lekin aap jo kar sake, wo kaun kar saka. (But what you did, no one else can do.)
Prabhupada: Nahi aap jaisa kar rahe hain hum bhi kar sakenge. (No. Whatever you are doing, even I can do that.)
Guest: Nahi, har ek vyakti ishwar shakti deta hai. (No every person is given strength by God.)
Prabhupada: Ishwar shakti jaise. (Some other . . . you are . . . God’s energy.)
Source: https://www.dandavats.com/?p=115831
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