If Prabhupada Had Just Stayed A Little Longer....
The Krsna consciousness movement grew tremendously during Prabhupada's manifest presence. It was like an unstoppable steamroller crushing Kali-yuga, an enormous expanding power that we expected to take over the world very soon. When Prabhupada was here, we expected the most amazing things to happen.
Prabhupada was a conqueror for Krsna. He always thought big. "Double book distribution every year." "Drive agnosticism out of the world." "Make America Krsna conscious first, then the rest of the world will follow." "Prevent nuclear war by distributing books in Russia." "Unite India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka on the basis of Krsna consciousness." "Millions will join our farms in the future."
If Prabhupada had stayed, would he not have continued to push on irresistibly? Would he not have had the whole world talking of Krsna? Would he not have shaken the scientific and pseudo-intellectual communities by his repeated attacks on their foolish theories? Would he not have turned the world into a battlefield of Krsna consciousness versus maya, with himself the commander of the troops, out on the front lines? Would he not have sustained the lives of his disciples, established real Krsna conscious varnasrama-dharma farm communities, and saved us from the terrible strife we inflicted on each other?
In India, Prabhupada had a special mission. Would he not have organized everything there on a mass scale, with hundreds and thousands of initiated disciples? Would he not have had followers from the top echelons of society, including top businessmen and politicians, from the intellectuals and middle classes, and also from the simple village folk and urban working class? Would he not have captured the attention of the whole country and become established as the overwhelmingly prominent sadhu of the modern age? Would he not thus have reduced the bogus incarnations (over 300 at the latest count) and cheating swamis to their proper status as glow-worms? Would he not have saved Bharat from her confused descent into utter materialism? Would not Srila Prabhupada have won the respect and love of even the Muslim community? Would he not have made Indians proud to be Krsna conscious, driven out gross sinful activities, revived the original Vedic culture, and established India as the world's first spiritual superpower?
If Srila Prabhupada had stayed, he would almost certainly have done far more than all of our bumbling efforts put together. Why then, did Prabhupada leave so early? The answer is not easy to give. Maybe he wanted us to become responsible to do the father's work without remaining dependent children forever. Quite likely he felt the urgent need to establish Krsna consciousness in another part of the universe, or in another universe. As Srila Prabhupada said of his own Guru Maharaja,
"Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, our spiritual master, came in this world to execute the mission of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So he executed it, and when it was required, he left this place and went to another place to do the same business." 770208ba.may
Ultimately, only Krsna and Prabhupada know.
Whatever the reason may be, Srila Prabhupada has left. He gave us a taste for Krsna consciousness, showed us what to do, instructed how to eternally associate with the spiritual master through service, and then moved on.
Some day you have to fly your own plane.
- From the "My Memories of Srila Prabhupada" by HH Bhakti Vikas Swami
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