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Amogha had been unsuccessful in arranging anyone to come for an evening meeting with Srila Prabhupada. After being out for a considerable part of the day, Amogha returned to the house to find Srila Prabhupada pacing back and forth in his sitting room. Prabhupada turned to Amogha. "Garland is very nice. Is anyone coming?"

Amogha: I took this to mean that 'You have made a nice flower garland for me, but did you bring anyone for me to preach to?' It was my duty to find intelligent men for discussion, but it was difficult. I mentioned that I wanted to bring some Christian priests and he said: "They are dogmatists. Bring philosophers." I sat by the door feeling helpless. Srila Prabhupada seemed to want very deeply to preach. He was overflowing with a spiritual emotion that I could not identify.

"So what is the use?" he said as he walked back and forth in the room. I didn't know what to answer. I said, "What is the use in trying to bring these people?" I didn't know what he meant, but looking back it seemed that he may have meant 'What is the use of my coming to Perth and staying here?'

I said, "The trouble is that they are all rascals."

"Yes," Prabhupada said, and laughed a little.

I said that maya must be very powerful to capture everyone like she has.

Srila Prabhupada replied, "This is maya's kingdom. When we are coming to maya's kingdom we must expect." He paused and then added, "It is not difficult for her".

It was instructive for the devotees to see Srila Prabhupada's eagerness to preach. In their ignorance they had considered -- in the mood of "as I am feeling, others feel the same" -- that Srila Prabhupada's coming to Perth to rest meant that he would simply do nothing. But for Srila Prabhupada, preaching was relaxation -- it was his work, his duty, and his very life itself.

Prabhupada would often quote his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati: "Pran ache yar, se hetu pracar. A person must have life to be a preacher -- a dead man cannot preach."

Of course, Srila Prabhupada was self-satisfied, and his pacing was not due to being restless or bored; rather, it was a manifestation of his desire to accomplish as much as possible for Krsna. Avyartha kalatvam -- the devotees' concern is that not a moment of valuable time be wasted.

Prabhupada's eagerness to preach was also to set the proper example for his disciples. They were the ones who would have to carry on the mission in his absence. Prabhupada was quite prepared to speak about Krsna from morning to night. Although yogis sometimes take a vow of silence to avoid useless, frivolous talk, Prabhupada had said that one who knows Krsna wants to speak twenty-four hours a day.

"When you love God," he had once said, "you want to tell others about Him. And, automatically, you write volumes and volumes of books."


- From "The Great Transcendental Adventure" by HG Kurma Prabhu