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Prabhupada was driven to the airport to catch a mid-afternoon flight to New Zealand. Devotees offered him final gifts of garlands and fragrant bouquets. After graciously accepting the offerings, Prabhupada headed down the concourse accompanied by a rousing kirtana.

Prabhupada's seven full days in Melbourne were over. As he had mentioned several times, Prabhupada took it as his duty to regularly visit his centres, to see that his disciples would not fall away from Krsna consciousness. His concern was not only for his disciples, however, but for all people. Distressed by the fallen and ignorant state of humanity, especially in the West, Prabhupada wanted to help those strongly under the grip of speculative philosophies who denied God and glorified sense enjoyment.

Prabhupada's business was the epitome of selfless, tireless effort to push on the Krsna consciousness movement. For the first time in history, by Prabhupada's efforts, Vedic culture was now being spread in its true form. As a humble servant of Lord Caitanya, however, Prabhupada took no acclaim for himself. Rather, he gave all the credit for his burgeoning ISKCON to Lord Caitanya. As he had recently explained in Vrndavana:

"Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu wanted that prthivite ache yata nagaradi grama. He wanted that everywhere in every nook and corner of this world, every city, every town, every village, there would be the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. Chanting should be preached. So, by His grace, it is going on. Now, in the remotest part of the world, even in Australia, the southernmost part of this globe, there also we have got four branches, Melbourne, Sydney, and we have got a very big building of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Last year I established, and many hundreds of thousands of devotees are coming. So certainly, the Caitanya Mahaprabhu foretelling is now spreading."

Australia had a chance of becoming Krsna conscious; at least Prabhupada encouraged the devotees there to try for it. It was obvious that he liked preaching in Australia -- he had visited six times in as many years. Prabhupada's estimation was that Australians had good hearts, but for want of Krsna consciousness, they were becoming completely confused, and especially by following the example of America, frustrated and degraded. Perhaps the mass of people would not change their ignorant ways, but if he could make only one person a pure devotee, Prabhupada said that his work would be successful.

Prabhupada had told Bali-mardana in 1970 that he wanted 10 centres opened in Australia and New Zealand. Now, six years later, four centres existed in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Auckland. At least in that respect, the devotees were almost halfway to fulfilling Prabhupada's ambitions. But making Krsna consciousness a dominant force in Australia was something that Srila Prabhupada might not see in his lifetime. Certainly it was not one man's work, and so he had asked his disciples in Australia to help him by taking part in distributing Lord Caitanya's mercy throughout the country. And, to the best of their abilities, they were doing it.

The devotees chanted on the observation deck as Prabhupada crossed the tarmac to the waiting plane. Before entering the aircraft, Prabhupada turned. Showing his appreciation, he waved and smiled brightly. The devotees wildly chanted and leapt high into the air, chanting Jaya Prabhupada, Jaya Prabhupada, in a last exuberant farewell. The kirtana continued, even as Prabhupada's plane rose slowly into the air, became a small speck in the distance and finally disappeared.


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