His Final Instructions
During his last months, Çréla Prabhupäda was not very active physically, and he spoke relatively little. Yet when he did speak, his words were full of spiritual strength. These excerpts from Çréla Prabhupada's last statements reveal the mind of the pure devotee and universal teacher. And they show that Çréla Prabhupäda is indeed a transcendental personality, whose devotion to Lord Kåñëa and to the mission of spreading love of Kåñëa is undying.
"I cannot speak. I am feeling weak. I wanted to travel to Chandigarh and other places, but I changed my program because my health is deteriorating. I decided to come here to Våndävana (the land of Lord Kåñëa). If death takes place, let it take place here."
"There is nothing new to be said. Whatever I had to say, I have already said in my books. Now you must all try to understand it and continue with your endeavors. Whether I am present or not present doesn't matter. Just as Kåñëa is living eternally, the living being also lives eternally. But especially... kértir yasya sa jévati: 'One who has done service to the Lord lives forever.’ You have been taught to serve Kåñëa, and with Kåñëa we'll live eternally. Our life is eternal. Na hanyate hanyamäne çarére: the disappearance of this temporary body doesn't matter. The body is meant for disappearance. So, live forever by serving Kåñëa. Thank you very much."
"There are two things—life and death. So if I die, where is the wrong in that? If I die, that is natural."
"Our money is only spent for Kåñëa—Kåñëa's palace, Kåñëa's temple, Kåñëa's worship, 'Kåñëa's glorification. It is not for our personal enjoyment. This is human life."
"And I also want you to organize varëäçrama society [the Vedic social structure]. Divide society: brähmaëa [intellectual class], kñatriya [administrators], and so on. There should be social division, just as there is a division of the different parts of our body. This will help people. Don't waste the human form of life by sinful living. I have already given the ideas in my books, so you should all read them. You are intelligent, all of you. Caitanya Mahäprabhu said para-upakära—do good to others, do not exploit them. Any human being has the ability to chant Hare Kåñëa. Give them chanting. And also make the situation favorable. Is that clear ?
"This is our mission: whatever we have, teach others. The whole world is filled with distress. Therefore our Gurukula school is meant for this purpose: to teach the students, and let them go all over the world to teach others. Durlabha mänava janma sat-saìge/ taraha e bhava-sindhu re ['Human life, especially in the association of devotees, is very rarely obtained. So please take advantage of this opportunity to cross over the ocean of material existence']."
"My Guru Mahäräja [spiritual master] said, 'Whatever money there is, use it to print books.' He was so happy to print books. So, do it all very nicely. My Guru Mahäräja used to say, 'Go on printing, go on printing.' I printed my books, now you do the same ‘
"Printing of spiritual books is our life-force. Print more books. This material body is only bones. But go on printing—this is life. We are not concerned with bones and stones. Our concern is the living force: apareyam itas tv anyäà prakåtià viddhi me paräm. The living force is sustaining these bones. In the material world, people are all simply protecting bones and flesh; they have no [spiritual] idea.
"Take matter—you mix earth, water, put it into fire, and then make a building. But matter cannot act automatically. Matter cannot have mind or consciousness or impetus. It is nonsense to say that matter gives rise to life. Matter has no sense. Life is the superior energy; matter is useless. Bhümir äpo 'nalo väyuù [the material elements] are useless. But there is another, superior nature. Yayedaà dhäryate jagat And that nature is actually governing the whole, universe.
"You [disciples] are all intelligent and experienced men; you can go on managing this movement. If I depart, there is no cause for lamentation. I will always be with you through my books and my orders. I will always remain with you in that way."
"I didn't waste a single moment. I tried my best, and it has been successful ,to some, extent"
“Have saìkértana [congregational chanting of God's holy names]. All Europeans, Americans, Africans-United Nations under Caitanya Mahäprabhu's flag. Do everything just as I have shown you. It is possible. This is the real United Nations. You try, under the protection of Caitanya Mahäprabhu, and things will be successful. Others will simply waste their time and be disappointed. They will change from one body to another and suffer."
"As soon as one forgets Kåñëa and wants to enjoy life independently, he falls down.”
“Material motives should be given up, and everything favorable should be engaged in Kåñëa's service. Then there will be success."
When asked who would succeed him as the leader of the Kåñëa consciousness movement, Çréla Prabhupäda replied: "All of my disciples will take the legacy. If you want, you can also take it. Sacrifice everything. I—one—may soon pass away. But they are hundreds, and this movement will increase. It's not that I'll give an order: 'Here is the next leader.' Anyone who follows the previous leadership is a leader. I don't make any distinction between Indian and European. All my disciples are leaders... as much as they follow purely. If you want to follow, then you can also lead. But you dont want to follow. 'Leader' means (one who is a first-class disciple. Evaà paramparä-präptam. One who is perfectly following. Our instruction is, guru mukha-padma-väkya. Do you know this? Ära nä kariha mane äçä. [My only desire is to have my consciousness purified by the words emanating from the lotus mouth of my spiritual master']. To become a leader is not very difficult, provided one is prepared to follow the instructions of the bonafide guru.
The Great Soul Who Walked Among Us
The Great Soul Who Walked Among Us
"Consider this example: when the sun is in the sky, there is no question of darkness. Similarly, when the Hare Kåñëa mantra is vibrating on your tongue and you are hearing attentively, then your consciousness becomes Kåñëa consciousness, or clear consciousness, and there is no question of mäyä, or hazy consciousness. Just as when light and darkness come together the darkness cannot stand before the light, mäyä cannot remain in the presence of Kåñëa.
"In Bhagavad-gétä, Kåñëa says to offer Him at least a leaf or a flower. It is not that Kåñëa needs a flower or leaf. He is full. He does not need you. But He wants you to come to Him in love. Therefore Kåñëa says, 'Just stop all your nonsense and surrender to Me.' "
"People are thinking that if they get a car and an apartment, everything will be all right. But the problems are still there. Still they must undergo death, old age, and disease—so how is everything taken care of? They are thinking in terms of this spot life. They do not know that they are eternal. There are so many kinds of bodies, and they don't know which kind they will have to take in their next life. But if they take to Kåñëa consciousness, all problems are solved."
Once, Çréla Prabhupäda commented on some big buildings being torn down: "They are torn down and rebuilt—so many strong buildings. There is no pleasure in it either way. Either in building them or tearing them down, nobody is happy. It is like with a small child: he is happy to get a toy and then is happy to break it—but there is no real happiness. Or just like a boy and girl: they come together in union, and then they separate, divorce. There is no real happiness either in the union or in the separation. Real happiness is in union with Kåñëa and separation from mäyä [illusion]."
"Nobody knows what love is. As soon as you say 'love,' there must be a person. We have no experience of impersonal love. Everybody talks big words about 'universal love' and 'brotherhood'—simply word jugglery—but no one has personal realization. Love means giving! I give something, and you give something in return. It is not that you can give Kåñëa just a flower and leaf and keep one hundred dollars for yourself. If you do that, He won't love you in exchange; He is very clever. But if you give everything to Kåñëa, then He will give you intelligence by which to come back to Him."
"People think it wonderful that Kåñëa had sixteen thousand wives. For an ordinary man to have sixteen wives is very difficult. But God is omnipotent. Why sixteen thousand wives? He could have had sixteen million or sixteen billion wives. But fools say that it is all imagination that He could have had sixteen thousand wives. As Kåñëa says in Bhagavad-gétä, ‘Fools and rascals deride My human form.' He is inconceivable. They have no idea of the spiritual. They try to think of Kåñëa materially, but He is inconceivable. So they say that He doesn't exist, that He is impersonal. They say that the sky is greater than Kåñëa because it is not limited by form. But they do not know that millions of skies are within the mouth of Kåñëa! They think it is all imagination, but He is simply inconceivable. You have to accept this. Kåñëa says, 'All the universes are held up by one quarter of My energy.' Fools and rascals do not know what even one universe is, and yet Kåñëa is upholding countless universes with one quarter of His energy. Just imagine what three quarters of His energy is. Even though Lord Çiva and Lord Brahmä have meditated on Kåñëa for thousands of years, still they do not know Him."
"Even if men go to the moon, they won't have attained perfection. Anywhere you go in the material world, you have to come back to birth and death. On any planet, you'll find the four principles of material suffering—birth, death, disease, and old age. The period of my life may be very long, but after leaving this body I may be pushed into the womb of a mother on the moon planet and come out there. Wherever there is birth, there is death—and in between there is disease and old age. But I am a spirit soul: I have nothing to do with these miseries. "The present life is meant for preparation, and you can prepare to go to any planet you desire. But if you go to the Kåñëa planet, you haven't got to come back. So why not prepare to go to the Kåñëa planet?"
"The spirit soul is eternal—the oldest—but he is always fresh. For instance, although I am the oldest man here and you are all young, I have the same propensities as you. The body hampers my real happiness. Therefore, our problem is how to get out of taking one body after another. Kåñëa gives the solution. 'If you go to My planet,' Kåñëa says, 'you will not come back again. You will get eternal life, full of knowledge, and you will enjoy with Me. Here is real information about the highest perfection of the living entity. It is not a bluff, nor is it artificial."
"The name Kåñëa and Kåñëa Himself are identical, on the spiritual platform, everything is identical. In this material world you may talk on the telephone with someone a thousand miles away. You are hearing his voice, but you cannot derive the full benefit of being with the person himself. But with spiritual sound there is no such difference. You immediately make contact. In spiritual life there is no use thinking of something void—simply struggling for it and wasting your time. Kåñëa consciousness is tangible. Why not contact Kåñëa? He is so nice and beautiful. He is accepted as the Supreme Personality of Godhead by saintly persons, great scholars, and they have achieved success."
"The more you make advancement in Kåñëa consciousness, the more you will see Kåñëa everywhere—on the bank of the river, on the streets, trees and lamp posts, and everywhere else. The more you see like that, the more you know you are making tangible advancement in Kåñëa consciousness. Actually, there is nothing but Kåñëa all around us. This is explained in the Gétä. He is the taste of water, the light of the moon, the fragrance of the flower, the light of the sun, the sound in the sky, the power of the strong, and so on. So one who is actually making progress in Kåñëa consciousness can see Kåñëa everywhere. At every stage of life, who can avoid the sunlight, the moonlight, the fragrance of the flower, the taste of water? But one has to learn that Kåñëa is in all these varieties of existence. Without Kåñëa there is nothing. It is simply by the influence of mäyä that we forget the relationship of Kåñëa with everything that be."
"There are two things you may want to ask about a flower—how this flower is being produced by the energy of Kåñëa, and how you can create a flower the way He does. The first thing is to appreciate Kåñëa's energy—that He can produce a flower—and the second is' ‘How shall I get yogic power so that as soon as I attempt, I can produce a similar flower?'
"In Benares there was a yogi who could just take a plate and you'd find a rasagullä, a sweetmeat. Because of this power, many scholars said, 'Oh, he is a great yogi—he can manufacture a rasagullä.' People are captivated by magic—so foolish. What is its worth? One rasagullä, four cents. And another, again four cents. Don't be allured by a magician. He can play so many tricks, but that is not perfection. Just try to revive your eternal relationship with Kåñëa. What magic can anyone show before God?"
"Cleanse the mind and intelligence, and the body is automatically cleansed. The haöha-yoga system is for those who have a gross bodily concept of the self. Kåñëa says to Arjuna, 'You are grieving for those for whom you shouldn't grieve—the living and the dead.' This is the first 'slap' by Kåñëa in the Second Chapter of Bhagavad-gétä. When Arjuna surrendered, Kåñëa at once gave him a verbal slap—'You are nonsense.' A spiritual master can do that. They were talking as friends, but then Arjuna surrendered: 'You just teach me.' This is only in the Second Chapter, yet this principle is at once established. See how much of the book is left.
"Kåñëa says that the wise man doesn't care for the material body. But haöha-yoga mainly concentrates on the body. By bodily exercise one wants to have Kåñëa's love! If this were possible, all wrestlers and sportsmen would have achieved Kåñëa's love.
"The preliminary stage is to make the body suitable for elevating one's consciousness. We in Kåñëa consciousness keep the body clean, just as we keep a coat clean, but we don't think we are the coat. The mind is the controller of the senses. Therefore, Lord Caitanya's program of chanting begins with the cleansing of the mind, and this takes care of the cleansing of the body. Otherwise, where is the time? Separately, it takes a long time to make the body fit and perfect to receive Knowledge. That is why it is said that only a high-class intellectual can accept Kåñëa consciousness. After many births, one surrenders—but why not surrender at once and become a wise man? If someone is offering me a million dollars, why should I say, 'No, thank you—I'll earn it myself, ten dollars at a time'?"
"Kåñëa is very kind, but He is especially kind to His sincere devotees. Kåñëa is always with us, within our hearts, and He is always ready to give us directions. But because everyone is independent, Kåñëa responds according to our mentality. If one voluntarily cooperates with Kåñëa's desire, Kåñëa responds to one's call very eagerly. Kåñëa descends to teach us Bhagavad-gétä, begging our cooperation, and anyone who cooperates with Him is blessed."
"If you really want Kåñëa, you will realize Him quickly. But most people want mäyä on the plea of wanting Kåñëa. Somebody goes to Kåñëa and asks, 'Please supply me this mäyä.' People go to church and pray, 'Please give us our daily bread.' They aren't asking for God—they're asking for bread, for mäyä. But even if I want mäyä, it is better that I ask Kåñëa for it. One day my relationship with Kåñëa will be so nice that I will forget mäyä and want Kåñëa.
"So if you have a desire for mäyä, you should still take to Kåñëa consciousness. Just like Dhruva Mahäräja: he wanted to worship Kåñëa with the desire to achieve the kingdom of his father. Of course, when he finally saw Kåñëa he said, 'I don't want anything but You.' But Kåñëa is so kind: 'You came to Me for this purpose—come on, take it.' Dhruva said, 'No,' but Kåñëa told him, 'No, take it. You will enjoy it—but then you'll leave it behind, and I assure you that you'll come to Me.' Without separate desires, Kåñëa consciousness is very nice, but even with desires, one should come forward to Kåñëa. One's other desires will be fulfilled. If one follows some path besides Kåñëa consciousness, one's separate desires may be fulfilled, but he won't get Kåñëa."
Someone asked, "What is the Kåñëa conscious person's attitude towards others?" Çréla Prabhupäda replied, "He sees everyone as part and parcel of Kåñëa. The Kåñëa conscious person thinks, 'They are suffering from not knowing Kåñëa, so let me bring them to Kåñëa.' This is the highest service. Everyone is suffering, so to act in Kåñëa consciousness is the highest service. After all, they are suffering on account of detachment from Kåñëa."
"Kåñëa consciousness never becomes old, it is fresh eternally. Do you know of any book five thousand years old that reads as fresh as Bhagavad-gétä? Live in spiritual understanding and you'll never become faded."
"Don't try to do something artificial. Kåñëa does not say, 'Come to Me after being qualified by studying Vedänta No. He says, 'Come as you are—simply surrender.' And you should say, 'Kåñëa, I surrender to You.' Kåñëa makes no condition. He doesn't say, 'Yes, you can surrender if you have undergone courses in gymnastics and Vedänta and have gotten your M.A.' This is all nonsense. Simply surrender. The more you surrender, the more you advance. If you are not sincerely surrendered, you are missing the point. I have told you the secret, now make your choice. Kåñëa is guiding everyone."
"We want unlimited life, unlimited pleasure, unlimited knowledge—but this is not possible in conditional life. Liberation from the material condition is recommended. If you want to get free from the material clutches, the first prescription is that you should go to a mahätmä. Mahätmä means one whose heart and mind and life are expanded. Bhagavad-gétä recommends seva—you have to approach a person who knows the science of how to get out of the clutches of material life, and then you have to surrender fully to him.
"Surrender does not mean that you don't question, that you simply have to take everything blindly. After explaining the Bhagavad-gétä to Arjuna, Kåñëa said, 'My dear Arjuna, I have now explained the most secret knowledge. Consider what I have said, and then do whatever you like.' The spiritual master—whether he is the representative of Kåñëa or is Kåñëa Himself—does not force. Force has no effect: even a child, if forced, won't act.
"With a cool head we have to approach a person who knows the science. Find a person you can surrender to. Don't surrender to one who's not an authority. And if you approach a real authority, don't think, 'Oh, let me accept this spiritual master—so many people have accepted him.' Try to understand the science nicely. If you think the man teaching you is a real authority, surrender to him. Try and understand with all reason and argument. You'll find something sublime."
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