srila prabhupada said...!!! 3
chitralekha devi dasi (bcs)
Yasomatinandana arrived with a very encouraging report on the farm in Ahmadabad donated by Seth Bogilal Patel. Prabhupada was very pleased to hear that all one hundred acres had been cultivated. Srila Prabhupada said, "Let the villagers work, produce, eat prasadam, and chant Hare Krsna. We don't want profit, nor to exploit you. We simply want you to be attracted to Krsna. Bogilal is honest and religious. I talk to him like my brother."
While Prabhupada was in the garden, Gopala Krsna came in. "Has Gopala brought books? He must bring new books. Whenever he sees me, he knows what I want. Your first attention should be to printing. Print very speedily. I want to see simply distribution of books in any language."
"Develop the Ahmadabad farm. Instead of in the city, make a temple there and cottages for life members. Gujaratis are natural Vaisnavas. Make the cottages from local supplies: bricks, tiles, bamboos."
" -- - Maharaja [a popular Bhagavatam reciter] is 'dandavat class.' My Guru Maharaja would say this. Even when such man would speak nice words, he would say, 'Oh, he is dandavat class.' My Guru Maharaja is very humorous. He was a Calcutta boy; therefore he liked me. All his other disciples came from East Bengal. Perhaps I was the only one in Calcutta."
"You should always remember the Gita Press example. They had third-class printing and doubtful subject matter, yet they were maintaining seventy-five big printing machines. There is so much scope. If we give first-class printing and first-class subject matter, there is huge scope. Whatever the price, Hindi-speaking people will pay; they are not poor. Print huge stock, ten thousand at a time minimum. I shall take charge of distribution. I want to see at least all manuscripts printed. We shall do exactly like the karmis, not for ourselves, but for Krsna. Therefore, the Mayavadis cannot understand us. When they think of mother Yasoda crying, they say, 'Oh, again crying.' We take this as ecstasy, great transcendental pleasure. Caitanya Mahaprabhu was simply crying. But they don't know how crying can be a great pleasure. They say it is maya; therefore, they are called Mayavadis. Nirvisesa sunyavadi. They want to make everything zero."
Over the past few days Srila Prabhupada has translated less and less. Yesterday afternoon and last night, he did not translate at all. Upendra and I had noticed a change in Srila Prabhupada's disposition over the past week, but we could not understand it properly. His Divine Grace was becoming increasingly weaker because of not eating at all for so many days. Tonight at ten o'clock, Prabhupada called me to his room. His Divine Grace was very depressed.
"I think no one recovers from this disease. It is called dropsy. Look it up in the dictionary." I did so and read that the swelling of the body was caused by liquid in the muscles and skin. I said to Srila Prabhupada that his lotus eyes were also appearing cloudy. He has been washing them with rose water two or three times a day. "My present health is so weak that death can take place at any time."
Prabhupada was speaking as he did two months ago, when he became so hopeless that the entire G.B.C. was called. I told him that his devotees loved him so much that travelling to the West would give him new life. "If I die, I want to die in Vrndavana."
I said, "You should not think of dying. If you see the devotees in the West, tour the temples, eat the prasadam grown on our farms, you would respond to this devotion and gain appetite and taste." I pointed out that the last time Prabhupada felt like this the G.B.C. came, and he began eating a little. "You had to reciprocate with their sincere love by wanting to live for them. Imagine how much loving feeling there will be for you if you go to all the temples. You will never feel like dying."
Prabhupada countered, "Somebody told me that at eighty-one, there would be some change." He had me subtract 1896 from 1977 to confirm his age. "One thing you can do in your daily routine: you can pray to Krsna, 'If You want him to stay, please cure him; and if not, please take him away. We are fully surrendered to You. Now, it depends on Your desire to keep him alive or let him leave this world.'" Prabhupada recited the prayer of King Kulasekhara from the Mukunda-mala-stotra: "My dear Krsna, please let me die immediately, so that the swan of my mind can be encircled by the stem of Your lotus feet now while I am still strong. Otherwise, at the time of my final breath, when my throat is choked up, how will it be possible to think of You?"
I asked Srila Prabhupada how he could think of going while there was still unfinished business. "You have been keeping Radha-Rasabihari standing for so many years, and the arrangements you promised Them are not yet completed."
Prabhupada admitted this and Srila Prabhupada said, "Another ambition is that the populace is suffering from agnosticism. The rascals are suffering, but they do not know why. I want to drive away agnosticism from this world."
I assured Prabhupada that if he went to the West, agnosticism would be driven out for sure. "The devotees are working so hard, simply on your instructions. If they have your physical presence, there is no limit to how much they will do."
"When I am in Vrndavana, it is transcendental. That much mercy Krsna has shown me. Wherever there is our centre, it is Vaikuntha: New York, Los Angeles, Paris, or London." Srila Prabhupada was beginning to get very enthusiastic about going abroad. "To remain in Vrndavana is a sentiment. In New York, if I die, you have to entomb me on the roof. That is the only place. So long I die amongst you. You are all Vaikuntha men. I had a dream that Vaikuntha men came to take me. They were all white men with shaven heads. Your countrymen cannot believe how you have changed. "Let us consult an astrologer-whether I should go, whether I shall be cured, how long I shall live. I was born in the evening at four o'clock. It was Nandotsava. You can consult an old pancika to see the day. It was a Tuesday, Mithuni Rasi, Mrgasras Naksatra. I am prepared to go to the West."
I then quoted the Bhagavad Gita: 2:37, wherein Krsna tells Arjuna to fight: "Either you will be killed on the battlefield and attain the heavenly planets, or you will conquer and enjoy the earthly kingdom." Srila Prabhupada found this verse very appropriate. Throughout the night and next morning, Srila Prabhupada was full of hope. "Tamala is arranging a big party."
Biographies and Glorifications of Srila Prabhupada-TKG's Diary: Prabhupada's Final Days-July 28th-Tamala Krsna Goswami