20211108 Śrīla Prabhupāda Tirobhāva Address to ISKCON East and West Bengal

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Today is the disappearance day of Śrīla Prabhupāda, we are having a program. When Śrīla Prabhupāda left Vṛndāvana, he said that if I leave my body, there is no need to be said, because I have left you all the scriptures/books for you. Whoever wants to associate with me, they could read those books and by this way can understand what I my advice is. We know that we should not see the sadhus with our eyes alone, we should see and hear them. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings are for all the devotees. Now, we can get the association of Śrīla Prabhupāda through his books. I have seen how Śrīla Prabhupāda , in the middle of the night used to translate books. And till early hours of the morning, every day, he would translate and write the purports. And in the purports were the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda, his experience and the teachings of the previous ācāryas. Now, that is why all the devotees should read and hear the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda which would be very beneficial for them. I remember in Māyāpur, he one day said, if one day I leave this body, then at least, you will take care of the 108 temples I established. Because he saw that other religious institutions, when their ācāryas passed away, the followers would sell off the places. He did not want this. He said, that if you can improve and establish more temples that would be very nice, but definitely at least take care of the temples I have already established. With Śrīla Prabhupāda’s mercy, with Lord Caitanya and Lord Kṛṣṇa’s mercy, our temples have survived and have been increasing. Ten years after Śrīla Prabhupāda left this world, the number of temples have doubled. We had 200 odd temples, then 350 and now we have about 800 temples. We have about 4000 to 5000 Nāmahaṭṭas. We have thousands and thousands of Bhakti-vṛkṣas. This way, now with the mercy of Lord Caitanya they are all increasing. We hope that the devotees will read and imbibe the instructions of Śrīla Prabhupāda. And the way Śrīla Prabhupāda had desired, that the desires of the previous ācāryas be fulfilled – like  the Temple of Vedic Planetarium. Lord Caitanya had said: pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi-grāma sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma. In very town and village of the world, My name will be preached. This was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire. He had gone around the world 14 times. What can the devotees not do if they had the mercy of Lord Kṛṣṇa? He said: rākhe kṛṣṇa māre ke, māre kṛṣṇa rākhe ke. If Kṛṣṇa wants to kill who can prevent that. And if Kṛṣṇa wants to save someone, who can prevent that? This way, we try to see that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desires are fulfilled. Earlier in Bangladesh we had one or two temples, and Śrīla Prabhupāda had given 500 or 600 dollars for their expenses. From that beginning, now there are over a hundred temples. Now there are very big temples there, like Pravartaka Mandir, in Sylhet, Swami Bagh, Narayanganj, etc. I was hoping that Śrīla Prabhupāda’s blessings would always be with us. We are praying that we are able to emulate and perform pure devotional service. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

I will not talk for long because I have to participate in other programs now.