On November 14, 1977, at 7:30 P.M., in his room at the Krishna-Balaram Mandir in Vṛndāvana, Śrīla Prabhupāda gave his final instruction by leaving this mortal world and going back to Godhead.

His departure was exemplary, because his whole life was exemplary. His departure marked the completion of a lifetime of pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa. A few days before the end, Śrīla Prabhupāda had said he was instructing as far as he could, and his secretary had added, “You are the inspiration.” “Yes,” Śrīla Prabhupāda had replied, “that I shall do until the last breathing.”

Prabhupāda’s “last breathing” was glorious, not because of any last-minute mystical demonstration, but because Śrīla Prabhupāda remained in perfect Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Like grandfather Bhīṣmadeva, he remained completely collected and noble and grave, teaching until the end. He was preaching that life comes from life, not from matter, and he was showing that one should preach with every breath he has. The many devotees who crowded the large room bore witness that up to the very end, Prabhupāda remained exactly the same. There was nothing suddenly incongruous with what he had previously shown and taught them. At the time of his departure, therefore, he was teaching how to die, by always depending on Kṛṣṇa. Prabhupāda’s passing away was peaceful. During the evening of November 14, the kavirāja asked him, “Is there anything you want?” and Prabhupāda replied faintly, kuch icchā nahīṁ: “I have no desire.” His passing away was in the perfect situation: in Vṛndāvana, with devotees. A few months previously, a young girl, the daughter of one of Prabhupāda’s disciples, had passed away in Vṛndāvana, and when Śrīla Prabhupāda had been asked if she went back to Godhead to personally associate with Kṛṣṇa, he had said, “Yes, anyone who leaves his body in Vṛndāvana is liberated.”

Of course, “Vṛndāvana” also means the state of pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness. As Advaita Ācārya had said of Lord Caitanya, “Wherever You are is Vṛndāvana.” And this was also true of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Had Śrīla Prabhupāda passed away in London, New York, or Moscow, therefore, his destination would have been the same. As Lord Kṛṣṇa states in the Bhagavad-gītā, “One who is always thinking of Me, surely he attains to Me.” But because Vṛndāvana-dhāma is the quintessential realm of Kṛṣṇa consciousness within the universe, the ideal place for departure from this world, so it was yet another exemplary feature of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s life that he went back to Godhead with Vṛndāvana as his last junction.

Those Vaiṣṇavas who had taken the vow never to risk leaving Vṛndāvana could see that Śrīla Prabhupāda, after sacrificing everything – including the benefit of residing in Vṛndāvana – to deliver fallen souls in the most godforsaken locations of the world, had returned to the holy land of Vṛndāvana and from there had departed for the original abode of Lord Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual sky. As stated in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, “Anyone who executes service in Vṛndāvana certainly goes back to home, back to Godhead, after giving up his body.”

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s departure was also perfect because he was chanting and hearing the holy names of God. Thus the Supreme Personality of Godhead was present at Śrīla Prabhupāda’s passing just as He was at the celebrated passing away of Bhīṣmadeva, who said, “Despite His being equally kind to everyone, He has graciously come before me while I am ending my life, for I am His unflinching servitor.” As Lord Kṛṣṇa came before Bhīṣmadeva, assuring him and everyone else that Bhīṣma was returning back to Godhead on leaving his body, so the Lord in His incarnation of namāvatāra, the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, was present for Śrīla Prabhupāda’s departure.

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s life had been dedicated to spreading the holy name to every town and village, and for a month he had been surrounding himself with the holy name. For his passing away, he especially wanted to fill the room with devotees chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, and Kṛṣṇa fulfilled that wish. Śrīla Prabhupāda, therefore, departed under the most favorable circumstances possible – in the most sacred place, Vṛndāvana, surrounded by Vaiṣṇavas chanting the holy name.

An ideal spiritual teacher (ācārya) always acts in such a way that others may follow his example. As Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam states, these great souls who cross over the ocean of birth and death by taking shelter of the “boat” of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa miraculously leave the boat on this side for others to use. And Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disappearance, by its perfect example, affords all conditioned souls the means for meeting the greatest of all dangers. An auspicious death is not merely a matter of psychological adjustment, so that one may die without regret or without becoming unduly upset. The real point is that at the time of death the soul must leave the body and take his next birth. Only the Kṛṣṇa conscious soul can leave this world of birth and death and attain an eternal, blissful life in the spiritual world. Therefore one’s life is tested at death.

Death means the soul cannot stand to live in the body anymore. Whatever the material cause may be, the situation has become unbearable for the soul. And leaving the body causes great distress. The śāstras, therefore, advise us to get free from the cycle of repeated birth and death. Meeting an inauspicious death and being dragged down to a lower birth is the most fearful thing for the living being. So fearful is it that we may try to ignore death altogether. Death is painful because the eternal spirit soul is placed in a most unnatural situation: although he is eternal and should not have to die, he is forced to die because of his connection with the material body. At death, the eternal soul is forced to leave the body for a destination he knows not. Thus he is full of fear and suffering. The pain and fear are usually overwhelming, and one thinks only of material attachments or bodily pain. Therefore King Kulaśekhara prayed, and Prabhupāda often quoted, “Please let me pass away, not in some prolonged contemplation of my bodily death, but just while I’m chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. If I can meditate on You and then pass from this body, that will be perfection.”

Over the last months of his life in this world, Śrīla Prabhupāda taught how it is possible to meet death step by step in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. In his last days, he told one of his sannyāsīs, “Don’t think this isn’t going to happen to you.” Prabhupāda came into this world, on Kṛṣṇa’s request, to teach us how to live a pure life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and that includes how to finally pass away from this world to attain eternal life. Prabhupāda underwent death in a way that was perfect and glorious, and at the same time in a way which we can all follow. When we have to go, we can cling to the memory of how a great soul left his body – always thinking of Kṛṣṇa, surrounding himself with the medicine of chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, always desiring to hear about Kṛṣṇa, and practicing detachment from the misery of the material condition. This last lesson was one of the most wonderful and important instructions Śrīla Prabhupāda gave us. He taught by his life, by his books, and at the end by his dying. Education in how to die is meant especially for the human being. An animal dies, and a human being also dies; but a human being is supposed to understand the process of going back to the spiritual world at the time of death. Remaining always fixed and undisturbed in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, Śrīla Prabhupāda expertly taught the process. His passing away, therefore, was a perfect lesson, and one that can be faithfully followed.

While there was nothing lamentable for Śrīla Prabhupāda in his departing from the world and going back to Godhead, it was certainly lamentable for his followers and for the people of the whole world, who became bereft of the presence of their greatest well-wisher and benefactor. Śrīla Prabhupāda had written in a Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam purport, “When the mortal body of the spiritual master expires, the disciple should cry exactly like the queen cries when the king leaves his body.” At the departure of his own spiritual master, Śrīla Prabhupāda had written, “On that day, O my Master, I made a cry of grief; I was not able to tolerate the absence of you, my guru.” And so on November 14, 1977, as the powerful news spread around the world, those who knew and loved Śrīla Prabhupāda were gripped by a fearful, unrestricted grief. They saw everything around them in the overwhelming atmosphere of separation from Śrīla Prabhupāda. They turned for solace to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s books.

However, the disciples and the spiritual master are never separated, because the spiritual master always keeps company with the disciple, as long as the disciple follows the instructions of the spiritual master. This is called the association of vāṇī. Physical presence is called vapuḥ. As long as the spiritual master is physically present, the disciple should serve the physical body of the spiritual master, and when the spiritual master is no longer physically existing, the disciples should serve the instructions of the spiritual master.

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples were already carrying out his instructions, but now they would have to do so without the vapuḥ, without the opportunity of regularly seeing and being with him. At first this was very difficult for them to face, but those who were sincere soon realized that Śrīla Prabhupāda had, upon his departure, given them the greatest gift of all: service in separation.

Service in separation is the highest realization and ecstasy. This was the teaching of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, in regard to Lord Kṛṣṇa and His foremost devotees, the gopīs of Vṛndāvana. When Kṛṣṇa left His beloved gopīs and went to Mathurā, never to return to them in Vṛndāvana, the gopīs (and all the other residents of Vṛndāvana) wept piteously in separation. They so much loved Kṛṣṇa that they could not live without Him, and to maintain their lives they began to constantly remember and discuss His name, fame, form, and entourage. By constantly remembering Him in love and by anticipating His return to Vṛndāvana, they achieved an ecstasy of union in separation, which Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava scholars declare to be superior even to the ecstasy the gopīs felt in Kṛṣṇa’s presence. Because Kṛṣṇa is absolute, even remembering Him or chanting His name puts the devotee into direct contact with Him. But because there is simultaneously a feeling of separation from Him, there is an added dimension of inconceivable, simultaneous union and separation. This is the epitome of Kṛṣṇa conscious realization.

Prabhupāda’s followers knew this principle of service in separation, technically known as vipralambha-sevā, but to most devotees it was a theoretical realization. Before one can feel intense loving separation from Kṛṣṇa, one must first feel intense attraction to Him. But for the conditioned soul who has forgotten and abandoned Kṛṣṇa and has come to the material world under the spell of māyā, illusion – for him, “separation” from Kṛṣṇa is based on complete ignorance and forgetfulness.

In coming to spiritual life, a neophyte first begins to awaken to the very existence of God, as he overcomes atheistic misconceptions. Next, he comes gradually, through practice, to take up a relationship of service to Kṛṣṇa, through serving the spiritual master. Intense love of Kṛṣṇa in separation is the most advanced stage and cannot possibly be realized in full by the neophyte. Thus service in separation had remained a theoretical teaching to many of Prabhupāda’s followers.

But when Śrīla Prabhupāda departed from the world and left his disciples to carry on his mission, they immediately realized union with him in separation. He was gone, but he was still very much present. This realization was not a pretention or a myth, nor was it sentimental psychic phenomena – telepathy, “communion with the dead,” or so on. It was a completely substantive, practical, palpable reality, a fact of life. Śrīla Prabhupāda had given them personal service, and now they would continue that service. Prabhupāda was still present through his instructions, and all the nectar of his direct association – all the nectar of Kṛṣṇa consciousness that he had given and shared with them – was still available.

Service in separation for Prabhupāda’s disciples was undoubtedly a fact, otherwise, now that they were without his personal presence, how were they able to sustain themselves in spiritual life? The fact that they could continue as before, increase their feelings of devotion, and even increase their serving capacity, meant that Śrīla Prabhupāda was very much still with them. As Śrīla Prabhupāda’s last instruction was the lesson of how a human being should die, he now taught, beyond dying, how to practically implement the highest philosophical teachings of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism.

This realization gave the devotees great hope that Śrīla Prabhupāda and the revolutionary life of Kṛṣṇa consciousness he had brought with him were not finished upon his departure. Often when a great personality dies, his contribution collapses; but Śrīla Prabhupāda’s presence remained and expanded, sustaining his devotees’ lives. He was still in charge.

EPILOGUE

In describing how the followers of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda continue to relish the nectar of serving him in separation, we are not speaking of only a small band of several thousand devotees whom he initiated during his lifetime. Śrīla Prabhupāda was not only an ācārya, but he was the founder-ācārya of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, which is a dynamic spiritual reality. That reality is nothing less than the yuga-dharma, or the form of spiritual life recommended for all humanity in the present Age of Kali, the most dangerous of ages, in which humanity eventually abandons all religious principles.

The ultimate goal of human life was taught by Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavad-gītā, when He declared, “Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.” Kṛṣṇa taught this five thousand years ago, when He appeared in the world, but people have misinterpreted and misunderstood what Kṛṣṇa meant. Lord Caitanya advented, therefore, to revive the original message of surrender to Kṛṣṇa, primarily by introducing the saṅkīrtana movement of chanting the holy names of God.

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, a great devotee of Lord Caitanya appearing in the nineteenth century, foresaw that Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana principles could and would be introduced all over the world. He had studied deeply many other religions and philosophies, but he felt that Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana was universal, the essence of religious life able to unite all people and bring them to perfection. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s son was Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, who became the spiritual master of Śrīla Prabhupāda and who ordered Śrīla Prabhupāda to implement the vision of worldwide Kṛṣṇa consciousness by going to preach in the West.

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda is, therefore, to be appreciated not only as the guru of a few intimate servants or even the guru of a single generation of disciples. As the founder-ācārya of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, he introduced the standard of Kṛṣṇa consciousness as it can be practiced by all sincere followers for thousands of years to come.

The scriptures predict that although the present age is constantly becoming more inauspicious, unfortunate, and degraded, for a period of ten thousand years from the time of Lord Caitanya’s advent a golden age of Kṛṣṇa consciousness can appear, despite the force of Kali-yuga. Śrīla Prabhupāda, therefore, prepared his translations and Bhaktivedanta purports on the essential Vaiṣṇava scriptures – Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu – with the plan that they would form the foundation of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement for ten thousand years.

We cannot limit Śrīla Prabhupāda, therefore, by describing him only within the drama of his being the guru for one generation of followers. Śrīla Prabhupāda is jagad-guru, the spiritual master of the entire world. He is a bona fide spiritual master, faithfully conveying the message of the disciplic succession from Lord Kṛṣṇa, as he received it in paramparā from his spiritual master. But more than that, he was empowered by Kṛṣṇa to do what no other spiritual master has ever done. He is the founder-ācārya for spreading Lord Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana worldwide in the midst of the Age of Kali.

Anyone who wants shelter from the evil effects of the present godless age can have it by taking up devotional service under the guidance of Lord Caitanya’s teachings as given by Prabhupāda. The dynamic preaching and realizations of Śrīla Prabhupāda reveal the sublime teachings of Lord Caitanya, which otherwise have been neglected, misused, and kept within the confines of India. Śrīla Prabhupāda was actually able to understand Lord Caitanya’s prediction that Kṛṣṇa consciousness would spread to every town and village in the world.

Śrīla Prabhupāda had faith in these words and personally saw in his lifetime that pure Kṛṣṇa consciousness could be adopted by people of all races and cultures, even those considered by Vedic standards to be aborigines and outcasts. Through the applications of Śrīla Prabhupāda, therefore, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is now proven to be viable for anyone, anywhere in the world.

Anyone can serve Śrīla Prabhupāda in separation. He asked all his followers to avoid four sinful activities – meat-eating, intoxication, illicit sex, and gambling – and to chant the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra a minimum of sixteen rounds daily on beads. He also advised that one regularly read Vedic literatures such as Bhagavad-gītā As It Is and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. And for keeping spiritual health and strength to follow the spiritual principles, he advised that one associate with like-minded devotees. Whoever follows these basic practices and recognizes Śrīla Prabhupāda as the direct representative of Kṛṣṇa is his follower. And the Vedic scriptures say that only by serving the representative of Kṛṣṇa can one become dear to Kṛṣṇa Himself.

The ways of serving Kṛṣṇa are unlimited, as Śrīla Prabhupāda expertly displayed. He invited scientists, artists, philosophers, and businessmen to serve Kṛṣṇa according to their occupations and capabilities. The artist, instead of painting pictures out of his imagination or making renderings of the material energy, can paint pictures depicting Kṛṣṇa in the spiritual world. The poet can describe Kṛṣṇa as the Absolute Truth; the philosopher can explain Kṛṣṇa as the cause of all causes; the scientist can prove that life comes from life; and the businessman can contribute money to the worthiest welfare activity of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. A person does not, therefore, have to abandon his family or retreat to a solitary cave to realize God. In any situation of life one can move from mundane to spiritual by adopting the practices of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. This is the broad and liberal way Śrīla Prabhupāda intended Kṛṣṇa consciousness to pervade society.

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Prabhupāda’s own society of devotees, is meant to help all persons interested in developing spiritual life under Śrīla Prabhupāda’s guidance. ISKCON was Prabhupāda’s organization for establishing and proliferating temple worship, book printing and distribution, and communities where devotees could live and serve together in close association. Prabhupāda therefore entrusted all his properties, including the magnificent temples he had built in India, to ISKCON, for the protection and perpetuation of his work. And he instructed his disciples to show their love for him by always cooperating among themselves to expand further the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

When a disciple expressed his appreciation of Prabhupāda’s magnificent quarters in Bombay, Prabhupāda replied, “I cannot take these with me. I am leaving them for you to use.”

The essential gifts of Kṛṣṇa consciousness which Prabhupāda brought are for everyone. Although most people do not know it, they are actually hankering for the happiness of genuine spiritual life. Prabhupāda, out of compassion, wanted to distribute the gifts of Kṛṣṇa consciousness to all the hungry people in the world. These gifts – peace of mind, satisfaction, freedom from anxiety – can be obtained by anyone who takes wholeheartedly to devotional service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. This pure, happy state can be realized by receiving the ongoing, dynamic legacy which Prabhupāda left: his books, his devotees, his Kṛṣṇa consciousness society, and his method of expertly applying Kṛṣṇa consciousness to every situation in the modern context. Whoever intelligently takes up the practice of Kṛṣṇa consciousness will also inherit the most wonderful realization in his relationship with Śrīla Prabhupāda, the pure devotee of Kṛṣṇa.

We hope that the Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta will help the readers in establishing their relationship with Śrīla Prabhupāda. Its contribution is in the mood of remembering Śrīla Prabhupāda in separation. Remembering his pastimes puts one into direct contact with him and with the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and this remembrance can free one from bondage to material life and enable one to taste the nectar of the eternal pastimes of Kṛṣṇa and His associates in the spiritual world.

Śrīla Prabhupāda’s life did not end on November 14, 1977. And we hope that the readers of Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta will not feel they have finished their connection with this literature by having read it once. Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta can be read regularly, from beginning to end. Our hope is that by hearing about Śrīla Prabhupāda the reader will become himself a Prabhupādānuga, a follower of Śrīla Prabhupāda. We can wish no better fortune upon anyone.

THUS ENDS THE ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA-LĪLĀMṚTA, COMPLETED ON NOVEMBER 9, 1982, IN THE KĀRTTIKA SEASON, AT THE ISKCON KRISHNA-BALARAM MANDIR IN VṚNDĀVANA.