"The fortunate town of Navadvipa remains on the earth. The seashore remains. The city of Jagannatha Puri remains. The holy names of Krsna remain. But alas! I do not see anywhere the same kind of festival of pure love for Lord Hari. O Lord Caitanya, O ocean of mercy, will I ever see Your transcendental glory again?"

[ Srila Prabodhananada Sarasvati, Sri Caitanya-candramrta, verse 40 ] 

‎"I am not in agreement with Mr. Altman that we are expanding very thinly. In my opinion a single sincere soul can maintain a center. You know, I started the center at 26 2nd Ave. alone. I took the risk of $200. rent. At that time there were no assistants. Mukunda was a friend, but there was no responsibility for him for maintaining center. Gradually Kirtanananda, Hayagriva joined but they did not take any responsibility. Still, I was maintaining the establishment simply depending on Krishna and then Krishna sent me everything; men & money. Similarly, if a sincere soul goes out and opens a center in any part of the part, Krishna will help him in all respects. Without being empowered by Krishna nobody can preach Krishna Consciousness. It is not academic qualification or financial strength which helps in the matter, but it is sincerity of purpose which helps us always. Therefore I wish that you will remain in charge of Boston. Let Mukunda be in charge of San Francisco. Let Janardana be in charge of Montreal, Nandarani and Dayananda be in charge of Los Angeles. And let Subala das be in charge of Santa Fe. In this way, you will follow my example as I did in the beginning at 26 2nd Ave. That is preaching, cooking, writing, talking, chanting, everything one man's show. I never thought about the audience. I was prepared to chant even if there were no men present to hear me. The principle of chanting is to glorify the Lord & not to attract a crowd. If Krishna hears nicely then he will ask some sincere devotee to gather in such place. Therefore be advised that thousands of centers may be started if we find out a sincere soul for each & every center.'' 

Srila Prabhupada letter to Subala, November 12, 1967

The fly is living happily in the box of manure.

He is becoming fat, enjoying the opulence.

The bee comes by and the fly invites him to see the opulence of the fly.

"I do not wish to offend you, but this place is not very nice, my dear fly.

The place where I come from is full of fragrant flowers, the trees are tall and they are swinging in the autumn wind.

There is a lot of space to fly, and many flowers prduce a lot of pollen for our food."

"What is so special about that? This is a box of manure and is perfect, I can't imagine better place than this. The gardens of flowers and trees and grasses... sounds unusual, I have never seen such thing before and because I like my home I don't wish to go anywhere else."

"I invite you only this one time to see my home, warm and bright."

"But it is so far away from my home."

"It will take us very short time to fly there and back, just come with me, this is the chance of your life."

The fly and the bee flew out of the manure box

and entered the flower garden.

"My dear fly, can you see this wonderful place? 

Can you smell this fragrance coming from the blossoming flowers?"

"No, the place seems nothing special,

it smells exactly like at home."

The bee suspects that fly's perception is disturbed.

He takes the fly to the river and they both take bath.

When fly's senses are pure, he can see the beauty.

"This is such a nice place, it smells so nice, I will never go to that box of manure again!"

Dearest Srila Prabhupada,

Please accept my most humble obeisances in the dust of your lotus feet.

Thirty four years ago today you departed from our material vision. Although the departures of pure devotees are celebrated as glorious in the vaisnava tradition, I honestly have never felt this to be a day of festivities. Instead of celebrating, I feel more comfortable spending time alone remembering your pastimes amongst us and reflecting on my service to your divine mission.

Of course, it was natural that you would leave one day. My godbrother Pita dasa relates in his memoirs how, a few days before your departure, he heard you ask a group of devotees at your bedside, "Why are you all crying?"

"Because you are so sick, Srila Prabhupada," one of the devotees replied. "We are afraid you may leave."

It was then that you made a statement that has become famous.

"I will never die," you said. "I will live forever in my books."

Some moments passed; the only sound was soft chanting from some of the devotees. Then you began speaking again.

"Old people die. That is natural," you said. "When a young person dies that is a mistake because young persons should live until they are old. But I am old. So don't cry."

"But Srila Prabhupada," one devotee said. "We are crying because we can't live without you and when you leave we won't know how to communicate with you."

"I will communicate with you through your heart," you said. "And I will come to you in your dreams."

When I heard Pita dasa relate this memory of you, I felt very happy because sometimes I do dream about you. Only a few nights ago, after a particularly wonderful public festival we held here in Brazil, I dreamed that you called me to your room. When I entered, you were lying on your bed about to take rest. You gestured towards your desk.

"Please read my mail to me," you said.

On the desk was a small pile of aerogram letters from your disciples around the world. I opened the letters and began reading them aloud. Letter after letter related the success of your mission in different countries. One of them caught my attention. The devotee described the suffering of the people in the country in which he was preaching, how they were afflicted by poverty, hunger and civil war. As I read that letter to you I heard you make a sound. I looked up and I saw tears streaming down your cheeks.

"Only Krsna consciousness will save them," you said in a soft broken voice.

Touched by your deep empathy for the fallen souls, I also began crying. I felt that by your mercy, you had allowed me to share your sentiments for a brief moment. I woke up and I was shocked to find my face wet with tears.

Srila Prabhupada, that dream was very significant for me because it reconfirmed the importance of your mission. It helped me to understand that your compassion for the suffering people in this world is one of your very deep spiritual emotions.

My dear spiritual master, although I have dedicated over forty years of my life to this mission, I am still an aspiring bhakta. Anyone can see that. I do not understand prema bhakti, love of God, nor do I know the intricacies of pure devotional service. But I do know something of your deep, unlimited compassion. I understand this compassion because I am a recipient of it. I also understand that you desire for others to experience it, and therefore I would like to continue delivering your compassion to the fallen souls for as long as I may live. As for deeper realizations, I am confident that by following your instruction to preach Krsna consciousness, you will be pleased and will bestow the secrets of devotional service to me.

bruyuh snigdhasya sisasya

guravo guyam apy-uta

"The guru should speak the secret to the disciple who has affection for the guru."

[Srila Visvanatha Chakravarti's translation of Srimad Bhagavatam 1.1.8]

In a far distant corner of Vrindavan, in a place known as Badrinath, there is a large mysterious stone called Sugandhi-sila. It gives off a very beautiful, heavenly fragrance. My dear spiritual master, I pray that your mercy will transform my stone-like heart into something divine like that Sugandhi-sila. Then perhaps I too will cry tears of compassion as you did when hearing of the miseries of others; and like you I will go out to preach the divine command with unswerving determination.

Srila Prabhupada, I am now old and thus my departure is also imminent. As you said, because of my age, there will be nothing to lament when the time comes. My only lamentation will be that your work in this world remains unfinished. Therefore I want you to know that I am prepared to take birth as many times as it takes to dry your tears of compassion for those bereft of Krsna's mercy. Let me take birth in heaven or hell, or anywhere in between, for wherever I am, I am truly happy serving you.

Your servant,

Indradyumna Swami

When Mother Yasoda saw that her son had used his might to turn over a mortar and then sit on it and give away butter to the monkey, she was surprised and smiled mildly.

In order to catch her son who had acted like a thief, she sneaked towards him. However, he saw her coming from a distance and quickly ran away. It is a well known fact that a thief has hundreds of eyes whereas a custodian has only two.

The proud monkey, who by now was fully satisfied by the butter he had received, suddenly saw Mother Yasoda coming towards him with a stick wrapped in a cloth in her hand, so he quickly climbed up on a tree branch.

Seeing her son also running away, Mother Yasoda started chasing him, and the flowers bound in her hair scattered everywhere. "Where do you think you're running away to, O king of thieves?" Hearing this, Krishna simultaneously cried mildly while displaying a beautiful smile.

Although she was running close to him, she could not catch him, just as a huge mass of clouds in the west blown eastward by the winds cannot catch up to a small cloud situated in the east.

Looking at a particular gate and thinking that this is not a gate used by Mother Yasoda, Krishna ran swiftly in that direction. Mother Yasoda too followed him, into places where no one was present. When Krishna ran without looking behind, he could not be caught by his mother. However, when he fearfully looked behind, she quickly caught him by the hand.

As soon as this happened, the two eyes of Krishna became moist and thus assisted him in trying to find a way out of the situation by attempting to mitigate the anger of Mother Yasoda. He also manifested trembling in his body in order to protect his misbehavior.

Whenever Mother Yasoda tried to forcibly pull his face towards her, he hid it, concealing the butter there, so that she would think his face was clean.

Thereafter, she instilled fear in him by saying, "Before you steal in your own home, take a look at this!", and showed him the stick. However, seeing that her lotus-eyed son was terrified, the queen of Vraja then gave up the stick.

Their conversation thereafter was as follows:

"Mother! Please do not beat me with that stick."

"You're a thief! You're a thief! Not only that, you're the king of all thieves!"

"Thieves are born in the family of your father, not mine!"

Hearing her son speak in such a clever way, Yasoda smiled.

Thereafter:

"How did the pot containing the yogurt break?"

"It's a punishment inflicted by the Supreme Lord."

 "Who gave the ghee to that monkey?" "He who created the monkey!"

While chastising him like this, Mother Yasoda said, "I have a doubt about why it is that you always take away and eat this butter, which is an important part of all sacrifices," and then became choked with emotion.

Thereafter, she smiled in an angry way and told Krishna, "Give up all your secrecy, and tell me the truth!"

Krishna then started crying and replied, "O Mother! When you ran for protecting the milk from boiling over, your foot pushed over one of the pots and broke it. What mischief have I done in that? Moreover, that monkey, who was inspired by the Supreme Lord himself, started stealing butter from our home. When I was taking back the butter from him, you saw me. Now tell me, what mischief have I done in that? Seeing that you were carrying that heavy stick in your hands, I had no option but to run away. However, you still continued running after me like a heartless person."

Thereafter, Mother Yasoda, lamenting her actions a little, said sincerely to her son, "O most expert logician! O best amongst all thieves! Although you are the son of Vrajaraj Nanda Maharaja, you still show affection for the monkeys. Your nature is just like a monkey. Maybe you should stay in the forest."

Krishna replied, "If you think that I am like a monkey, then so be it! From today I shall go to the forest and live with them."

Hearing this, Mother Yasoda thought "He might end up doing exactly that. In order to prevent him from escaping to the forest, it is better to tie him up." In this way, Mother Yasoda tied her son to the mortar. ·

[ Srila Jiva Goswami's Gopal Champu, eighth purana. Translated by Hari Parshad Das, from the Sanskrit available at http://www.granthamandira.com ]