Following the Master's Orders

In 1933 Srila Prabhupada delivered an address to a Gaudiya Matha convocation honoring the appearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. In that speech Srila Prabhupada explained the meaning of acarya, and he also expressed his deep devotion to his spiritual master as follows:

"Personally, I have no hope of having any direct service [to Krsna] for the coming crores of births of the sojourn of my life, but I am confident that some day or other I shall be delivered from the mire of delusion in which I am at present so deeply sunk. Therefore let me with all my earnestness pray at the lotus feet of my Divine Master to let me suffer the lot for which I am destined for all my past misdoings, but to let me have this power of recollection, realized through the unflinching mercy of my Divine Master, that I am nothing but a tiny servant of the Almighty Absolute Godhead. Let me therefore bow down at His lotus feet with all the humility at my command."

In 1944, after Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's demise, Srila Prabhupada pursued his spiritual master's order by founding Back to Godhead, a fortnightly English paper that he himself wrote, edited and published. He was also its sole distributor. His Divine Grace preached actively, using his home for frequent small functions consisting of congregational chanting and authoritative discourses from the Vedic scriptures. But Srila Prabhupada's wife was of a different bent. She did not like these meetings and even prevented her husband from instructing their children in devotional principles. Then came some unavoidable business reverses, and so finally in 1959 Srila Prabhupada took sannyasa (the renounced order of life) from one of his sannyasi Godbrothers and left home. He went to the holy village of Vrndavana, fulfilling his childhood desire. There he commenced writing and publishing several important books, in preparation for his voyage to America in 1965, which was to be the fulfillment of his spiritual master's order. [For a background description of Srila Prabhupada's writing and his work in Vrndavana, see "The Books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada," in Back to Godhead No. 52, by the author of this article.]