Dearest Śrīla Prabhupāda,
Please accept my most respectful obeisances at the dust of your divine lotus feet.
During my first meeting with you, you asked me to translate your books into Bengali. It was such a display of your causeless mercy upon this fallen soul. That service allowed me to approach you at any time, and eventually enabled me to become your Secretary for Indian Affairs.
Those engagements expanded further into cooking for you and taking care of your various other needs. I was not only busy throughout the day but also was able to be with you at night. Someone had to be with you all the time, and my shift was from midnight till two. So many nights, when you could not sleep, you spoke and I listened with rapt attention.
I remember one night in Vṛndāvana, a profound stillness prevailed everywhere, and from a distance we could hear the sound of a kīrtana softly floating through the serene silence of the night. You said, “This is India—wherever you go you can hear the chanting of the holy name.” You kept on speaking about the glory of this land. How fortunate are those who got the human form of life in this holy land! Even the demigods pray to Kṛṣṇa that if they have any piety left, then in exchange they desire to take birth in this holy land.
Then you described how in the Age of Kali everything turns upside down. The most holy places and the most exalted people become the first targets of Kali. That is why India is in such a pathetic state today. This most glorious land has become most degraded, and the most exalted people have become most fallen: the brahminical culture has become a rather demoniac culture in the form of the caste system.
That is why you had to go to the West—to the most degraded part of the world—to start your Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement. To counteract Kali’s influence you started your mission from the extreme opposite end. Kali captured the place that used to be the center of the spiritual culture of this world, and therefore you decided to form your army from all over the world and move in toward that capital of Kali, to eventually crush him along with all his associates—lust, greed, anger, illusion, envy, and pride.
Then you assured me that in this battle Kali would not be able to win because victory is always there for Kṛṣṇa and His devotees. No matter how formidable our enemy may appear, we are fighting for Kṛṣṇa, and therefore our victory is guaranteed.
Another time, again when you could not sleep late one night, you were sitting up on your bed and I was massaging your feet. You just started to speak: “There is so much to do, and I am unable to do anything because of my bad health.”
I tried to console you, saying, “Śrīla Prabhupāda, what you have done is inconceivable. No one has ever achieved what you have. Now you should just relax.”
You replied, “No, what I have done so far is just fifty percent. The other fifty percent is to establish the varṇāśrama-dharma. It is not that everyone will become a devotee. Those who won’t become devotees, for them we need varṇāśrama. It is not that everyone will be able to surrender to Kṛṣṇa completely. Those who will act according to the modes of material nature, for them we need varṇāśrama.”
You continued to speak. I understood some of what you said, but most of it flew well above my head. But today, so many years later, many realizations are beginning to dawn on me about what you said:
ISKCON is here to establish pure devotional service. However, everyone will not be able to come to that very lofty spiritual standard. In fact, most of the people in this world will not be able to follow the four regulative principles and chant sixteen rounds of the mahā-mantra every day. Rather, they will opt for a life of fruitive work and sense gratification. For them, the spiritual structure of varṇāśramadharma will be absolutely necessary.
In due course of time, the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will spread all over the world, to every town and village. At that time the Vedic culture must be established everywhere, and varṇāśramadharma will be the means by which the entire human society will be structured according to that spiritual principle. And in that structure the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement will be situated as its crowning glory. That is the only achievement that can ever come anywhere near matching your accomplishment.
What will the world look like at that time? The powerful and righteous kṣatriya kings will be ruling the world, with a single sovereign head as the ruler of the entire planet. They will execute the royal responsibilities of protecting and guiding the society under the direction of qualified brāhmaṇas—the devotees of ISKCON.
The vaiśyas will cater to the needs of the society based on the abundant gifts from Mother Nature, through cow protection and organic farming. And the working class—the śūdras—will not be exploited through a heartless money-making racket, but will be taken care of by the senior members of the society, just as the elder brothers take care of the younger ones.
Śrīla Prabhupāda, I do not know how much effort it will take to bring all this about, for how many generations. But I am confident that it will happen. And to make it happen you have given us ISKCON—a perfect arrangement to continue your mission. Please allow me to become an insignificant part of that arrangement forever.
Your eternal servant,
Bhakti Chāru Swami
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