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By HG Atma Tattva dasa<\/strong> (ACBSP)<\/p>\n It was the beginning of 1977. Prabhupada was in Bombay temple. He was very sick. He had stopped all food intake \u2013 he was taking 1\/4 a cup of orange juice per day. His body had only bones left \u2013 there was no flesh. And yet, he was insisting that he wanted to go to London. The doctors had given up responsibility. But as always, he was adamant. Bhattacarya: \u2018Swamiji, I want to tell you something. In Vrindavan temple, they are having your deity on the altar. And all kinds of people are coming and praying to it, and offering flowers to it, and you are still living. According to Pancaratra, when the Acarya is living, if he puts his deity on the altar, then all the sufferings people are having come to his body through the deity. So you please tell your disciples to worship your deity only after you leave your body.\u2019
\nAt this time, one Pancaratrika Pandit from Bangalore named Sampat Kumar Bhattacarya came to know about Srila Prabhupada\u2019s situation. So, he took a flight from Bangalore to Bombay \u2013 which in those days was a huge thing for a Brahmin priest \u2013 and met Prabhupada, and asked for a private meeting. Generally, nobody was allowed a private meeting, but when he said that he specially came by flight from Bangalore to meet Srila Prabhupada, he was allowed a private meeting.
\nSo, everybody was asked to go out, and they talked. The conversation was like this:
\nSampat Kumar: \u2018Swamiji, I am feeling very pained that you are suffering like this.\u2019
\nPrabhupada (laying down, in broken words): \u2018The whole world is meant for suffering. Dukhalayam asavatam.\u2019
\nSampat Kumar: \u2018But still Swamiji, there are so many people depending on you. So when you suffer, they suffer.
\nPrabhupada: \u2018What can I do?\u2019
\nBhattacarya: \u2018Swamiji, I want to tell you something. In Vrindavan temple, they are having your deity on the altar. And all kinds of people are coming and praying to it, and offering flowers to it, and you are still living. According to Pancaratra, when the Acarya is living, if he puts his deity on the altar, then all the sufferings people are having come to his body through the deity. So you please tell your disciples to worship your deity only after you leave your body.\u2019
\nHe was speaking as if he was giving some information to Prabhupada, which Prabhupada did not note.
\nPrabhupada: \u2018I know. I came here to take their suffering.\u2019
\nBhattacarya was shocked. He was not giving any new information. This was well known to Prabhupada; and he was determined to suffer for others.
\nPrabhupada: \u2018Do you have anything else to say?\u2019
\nBhattacarya: \u2018Swamiji, if that is your wish, what can I say? I am only a priest.\u2019
\nPrabhupada: *\u2018Even when I leave, I will keep continuing taking their suffering, and make them free so they can keep chanting Hare Krishna.\u2019*
\n_So for 10,000 years, Prabhupada\u2019s deity is going to be sitting in temples around the world, and taking all our sufferings, and making us free so we can chant Hare Krishna._ He is not fibreglass; he is really there, accepting our prayers, obeisances, and suffering. Let us hope this little anecdote reminds us of this, and never lets doubt creep into our minds.
\n~ _HG Atma Tattva dasa (ACBSP)_<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/v1OkMhR.jpeg)
By Atma Tattva dasa<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nHe was speaking as if he was giving some information to Prabhupada, which Prabhupada did not note.
\nPrabhupada: \u2018I know. I came here to take their suffering.\u2019 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96532"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115976,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96532\/revisions\/115976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}