The Unthinkable – “What If?…”

Prabhupada struggled to leave India for America.  It is a poignant drama: the preparation, the delay, the difficulties he had to undergo.  What if something had happened to prevent him coming to us?  Or as Prabhupada always pointed out, no one expected such an old man to embark on such an enterprise.  Everyone retires at that age.  Krishna and Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura could have been sufficiently pleased by the path Prabhupada had already chosen, renouncing family and social life for the full-time service of Krishna.  And yet if Prabhupada hadn’t come, what would have become of us?

He wrote and struggled to get donations to publish Back to Godhead in Delhi.  Then he chose to reside in a little room in the Vamsi-Gopala temple in Vrndavana.  Then he immerses himself in pure devotional service in the holy dhama in the Radha-Damodara Temple.  But he thought, “Why shouldn’t people all over the world have the peace they are actually hankering for?”  He rarely received visitors, but stayed alone writing.  He walked to visit the temples in the evening.