The Sole Bearer and Maintainer

Although he was engaging the boys in cooking and typing, Prabhupada was not doing any less himself.  Rather, for every sincere soul who came forward to ask for service, a hundred came who wanted not to serve but to challenge.  Speaking to them, sometimes shouting and pounding his fists, Prabhupada defended Krishna against the Mayavada philosophy.  This was also his service to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.  He had not come to America to retire.  So with the passing of each new day came yet another confirmation that his work and his followers and his challengers would only increase.

How much he could do was up to Krishna.  “I am an old man,” he said.  “I may go away at any moment.”  But if he were to “go away” now, certainly Krishna consciousness would also go away, because the Krishna consciousness society was nothing but him: his figure leading the chanting while his head moved back and forth in small motions of ecstasy, his figure walking in and out of the temple through the courtyard or into the apartment, his person sitting down smilingly to discuss philosophy by the hour – he was the sole bearer and maintainer of the small, fragile, controlled atmosphere of Krishna consciousness on New York’s Lower East Side.