May there be good fortune throughout the universe, and may all envious persons be pacified. May all living entities become calm by practicing bhakti-yoga, for by accepting devotional service they will think of each other's welfare. Therefore let us all engage in the service of the supreme transcendence, Lord Sri Krsna, and always remain absorbed in thought of Him.

Sri Prahlada Maharaja
Srimad-Bhagavatam 5.18.9

Leaving and Not Leaving Vrndavana

ON HEARING of Prabodhananda Sarasvati's absolute resolve to never leave Vrndavana, one might wonder why Srila Prabhupada left Vrndavana to travel around the world. The reason is that although Prabodhananda Sarasvati and Srila Prabhupada each wanted only to serve Krsna, there was an external difference between them. Prabhodananda Sarasvati acted as a ksetra-sannyasi, a renunciant who vows to perpetually stay in the holy land of Vrndavana (or another holy dhama) and perform worship (bhajana) there. Technically this type of devotee is called a bhajananandi.

Srila Prabhupada, however, did not take a vow to worship perpetually in one place. Rather, like his spiritual master, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, he was a parivrajakacarya, a traveling preacher of Krsna consciousness. In fact, taking the order of his spiritual master as his life and soul, he willingly risked dying outside Vrndavana to spread Krsna consciousness all over the world. He even suffered heart attacks aboard the steamship Jaladuta in 1965 and in New York in 1967 attacks that nearly caused him to perish in materialistic environs far from holy Vrndavana. He once grimly joked, "In New York if I die, you will have to entomb me on the roof." Such a fearless preacher is termed a gos hyanandi.

Both the bhajananandi and the gosthyanandi have the same goal, to serve and love Krsna as do the eternal residents of Vrndavana. But the way they do so is quite different. While a bhajananandi like Prabodhananda Sarasvati vows to never leave Vrndavana, great gosthyanandis like Syamananda Pandita and Narottama Dasa Thakura were sent out of Vrndavana by Jiva Gosvami to preach and they left this world in full Krsna consciousness away from Vrndavana.

As a preacher, Prabhupada was not restricted to Vrndavana. Although it is said Krsna that never leaves Vrndavana (vrndavanam parityajya padam ekam na gacchati), because He is unlimited He can simultaneously stay in Vrndavana and leave. Prabhupada brought Krsna out of India in the form of His holy names and His deity, whom he installed in many temples. And Prabhupada's books carried Krsna to every corner of the world. Prabhupada's mood reflected that of his spiritual master, who traveled widely in India to preach Krsna consciousness and sent disciples to preach in England, Burma, and other places outside India.

Kurma Rupa Dasa, a scholarly devotee who has resided in Vrndavana for many years, compared the factor of one's physical location to that of one's inner state of being, or consciousness.

"I have heard there are statements to the effect that if one leaves his body in Vrndavana he is guaranteed to go to Goloka [the spiritual world]," he said. "But, personally, I'm unable to give them as much weight as Krsna's own words in the Bhagavad-gita: 'Whatever state of being [bhava] one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kunti, that state he will attain without fail.' " [Bg. 8.6]

"It is the bhava that determines one's next destination," he concluded, "not the location one leaves from."

In the SrimadBhagavatam (12.3.49), Sukadeva Gosvami tells King Pariksit how to attain a Krsna conscious bhava: "Endeavor with all your might to fix the Supreme Lord Kesava [Krsna] within your heart. Maintain this concentration upon the Lord, and at the time of death you will certainly attain the supreme destination."

The story of Ajamila, a degraded brahmana who inadvertently chanted the name of the Lord at the time of his death and ultimately attained liberation shows how concentrating one's attention on the holy names of the Lord can overcome even the most polluted physical surroundings. Ajamila didn't chant in a holy place like Vrndavana; rather, he called out "Narayanai in a house where religion had been abandoned and many sinful activities had taken place.

Prabhupada seems to have confirmed that one's consciousness, or bhava, at the end of life is ultimately more important than one's physical whereabouts. He wrote to Mukunda Dasa in 1967 from New York City: "I don't mind whether I die here, or in Vrndavana wherever there is Krsna, there is Vrndavana." Certainly for Prabhupada, Krsna was everywhere, and therefore he carried Vrndavana in his heart wherever he went.