Jayapataka Swami: You say that he wants to follow his guru’s instructions. But he cannot serve the guru fully because of his work schedule. What should he do? Is that your question? You see Srila Prabhupada was asked by his guru in 1922 and he was asked to preach in the Western countries. He did that when he was 69! In 1965. You know, we don’t have to necessarily fulfill all the orders of the guru immediately. But we should not give up the idea, that we want to please the guru. So we take Srila Prabhupada’s example. He was a grihasta, he had his business, and eventually he took vanaprasta, then he took sannyasa, then he went to the West! So he never gave up the idea to follow his guru’s service. We should never give up that goal. Whether we can do it now or do it later. Of course he followed the number of rounds and following the principles, but he couldn’t fulfill that instruction to preach in the West until much later. So whatever we can do immediately we do that, and some things we may not be able to do until later. Like it is not necessary to take sannyasa if the wife helps you and she is assisting. But Srila Prabhupada’s wife sold his Bhagavad-gita manuscripts as newspaper to buy tea! So how much work he spent to write the manuscripts of Bhagavad-gita. And she sold it as garbage paper, to buy tea! Just like that. It was a big blow for Srila Prabhupada! So then he was advised to take vanaprasta and sannyasa. But anyway whoever asked this question, he should do what he can do now and maybe later he will be able to do more. But he should never give up the goal to carry out the guru’s order. Hare Krsna!
24-MAY-2020 SRI MAYAPUR DHAM, INDIA
