His Divine Departure

When we arrived in those final hours on November 14th, he was not speaking. I felt at that time, by seeing his face, that he was fully remembering the pastimes of Kṛṣṇa in Vṛndāvana. I think this was great mercy coming from Kṛṣṇa, because he had served Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa for his entire lifetime. For that special person, Kṛṣṇa absorption is there. Entranced in this way, his eyes were closed and he was exhibiting special symptoms. It was a very touching scene. He had no pain, no distraction. At that time his mouth was so beautiful. It was like a blossomed rose, like a lotus.

These are the signs of a very great personality. Otherwise, another may cry, “I am dying, I am dying,” and the face will be so ugly. But he was never like that. He was like a beautiful lotus flower. I knew what he was doing. I have seen others also, including my gurudeva, entering aprakaṭa-līlā (Kṛṣṇa’s eternal pastimes). I have seen Pūjyapada Anaṅga-mohana Brahmacārī, Śrīla Jagannātha Bābājī Mahārāja (a disciple of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Prabhupāda), Śrīla Narasiṃha Mahārāja, and Śrīla Padmanābha Mahārāja. I have seen many devotees when they departed, so I could judge what was transpiring. They would call out, “Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa” and “Rādhe Rādhe.” There are particular signs at that moment, which show that someone is remembering Kṛṣṇa, and Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja was exhibiting all those signs.

He was very beautiful and very exalted. There was no sign of pain and no attachment to the body or anything else.

He was no longer anxious for his young disciples, nor for any of the outward things he had established in his Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Now there was nothing else–only remembering Kṛṣṇa.

Our brahmacārīs were softly singing some bhajanas. At that time, I saw that he was fully satisfied, and thus I was also fully satisfied. I knew then that he would surely go soon, but there was no sign when he would go; he would leave now, or in a short time. He had previously talked with me, when he was in his external consciousness, but he did not request me to stay. I was not in a hurry, but I was thinking that just after my leaving for Mathurā he would enter into nitya-līlā. We left to return to Mathurā, and we were informed that he departed a few hours later.

Shortly after that time, we returned to the Kṛṣṇa-Balarāma Mandīra and made all arrangements for his mahotsava. According to his wishes, we took him on procession to most of the important deities of Vṛndāvana. There were so many of his disciples and other persons chanting in that procession, and all of the Vrajavāsīs came out into the streets to honor him. After this, I prepared his body. I wrote the special mantras on his chest and forehead with tilaka. I used salt for his body, and then, following all of the proper Vaiṣṇava procedures, I put his transcendental body into samādhi with my own hand.