“some day we will all go.”

[leyh]

Just thirty minutes before he had to leave for the airport, Swamiji sat in his room chanting on the beads of a girl who had asked to be initiated. Then, as he had done many times before, he left his apartment, went downstairs, crossed the courtyard and entered the storefront.

Sitting on the old carpet, he spoke quietly and personally. “I am going, but my Guru Maharaja and Bhaktivinoda are here.” He looked toward the paintings of his spiritual master and Bhaktivinoda Thakura. “I have asked them to kindly take care of all of you, my spiritual children. The grandfather always takes care of the children much better than the father. So do not fear. There is no question of separation. The sound vibration fixes us up together, even though the material body may not be there. What do we care for the material body? Just go on chanting Hare Krsna, and we will be packed up together. You will be chanting here, and I will be chanting there and this vibration will circulate around this planet.”

Several devotees rode with Swamiji in the taxi --- Brahmananda in the front with the driver, Raya Rama and Kirtanananda in the back with their spiritual master. “when Kirtanananda sees Vrndavana, “ Swamiji said, “he will not be able to understand how I could have left that place and come to this place. It is so nice. There are no motorcars there like here, rushing whoosh! whoosh! And smelling. Only there is Hare Krsna. Everybody always chanting. Thousands and thousands of temples. I will show you, Kirtanananda. We will walk all about there, and I will show you.”

Brahmananda began to cry, and Swamiji patted him on the back. “I can understand that you are feeling separation, “he said. “I am feeling for my Guru Maharaja. I think this is what Krsna desires. You may be coming there to me and be training up, and we will spread this movement all over the world. Raya Rama --- you will go to England. Brahmananda --- you want to go to Russia or Japan? That’s all right.”

The devotees converged on the Air-India waiting room, near a crowded cocktail lounge. Wearing a sweater, his cadar folded neatly over one shoulder, Swamiji sat in a chair, while his disciples sat as closely as possible around his feet. He held an umbrella, just as when he had first come alone to New York almost two years ago. Although exhausted, he was smiling.

Swamiji noted a mural of Indian women carrying large jars on their heads, and he called the name of a young girl who had recently gone with her husband, Hamsaduta, to join the ISKCON center in Montreal. “Himavati, would you like to go to India and learn to carry this waterpot like the Indian women?”

“Yes, yes,” she said. “I’ll go.”

“Yes, “ Swamiji said, “some day we will all go.”

Kirtanananda was carrying a portable battery-operated phonograph and two copies of the Hare Krsna mantra record. “Kirtanananda, “Swamiji asked, “why not play the record? They will enjoy.” Kirtanananda played the record very softly, its sound catching the attention of people in the cocktail lounge. “Make it a little louder,” Swamiji asked, and Kirtanananda increased the volume, while Swamiji nodded his head, keeping time.

Soon the devotees began humming along with the record, and then quietly singing loudly. Some of the devotees began to cry.

When the time came to board the plane, Swamiji embraced each of his men. They stood in a line, and one after another approached him and embraced him. He patted a few of the women on the head.

Accompanied by Kirtanananda, whose head was shaven and who wore an incongruous black woolen suit, Swamiji walked slowly toward the gate. As he disappeared from view, the devotees ran for the observation deck to get a last look at his departing plane.

A gentle rain was washing the airfield as the devotees raced across the wet observation deck. There below were Swamiji and Kirtanananda, walking toward their plane. Abandoning decorum, the devotees began to shout. Swamiji turned and waved. He climbed the movable stairway, turning again at the top and raising his arms, and then entered the plane. The devotees chanted wildly while the boarding steps moved away, the door closed, and the plane began to turn. The devotees had pressed close to the rail, but they pulled back as the jet exhaust blasted them with the heat. With a great roar the Air-India jet, lights blinking, taxied out to the runway. The devotees continued to chant Hare Krsna until the plane left the ground, became a speck in the sky, and then disappeared. (Prabhupada --- The Authorized Biography by Satsvarupa dasa Goswami,Chapter Three: Only He Could Lead Them)