Why did Prabhupada have health problems if he is a pure devotee?

One question that many may trouble reconciling is why pure devotees have health issues, if they have very pure health styles and are supposed to be free from karma?

One question that many may have trouble reconciling is why pure devotees have health issues, if they have very pure health styles and are supposed to be free from karma? Why did Prabhupada himself face so many difficulties on the health front?

There is a fundamental difference in the way a pure devotee interacts with their body and the way a normal person does. For a conditioned soul, the body is one's identity; one is attached to it and tries to keep the body young and beautiful as long as possible, and as the body deteriorates, one suffers. For a materialist, death is something that is imposed, some inescapable force that takes away everything, against one's will.

There are many painful situations one can face during life, like losing a dear one, like a parent, a close friend, or a child, losing money or properties, losing one's social position, losing a limb or some other function of the body, etc. Death, however, means losing all of this simultaneously. For a conditioned soul attached to life in this material world, death is the most painful and terrifying moment, and we can observe that most people don't even want to think about it. They prefer to live their lives in oblivion, hoping that if they don't think about death, it may never come.

A pure devotee, however, sees things from a very different perspective. For a pure devotee, the body is just a tool. Just like we may use a hammer or a screwdriver to get different tasks done, so does a pure devotee in relation to the body. Just as we take care of a tool not just of attachment, but just to preserve its functionality, so does a pure devotee take care of the body as fit. However, just as we don't avoid using a tool in any way necessary, out of fear of damaging it, a pure devotee doesn't avoid using the body in any way it is fit in the service of Krsna. In the same way, we don't lament when a tool finally wears out and its usefulness expires; a pure devotee also doesn't lament when the body wears out, different from an ordinary materialist.

In this way, we can see that both the materialist and the pure devotee have a material body. Materially speaking, the body of a materialist and the body of a pure devotee are the same. No laboratory test will find any fundamental difference, just like a car doesn't become something else just because a pure devotee is using it.

The reason we say that pure devotees don't have material bodies, even while living on this planet, is that their bodies become spiritualized, not because they stop being composed of material elements. This in itself is quite an interesting philosophical process. Prabhupada gives the example of an electrician producing both heat and cold out of the same electrical current, just by plugging in the right appliance. Similarly, both the material manifestation and the spiritual nature come from Krsna, and contact with Krsna can convert seamlessly one into the other. One good example is prasāda. One can send a plate of mahā-prasāda directly from the deities to the laboratory, and they will not find anything out of the ordinary. They will still find the same carbs, protein, vitamins, etc. The composition of the elements will not be different from ordinary food. So, why do we call it spiritual food if it is still composed of material elements? Because by the touch of Krsna it acquires a spiritual quality that, although undetectable in laboratory tests, purifies our consciousness and brings us closer to Krsna. In other words, although prasadā is still technically composed of material elements, it acts as spirit. It’s thus said that it becomes spiritualized.

This difference can't be detected by ordinary experiments, but as we advance in spiritual life, the difference becomes clear. For an advanced devotee, unoffered food tastes blunt, no matter how nicely it may be prepared. In fact, even a materialist may notice the difference. Once, Prabhupada said that even a materialist can notice the difference between a prasāda chapati and an unoffered chapati.

In the same way, a pure devotee develops his spiritual body by serving Krsna, but the material body remains around it, as a shell that allows him to interact with us. The material body is still composed of material elements—this never changes—but a pure devotee does not identify with it, preferring to identify with one's eternal transcendental form. A pure devotee thus has both, and we are advised to try to see them in their true spiritual identity, and especially, not to judge or discriminate them based on their external material bodies. Just as a pure devotee should not be judged by using an old car or clothes, one should not be judged by having an old, ill, or deformed body. A materialist judges others based on their physical appearance, and because of this, they usually become attracted to bogus gurus who look materially attractive, but we should not commit the same mistake.

What about pure devotees becoming diseased?

Again, the same example of the hammer or screwdriver can be given. Will the screwdriver stop wearing off just because a pure devotee is using it? Certainly not. It will wear the same. Just like a car or any other tool. Similarly, the body of a pure devotee goes through all the normal phases of birth, disease, old age, and death just like anyone else. The body of a pure devotee will dwindle and eventually expire, following natural laws, and when this happens, a pure devotee will go to one's next destination without attachment, just as a pure devotee would change his clothes. A pure devotee is not the body, does not identify with the body, and is not affected by the changes of the body. The body is just a tool to interact with us.

The reason this sometimes sounds confusing to us is because we have difficulty understanding that a pure devotee is not his or her body, just as we have difficulty understanding that we ourselves are not the body. Because of this misunderstanding, we think a pure devotee "becomes old" and a pure devotee "dies", when these are words that just describe the transformations of the material body. We may say that "Prabhupada was sick", or that " Prabhupada passed away" as a matter of general use of the language, but the real meaning is that his body passed through these transformations, even though he, in his factual identity as a servant of the Lord, was unaffected by it. In this way, when it's said a pure devotee does not become sick, does not become old, and does not die, this describes the pure devotee, not the body.

When we can finally fully understand this point of one's identity apart from the body, this sounds simple and perfectly natural, and there is no doubt in our minds.

Yet another point is that pure devotees often become spiritual masters, and thus they have to carry the burden of the sinful reactions of their disciples. Prabhupada explains that a spiritual master essentially assumes the position of Krsna, in becoming the object of worship and giving liberation to his disciples. Krsna can assume this role without any repercussions, because he can burn an unlimited quantity of sins, but when a jīva accepts this role, no matter how exalted and pure, one has to suffer at least a small part of it, in the form of physical discomfort. In this way, spiritual masters become sick and experience different kinds of physical problems, and this is just a testament to their effectiveness in protecting and uplifting their disciples.

Yet another side is that one may think that a pure person should not become sick because they live a pure life, but the fact is that habits that pure devotees often adopt, like traveling frequently, reducing sleep and overworking their bodies take more of a toll in the body than any healthy lifestyle can counteract. However, they do it under the principle of using the body as a tool. Just as we don't spare a hammer when there is work to be done, a pure devotee does not spare his body when there is service to be done, and the wearing off of the body is accepted as a natural result of it. This is a glorious process, and one who understands these points has no reason to be bewildered.

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