Why the sons of Prabhupada didn’t become pure devotees?

Since Prabhupada was a pure devotee, how come his own sons were also not pure devotees?

Some may question why the sons of Srila Prabhupada didn’t become pure devotees like their father. Since Prabhupada was a pure devotee, how come his own sons were also not pure devotees?

The point is that the soul has free will. Even when Krsna comes personally, not everyone who comes in contact with Him may become a devotee. There were many examples, like Jarāsandha and Śiśupāla, who remained envious and offensive even when personally present before Krsna. Advaita Ācārya is Lord Mahā-Viṣnu Himself, but still, we learn in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta that half of his sons became deviants.

There are many souls in the material universe, and they are at different levels of evolution. Someone who is advanced may immediately surrender to a pure devotee and advance further under his guidance, while other souls may be much slower in adopting Krsna Consciousness, even when personally close to a pure devotee. The soul has free will, and this free will is respected even by Krsna Himself. One may have the opportunity of meeting a pure devotee, but what one does with this opportunity is up to him or her.

While walking on this planet, a pure devotee also performs many different activities and fulfills different missions. Some of these missions may involve spreading Krsna Consciousness far and wide, just like Prabhupada did in his last years, while others may involve just being an anonymous businessman, father, or husband, and in this way accumulate experience and realization for later use. The quality of a pure devotee is that he or she never forgets Krsna, and not necessarily displaying supernatural activities.

Krsna puts different souls in contact with the pure devotee in these different stages of life, according to what will be favorable. When Prabhupada was a businessman, he was dealing with people who were ready to do business with him. When he became a father, Krsna sent souls who could play the part of his sons and provide him the experiences he needed at this stage. When the time to preach far and wide came, Krsna sent surrendered souls who were ready to become his disciples.

Everyone who comes in contact with a pure devotee benefits in a way or another, and Krsna offers this opportunity to souls according to their previous merits, or simply due to causeless mercy. He organizes things in a way that souls can get in contact with his pure devotee in different stages of his life and thus benefit from his association. Souls who got in contact with Prabhupada when he was on the planet got the seed of devotional service planted, and this seed germinates, either later in the same life or in future lives.

Everyone who has the opportunity of intimately associating with a pure devotee eventually also becomes advanced in spiritual life by his blessings, but not necessarily overnight. In many cases, the seed takes time to fructify.

Take this description by Sriman Devi Prasad Maskara, published in the book “Our Srila Prabhupada, a friend to all” by Mulaprakriti dd. This interview was conducted when he was 92, more than 75 years after his meetings with Srila Prabhupada, when he was still a young businessman in Kolkata. We can, however, see how deep an impression it left on him:

“I remember my relationship with Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaja. I have never been able to forget him, although I knew him so many years ago, since 1927 in Calcutta. I was 15 or 16 years old when I first met him.

He was in his thirties at that time, a young household man. Abhaya Carana Prabhu, as I called him, used to come to the Victoria Memorial every day for his morning walk. He was not famous at that time. He spoke with me every day when we walked together, and he would discuss spiritual topics with me. He was very friendly and very kind towards me. It was simply wonderful to see how he was doing bhakti with complete devotion and attentiveness to God. He used to tell me about the symptoms of bhakti, speaking from scriptures such as Bhagavad-gita. This was his main topic in discussions with me.

He talked to me about sankhya and jnana-yoga, wisdom from the Bhagavad-gita. Maybe those were the chapters of his book that he was translating at that time. The other thing he discussed was karma-yoga. He talked about the two subjects very extensively with me during our walks and told me so many things about Krsna and bhakti. He was a bhakta and he was very inspiring and affectionate.

He was a grhastha at that time, a businessman in Calcutta, but I recall how he wore sandals (cappals) and had a cadara over his shoulders, like a sannyasi. Very often he told me how he had met his gurudeva and how his life would be transformed now. His guru had told him that he spoke English well, so he should go to the foreign countries and he should preach about Lord Krsna there. He told me he had made a solemn vow to do this. He did not have enough money to go to America, and many times he consulted with me, asking, ‘How will I go?’ Many years later I heard that the owner of a steamer company gave him free passage to America.

He once told me the qualification of God. He said, ‘He is the Supreme Absolute Being. Although He is a person, He is full of luster like the sun–far from the darkness of ignorance. By knowing Him alone one can leave behind death. There is no other path of attainment to salvation.’ His words went deep into my heart. Over seventy years later, I still remember his words. Now that I am closely approaching the time of my own death, his presence and preaching come to me and I do not feel any pain or fear. This is the potency of such an exalted person.”

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