Srila Prabhupada: Krsna Order Me Not to Stay at One Place

“Kṛṣṇa has given me hundreds of nice places of residence,” Śrīla Prabhupāda laughed. “But His order is you cannot stay.” Prabhupāda was explaining his transcendental predicament to a few disciples gathered in his room on the last day of his visit in Los Angeles. “I’ll tell you one humorous story in this connection which is a little long,” Prabhupāda said, and he appeared to hesitate. “I don’t wish to divert your attention, but it is an interesting story. That is also mentioned in the Bhāgavatam, aniketana: one may have many nice places to live, still he should think, ‘I have no place to live.’ That is one of the spiritual items.”

“What is that story?” Haṁsadūta asked, and the other devotees laughed. They were eager to hear the story and didn’t want Prabhupāda to avoid it.

Prabhupāda smiled. “The story is,” he said, “that there was a joker. His name was Gopāla Ban. He was the joker of a king, Rāja Kṛṣṇa. You know that place, Krishnanagar, near Māyāpur? He was the king of that place. So the kings used to keep a joker to please them by words. So this joker, Gopāla Ban, was constructing a new building for himself. It was almost finished, but there was as yet no opening ceremony. So the Rāja advised one of his friends, ‘If you can go and pass stool in that new house of Gopāla’s, then I will give you so much prize. Go and pass stool there.’ ” Prabhupāda chuckled. “So the man said, ‘Yes, I’ll do it.’ So one day the man made his plan. As he was passing the new house, all of a sudden he entered.

“ ‘Gopāla, I am very much called by nature. Kindly show me where I can pass stool.’ Gopāla was intelligent, and he could understand there was some trick.

“ ‘Yes, yes,’ Gopāla said, ‘there is the lavatory. Come here. You can use it.’ But then he made so many conditions. ‘The door must be opened so you may pass stool, but I will see that you are passing stool.’

“ ‘How is that possible?’ the man asked. ‘Can I use it or not?’

“ ‘No, it is possible,’ Gopāla said. ‘You can pass stool here, but you cannot pass urine. If you pass urine, then I shall kill you.’ So, passing stool,” Prabhupāda commented, “without passing urine, how is it possible? ‘You have come to pass stool,’ Gopāla said, ‘and I will allow you. That you can do here. But don’t pass a drop of urine.’ ” Prabhupāda laughed heartily and said, “So that is my position. Kṛṣṇa says, ‘You may have hundreds of centers and places, but you cannot live anywhere.’ That is Kṛṣṇa’s order. It is a plan not to become attached.”

Devotee: “Just like Nārada Muni got that curse from Lord Brahmā.”

Prabhupāda: “Yes, not Lord Brahmā but Dakṣa Rāja – he cursed Nārada Muni that he cannot stay anywhere more than three minutes. Nārada Muni’s business is preaching, so every one of us, we have to become disciples of Nārada Muni.”

And thus Śrīla Prabhupāda, the greatest living disciple of Nārada Muni, made plans to travel next to Mexico and then to Venezuela on his world tour for preaching Kṛṣṇa consciousness. His disciple in charge of South America, Hṛdayānanda Mahārāja, had joined Prabhupāda in Hawaii and come with him to Los Angeles to ensure Prabhupāda’s keeping his promise to visit South America. So Prabhupāda’s promise was firm. As he said, Lord Kṛṣṇa had arranged it that he should go constantly from place to place. And wherever he went, Prabhupāda tended expertly the delicate creepers of devotional service growing in the hearts of his disciples. He also stoked the fires of Kṛṣṇa consciousness and fanned them into blazes. And in each place he left behind more dedicated followers than before. He gave further orders to be executed, and he redefined and clarified directions for guiding and expanding his Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement.

Source: Srila Prabhupada-Lilamrta Ch. 65