He Has Built a House For Us, But Looks At Us to Maintain It

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami: When Pradyumna had to enter the hospital for a hernia operation, Satsvarupa didn't know how they would pay for it. Pradyumna's parents had refused. Having no one else to turn to, Satsvarupa wrote Prabhupada asking him if he could pay the bill. Just as a dependent child, fearful of the world, turns always to his protective parents, Satsvarupa had faith that Swamiji knew everything and could decide everything. Besides no one else cared about Pradyumna, or how the Boston center for Krishna Consciousness would pay a five-hundred-dollar hospital bill. Satsvarupa concluded that if Swamiji thought it wrong for him to ask for the money, then he would tell them that also. Srila Prabhupada considered the hospital bill a botheration. Why should he have to worry about every item of business in ten different centers around the world? Although he assured Satsvarupa that if necessary he would send the money for Pradyumna's bill, he suggested that his disciples form a governing board to manage such problems. His growing institution had to be properly managed, and not entirely by him. 

He should be left to carry on the duties proper for the spiritual master, not that he should have to be simultaneously treasurer, chairman, troubleshooter, and counselor for each problem of each devotee in each center. Yet, that was happening as he accepted more disciples. They were turning to him for everything; medical advice, marriage counseling, financial assistance, as well as transcendental knowledge. Prabhupada said it gave him a headache.

After Pradyumna's successful surgery, Prabhupada wrote congratulating him. "I shall be glad to know how you are making progress, and I am anxious that you are still feeling pains. I am glad to know that proper care is being taken, and you are not going up any stairs. That is very nice."