Prabhupada's diseases

Ramesvara Swami: We have yet to fully appreciate how much Prabhupada sacrificed in overcoming the difficulties of illness and old age to distribute Krishna consciousness up to his last breath. Prabhupada cautioned many times in his books that one should neither become attached to the body nor bothered by bodily discomforts. He exemplified this. One usually doesn't think much in terms of Prabhupada's different illnesses, except that they were transcendental. His first illness after he came to America was in 1967, when he endured something like a stroke or a heart attack. Later, Prabhupada was diagnosed as a diabetic, yet he never took regular treatment for any of these diagnosed diseases.

One time in India, a disciple of Prabhupada's was worried about his own jaundice. The disciple told Prabhupada that he had different symptoms of jaundice such as yellow eyes, and that his stool was changing from brown to white. Prabhupada at first dismissed the possibility that his student had jaundice, although he had the symptoms. Of himself he said sometimes the stool was one color and sometimes another, but these things were temporary and not noteworthy; one should go on with his Krishna consciousness. Similarly, even when Prabhupada was diagnosed as having certain diseases, he never thought of himself, "I am a diabetic" or "I am a victim of heart attacks." He just continued his transcendental service. This is an instruction for all of us. Prabhupada's glories cannot be imitated, yet we should also always put our service first and not identify ourselves as victims of various diseases. When there was too much talk of a particular disease or even its cure, Prabhupada would point out that the real disease is the material body and the real cure is chanting Hare Krishna. We often think, rightly, that Prabhupada's diseases were not materially caused but had transcendental causes. We may note that not only were the causes transcendental, but Prabhupada's response to his so-called diseases was entirely transcendental. He understood that illness came from Krishna, and as far as possible he went on with his service, always staying on the transcendental platform.