Once upon a time, Śrīla Prabhupāda Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura was busy speaking aprākṛta harikathā at one certain place in front of devotees. One young man was found restless—I mean not paying full attention to that harikathā. Why so? On being asked he told that— “My mother is lying in bed very sick at hospital, she is almost going to die”. Then Śrīla Prabhupāda said that— "You need not be worried about your mother, let your mother die there, you try to pay full attention to the harikathā which can give you absolute maṅgal.” The young man was just upset by hearing such strict unbelievable remark from Śrīla Prabhupāda, because he could not realize the inner meaning of that advice given by Śrīla Prabhupāda. Actually, man is mortal, anytime anybody can go away from this material world. Really life is very unstable, and at the same time our relative relationship with father, mother etc is still more unstable. Nobody can save us (our real self), except the Supreme Lord, so it is more and more practical to concentrate in aprākṛta harikathā-kīrtana—which is non-different from Śrī Hari Himself. Really so. But the miracles happened—that the mother of that young man was out of danger. Then the young man could realize the inner meaning of the instruction given by Śrīla Prabhupāda, not before that.

 

Śrīla Śyām Dās Bābā