Danavir Goswami: Prabhupada had been in L.A. for eight months, it was just the longest period of time. The devotees in L.A. had become so accustomed to Prabhupada’s presence every day. They had him and they cherished him, and the L.A. temple was growing like anything. Prabhupada’s presence just seemed to make everything blossom. Devotees were joining every day, everything was really expanding.
So the devotees were very attached to Prabhupada. Eight months he had been there. Then not only was he leaving, which they kind of thought that he would never leave; and the L.A. temple had set itself up, it was managing in such a way that he didn’t have to manage directly. He had good managers there, and he was very pleased with it. So he could stay there peacefully and do his translation work and do his writing and do whatever he wanted and there was no inconvenience for him. So when Prabhupada said he was leaving, it was a shock. And then not only did he say he was leaving, but he said because he was old there was a good chance he wouldn’t return but we should carry on the movement anyway. So devotees took that very hard. At the airport, everyone was crying. We ran out to the fence to watch the plane and new devotees, old devotees, everybody was crying.
Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada – Remembrances by Yadubara Dasa
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