(Kadamba Kanana Swami, 24 April 2011, Durban, South Africa, Ratha Yatra Lecture)
Srila Prabhupada wrote two letters after the departure of his spiritual master. In the first letter, he said, “My spiritual master has now returned back to the spiritual world and has taken up his eternal position as a manjari in the spiritual world.” In the second letter, he wrote, “Although my spiritual master is now in the spiritual world, he is always looking at everything I do.”
So in other words, Prabhupada was saying how his spiritual master was always actively involved in his work. This is the situation. All great and pure devotees can manifest themselves either by appearing before devotees in this world, or by appearing in the dreams of devotees, or by appearing as someone else. They do this by arranging for Krsna Consciousness to manifest and influence the lives of all us devotees. There is no doubt about this.
We can understand that just like Srila Prabhupada wrote that his spiritual master was watching over him, so similarly Prabhupada is now watching over all of us. Isn’t this what we are experiencing? A devotee once told me how he had done a lot of service one day and still had some rounds left to chant. However, he was just so exhausted, that he went to bed. Soon, he had a dream that there was someone knocking at his door, and when he opened it, there was Srila Prabhupada asking him, “Did you finish your daily rounds?”
So in such ways, Prabhupada will help us, and so will the other great and pure devotees who have departed and are residing in the spiritual world. And just like this, there will be other pure devotees who will emerge and who will manifest themselves by carrying the Vaishnavas. So one should not just look at the pure devotees who have passed on, but one should also look at the pure devotees in the present, who will somehow or the other give us shelter. We must take shelter in them, and then everything can be attained, because the same knowledge and the same mercy is coming from the disciplic succession.