Tamal Krishna Goswami

Dear Readers,
Please accept my most humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.

For quite some time rumors have been circulating that Srila Prabhupada was poisoned, murdered by his own disciples. I as his secretary have been the chief accused. Many of you might have wondered why I have not denied this charge if there is no truth to it. The reason is quite simple: I felt the most appropriate and beneficial way to do so was to publish my diary, "TKG's Diary," both in book form and electronically in the Supplementary VedaBase. This allows everyone the chance to judge for themselves what went on during Prabhupada's final pastimes. I also did not want to be drawn into endless debate with persons who are not actually interested in hearing facts that contradict their spurious theories. Still, friends have urged me to at least make one statement, and having read HH Bhakti Caru Swami's, I now am doing the same. It is not meant to be a comprehensive response to each and every allegation but a simple statement of fact. I did not poison Prabhupada. In fact, nobody poisoned Prabhupada.

There were many dozens of devotees surrounding Srila Prabhupada in his final pastimes. Their only concern was to see Srila Prabhupada continue to live with us. Especially those serving him personally were attentive to detail and every word His
Divine Grace spoke. Do you think that we could be so callous as to have heard Prabhupada say "I have been poisoned," and not be concerned? Of course we were concerned. We discussed the matter with Prabhupada and among ourselves, as anyone
can read in "TKG's Diary." We did not go searching for a murderer because we concluded there was no murder.

Some have suggested that even if no one intentionally poisoned Prabhupada, the medicine he was given acted as "poison." I can well imagine some will hold me responsible as Prabhupada's secretary for giving him this medicine.
But I was not engaged, nor were any of his servants, because of our expertise in medical knowledge. All of us together did not even know one percent of what Prabhupada knew of Ayurvedic medicine. It was His Divine Grace who had a dream about a Kaviraja preparing a particular medicine, and it was His Divine Grace who reviewed each and every type of medicine that he was administered.

Still, no medicine "killed" Srila Prabhupada. His Divine Grace said that Krishna had given him the decision whether to stay or not. It is most unfair to say that any one of us who were serving him was praying for his untimely departure (what to speak of orchestrating it). Again and again we begged Prabhupada to stay with us, even offered our life in exchange for his, as any good disciple would do. Prabhupada repeatedly said that he was living simply due to our love and affection. He said that his Guru Maharaja passed away dissatisfied, but that he was completely satisfied. No one, he said, could ever hope to have such loving sons and daughters as he had. He left us because he chose to leave. He left because Krishna called him back. That is the plain truth and anything else is a concoction.

Prabhupada's servants dedicated the better part of their lives to serving Srila Prabhupada. We served him during his manifest pastimes right up until the end. It was not easy to serve His Divine Grace during the last year of his failing health. It was not
easy to see his body wither, his resolve to continue on, wane. By his mercy alone we stayed by him throughout this difficult time and performed every possible service, collecting his urine, removing his stool, bathing him, changing his clothes and bedding, but most of all encouraging him to continue on. It has come as a most cruel blow to be suspected of having been moved by any other motive than love in serving our dear most spiritual master.

The facts will speak for themselves. In the coming days and months all the allegations of poisoning will be shown to be allegations and nothing more. Then I hope that those who have falsely accused others and me will have the decency to admit that they were wrong and beg forgiveness, not from us, but from Srila Prabhupada, whose sublime final pastimes they have attempted to tarnish.

Begging to always be a servant of the Vaisnavas,

Tamal Krishna Goswami

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