Disappearance Day of Srila Prabhupada

What is the Disappearance Day of Srila Prabhupada?

On this day each year devotees remember His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who carried Krishna consciousness from India to the whole world and left this world in Vrindavan. In 2027 the Disappearance Day of Srila Prabhupada falls on Tuesday, 2 November.

Significance

In 1922 the young Abhay Charan De first met his spiritual master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, who asked him to preach Lord Caitanya's message throughout the world. Decades later, on 13 August 1965, Srila Prabhupada sailed from Calcutta on the steamship Jaladuta. He reached Boston on 17 September 1965 and went on to New York. Before leaving India, he had begun translating the Srimad-Bhagavatam at the Radha-Damodara Temple in Vrindavan, work that grew into the many volumes through which he still teaches.

A devotee once said they would not know how to communicate with him after he left this world, and Srila Prabhupada answered:

I will communicate with you through your heart. I will come to you in your dreams.

Srila Prabhupada, as recalled in Memories and Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint, Vol. 3 (ISKCON News)

How to observe it

The fast on this day is kept until noon. Read a chapter of his books, chant extra rounds of the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, and hear his lectures or the stories of his life. Many devotees also offer prayers and thank him for the shelter of Krishna consciousness.