Guest: Are you planning to choose a successor?
Srila Prabhupada: It is already successful.
Guest: But there must be somebody you know, needed to handle the thing.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes. That we are creating. We are creating these devotees who will handle.
Hanuman: One thing he’s saying, this gentlemen, and I would like to know, is your successor named or your successor will…
Srila Prabhupada: My success is always there.
(SP Room conversation, 12/2/75 Mexico)
Reporter: Are you training a successor?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, my Guru Maharaja is there.
(SP Press conference, 16/7/75, San Francisco)
“I am the Spiritual Master of this institution, and all the members of the Society, they’re supposed to be my disciples. They follow the rules and regulations which I ask them to follow, and they are initiated by me spiritually.” (Radio interview, March 12, 1968, San Francisco)
BOOKS WILL DO EVERYTHING
“After 80 years, no one can be expected to live long. My life is almost ended. So you have to carry on, and these books will do everything.” (SP Room conversation, 18/2/76)
Reporter: Who will succeed you when you die?
Srila Prabhupada: I will never die!
Devotees: Jaya! Haribol!
Srila Prabhupada: I will live forever from my books and you will utilise.
(Interview, Berkley, 17/7/75)
NO SUCCESSOR REQUIRED
Interviewer: What happens when that inevitable time comes a successor is needed?
Ramesvara: He is asking about the future, who will guide the Movement in the future.
Srila Prabhupada: They will guide, I am training them.
Interviewer: Will there be one spiritual leader though?
Srila Prabhupada: No. I am training GBC, 18 all over the world.
(SP Interview, 10/6/76, Los Angeles)
“This is the function of the GBC, to see that one may not be taken away by maya. The GBC should all be the instructor gurus. I am the initiator guru, and you should be the instructor guru by teaching what I am teaching and doing what I am doing. This is not a title, but you must actually come to this platform. This is what I want.”
(Letter to Madhudvisa, 4/8/1975)
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