```json
{
    "title": "Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #29 – The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Rise",
    "url": "https://wavesofdevotion.com/2026/07/20/the-bigger-they-are-the-harder-they-rise/",
    "datePublished": "2026-07-20",
    "dateModified": "2026-07-19",
    "language": "en-US",
    "description": "Sometimes we see very senior Vaiṣṇavas — devotees who go back to the roots of ISKCON, with decades of steady service, and sādhana — still struggling in various ways in…",
    "author": "Dhanurdhara Swami",
    "publisher": "Waves of Devotion"
}
```

# Monday Morning Greetings 2026 #29 – The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Rise

Sometimes we see very senior Vaiṣṇavas — devotees who go back to the roots of ISKCON, with decades of steady service, and

*sādhana*

— still struggling in various ways in their twilight years of Krishna consciousness. They sometimes even question their taste for the holy name, or struggle, and temporarily fall. The doubt then naturally arises: “If even such long-standing practitioners have these problems, does the process of

*bhakti-yoga*

even work?” This post is dedicated to answering that question.

 

First, I think it's worth putting Śrīla Prabhupāda's

*līlā*

in a cosmic perspective.

 

Sri Caitanya appears once in a day of Lord Brahma, which lasts 8.64 billion years. In terms of Brahma's time that would be 11:29 AM. Śrīla Prabhupāda then appears less than a second later. And mystically, in that same miniscule cosmic sliver—a few milliseconds later, also within 11:29 AM — a few souls appear to assist Śrīla Prabhupāda

 

The universe is filled with unlimited conditioned souls, many of them spiritually evolved. So, who were these souls, chosen for Śrīla Prabhupāda's intimate

*sanga*

and service? Was their destiny not uniquely fortunate? Was there not some goodness in them that drew this special honor?

 

Their destiny was indeed unique. They also serve Śrīla Prabhupāda’s

*līlā*

as being the savior of the most fallen — and with their “hippie

*sa*

*ṁ*

*skāras*

,” they were certainly eligible to be objects of his mercy.

 

Whatever drew them, these devotees did something remarkable. They gave themselves to Śrīla Prabhupāda's mission and served him with their life and soul. They gave their youth, their bodies, their minds, and often sacrificed their very natures to serve at the pleasure of Śrīla Prabhupāda. As a result, now, in old age, for many of them practically little remains but Śrīla Prabhupāda. Weakened by age and carrying

*sa*

*ṁ*

*skāras*

from time immemorial, is it any wonder that traces of their “Lower East Side karma” still surfaced?

 

I know some who cannot sit or walk comfortably to chant, others who can only rise from bed for a few hours a day, and even some whose minds have lost memory or function due to the life they gave so fully in service. Some may swim in

*rāga-mārga*

; many struggle just to chant. But what they all share is something special in their hearts: through their sacrifice and service, they earned Śrīla Prabhupāda's trust. His mercy will never leave them.

 

I sometimes think of Brahmananda. Śrīla Prabhupāda was hospitalized, and the staff intended a radical treatment he didn't want. Seeing his critical condition and hearing his pleas to leave, Brahmananda and Gargamuni wheeled him out of the hospital, past the nurses, and brought him to a seaside house in Long Branch, New Jersey, to recover. Śrīla Prabhupāda promised him, “Because you saved me from the hospital, you won't have to die that way.”

 

And sure enough — when an ambulance arrived to rush Brahmananda to a modern hospital in Delhi, his body suddenly went limp, and he died. Despite being perhaps a struggling

*sādhaka*

, he received the end-of-life dream of the great souls: to leave this world in the holy dhama.

 

His brother, Gargamuni, reflected on the beautiful spiritual twist to the event: “He saved Śrīla Prabhupāda from the hospital, and Śrīla Prabhupāda saved him.”

 

Back to our question: “If even such long-standing practitioners have these problems, does the process of

*bhakti-yoga*

even work?” Yes. A soul's biography is, in many ways, shaped by the guru. Śrīla Prabhupāda's trusted servants are thus being directly guided by him, even when some may be plagued by the old

*sa*

*ṁ*

*skāras*

that keep them from being what a classical textbook

*sādhakas*

looks like after a life of devotion. Thus, whatever obstacles have come their way have only increased their longing for Krishna and filled their heart with devotion.

 

In many ways our love for Guru in this world is our love for Krishna. So, like Brahmananda — by giving their youth to Śrīla Prabhupāda, and by keeping him deeply in their hearts, isn't their destination already secured?