Letter to: Gandharva , Bombay , 1974-11-06

Seattle

My Dear Gandharva dasa:

Please accept my blessings. I am in due receipt of your letter dated September 19, 1974 and have noted the contents. So you have done you duty at the last moments of your wife's life so that she could hear them chanting. As to where she has gone, that depends on what she was thinking of at the time of her passing away. That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita: anta-kale ca mam eva/ smaran muktva kalevaram/ yah prayati sa mad bhavam/ yati nasty atra samsayah [Bg. 8.5]. "And whoever, at the time of death, quits his body, remembering Me alone, at once attains My nature. Of this there is no doubt." To remember Krishna requires practice, and this is most easily done by chanting Hare Krishna mantra. I have told Nitai to spread the ashes here in the sea. The maha mantra is the only mantra that need be chanted. Do not neglect this.

I hope this meets you in good health.

ACBS/bs