# VAISNAVA ETIQUETTE ## Death 74-11 =="So you have done your duty at the last moment 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* : The devotee is prepared to die at any moment, but he simply wants to be engaged in Krsna's service. 'I am suffering, I cannot carry out the order of Krsna...' This line of thinking is sense gratification. Suppose a devotee had to suffer in preaching work, just like Haridasa Thakura or Prahlada Maharaja. Prahlada's father, Hiranyakasipu was giving so much trouble, but to Prahlada it was not trouble. He was simply concerned to see that others who were suffering might take to Krsna consciousness. That is also the Vaisnava's concern. For myself, let me go to hell, I can chant Hare Krsna, but the Vaisnava is simply lamenting for the non-devotees who must go immediately from the room? No. The living body or the dead body, either way it is the same, simply earth, air, water, fire, and ether." ([[letters/1976/760604_sridhara|Purusottama dasa, 4 June, 1976]]) ==77-01 "Regarding your question as to when the soul leaves the body, it is when the heart stops beating. Even if the brain has stopped functioning, if the heart is beating that means the soul is present."== ([[letters/1977/770103_amarendra|Amarendra dasa, 3 January, 1977]])