Kṛṣṇa's feet is always compared with lotus flower, and the lotus flower has got a stem. And the swans, they take pleasure being entangled with that stem. They go and dive into the water. This is their very good sporting. So he is taking that sporting; he is comparing his mind as the rāja-haṁsa, "So as the rāja-haṁsa takes pleasure by entangling him in the stem of the lotus flower, similarly Your lotus feet, there is a stem. So my mind, which may be compared with rāja-haṁsa, let it be entangled now, immediately. Otherwise I do not know." Prāṇa-prayāṇa-samaye kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ: "When everything bodily function will be mixed up," kapha-vāta-pittaiḥ, "ghahn-ghahn," there will be some sound, "how I will be able to remembering Your lotus feet? So let me die immediately, immediately. Now I am quite fit. Otherwise I may not be able."
This is the point. The mind should be kept in healthy condition. Saṁjñā. Therefore one who dies with full sense remembering Kṛṣṇa, oh, he is successful. In Bengali it is said, bhajana kara sādhana kara mūrti yāṅre haya. Means you may be very great devotee. That's all right. But it will be tested at the time of your death how you remember Kṛṣṇa. That will be the test examination. At the time of death, if we forget, if we become parrotlike . . . just like parrot, he chants also, "Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa." But when the cat catches the neck, "Tyanh! Tyanh! Tyanh! Tyanh!" No more Kṛṣṇa. No more Kṛṣṇa. So artificial practice will not help us. Then "Tyanh, tyhanh." That kapha-pitta-vātaiḥ, kaṇṭhāvarodhana-vidhau smaraṇaṁ kutas te (MM 33).
So from the very beginning we have to practice Kṛṣṇa consciousness if we are actually serious to go back to home, back to Godhead. Not that let it be left for two or three years before death. Oh, it is not so easy. It is not so easy. Prahlāda Mahārāja recommends, therefore:
- kaumāra ācaret prājño
- dharmān bhāgavatān iha
- durlabhaṁ mānuṣaṁ janmam
- tad apy adhruvam arthadam
- (SB 7.6.1)
He was five years old, Kṛṣṇa conscious from the womb of his mother. He heard instruction of Nārada. Nārada was instructing his mother. He was in the womb. Fortunately, by God's grace, he heard all the instruction of Nārada when he was in the womb of his mother. And the result was, from the beginning of his life he is Kṛṣṇa conscious. From the beginning. As soon as he took birth, he was Kṛṣṇa conscious. So he was advising his class friends, preaching. Just see. He was five-years-old boy, but he was taking the opportunity of preaching. Because the teacher, he is born of demon family.