Jagad-guru Śrīla Prabhupāda had a sannyāsī disciple (Bhakti-vilāsa), who is no longer present. We never observed him displaying any worldly skill in his life. Some of his peers, high-status sannyāsī teachers and speakers, cast aspersions on his [apparent] inactivity a couple of times. Śrīla Prabhupāda, roaring like a lion, strongly corrected them.
“I am a big orator. I am a very good instructor. I can captivate everyone with my classes and speeches. I have so much capability. So many people are coming to the maṭha due to my lectures. I am therefore a prominent and dear disciple.” Śrīla Prabhupāda never considered those with such a mentality to be exalted servants. The aptitude for bhakti is something else. It is only attained by extreme good fortune.
In observing the life and conduct of Śrīla Prabhupāda, we saw several seemingly contradictory incidents.
We saw that someone conversant in all the scriptures, adored by scholars and the veritable sun of philosophical truths had accepted a completely illiterate personality as his guru.
We worship Prabhupāda as the personification of the divine message (vāṇī), and yet when one of the main assistants in his vāṇī-vilāsa-līlā (preaching pastimes), a particularly bright writer, was overwhelmed by a weakness of heart and suddenly left the maṭha to go to Dhaka, Prabhupāda was not in the least perturbed. On the other hand, he would become extremely anxious if one of his servants, whose name was Pañcānana and who happened to be illiterate, went out of his sight for even a moment. This seems quite startling and perplexing, but in reality, it is not, even slightly.
These interactions reveal the full current of the nature of bhakti. Unlimitedly greater than service to Prabhupāda by moving a pen, which brought about a revolution in the world, is the service propensity of an illiterate person’s heartfelt affection for him. The root fiber of the aptitude for bhakti is attachment to the lotus feet of śrī guru.
-Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajnāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja
from the book Kṛti-ratna, “A True Experience of Separation”