Being a pharmacist, chemist, enlightened soul, and mystic clairvoyant, Srila Prabhupada knew he was poisoned and stated this three times on audio recordings.
NOVEMBER 9:
SP: (Beng) Suddenly I fell sick. Everything was all right, I don’t know what happened. Is work going on well? Balarama Misra: (Beng) Yes.
SP: (Beng) (Someone said that poison has been given… may be true.)
Balarama Misra: Hmm? Kaviraja: (Hindi) What are you saying?
SP: (Hindi) Somebody says that someone has given poison.
Kaviraja: (Hindi) To whom? SP: (Hindi) (To me.)
Kaviraja: (Hindi; 07:28) Who told that?
SP: (Hindi) All these friends.
BCS (Bhakticharu): (Beng) Who said that Srila Prabhupada?
SP: (Beng) They all say. TAMAL: Krishna das?).
Kaviraja: (Hindi) Who would give you poison? And why?
TAMAL: (07:35) Who said that, Srila Prabhupada?
SP: I do not know, but it is said. (Bells ringing)
Devotee whispers: (07:53-57) …it’s Poison.
Later:
Kaviraja: (Hindi; Time 25.15) This thing Maharaja. How did you say today that someone said somebody gave you poison? Did anyone tell or you got some indication somewhere?)
SP: (Hindi) No, someone said that these kind of symptoms manifest if someone is poisoned. Maybe there is such a mention in some book.
Kaviraja: (Hindi) Yes I know that such things happen if raw mercury is administered. Or there are some other things also which can cause such illness. But who will do such a thing to a Godly person like you. According to me if someone has such thoughts for you then he is a rakshasa/ demon.
Later:
TAMAL: Srila Prabhupada? You said before that you… that it is said that you were poisoned?
SP: No, these kind of symptoms are seen when a man is poisoned.
He said like that, not that I am poisoned.
TAMAL: Yeah. Did anyone tell you that, or you just know it from before? SP: I read something.
TAMAL: Ah, I see. That’s why actually we cannot allow anyone to cook for you. SP: That’s good.
TAMAL: Jayapataka Maharaja was telling that one acharya, Sankaracharya, of the Sankaracharya line – this is a while ago – he was poisoned to death. Since that time, none of the acharyas or the gurus of the Sankaracharya line will ever take any food cooked except by their own men. SP: My Guru Maharaja also.
TAMAL: Oh. You, of course, have been so merciful that sometimes you would take prasada cooked by so many different people.
SP: That should be stopped.
NOVEMBER 10:
Bhakticharu (BCS): (Beng) What was that problem? Mental distress?
SP: Hmmm. Kaviraja: (Hindi) Say, say.
SP: (Hindi) That same thing – that someone has poisoned me.
BCS: (Hindi) Oh, okay, he thinks that someone….
Kaviraja ((Hindi): Listen, this is the understanding that some demon (may) have given (poison)… Charu Swami… some demon has given [poison]. BCS: Someone gave him poison
here.
Kaviraj: Charu Swami… BCS: Yes.
Kaviraj: (Hindi) This can happen. It’s not impossible. Sankaracharya was there, someone gave him poison. For six months he suffered. There is glass you know? Bottle glass? It was ground and fed in food. What befell him; after twelve months leprosy spread inside his body. Everyone suffers their karma. But the medicine I have given, the poison cannot stay. I give a guarantee, that even if there are effects, they will not stay. Because right now I cannot detect [poison] has been given to him. If it is found that his kidneys go bad, then it could be by sickness or astrological reason or by poison.
TAMAL: Prabhupada was thinking that someone had poisoned him?
BCS: Yes. TAMAL: That was the mental distress?
BCS: Yes. Kaviraja: (Hindi) This is what [he] says, then there must be some truth in it. In this there is no doubt.
TAMAL: What did Kaviraja just say?
BCS: He said that when Srila Prabhupada was saying that, there must be something truth behind it.
TAMAL: Sheessssh! (Everyone begins speaking together)
Kaviraja: (Hindi) It’s some rakshasa… the poisoner… will put something in pan. What to say… something in milk. To eat, [he] will put a medicine in pan, by the morning whole life can be forgotten.
TAMAL: Srila Prabhupada, Shastriji says that there must be some truth to it if you say that. So who is it that has poisoned?
(then- 13 seconds silence- Srila Prabhupada never answers)
Conversations resume again:
Kaviraja: (Hindi) The biggest poison is mercury.
BCS: (Hindi) That was Gaya, that which…
Kaviraja: (Hindi) No, no. That was Svarupa Guha. You read about it didn’t you, Swamiji? In Calcutta? SP: Hmm.
Kaviraja: Svarupa Guha? BCS: (Hindi) He doesn’t know [about it]. Kaviraja: (Hindi) Her husband had given it. For it there is no medicine or antidote. Such a heavy dose was given. It’s what we call Rashkapoor. BCS: (Hindi) No. That mercury was in, the makharadhwaja.
Kaviraja: (Hindi) No, no. That’s not mercury. It’s called by another name. BCS: (Hindi) Okay. BHAV: What did he say?
BCS: He said that it’s quite possible that mercury, it’s a kind of poison… TAMAL: That makharadhwaja… BCS: Rashkapoor?
Kaviraja: (Hindi) Aamer Rash. That’s one preparation. It’s very poisonous. BCS: (Hindi) Is that like makharadhwaja?
Kaviraja: (Hindi) Makharadhwaja is nectar, although not suitable for him [SP], that’s a
different story. But that [Raskapoor] is poison for everybody.) BHAV: What medicine was he
taking before that?
BCS: (Hindi) What? Kaviraja: (Hindi) Nothing.
BCS: He was referring to a case, a big murder case in Calcutta, the husband poisoned the wife.
BHAV: Guha. Kaviraja: (Hindi) Svarupa Guha… the case is now…
BCS: Shankara Bannerjee was…
BHAV: Our lawyer is the… (he giggles/snickers: Highly unusual, why?)
TAMAL: No poison is strong enough to stop the Hari Nam, Srila Prabhupada.
Kaviraja: (Hindi) Right. Before the Holy Name… How much poison was given to Mira, a single drop was enough to kill a man. Mira drank it all. Poison when offered to the Lord becomes nectar.
Devotee: Prahlad Maharaja. BCS: Prahlad Maharaja.
Kaviraja: (Hindi) Halal gave Mira a stronger dose of poison than Prahlad got. It was so strongly made… Like there is one poison in allopathy, even till today nobody can tell the…
TAMAL: Would you like some more kirtan Srila Prabhupada?