Hare Krsna!
Why Uddhava alone remained behind can be understood from the following verse of Srimad Bhagavatam.
SB 10.2.31: O Lord, who resemble the shining sun, You are always ready to fulfill the desire of Your devotee, and therefore You are known as a desire tree [vānchā-kalpataru]. When ācāryas completely take shelter under Your lotus feet in order to cross the fierce ocean of nescience, they leave behind on earth the method by which they cross, and because You are very merciful to Your other devotees, You accept this method to help them.
In the purport to above verse, Srila Prabhupada explains that the acarya gives the suitable method for crossing the ocean of nescience by accepting the boat of the Lord’s lotus feet, and if this method is strictly followed, the followers will ultimately reach the destination, by the grace of the Lord. This method is called acarya sampradaya.
In this lesson, we see that the Supreme Lord left behind His pure devotee Uddhava to help the conditioned souls cross over the dark ocean of material existence. The Lord entrusted Uddhava to disseminate specific knowledge of the Personality of Godhead. These great devotees teach the conditioned soul the purpose of human life, they are not the material bodies but spirit souls, they have eternal transcendental existence in the spiritual world, and there is a process to go back home, back to Godhead. The process is bhakti-yoga – loving devotional service unto the Supreme Lord Krsna.
“Uddhava was considered to be the best amongst all devotees of that time, and therefore he was directly instructed by the Lord’s grace, so that people might take advantage of Uddhava’s knowledge after the disappearance of the Lord from the vision of the world. This is one of the reasons why Uddhava was advised to go to Badarikāśrama, where the Lord is personally represented by the Nara-Nārāyaṇa Deity. One who is transcendentally advanced can gain direct inspiration from the temple Deity, and thus a devotee of the Lord always takes shelter of a recognized temple of the Lord in order to make tangible advancement in transcendental knowledge by the grace of the Lord.” (SB 3.4.30 P)
We have seen this example of the Lord sending or keeping behind His pure representatives since time immemorial. Even more recently, we have seen how Srila Prabhupada, a pure and bonafide representative of the Lord, continued the mission of his spiritual master to bring the transcendental knowledge about the Supreme Lord to the English-speaking world. Similarly, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu entrusted the Six Goswami to write books on devotional service and spread the glories of bhakti-yoga to the world. Rūpa Gosvāmī, for example, in order to help subsequent devotees, published such devotional books as Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu. Thus it is the duty of the ācārya to publish books that will help future candidates take up the method of service and become eligible to return home, back to Godhead, by the mercy of the Lord.
Why is the Supreme Lord so eager to disseminate transcendental knowledge about Himself? That’s because, as the Lord Himself said in Bhagavad Gita, one who knows the transcendental nature of His appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains His eternal abode (BG 4.9)
One who can understand the truth of the appearance of the Personality of Godhead is already liberated from material bondage, and therefore he returns to the kingdom of God immediately after quitting this present material body. The devotee, simply by understanding the transcendental nature of the body and activities of the Lord, attains the abode of the Lord after ending this body and does not run the risk of returning to this material world.
The qualification for becoming a representative of the Lord is to be transcendental to the three modes of material nature. As the Lord is not affected by the modes of material nature, so a pure devotee of the Lord is also not affected by the modes of nature. That is the primary qualification for being one with the Lord. A person who is able to attain this transcendental qualification is called jīvan-mukta, or liberated, even though he is apparently in material conditions. Uddhava was in such a transcendental position, and thus he was selected to be the factual representative of the Lord in His bodily absence from the vision of the world. Such a devotee of the Lord is never affected by material strength, intelligence or even renunciation. Such a devotee of the Lord can withstand all onslaughts of material nature, and therefore he is known as gosvāmī. Only such gosvāmīs can penetrate the mysteries of the Lord’s transcendental loving relationships. (SB 3.4.31 P)
Therefore one must accept the ācārya sampradaya such as Uddhava; otherwise one’s endeavor will be futile. Śrīla Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura therefore sings:
tāṅdera caraṇa sevi bhakta sane vāsa
janame janame haya, ei abhilāṣa
One must worship the lotus feet of the ācārya and live within the society of devotees. Then one’s endeavor to cross over nescience will surely be successful.
In this age, the best way to cross over the nescience of material existence is to always chant the holy name of the Lord. This is taught by none other than Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu who is none other than the Supreme Lord Krsna Himself. This time Krsna Himself appeared as Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu to teach us the yuga-dharma of this age which is the congregational chanting of the holy name.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Krsna Katha 