The 50% Unfulfilled Desire of Śrīla Prabhupāda

“Fifty percent of my work is incomplete because I have not established varnashram.”

Recorded by Abhiram Dasa in Vrindavan (1977), published in "Memories: Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint" (Volume 2) by Siddhanta Dasa:

Shortly before Śrīla Prabhupāda departed from this world, downstairs in his quarters in Vrindavan, he spoke of his impending departure: "I have no lamentation." But then he paused and said, "No, I have a lamentation." Someone asked, "Do you mean because you have not finished translating the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam?" Śrīla Prabhupāda said, "No, because I have not established varnashram. Fifty percent of my work is incomplete because I have not established varnashram." When asked how to do it, Prabhupāda said, "I will sit down in Gita-nagari and teach you to live off the land."

Recorded by HH Bhakti Charu Swami in "Ocean of Mercy" (pp. 198–199):

Bhakti Charu Maharaja said to Srila Prabhupada: "What you have done is inconceivable. No one has ever achieved what you have. You should not think that there is anything left that you must do. Now you should just relax." "What I have done is fifty percent," he said. "The other fifty percent is to establish varnasrama-dharma. ISKCON is for the devotees, but not everyone will become a devotee; not everyone will be able to surrender to Krsna. For those who will not, who will continue to act according to the modes of material nature — in order to situate them in the proper human culture, we need varnasrama-dharma."