Sri Mahesh Pandit Disappearance
→ Ramai Swami

“He who was previously a very munificent cowherd boy has now appeared as Mahesa Pandita. In ecstatic love, he dances like a madman as though intoxicated to the beat of a kettle drum. [C.C. Adi 11.32]

According to Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika, Mahesa Pandita was formerly Maha-Bahusakha in Krsna-lila. He was a companion of Nityananda Prabhu, and was present at the Danda Mahotsava held at Paninati.

In Bhakti-Ratnakara, Taranga Nine, it is stated that when Narottama dasa Thakura came to visit Khardaha, he had darshana of the lotus feet of Mahesa Pandita.

Vrindavana dasa Thakura has described him as a ‘param mahanta’ due to the fact that he was very dear to Nityananda Prabhu. [C.B. Antya 5.744]

Mahesa Pandita’s original Sripat at Sukh Sagor merged into the bed of the Ganges, but his worshippable deities of Sri Sri Nitai-Gauranga as well as his samadhi were moved to Palpara. There is a railway station there, between Simrali and Cakdaha stations, on the Sealdah-Krsnanagar line.

His disappearance day is on the thirteenth day of the bright fortnight in the month of Pausa.

Sri Mahesh Pandit Disappearance
→ Ramai Swami

“He who was previously a very munificent cowherd boy has now appeared as Mahesa Pandita. In ecstatic love, he dances like a madman as though intoxicated to the beat of a kettle drum. [C.C. Adi 11.32]

According to Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika, Mahesa Pandita was formerly Maha-Bahusakha in Krsna-lila. He was a companion of Nityananda Prabhu, and was present at the Danda Mahotsava held at Paninati.

In Bhakti-Ratnakara, Taranga Nine, it is stated that when Narottama dasa Thakura came to visit Khardaha, he had darshana of the lotus feet of Mahesa Pandita.

Vrindavana dasa Thakura has described him as a ‘param mahanta’ due to the fact that he was very dear to Nityananda Prabhu. [C.B. Antya 5.744]

Mahesa Pandita’s original Sripat at Sukh Sagor merged into the bed of the Ganges, but his worshippable deities of Sri Sri Nitai-Gauranga as well as his samadhi were moved to Palpara. There is a railway station there, between Simrali and Cakdaha stations, on the Sealdah-Krsnanagar line.

His disappearance day is on the thirteenth day of the bright fortnight in the month of Pausa.

Seek a Mentor for Success
→ Dandavats

By Suvarna Radha Devi Dasi Having a mentor is crucial for progress, whether the goal is professional success, personal development, or spiritual uplift. We can quickly advance to the next level of achievement with their help and advice. Employees who received mentoring were promoted five times more frequently than those who did not, according to
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Yamuna-devi—Serving Vani and Vapuh
Giriraj Swami

There is so much to be said about Srimati Yamuna-devi dasi.

In October of 1970 I was one of a group of Srila Prabhupada’s disciples from America going to join him in India. On the way, we stopped in Brussels, and it was there, in an apartment, that I first met Yamuna-devi—and Malati and Syamasundara (I had met Gurudas before that, in Boston). Upon entering, I could immediately feel their intense, extraordinary devotion to Srila Prabhupada—it was so palpable, so tangible; the room was just suffused with their devotion—and we spent the next several hours there together. As enthusiastic as I was to go to India to be with Srila Prabhupada, I felt like I could stay there forever; I never wanted to leave the association of these amazing devotees who were so attached to Srila Prabhupada and so capable of serving him in such different ways.

Gurudas had arranged a cheap flight on a small airline, and so, that evening we boarded an old converted dual-propeller cargo plane, bound for Bombay with a stop in Cairo. In my mood of Krishna consciousness then I was quite oblivious to things around me. I wanted to avoid maya—anything that could distract me from Krishna—and didn’t pay much heed to anything that didn’t relate directly to my service. I was focused on the idea of chanting and hearing every word of the Hare Krishna mantra distinctly, on always thinking about Krishna and never forgetting Him. And I had heard that Srila Prabhupada had said that if you have trouble hearing you should chant loudly. And sometimes, to really get into the holy names—and to break out of any possible lethargy—I would jump up and down. One or two of the devotees told me that they were anxious about how people in Egypt might react to my chanting, but I was determined.

There was unrest there at that time, and when we landed in Cairo we were met on the tarmac by soldiers and armed security guards with bandoliers of bullets around their chests and machine guns over their shoulders. And as we deplaned, walking down the steps, the men were pointing machine guns in our direction. Then Yamuna, as I was later told, saw the guards suddenly move their guns up and down, shifting their aim. And when she turned around to see why, she saw me behind her, walking down the stairs chanting japa, jumping up and down.

Anyway, we escaped Egypt and flew to Bombay, where, as arranged by Srila Prabhupada, we were taken to Kailash Seksaria’s house. There I went through a period of confusion—some things were very difficult for me to understand and cope with—and I wasn’t sure what to do. I was a relatively new devotee, at least compared with the others in the group, and somehow I just got the inspiration to go to Yamuna and Gurudas for help. What they told me was extraordinary, and for me, revolutionary. I entered their room feeling completely at a loss, but they turned the whole thing around, saying that Srila Prabhupada had sent me to engage them in thinking about him and about topics of deep significance. They turned the whole thing completely around, and I believe they were completely genuine in the way they took it and in what they said. And that was the beginning of what proved to be a very close relationship with them both.

While we were staying at Seksaria Bhavan Srila Prabhupada introduced a new tune for the Gurvastakam prayers in the morning. He tried to teach some of the men, but they couldn’t quite get it. Then he decided to instruct Yamuna-devi, in the presence of us all, and she picked it up right away. Afterward, Srila Prabhupada told Yamuna, “Learn to listen. You cannot follow nicely unless you hear nicely, and you cannot lead nicely unless you have learned to follow nicely.” And gradually the rest of us learned the new melody.

In Bombay, Srila Prabhupada was invited to attend the Vedanta Sammelan in Amritsar, and so a party of seven men and two women—Yamuna and Kausalya—traveled there with him by train. The Vedanta Ashram offered us two small rooms and the use of the large common courtyard just outside. Srila Prabhupada occupied one room, Yamuna and Kausalya the other.

Srila Prabhupada was very protective of the women, and he would have them ride to programs with him in his car (while the men took rickshaws). He did programs in the morning and evening—and often in between. Kausalya told me that driving to one engagement, he had mentioned that he needed new shoes. “Stop at the next Bata shoe store,” he had said. In the store, he had told Yamuna and Kausalya, “You choose the shoes for me,” and sat down. So they looked all around the store and found some white crisscross plastic sandals that they thought would be just right. Each of them carried one shoe up to Srila Prabhupada, and they slipped them on his feet. He smiled and asked, “Do you like them?” They responded, “Yes.” “Then we will buy them.” And so he did.

In the afternoons when there was some free time, Yamuna-devi would chant in the courtyard. It was very cold in Amritsar in November, but it would be a little warmer when the sun came out in the afternoon, and she would sit cross-legged with her back erect and chant Hare Krishna maha-mantra japa continuously with her eyes closed—nonstop. She told me then that when she chanted, her ears and mind and heart opened up to the holy names and that the names would enter and she would just hear the sound. She would be fully absorbed in the sound, not even thinking that she was chanting the holy names or that these were names she was hearing—she was just absorbed in the sound.

After Amritsar, Srila Prabhupada and his party traveled by train back to Bombay. On the way, the train stopped at the New Delhi station, and a gentleman, a lawyer named D. D. Gupta who had been corresponding with Prabhupada and had been informed of his stopover, came to meet him. He requested Srila Prabhupada to leave some disciples in Delhi to start the activities there. Prabhupada turned to Gurudas, who was riding in the same compartment, and said, “This man is inviting us. Get down and see what you can do.” Gurudas asked for some devotees, and then he and Srila Prabhupada agreed on a team: Yamuna-devi, Gopala, Bhakta Bruce (now Bhanu Swami), and me.

Mr. Gupta arranged for us to stay in two rooms in Old Delhi, near Delhi Gate. The rooms were very basic—just plain concrete with whitewash on the walls—and they abutted the courtyard at the center of the building. We would have to walk around the courtyard to use the simple latrine (though, in urgent cases, we would often have to run!).

Mr. Gupta, it turned out, was a peculiar man. He was an advocate, but not a very big one. And he was miserly. He would keep his used, dead batteries in a drawer, in the hopes that they would come back to life. The whole situation was very austere, but it was wonderful being with Gurudas and Yamuna. We were like a family, with Gurudas and Yamuna like our older brother and sister, taking care of us in the absence of our father, Srila Prabhupada.

After leaving us in Delhi and spending some days in Bombay, Srila Prabhupada proceeded to Indore for the Gita Jayanti Mahotsava, and our small party joined him there. Once, when we entered his room, he looked up from his desk, and Yamuna-devi remarked, “Srila Prabhupada, you look just like a picture I have seen of your guru maharaja looking up from his desk.” And Srila Prabhupada replied, with all humility, “All that glitters is not gold. My guru maharaja was like gold; I am like iron.”

From Indore, Srila Prabhupada and his party traveled to Surat, in Gujarat, where we received an overwhelming reception. In Surat something happened—I actually haven’t thought of it for years. One day I was chanting my rounds on the roof of the house where we all were staying and somehow my mind got fixed on the idea that . . . I had heard that Srila Prabhupada said that if you can deliver just one soul back home, back to Godhead, then your own deliverance is assured. Somehow I thought of my girlfriend from before I joined, and I considered, “Maybe I should have her come and join me, and I will make her a pure devotee, and then I’ll go back to Godhead.” It all made perfect sense to me, but I thought I had better consult Gurudas and Yamuna. I was very serious, and they questioned me, “Why her in particular? There are so many souls that you could deliver back to Godhead—why her?” Indirectly, they pointed out my attachment for her, and they induced me to abandon that strategy.

After Surat, Srila Prabhupada stopped in Bombay, where he met with the few devotees based there. We were all staying at the Sea Palace Hotel, which was pure vegetarian and belonged to Sri Ramchand Chhabria, who knew the devotees from England and was himself vegetarian. While we were there, a new issue of Back to Godhead magazine came, and the first article was Srila Prabhupada’s poem “Markine Bhagavata-dharma,” written when he initially arrived in America, in Boston. We had never seen the poem before; it had never been published. Gurudas, Yamuna, and I got together to look at the magazine, and Yamuna read the poem out loud. It was written in a mood of deep humility and dependence on Krishna. And when she got to the end—“Signed—the most unfortunate, insignificant beggar, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami”—she burst into tears. She couldn’t contain herself.

Years later, in September 2002, after celebrating the anniversary of Srila Prabhupada’s arrival in America, I wrote Yamuna-devi, “Two days ago I spoke of the time Srila Prabhupada’s poem “Markine Bhagavata-dharma” first appeared in English in BTG and you read it to Gurudas Prabhu and me and at the end you cried.” And she replied, “I sang this prayer this year on Vyasa-puja day, and all the while torrents of tears fell. One of my weaknesses is tears.”

From Bombay Srila Prabhupada went to Allahabad for the Ardha-kumbha-mela, and Yamuna-devi and I were there with him. Srila Prabhupada spoke on the story of Ajamila and the holy name from the Sixth Canto of Srimad-Bhagavatam. Only the first two cantos had yet been translated and published, so Prabhupada read from his Sanskrit Bhagavatam with commentaries, sometimes translating from Sridhara Swami’s and occasionally from Jiva Gosvami’s. While there, I heard that Srila Prabhupada had said that he was speaking for Yamuna. And in April 2007, when Yamuna visited me in Carpinteria, I asked her about it. And she told me something that etched an indelible impression on my heart.

As she explained, she always thought that she had as much right as anyone else to walk or sit close to Srila Prabhupada. And generally when he spoke, she would sit in front of the vyasasana at his feet. She had never really distinguished in terms of etiquette that men should walk closer to Prabhupada, and women further, or that men should sit closer to him, and women further. And the movement had been like that—like a family. In Allahabad, however, one of the sannyasis explained to her that in India the women sat apart and that she should too.

About 10:30 the next morning, after she hadn’t sat at the foot of Prabhupada’s vyasasana as usual, Srila Prabhupada noticed her passing by his tent, and he called, “Yamuna, come in here.” She entered and offered her obeisances, and before she got up he said, “So, you don’t want to hear anymore?” Yamuna burst into tears; Prabhupada—hearing from him—was her life. “Where were you this morning?” he asked. Yamuna told him exactly what had happened. Prabhupada was silent.

That, as she told me, was a turning point in her life, which changed her whole orientation in Krishna consciousness. She suddenly had the realization that she would not always have Prabhupada’s company. Since 1967, when Srila Prabhupada recovered from his stroke, she had never been able to conceive of ever being separated from him. The devotees were so dependent on him for everything, it was inconceivable to them that he would not be with them. But, she told me, every disciple must come to a personal realization that there will be a time when the spiritual master will not be present. And for her that moment came in Allahabad, after her talks with the sannyasi and then with Srila Prabhupada.

Sitting in Prabhupada’s tent, she asked him, “How much time did you actually spend with your guru maharaja?” “Very few occasions,” he said; “maybe five or six. But they were very intimate. We used to walk and talk so many things.” Then he said, “Those who think that association with the spiritual master is physical, they are no better than a mosquito sitting on the lap of a king. And what is the business of a mosquito? Simply to suck blood. So many of my godbrothers, they were big, big sannyasis, and they thought like that, and they simply sucked blood.”

Yamuna took Prabhupada’s words as confirmation. She now understood that she needed to go to another place to explore her relationship with him and her service to him in separation. She began to consider the question of vani (words, instructions) and vapuh (body, form), and she got more and more insight into it. As she told me, it is something “unlimitedly deep and profound. You can hear the terms on the surface, but vani means to again be in Prabhupada’s presence”—to be in his presence in separation as much as when you were in his physical association. “So that was a turning point for me, to realize that Prabhupada was going to leave this planet: ‘He is an old man, and he is going to leave, and I have to prepare.’” She took it that from that moment she must start mentally preparing—find a way of continuing in Krishna consciousness that was not based on Srila Prabhupada’s personal association.

“So that is that story of hearing,” she continued. “Prabhupada said, ‘I am speaking because you want to hear so much. I am speaking as much because you want to hear so much.’ So he knew that hunger. I never expressed that to him, but he knew.”As Yamuna often said, Srila Prabhupada was completely aware of every disciple in every way—both their internal consciousness and the external manifestations of their service.

Vani and vapuh became a major theme in Yamuna-devi’s life—how to maintain one’s connection with Srila Prabhupada through vani to the same degree and with the same intensity as in his physical, even close personal, presence. She was convinced that it was possible, and she arranged her life in such a way as to always receive his guidance and mercy—to always be in his association.

Then came the Bombay pandal. Syamasundara Prabhu, who was the temple president, divided the work into different departments, with one devotee in charge of each. (Often, that devotee was the department.) And Yamuna-devi was in charge of the Deities. We had very little money then. Although we were raising funds for the pandal program, we needed it all for the event. And the treasurer, Rsi Kumar, was very tight with the money, which Srila Prabhupada considered a good quality for the treasurer. Sometimes Rsi Kumar would put a sign on his office door: “Closed for three days.” So, Yamuna-devi was charged with raising the funds for the Deities. That was the year we got big marble ones. In the pandal we had small brass Deities, and on the last day of the program there was to be a procession from the pandal, at Cross Maidan, to Chowpatty, where there was to be a program at the beach, at which Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari would be revealed for the first time to the people of Bombay. And she just couldn’t raise the money.

One day while she was out endeavoring to raise funds for the Deities, Yamuna became so disappointed and distraught that she just sat down on the sidewalk and wept. A black limousine, with a pious, distinguished-looking gentleman in the back seat, stopped on the road before her, and he got out of the car and asked her what was the matter. “We’re having a pandal program,” she explained, “and I’m in charge of the Deities’ outfits and decorations, and I have to raise the money, but no one is giving, and we’re running out of time.” “Don’t worry,” he replied. “I am the chairman of two of the biggest temple trusts in Bombay. How much do you need?” “Two thousand five hundred rupees,” she replied—which was really a lot back then. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Just come with me to my office, and I’ll give you a check for the whole amount.” She was that sincere and dedicated.

From Bombay, Srila Prabhupada sent Tamal Krishna and me to Calcutta to arrange a similar pandal program, and eventually Yamuna-devi also came, and soon she was engaged in the service of the Deities there, Sri Sri Radha-Govinda. Every morning we would look forward to the darshan (viewing) of the Deities. The worship was so beautiful—so devotional.

One day, at the pandal site, I approached Yamuna-devi and told her that I had some questions regarding my future and the future of the movement that I just could not answer but that I didn’t want to approach Srila Prabhupada with them directly. The whole mood then was, “Don’t disturb Srila Prabhupada. He has to translate. He has important things to do. Don’t go to Srila Prabhupada.” When I told her my questions, however, she responded, “No, you should go to him. You are just the type of devotee he would want to spend time with, and these are just the types of questions he would want to answer.”

So, based on her advice, I approached Srila Prabhupada in his room at the temple, and my meeting with him was very significant. “Before joining the movement,” I said, “I was interested in making movies, and I even made one. So I was thinking maybe I should make movies about Krishna consciousness.” Srila Prabhupada replied, “That, others are doing. Our main medium is books.”

Then I said, “Srila Prabhupada, now you are here, so everything is all right. But what if, in the course of time, when you are not here, ISKCON falls from the standard? What should I do?” And Srila Prabhupada replied, “You are also one of the important members of the Society”—actually, I was really very new at the time, but . . . “You are also one of the important members of the society, so you work for the correction. But don’t leave.”

These instructions have been guiding me ever since. And it was Yamuna-devi who advised me to go and ask Prabhupada directly.

After Calcutta was the Delhi pandal. Again Yamuna-devi arranged beautiful Deity worship, for Sri Sri Radha-Gokulananda, who later went to Bhaktivedanta Manor in England. The darshans were spectacular. But after the program she was very sick. She was staying in the same, large house as Srila Prabhupada, and he noticed that she was missing. He inquired and found out that she was sick. She was resting in a small room—like a closet. Because she was sick, she had to have her own room, and that was what the devotees could offer. Srila Prabhupada went to visit her and found that no one was really taking care of her, and he became concerned and assigned a devotee to care for her. It was cold, and I think he gave her his own room heater—perhaps the only one. And he said that we have to take care of our devotees when they fall ill.

After the Delhi pandal, I went to Madras, while the rest of the party went to Vrindavan with Srila Prabhupada for the first time. There was one car—an Ambassador—with Srila Prabhupada and some men, and a bus with the rest of the devotees. Prabhupada was in the car, and he noticed Yamuna climbing into the bus. He said, “Wait! Wait!” He called her, knowing that she was very sick, and told the men to get out. Then he had her get in the back seat with Gurudas and one other man—Prabhupada was in the front with the driver—and the other men went on the bus.

In time, Srila Prabhupada got some land in Vrindavan and put Gurudas and Yamuna in charge. And she related a couple of incidents to me that I consider to be very instructive. Once, a small group of devotees went to the Radha-Damodara temple, and the Goswami in charge invited them to have prasada. The devotees sat in the courtyard, and the Goswami arranged the Deities’ maha-prasada for them. While they were honoring the prasada, he began to badly blaspheme Srila Prabhupada—“Why does he wear a ring?” and all sorts of things. The devotees felt extremely uncomfortable and were tempted to just get up and walk out, but somehow they decided not to. After the incident, Gurudas and Yamuna reported to Srila Prabhupada what had happened, and Srila Prabhupada instructed, “In Vrindavan there are five thousand caste goswamis, five thousand shopkeepers, and five thousand widows, and we have to keep good relations with all of them; otherwise we will end up in court like the Gaudiya Matha.”

On another occasion Srila Prabhupada sent Gurudas and Yamuna to meet his godbrother Professor O. B. L. Kapoor. At some stage after Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura left, Professor Kapoor had taken shelter of a babaji as a siksa-guru. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta had vehemently criticized these babajis, and they had very staunchly opposed him. So this was a very peculiar situation, that Professor Kapoor had taken shelter of a babaji who was the type of person who was the object of his spiritual master’s criticism and in turn opposed his spiritual master. But Srila Prabhupada simply said, “That is his weakness”—that’s all. He didn’t consider that this disqualified Dr. Kapoor from helping the movement. Srila Prabhupada had a very broad view of the Krishna consciousness movement and of engaging people in it, and that was demonstrated quite vividly in Vrindavan.

Then Srila Prabhupada left us, and things did change. And I didn’t see Gurudas and Yamuna for many years. But then somehow my relationship with Yamuna was revived. She had really been sort of a mentor to me, and decades later she was again. Although so many years had passed, when we met again it was more or less the same—the relationship hadn’t changed, and we shared thoughts about Srila Prabhupada and his service and his mission. She was always very concerned about the mission, that Srila Prabhupada’s legacy should be preserved as it is and not adulterated or compromised.

I also saw that she was very absorbed in Krishna consciousness. When I think of the five main processes of devotional service (pancanga-bhakti), she was very strong in all of them.

sadhu-sanga, nama-kirtana, bhagavata-sravana
mathura-vasa, sri-murtira sraddhaya sevana

“One should associate with devotees, chant the holy name of the Lord, hear Srimad-Bhagavatam, reside at Mathura, and worship the Deity with faith and veneration.”

She was very strong in reading and studying. Every morning she would read the Bhagavatam and the teachings of the more recent acharyas—Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura—taking special note when they spoke about the holy name. This was a major focus for her, and she would relish reading, especially instructions related to nama-bhajana and to guru-seva.

Another thing about Yamuna-devi struck me as amazing. About the time of the first Bombay pandal, when we staying in Akash Ganga, a high-rise apartment building in an affluent part of central Bombay, she would stay back and clean. She would clean the whole place, for hours. And while cleaning, she would sing in a very ecstatic mood. The rest of us were going here and there—for service, of course, but there were incidental benefits: seeing exotic India, meeting all sorts of cultured and interesting people, tasting varieties of delicious prasada—and she was staying back and cleaning. She put her heart into it and would be singing in an ecstatic mood.

Later, in April 2007, when she visited me in Carpinteria, I asked her about this, and she said that Srila Prabhupada had put greater emphasis on bhagavata-marga because he wanted his books produced, so they would be there for all time, and because he wanted his books distributed, so the income from the sales would support the expansion of the mission. So he didn’t have much time to personally train disciples in pancaratrika-vidhi. But he did train her, and she considered personal service to him to be in the same category as personal service to the Deity. And of course, she is right. Once, a devotee came forward to fan Srila Prabhupada and Srila Prabhupada stopped him, saying that he wasn’t a brahman. So, cleanliness is one of the basic principles of Deity worship. But Yamuna-devi didn’t distinguish between cleaning the guru’s ashram and cleaning the Deity room. As she told me, “In Bombay, I learned to take joy in that cleaning. Whether you are serving the spiritual master or the arca-vigraha, the cleaning is external and internal. It is a very spiritual engagement—as powerful as distributing books.”

She explained that Srila Prabhupada would teach each servant about the importance and standards of cleanliness according to the servant’s capacity to understand. And she told me how strictly he had trained her. He had his four-tiered cooker, and if he found a black spot on the bottom of any of the pots, he would really chastise the servant. She would use the word “whipping.” He would chide the servant, “This is not Vaishnava. This is Muslim. No Vaishnava will ever leave a black spot on any of the pots in the kitchen.” Prabhupada’s cooker was always to shine like gold.

Based on Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, Yamuna developed a whole system for cleaning his quarters in Vrindavan—an elaborate five-step procedure, going from bottom to top and top to bottom. First, she would get the big dirt off the bottom, then she would go up as far as she could reach, dusting, and then she would go back to the bottom, cleaning everything as perfectly as she could. If there was anything wrong, Prabhupada would notice and tell her about it. And keeping the rooms clean in Vrindavan was very hard: with the simmering sands of Raman Reti and the whole place being a construction zone, there was always dirt and corrosion—everywhere. The walls of Prabhupada’s rooms were pale yellow, and the floors were black stone. The floors were covered with rugs, and the rugs were covered with white sheets.

One morning when Srila Prabhupada came back from his walk, after Yamuna had gone through her five-step procedure and everything looked as clean as could be, he told her, “Please clean my room, Yamuna. Haven’t I taught you to clean?” “No, Srila Prabhupada,” she said. “How may I improve my cleaning?” He didn’t say anything. On his desk were a picture of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, his eyeglass case, his tilak, pens, a flower vase, and a staple gun. Srila Prabhupada took the staple gun, which was about two and a half inches long, removed it from its plastic case, lifted up the metal staple holder, and ran his little finger, his pinkie, across the thin metal strip between the staple holder and the hinge. . . .  Dust. Dust. “When will you learn how to clean?”

If Srila Prabhupada had had the time, Yamuna-devi told me, he would have trained all his disciples in both pancaratriki-vidhi and bhagavata-vidhi, but because he was focused more on bhagavata-vidhi, he mainly trained only his close managers and personal servants, be they men or women, in both. Srila Prabhupada knew the consciousness of his disciples—he knew their capacity—and he would train them according to their capacity to absorb it.

Cooking, like cleanliness, is also part of Deity worship, and Yamuna-devi was, of course, most expert. Once, when Srila Prabhupada was coming to Vrindavan, she went to the Vraja-vasis and asked, “What is the best way to make Vraja-vasi rotis?” They told her, “You have to get this red Punjabi wheat berry. You have to grind it in the morning, and then you have to cook it with neem wood.”

When Prabhupada came she didn’t say a word to him, but she got that red wheat berry from Punjab, she had it ground in the morning, and she cooked the chapatis with neem wood. Then she brought the plate in to Prabhupada and put the hot chapati on his plate. He took one bite and said, “This is the red Punjabi wheat berry. You ground it this morning and cooked it with neem wood.” She hadn’t said a word to him—he just knew.

That was at the Radha-Damodara temple in 1972. And there is a sequel to the story about the Vraja-vasi chapatis, from Raman Reti in 1973. I am not a cook—chapatis are too technical for me—so I will read the transcription of Yamuna’s account to me in Carpinteria:

“One time when Srila Prabhupada came—I think it was the first time I met Satsvarupa dasa Gosvami; he was Prabhupada’s servant—I was on a bucket stove again, on the floor—no kitchen. I was making Prabhupada’s prasada, and as you may or may not know, when you cook with a bucket stove and you have a little bit of hard coal and then a little bit of soft coal and then a little bit of cow dung, it is a little hard to regulate. There is a certain temperature, and you cannot turn a switch to make it higher or lower. And then, depending on the thickness of the pot, you know what intensity you want. And then there is what you call a thawa, which is an iron griddle, concave, and to make a chapati you keep that on the stove and then you lift it off and you put the chapati on top of the flame. So, I made chapatis for Prabhupada’s lunch.

“Satsvarupa Maharaja wanted to bring in the lunch, thinking that I probably shouldn’t do it. He brought in the plate, came back into the kitchen, and said, ‘Prabhupada wants me to teach you how to make chapatis.’ And I said, ‘Oh, Maharaja, I would be so grateful if you could do that. I’d love to learn to make chapatis. Please.’

“Then I got up, and he began to wash his hands. By the time he sat down and rolled out a chapati, the thawa was really hot. He rolled out an octopus-like chapati. Now, when you roll out a chapati, the ball bearings for rolling it out is the dusting of flour, and if you roll the chapati in too much flour you actually roll flour into the surface of the flatbread and then even if you try to flap it off, you still have a crust of flour. So you use a minimal amount for the ball bearings and then flap off the little extra.

“His octopus was covered with flour on a hot thawa. When he put it on, I said, ‘Maharaja, what should I be looking for?’ He said, ‘You wait until there are pimples on the top.’ As soon as the chapati hit the griddle, very hot, the pimples came very fast. He turned the chapati over, and there were little burnt holes. So there was no question of it puffing up.

“So, he put it on, and the little bubbles appeared at different places, and he took it in to Prabhupada. Then he came back and told me, ‘Prabhupada said, “This is excellent.” ’

Yamuna concludes, “So that’s how Prabhupada taught me. It was never with a whip, but they were beatings nonetheless. They were beatings over my head.”

Another time, in 1974, one of the devotees based in Vrindavan approached Yamuna and said, “My wife is coming, and she is a very good cook. She wants to cook for Prabhupada.” Yamuna replied, “How wonderful. I will be glad to engage her in Prabhupada’s service.” The new cook arrived after the big Mayapur festival, when almost all the devotees became very ill with dysentery and other maladies. There was really no proper arrangement for them, but Gurudas and Yamuna cared for them like parents. Yamuna was doing the cooking for the devotees there at Fogel Ashram. Under the circumstances, she really didn’t have time to cook for Srila Prabhupada, so she was very happy that the new cook was there. Meanwhile, Yamuna was trying to make arrangements for the devotees’ prasada. She had no facility, she was unable to speak Hindi and communicate with the locals, and the assistant cooks were ready to walk out at any time. She was working practically twenty-four hours. And she didn’t go to see Prabhupada the entire time.

She began to get messages: “Prabhupada wants you”—but she didn’t go. She just replied, “Tell him I am really busy.” She told me later, “Bad, very bad—really low consciousness.”

When finally she came to Prabhupada’s room, he was about to go out. So she came back the next morning.

Yamuna had given the new cook specific instructions. Still, the lady had taken Srila Prabhupada’s cooker and his unclean laundry and stuffed them in a bolster pillowcase meant for his seating area, now black all over the bottom. Yamuna arrived just as the lady was putting the cooker in with the clothes, in the pillowcase. Srila Prabhupada was also standing there, watching the cooker being shoved into the pillowcase. He didn’t say a word—not to the cook, not to Yamuna.

“Prabhupada knows everything,” Yamuna told me later. Thus he said to her, “Are you too busy to come? So I am delaying my departure for one day.” The men said, “But the cars are ready. We’re just loading them.” “No, Yamuna will stay here and cook for me tomorrow,” Srila Prabhupada stated unequivocally. “I am staying, and she is going to cook for me tomorrow morning, and then we will go.”

Cleanliness. More than thirty years later Yamuna-devi told me,“I can honestly say that I joyously engage in cleaning, and so in our ashram [in Saranagati, Canada] we sing and clean, sometimes for hours and hours and hours.Our place is very primitive; we have a dirt floor and walls, and a lot of earth outside. It is very simple, but we like to clean a lot.We enjoy cleaning, for Srila Prabhupada and the Deities.”

Kirtan. Yamuna-devi had a dream. I don’t remember the details, and it is a little delicate, because she was a very private person. Anyway, in this dream, or vision—whatever it was, she took it as very real—she was a sage in the forest and Srila Prabhupada was also in the same forest, and somehow he engaged her in doing kirtan. She felt that from her past life there was a connection with Srila Prabhupada in relation to kirtan.

About Srila Prabhupada’s kirtan she said, “Srila Prabhupada’s kirtan had no tinge of being a performance. It was purely for the pleasure of Krishna. It allowed the chanters access to the fact that the Lord’s holy name and the Lord are nondifferent. He said that the key to engaging in kirtan without anartha was hearing and studying our literature, and that gradually it would rise to the platform of pure devotional service.

And in an e-mail to Bhakta Carl, now Kalachandji das, she wrote, “Leading and chanting in kirtan has little to do with how we sound to each other. It has much more to do with how we call out to Krishna and immerse ourselves in hearing the vibrations of the holy names. What a vehicle for experiencing love of Godhead.”

When she and the other devotees were recording with the Beatles, George Harrison was so impressed by her singing that he told her he could make her one of the most famous and celebrated vocalists in the world. But she wasn’t interested. Her singing was meant for another purpose—pure devotional service to please Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Radha-Govinda.

Yamuna-devi said that to the degree one follows Srila Prabhupada, to that degree things are revealed. And she gave the example of Bhakti Tirtha Swami. She felt that because of his deep connection with the holy name—his dedication to japa, his private time with japa—he was able to perceive Srila Prabhupada’s presence in separation. She said, “Prabhupada freely gave everything to all of us. But it is the individual’s hankering, which leads him to make certain decisions in his life to catch that mercy, that facilitates his or her perception of Srila Prabhupada, especially in separation.”

Yamuna recalled an incident that demonstrated to her unequivocally how Prabhupada knew his disciples. She came to the courtyard of the Radha-Damodara temple in the wee hours of the morning, remaining as silent as humanly possible, so as not to disturb Srila Prabhupada, and he came out of his room and called her name. “There was no way Prabhupada could have known that I was there at one thirty in the morning,” she said. “I didn’t make any noise.”

But then she balanced her statement: “On the other hand, there were many times when he would say, ‘I want your report. Otherwise how do I know?’ ” And she added, “There were times when I did it, but other times, because of low Krishna consciousness, I ceased reporting in an honest way, and it contributed to my fall, to my weaknesses in Krishna consciousness. When I was open and revealed everything honestly in my reporting to Prabhupada, as we are supposed to report to Krishna, I was stronger in Krishna consciousness. And when I closed that avenue off, my consciousness suffered.”

In her profound humility, she explained, “Srila Prabhupada’s presence in vani and vapuh, or our ability to perceive his presence in his vani and vapuh, depends on our consciousness—whether we are able to perceive a drop of who Prabhupada was. Some devotees who never had Srila Prabhupada’s company, with their laulyam and their greed for it had more of it than I sometimes did while I was in his company, depending on my consciousness. . . .

“I still have no idea of the greatness of Prabhupada’s presence, then or now, although I think about it a lot, meditate on it a lot. We discuss it almost every day. It comes up in some form or other in our morning Bhagavatam class. . . . Prabhupada’s presence then and now—vani and vapuh. And it is very important to hold onto his presence as the focal point in our maturation in spiritual life, because he is the center in our spiritual life. Nothing comes without his presence. Even if the mercy comes to us through other forms, from endless different places—still, he is the fountainhead. . . . If I am qualified, then certain mercies will come to me. Mercy is not something you bargain for or arrange for or even desire for very deeply. You can have intense hankering, and then whatever comes—whatever form the mercy comes in—it is so Krishna conscious.”

Inevitably, we come toward the end of Yamuna-devi’s stay with us. I shall read something.

After Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day in 2009, Yamuna-devi wrote me a letter that shows her deep absorption in Srila Prabhupada and in the holy names, and her intimate relationship with Srila Prabhupada. I think that she really did understand Srila Prabhupada and his mission. He gave her a lot of instruction.

“Dear Giriraj Swami, Pranama dandavats. Jaya Srila Prabhupada! I wanted to share a few thoughts and reflections on yesterday, Srila Prabhupada’s thirty-second disappearance day. We observed the day first at Radha-Banabehari Mandir with our morning program at Radha-Banabehari Mandir, then at a midday program at Govardhana Academy [the school at Saranagati], introducing the students to the traditional way Srila Prabhupada instructed us to honor this day, and then in the evening at a program with adults in the community, who for convenience regularly meet in the evening for any kind of Vaishnava holy day.

“Last night Yadubara showed his preliminary edited footage for DVD Eleven: ‘Srila Prabhupada’s Final Pastimes.’ Though I had seen much of the footage before, it had been without comment, and not arranged in sequence to tell a visual story of Srila Prabhupada’s final days and hours, the moment of his passing, and the aftermath—the Vrindavan parikrama and the samadhi entombment.

“One evening, sitting with my back to Srila Prabhupada’s front bucket seat, riding in a van from Tittenhurst [John Lennon’s estate] to a Conway Hall lecture in London, Srila Prabhupada said loud enough for me to hear, ‘When I die, see that my body is taken on a palanquin around Vrindavan on parikrama.’ Stunned, but immediately attentive to these words, I turned around, and on my knees, bent forward from the waist so that my head was even with his shoulder, I said, ‘Why have you told me to do this, Srila Prabhupada? Better that you tell Tamal Krishna. He has more access to seeing that this is done than I do.’ He replied, ‘No, you can tell him.’ He fell silent and said no more. I too fell silent and said no more.

“Yadubara’s footage last night of the thickest pastime of Srila Prabhupada’s life with us—his passing—was poignant and moving. Though I was not there physically with Srila Prabhupada, I could not have felt closer to him or experienced more of his presence had I been so. Every moment of every day has been a meditation on Srila Prabhupada, and we have been engaged in constant kirtan. Perhaps it would have been difficult for me even to have been there at that time, for except Pisima, it is clear that women were not allowed close proximity to Srila Prabhupada, and that might have been almost unbearable for me after the closeness I experienced in previous years with him.”

She writes more, expressing appreciation for the devotional mood and service of some of Prabhupada’s disciples who were there—they had “a shared intent to follow Srila Prabhupada’s instructions, glorify his mood, honor his example, and share that with others.” But her letter also expressed her concern about how at a certain point the role of women in the movement had changed. In earlier days . . . of course, she was exceptional—she would lead kirtan before thousands of people, speak before thousands of people, and render personal service to Srila Prabhupada. As she told me, at Tittenhurst she was basically Srila Prabhupada’s personal servant—she and Malati and Janaki. Purusottama would do some of the correspondence, and some of the men would give massage, but basically these ladies were doing the personal service.

She said that one day Prabhupada came into his room—they had just made his bed and done whatever else had to be done in the room—and said, “This is very unusual,” meaning for a sannyasi to have women do that service. He said, “This is very unusual, but it is appropriate.” He continued, “Sometimes I am like your father and you are like my daughters, and sometimes you are like my mothers and I am like your son.”

In the last year there was tremendous concern about Mother Yamuna’s health. At different stages she spoke to me about her condition and options, but then very much towards the end, perhaps in September, she came to a very critical point with regards to her heart. Because of her size and age, the doctors were afraid to perform an invasive procedure, yet if they didn’t, there was every chance she would have heart failure, at any time. For a while she wasn’t sure what to do, but in the end she decided to just return to her home and depend on Krishna.

She said a few times that she was ready to go, that she felt she had done what she was meant to do in this life, or what she could do, and she was ready to go. She had no fear, and no regrets. Personally, I questioned her conclusion about her service, and I suggested, “Well, you may have something left to do in terms of service to Srila Prabhupada.” I was thinking of her writing, that she should write about her experiences with and realizations about Srila Prabhupada. But she said, “No, I have thought about it, and there’s nothing really that I have to stay to do. If there is anything—if I am given more time—it is to try to help the women in the movement.” And she added, “I don’t think that you, as a sannyasi, can understand what the women in the movement experience. But if Krishna does give me some more time, I would like to do something for the women, to support the women, to give a strong voice to the women.”

No matter how dire her physical condition was, she was so Krishna conscious. My conversations with her were quite frequent after she went to Bhaktivedanta Hospital. Naturally, I was concerned about her medical condition, and so we would be talking about it, and somehow or other, without my knowing how she got there, she would be talking about Krishna and Srila Prabhupada and the holy name and how wonderful devotees are and how merciful Prabhupada and Krishna are and how grateful she is. Quite the opposite of what I often experience with myself: I begin talking about Krishna and then—I don’t know how it happens—somehow I’m talking about my body. With her, I would bring up her body—how she was doing and if I could help in any way—and without my knowing how, suddenly we were talking about Krishna and Prabhupada and the holy name and the prayers of the acharyas and the wonderful service of the other devotees and just how grateful she was for what she had been given.

At about 6:30 in the morning on December 20, Yamuna’s constant companion and spiritual confidante, Dinatarini dasi, found that Yamuna had left. Her hand was in her bead bag, and a slight smile was on her face. She looked completely at peace—even blissful. She had been unafraid of death. She had been confident that she would again be with Prabhupada, or somehow engaged in serving his mission. Such is the destination that awaits anyone who gives his or her life fully to serving Srila Prabhupada, his vani, his vapuh.

Yamuna-devi was a beautiful soul, a divine servant of Srila Prabhupada, his mission, and his Lords. She exemplified nama-ruci (taste for the holy name), jiva-daya (mercy for the living entities), and vaisnava-seva (service to the devotees). She was a mentor, guide, and friend to many, including me. We will miss her personal presence. Still, we shall try to serve her in separation by upholding the ideals she held dear.

In conclusion, I quote from a letter she wrote me some years ago, which has given me some solace and guidance at this time:

“I remember when Dina and I visited you in your house in Vrindavan. We asked you one question, and you took three hours to answer it: ‘How has your relationship with Srila Prabhupada changed since his departure?’” Again, vani and vapuh. She continued, “The departure of loved ones helps us to change, to go deeper. Surely this will happen.”

TOVP Nrsimhadeva Wing Diamonds of the Dome Campaign
- TOVP.org

Most ISKCON devotees have now become aware that in October, 2023 the TOVP will be opening the completed Nrsimhadeva Wing and altar. Prahlad-Nrsimhadeva will be moved onto Their new altar, along with Pancha Tattva, Radha Madhava/Ashta Sakhis and 15 new parampara acharya Deities, during the TOVP Grand Opening, a three-month-long festival scheduled for December, 2024 through Gaura Purnima, 2025.

The focus of all our energy and resources is now on the Nrsimhadeva Wing completion and opening which will be another historic milestone in our progress. To this end we have developed several new sponsorship opportunities of which one is the Diamonds of the Dome Campaign.

The Nrsimhadeva Wing dome, to be completed in January, 2023, is composed of 1700 steel brackets of varying sizes. 432 beautiful, gold-leafed diamond-like coffers will be mounted on the steel brackets to adorn the interior ceiling of the 82ft (25m) high Nrsimha Wing dome. They are acoustically designed to reduce excess echoing in the hall during kirtan.

You can now sponsor one or more of these ‘diamonds’ (coffers) and help finance the construction work with essential funds for the ongoing work. Please go to the Diamonds of the Dome page today and Give To Nrsimha to help finish His temple.

Watch this recent Nrsimha Wing Update video by Braja Vilasa.

 

 

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GBC Further Restricts Anirdesya Vapu das
→ ISKCON News

ISKCON’s Governing Body Commission (GBC) released a resolution regarding Anirdesya Vapu das (formerly known as Bhaktividya Purna Swami), on December 15, 2022. The decision, while overlapping with the Child Protection Office’s (CPO) earlier decision (see article here), sets restrictions on Anirdesya Vapu das that are self-standing. The resolution also clarifies the status of the former […]

The post GBC Further Restricts Anirdesya Vapu das appeared first on ISKCON News.

“In order to remember, you must hear and chant”
→ Dandavats



“In order to remember, you must hear and chant.”
Yamuna: At the beginning of the Vrindavan project, I was the only woman in the party. All of us had important roles.
My role was Deity department and Prabhupada’s rooms.
When we built the temple, we made every mistake you can make, and one really big mistake was the floor in Srila Prabhupada’s room.
It was an amalgamate floor with the wrong mixture of black, so when it dried, the black color continued to come off and nothing we did stopped that black color from coming off that floor.
Prabhupada said, “Who has done this?”
I made the ridiculous comment, “Srila Prabhupada, I am not sure what to do.”
He said, “No intelligence, there’s no intelligence there.”
“That’s very true, Srila Prabhupada. Do you have any suggestions how I could better take care of the room?”
He said, “No. You figure this out.”
It took many months before that floor was clean.

Prabhupada was strict with me about cleaning.

When he went for his morning walk in Vrindavan we had a whole cleaning system so that every surface in his room was cleaned twice.

One morning, Prabhupada came back from his walk, sat down at his desk, took his mini stapler out of its plastic protective sleeve, opened it so it was flat, and rubbed his pinky in the space between the knob and the staple.

“Dust. Who has cleaned my room?”

“I did, Srila Prabhupada.”

“Haven’t I trained you how to clean the room?”

“No, Srila Prabhupada, I’m so dull that I never thought to look there for dust.”

“Asara, useless.”

Prabhupada was strict with me in many ways, but I treasure that today.

I treasure that dust in Prabhupada’s stapler because when the spiritual master is strict, it helps us to become conscious of what conditioning means.

Otherwise, conditioning is just a word.

The statement “I’m conditioned from time immemorial” is hard to wrap your mind around.

Conditioning is a huge thing.

Unless the spiritual master trains us, how will we get out of our conditioned state?

So when the spiritual master chastises us by giving us instructions on simple things, it’s helpful.

Srila Prabhupada came in and out of Vrindavan many times in 1973 because we Western disciples had no knowledge of the language, of anything to do with business, of the many social customs of the holy dhama, but we were trying to build the Krishna-Balaram temple.

We had to accept the obstacles that Krishna put in front of us to help us learn how to get out of the material world.

And Srila Prabhupada had to come many times to help us move the project forward in a timely fashion.

Once, Prabhupada came for a short time, and afterward Tejiyas, Gurudas, Shyamasundar, and I took him to the Delhi airport.

His plane was delayed, and we were sitting in a little group waiting when we heard this click, click, click-clack, click-clack coming from a twenty-year-old girl with tall, high heel shoes, black stockings, and a mini dress.

Shyamasundar turned to Prabhupada and said, “We’re not in Vrindavan anymore, Srila Prabhupada.”

Prabhupada looked at him and said, “Yes, we are in Vrindavan. This is not Vrindavan?”

That turned on a light bulb in me.

Yes, you leave Vrindavan, but Vrindavan is in the heart.

We can drink in Vrindavan using all of our senses, and when we leave the dhama, we can bring its atmosphere with us wherever we go.

Every time I remember these defining moments with Srila Prabhupada I learn from them.

Prabhupada once made the simple, obvious comment that “In order to remember, you must hear and chant.”

He said, “Your remembering will become less effective to the degree that you hear less and chant less.”

So those three things–hearing, chanting, and remembering–three parts of the nine processes of bhakti.

These are the core of my relationship with Prabhupada.

Hearing about and remembering Srila Prabhupada are the two most important things in all my spiritual life.

Hearing and remembering are Srila Prabhupada’s beautiful gifts to us, and I am deeply grateful for this transcendental mercy.

—Yamuna


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What are the consequences of not following Bhagavad-gita?
→ The Spiritual Scientist

Podcast:

Transcript:

Question: What are the consequences of not following the Bhagavad Gita?

Answer:
Overall.The Bhagavad-gita is more is not one-off.

Ensuring compliance through imposing fear.So,

Idea inducing fear rather.So rather than focusing on.What will happen if somebody doesn’t follow the vagita? What these is is that there are laws of nature.Science talks about laws of nature.And if somebody doesn’t follow the law of gravity. Sometimes you defy the law of gravity.Then it is not that Newton or anybody any physics teacher is going to cause the injury to the person who jumps off from 10 story building.

That I don’t believe in our care for gravity.So,

It is not so much as fear of physics or thread by physicists.Or threads by a physics textbook as it is just awareness of the way reality works.Similarly the good guitar is giving us awareness.Of not just physical reality what primarily of conscious reality of have on how consciousness is affected by.

Our choices.And ultimately each one of us.The one thing we have to live with the most is our own consciousness.

We may or may not.You may create a particular place and we can walk away from that place.And somebody else has to clean up our mess.But if we create a mess in our consciousness that mess walks with us.We can never walk away from it.

And the guitar simply reminds us that.The more we let our consciousness become attached to small things.To trivial concerns to petips.To.Minor mishaps.Or even on the opposite side to.To trifling pleasures.To chief comforts.To.

Oh, you universally available sensual pleasures.Then by that we shrink our consciousness.And a shrunk consciousness.Can only experience shank and realities.For example a self-centered person.Can only experience life in terms of oneself only and nothing beyond that.

A self-centered person can’t see beauty of the top of her mountain.Without thinking that only if I would conquer and plant my victory flag over there, then it would be glorious otherwise it just makes me feel insignificant and that’s affiliate. I don’t want So shankan consciousness means our source is of fulfillment of joy of pleasure they become limited they become shrunk.

And expanded consciousness means that our sources of meaning are sources of fulfillment.Our sources of.

Joy they become expanded.So,The whole.Gita while talking about various paths.

In the talking about.The path of consciousness.How we can enrich our consciousness.So if we do not follow the kita basically, that means we are not enriching our consciousness.And.By letting the consciousness we filled with complaints and temptations, for example.We deprive ourselves of the.Higher experiences that we could otherwise have had.

But when 1858 one of the several hours of the Krishna talks about choices and consequences.Much it does have.

He says if you become conscious of me, you will pass over all obstacles by my grace.However, act out of go define me.

Then you will be lost. Since this is not so much Krishna personally having a vendetta against those who don’t listen to me, it’s rather.The very nature of nature of consciousness.That if it is.

Neglected if it is it comes in pure.It makes the world around us and safe.That’s why it’s so vital for us. If you want to be live in a safer world if you want to have.Higher experiences you want to have deeper fulfillment.And it’s important if we arise into the Babuita.

Mote of wisdom and let ourselves be elevated by it.Otherwise we may well end in this ocean of ignorance.Despite whatever education we may have had from a material perspective.

End of transcript.

ISKCON Vimgarh (West Bengal, India) Up in Flames – Arson Suspected
→ ISKCON News

Photo credits: ISKCON India Communications   A preaching center of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) burned down in West Bengal’s Birbhum district on Saturday, December 17, ISKCON officials reported. No casualty was reported by ISKCON officials. The center called the ‘Bhaktivedanta Vocational Training Centre’, opened around five months ago.   According to a […]

The post ISKCON Vimgarh (West Bengal, India) Up in Flames – Arson Suspected appeared first on ISKCON News.

Devananda Pandit Disappearance
→ Ramai Swami

Sri Devananda Pandit used to live at Kuliya. He was a famous professional reciter of the Srimad Bhagavatam and many people used to study the Bhagavatam under his guidance.

   One afternoon, Srivasa Pandita came to hear Devananda Pandit’s recitation of the Bhagavatam. Hundreds of students were seated around the Pandit.

   Srivasa Pandita was a very advanced Devotee and thus, when the sweet nectar of the Bhagavatam entered his ears, his heart became softened in love of God. He started to cry and roll on the ground, his body having become agitated by the waves of ecstatic love.

   When the students of Devananda saw this, they thought, Srivasa Pandita was crazy. Thus they picked him up and carried him outside. Though Devananda saw all this, he didn’t prevent those foolish students. Srivasa tolerated and did not take any offence.

Later one day, when Mahaprabhu was taking a stroll around Nadiya, He came to Maheshvara Visharada Pandit’s house. At that time Devananda resided there. Mahaprabhu heard him reciting the Srimad Bhagavatam from outside and became very angry. He chastised him severely because of his Mayavada interpretation of Srimad-Bhagavatam.

   “What purport will that rascal explain? Not in any of his births has he understood the meaning of even one verse of the Srimad Bhagavatam. The Bhagavatam is the avatara of Sri Krishna in book form. Devotion is the only subject it teaches. The four Vedas are like yoghurt and the Bhagavatam is like butter. Srila Sukadeva Goswami did the churning and Maharaja Parikshit ate that butter. Sukadeva Goswami is very dear to Me. He knows very well that the Srimad Bhagavatam is meant to describe the truth about Me according to My own liking. Whoever sees any difference between Me, My own Devotees and the Srimad Bhagavatam simply brings destruction upon himself.” [C.B. Mad 21.13]

   Mahaprabhu made these statements in a voice loud enough for Devananda to hear. Then He turned to go back to His home. The Devotees following Him begged for more mercy. He continued, “All the scriptures state that the Srimad Bhagavatam enunciates the highest realization. Without having understood any of this, simply for the sake of name and fame as a religionist and a scholar, he poses himself as a teacher of this great book. But he doesn’t know the purport.

   “Only one who has understood that the Srimad Bhagavatam is verily the inconceivable intelligence of the Supreme Lord Himself knows that the only meaning of the Bhagavatam is devotion. In order to understand the book Bhagavata, one has to serve the Devotee-Bhagavata.”

   Devananda could hear all of these remarks from the distance, yet he thought nothing of it.

   After some time Gaurasundara accepted sannyasa and went to live at Nilachala. It was then that Devananda at last began to feel some remorse. “Such a great soul, totally imbued with love of God, but I never went even once to have His association.”

   One day Srila Vakreshvara Pandita came to Kuliya to visit one Devotee. In the evening he held a festival of dancing and chanting the Holy Name. Devananda was present on this occasion, and was completely stunned by Sri Vakreshvara’s effulgence and ecstatic chanting and dancing. As the night progressed more and more, people came to listen to his kirtan until there was finally a huge crowd. Devananda took a cane and began to control the crowd so that Vakreshvara’s dancing wouldn’t be disturbed.

   When Vakreshvara fainted in ecstatic love, Devananda carefully put his head on his lap and brushed the dust from his body with his own upper cloth. Then he smeared that dust on his own body. That was the auspicious beginning of his service to the Devotees.

   After some days, Mahaprabhu returned to Bengal to see his mother and the holy Ganges. He also came to Kuliya. At that time thousands upon thousands of people came to have darshana of His lotus feet. All of those who had previously committed offenses against Nimai Pandita by thinking Him to be an ordinary human being now came to seek His forgiveness; Mahaprabhu forgave each and every one of them. Among those present was Devananda, who fell down on the ground to offer his obeisances to Mahaprabhu. From that moment he became one of the Lord’s foremost Devotees.

   Still, he felt a little hesitant, and thus upon getting up, he stood to one side. Mahaprabhu addressed him, “Because you have served My dear Devotee Vakreshvara, I am now pleased with you. By that service you have now been able to approach Me. Within Vakreshvara’s person is Sri Krishna’s complete potency. Whoever serves him must receive Krishna’s mercy.”

   Devananda, in a faltering voice replied, “You are the Supreme controller. Simply for the sake of reclaiming fallen souls You have advented Yourself here at Nadiya. I am a sinful wretch and have never served Your lotus feet and thus was cheated of Your causeless mercy for so many years. Oh my Lord, Who resides with in the heart of all living entities, You are Supremely merciful. 

“You are the Supreme controller. Simply for the sake of reclaiming fallen souls You have advented Yourself here at Nadiya. I am a sinful wretch and have never served Your lotus feet and thus was cheated of Your causeless mercy for so many years. Oh my Lord, Who resides with in the heart of all living entities, You are Supremely merciful.”

   Only because You have shown Yourself to me have I been able to see You. O most compassionate One, please instruct me. Let me know the actual purport of the Srimad Bhagavatam.”

   Mahaprabhu replied, “Now hear Me, O brahmana, and know that the only way to explain the verses of the Bhagavatam is in terms of bhakti. In the beginning, middle and end of the Srimad Bhagavatam there is only one teaching: devotion to Vishnu, which is eternally perfect and which is never destroyed or diminished.”

   “As Krishna’s various incarnations such as Matsya and Kurma appear and disappear in this world by Their sweet will, in the same way, the Srimad Bhagavatam is not made or composed by any person. It makes its appearance and disappearance by its own sweet will. Due to the appearance of devotion, the Bhagavatam blossomed forth from Vyasadeva’s mouth, by the mercy of Sri Krishna. 

   “As the truths regarding the Supreme Authority are inconceivable, so are the truths of Srimad Bhagavatam. Many may pretend to know its meaning but they have no real grasp of the evidence the Bhagavatam presents. But whoever simply remembers the Srimad Bhagavatam while admitting himself to be ignorant can understand the real meaning.

   “The Bhagavata, which is saturated with loving devotion for Krishna, is an expansion of Krishna Himself and contains descriptions of His most confidential pastimes.” [C.B. Ant. 3.505-516]

   “Now you should beg forgiveness by catching hold of Srivasa Pandit’s feet. The book Bhagavata and the devotee Bhagavata are not different. If the devotee Bhagavata is merciful to us, then the book Bhagavata manifests its true meaning.”

   Then Devananda fell at Srivasa Pandita’s feet and begged forgiveness. Srivasa embraced him and his offense retreated far away. All the Devotees shouted in ecstasy, “Hari bol! Hari bol!”

In the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (106) it is described that he was formerly Bhāguri Muni, the sabhā-paṇḍita who recited Vedic literatures in the house of Nanda Mahārāja.

   His disappearance is on the 11th day of the dark fortnight in the month of Pausa.