ISKCON Hong Kong Ratha-Yatra For One And All (Album of photos)…
→ Dandavats



ISKCON Hong Kong Ratha-Yatra For One And All (Album of photos)
Giridhari Swami: On December 24th, ISKCON Hong Kong held its annual Ratha-Yatra festival, attended by about 200 devotees and friends.
We started holding this festival back in the 1980’s, taking small deities of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balarama and Lady Subhadra on a hand-held palanquin. Even in those days, our small sankirtan party of 30 devotees was often lost in an ocean of thousands of merry-makers, all seeking sense gratification. From their faces, it was obvious that they were disappointed with that pursuit and our little festival brought some ray of light, hope and happiness to their dull lives.
Several years ago, a larger ratha cart was added along with larger deities of Their Lordships and Srila Prabhupada. This year, the children pulled their very own Ratha-Yatra cart. In many ways, they created more of a sensation than the adults pulling the larger cart, as indicated by the many people who stopped to take photos.
As in past years, the holy name resounded beautifully and loudly throughout the central shopping district of Tsim Sha Tsui. Thousands heard the holy name and took darsana of Their Lordships, along with Their best servant Srila Prabhupada. Many also received books and prasadam.
ISKCON Hong Kong Ratha Yatra ki-jaya! Lord Jagannath, Baladeva, Subhadra ki-jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki-jaya!
Find them here: https://goo.gl/6LV2cH

Do you want to end the cause of the conditioned state of existence?
→ Dandavats



Do you want to end the cause of the conditioned state of existence?
Read or listen how you can achieve it according to Srimad-Bhagavatam and Srila Prabhupada.
“Thus being fixed, one must render service unto the Supersoul situated in everyone’s own heart by His omnipotency. Because He is the Almighty Personality of Godhead, eternal and unlimited, He is the ultimate goal of life, and by worshiping Him one can end the cause of conditioned state of existence.”

New Year Festival at ISKCON Gaya
→ Dandavats

Hare KrishnaOn 31st evening ISKCON Gaya celebrated new year festival theme "Naya saal ka umang .. Krishna Kanhaiya ke sang". Program started with a Krishna conscious movie followed by a number of dances and dramas by ISKCON Youth Forum and ISKCON Girls Forum devotees. Jagdish Shyam Das(GM, ISKCON Gaya) addressed the audience about "Applying Bhagavad Gita in our daily life". The audience took a vow to read Bhagavad Gita 3 hours weekly in the new year. 2019 was welcomed by mantra rock show and each danced chanting the holy name. Snacks prasadam at beginning and dinner prasadam at the end was distributed..

Secret appearance of Vrajendra Nandan Krishna!
→ Dandavats

Hare KrishnaBy Giriraj dasa

The different between Krishna’s appearance in Vrindavana and His appearance in Mathura and Dvaraka is described in, Yamala Tantra: “The Krishna known as Yadukumara is Vasudeva Krishna. He is different from the Krishna who is the son of Nanda Maharaja. Yadukumara Krishna manifests His pastimes in the cities of Mathura and Dvaraka, but Krishna the son of Nanda Maharaja never at any time leaves Vrindavana. Continue reading "Secret appearance of Vrajendra Nandan Krishna!
→ Dandavats"

New Year’s Resolutions
Giriraj Swami

Most resolutions take the form of “do’s”—things I resolve to do—and “don’ts”—things I resolve to not do. And Vedic wisdom tells us that all do’s and don’ts should support one main do—always remember Krishna (God)—and one main don’t—never forget Him.

Now, practically, what can we do to always remember Krishna and never forget Him? The item most favorable for remembering Him is chanting and hearing: chanting and hearing His holy names—the Hare Krishna maha-mantra—and chanting and hearing His transcendental topics—krsna-katha such as the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. And in broad terms, the items most obstructive to remembering Him are mental speculation and sense gratification, especially vicious activities against Vedic principles, or God’s laws—activities that include eating meat, taking intoxicants, engaging in illicit sex, and gambling.

So, for our New Year’s resolutions, we can resolve to increase our chanting of the Hare Krishna mantra, especially on beads, and our reading of Srila Prabhupada’s books. And we can resolve to decrease, or stop, activities detrimental to Krishna consciousness. And in our efforts, the Lord will help us, for God helps those who help themselves.

We wish you a happy New Year—in Krishna consciousness—by the grace of Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga.

Hare Krishna.

Yours in service,
Giriraj Swami

Sydney Harinama and Govindas Asrama
→ Ramai Swami

There’s always plenty of kirtan going on with devotees from Govindas Asrama in Sydney, from harinama downtown to programs back at the asrama itself.

I visit quite regularly and it’s always a pleasure to be able to participate with leading kirtans and giving talks. Prasadam back at the asrama is always great too.

NEW VRINDABAN DAYS – CHAPTER 10
→ New Vrindaban Brijabasi Spirit

New Vrindaban ISKCON 50th Anniversary Banner

NEW VRINDABAN DAYS – CHAPTER 10

As New Vrindaban winds up its celebration for its 50th anniversary (1968 to 2018), begins its 50th year of cow protection (1969 to 2019) as well as the 40th anniversary of the dedication of Srila Prabhupada’s Palace (1979 to 2019), I wrote this series of articles for the Brijabasi Spirit in an attempt to give the reader not only an “understanding,” but more importantly a “taste,” of what life in early New Vrindaban was like – through the stories of one devotee’s personal journey.

The title of this series, “New Vrindaban Days,” is in tribute to the wonderful book “Vrindaban Days: Memories of an Indian Holy Town” written by Howard Wheeler, Hayagriva Dasa. He was one of Srila Prabhupada’s first disciples, a co-founder of New Vrindaban, and, a great writer. As with Hayagriva’s book, this series focuses on a period of time in the 1970’s.

I would also like to acknowledge and thank Chaitanya Mangala Dasa, for spending untold hours assisting me in refining my writing for your reading pleasure.

I have been asked to describe certain aspects of early New Vrindaban Community life such as the nature of the austerities, what it was like for a new person coming here, cooking, anecdotes about particular devotees, etc.

I attempt to tell these stories in some semblance of a chronological order, beginning with my first meeting with devotees in 1968, leading to my arrival in New Vrindaban in late 1973 and carrying through to the official opening of Srila Prabhupada’s Palace in 1979.

This article describes some of my experiences from 1974, the first year I lived in New Vrindaban.

Advaitacharya Dasa

CHAPTER TEN: Fire and Brimstone – Cooking It Up

ISKCON New Vrindaban Radha Chandra Altar 1975

An offering of love to Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra, on Their Bahulaban altar, 1975

Although I have given an account of what prasadam is like on a daily basis, I have yet to give the reader insight into what it means to cook for Krishna and His devotees in New Vrindaban.

There are many great cooks in the history of New Vrindaban far more qualified to talk about how New Vrindaban became known for some of the best prasadam in the world. Right now it is left to me and I will try to give both the prasadam, and the wonderful devotees responsible for its preparation, their due.

I will start by acknowledging what I am about to say is no doubt subjective. Regardless, it is also unequivocally true.

Amburish Pits Sweet Rice New Vrindaban ISKCON

Amburish preparing sweet rice over an open fire pit at Bahulaban,.

Sudhanu is the best festival cook in ISKCON. Vijaya’s potato kachoris cannot be beat. Radhanath (Swami) makes the best sandesh in the world. Candramauli (Swami) prepares the best khoa, Dharmakala the best curd cheesecake and Kuladri (my teacher) the best halavah. Kutila is the best all-around Deity cook, Lajjavati makes the best milk sweets, Bhokta the best baked goods, Amburish the best sweet rice, & Hladini the best cinnamon buns.

ISKCON New Vrindaban Bahulaban Taru in the pits mid 1970s

Taru heating milk in the pits at Bahulaban, mid 1970s

No devotee can roll festival ladhus faster, or more uniform in size, than Kripacharya, and besides Taru, the official “prasadam addict,” no devotee loves prasadam more than Maha Yogi.

I’ve heard it said a great cook has the ability to make a preparation taste good, look as good as it tastes, and make exactly the right quantities. A great devotee cook is always cooking with the pleasure of Krishna and His devotees in mind, making it a meditation of love and devotion.

No doubt the qualities I mention above may also be achievable by other wonderful cooks throughout the movement.

I hold firm my assertions about the pioneer New Vrindaban cooks for the following reasons:

  1. No other devotees have the luxury to cook these preparations using the sweet milk, butter, and ghee from the wonderful surabhi cows of New Vrindaban. After his first visit to New Vrindaban, Srila Prabhupada stated: “The milk which we are taking here is not at all comparable with New Vrindaban milk.”
  2. The preparations they cook do not become mixed with the saliva of the Deities Srila Prabhupada gazed upon, referencing them as the standard of “village beauty” – Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra.
  3. Even if they had, I also know that it is unlikely they cooked these preparations day after day, for as many years as the devotees of New Vrindaban did.
  4. And, here is the absolute show stopper. Even if other ISKCON cooks were fortunate enough to have done all the above, I know they did not make those preparations under the austere conditions I describe below.
ISKCON New Vrindaban Deity Kitchen 1970s

Bhaktinidhi cooking in the Deity Kitchen at Bahulaban, mid 1970s.

The Bahulaban Deity Kitchen of Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra:

The kitchen is a 12 ft. X 15 ft. cinder block building painted light green. Inside, the floor is made of donated marble, making it unforgiving to stand on for long periods of time, and it is freezing cold all winter. Many of the women that cook in this kitchen experience varicose veins before they are thirty. The counters are also made of marble. While that may seem opulent, in reality they are cold, hard, rough on knives and even rougher on hands in the winter.

In the kitchen are primitive wood stoves, from the late eighteen hundreds. The ventilation is poor and the burning of wood means there is always a hint of smoke in the kitchen. Many of the cooks’ eyes are red, dry & itchy. Some of their tear ducts have been damaged so severely they are unable to cry.

Cooking on wood makes it practically impossible to control the heat. The condition of the stove, the hardness of the wood, how small it has been split, whether it is green or dry, etc., all affect our ability to cook. We don’t have the luxury to turn the gas lower or higher. There is no gas.

Throughout the winter the wood is cut directly outside the kitchen building by devotees like Bhakta Burt (Bhavisyat Das) and Bhakta Chris (Kripamaya Das), who are constantly covered with snow and ice.

Keeping fires going with wet or green wood is practically a feat of magic. If the cook is inattentive for even a minute the fire could go out, or go real low, and that impacts the entire cooking process.
Before these masters of the kitchen can begin cooking their preparations, they often have to deal with a high likelihood the cooks before them were on a tight schedule and moved on to their next service without cleaning up. Washing the cooking utensils is not as easy as one might imagine. Because they are cooking with wood, the pots are covered with a thick coat of black soot.

There is no hot water so a cook is forced to scrub with ice cold water. If they use larger pots they can’t be washed in the kitchen sink and must be carried out of the kitchen to the “pot room,” which is actually the furnace room in the cellar of the hundred year old farmhouse we have converted into a temple.

My first experience of washing pots did not involve the luxury of hot water, steel wool, or even dish soap. Instead it was done by scraping the bottom of the pot with a fist sized flat rock, using ashes from the wood fire as an abrasive cleanser.

Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra receive seven bhoga offerings a day. The lunch offering alone consists of more than a dozen dishes. The schedule is grueling. One cook, or team of cooks, finishes an offering when another cook or team arrives to begin the next one. These austere conditions continue not just for weeks, not just for months, not just for years – but for more than a decade. These devotees become expert in their service.

ISKCON New Vrindaban Temple Feast

Devotees prepare a Sunday feast in the temple room at the original Vrindaban farmhouse, 1971.

The Vrindaban Kitchen of Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Nath:

The cellar of the original farmhouse at the Vrindaban farm can only be compared to what one might imagine a dungeon to be like. Behind the old, small farmhouse, which houses both the temple and the brahmachari ashram, one enters the cellar through an old wooden plank door.

The foundation of the building is made of large cut limestone which form the walls of the cellar. The ceiling is no more than six feet high. The floor is rough concrete. Making a sharp left turn through a doorway is the Deity kitchen. Conditions in this kitchen are even more harsh than the one at Bahulaban. The stoves are older, the ventilation worse, the space smaller. All the problems of dealing with wood fires are magnified here.

This kitchen is almost always inhabited by Candramauli (Swami) whose eyes are also damaged from excessive contact with the wood smoke. Candramauli is from New Jersey and both he and his sister Kunjari live in New Vrindaban. Candramauli is the primary cook for Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Nath. His specialty is various milk sweets such as khoa, pera, burfi, and more.

Although Radhanath (Swami) is the head Pujari, he also makes the Deity’s sandesh. Sandesh is a milk sweet made from curd that has been hand kneaded until it is silky smooth. Radhanath perfected not only the art of cooking sandesh but he also makes what I can only describe as Neopolitan Sandesh. Even though each piece is no more than one inch thick Radhanath has mastered layering it in three different colors. It is perfectly layered as if it has been made using precision machinery when in actuality it has been painstakingly cooked on an ancient and defective wood burning stove and hand layered and rolled in a dungeon like root cellar.

Whenever Kirtanananda Swami travels to see Srila Prabhupada he brings Radhanath’s sandesh with him for His Divine Grace. Srila Prabhupada personally described Radhanath’s preparation as the most “first class sandesh I have tasted in your country.” One time the Swami traveled to India and forgot to bring a box with him. When Srila Prabhupada asked for it a package was promptly shipped from New Vrindaban via express mail.

ISKCON Prabhupada New Vrindaban Vrindaban Nath 1976

Srila Prabhupada greets Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Nath at the Vrindaban farmhouse, 1976.

The Madhuban Kitchen of Sri Sri Radha Madhava and Lord Jagannath:

From an external perspective, Madhuban is the least regarded of the three prominent temples of New Vrindaban. Only a handful of devotees live there and it generally gets the lowest amount of attention. Hladini Devi Dasi, who although living in a ramshackle old farmhouse, considers herself to be residing in a celestial palace in the association of her beloved Lord Jagannath. She cooks the offerings with help of Ruparamesvari Dasi. Rupa has written about her experiences in the kitchen with Hladini and hopefully it will be published as well. For those who remember Hladini and her cooking, I have only these words: Lord Jagannath’s huge, smoky flavored cinnamon buns.

ISKCON New Vrindaban Madhuban altar Jagannath 1974

Their Lordships on the Madhuban altar, circa 1974.

The Devotee Prasadam Kitchen at Bahulaban – aka “The Pits:”

ISKCON New Vrindaban outdoor kitchen pits 1970s

Bahulaban Pits, from let to right: Sobhavati, Sankirtan, Bhokta, Advaita, Kutila, Kuladri, mid 1970s

In a community of devotees all prasadam is prepared first and foremost for the pleasure of Lord Krishna. As the Bahulaban kitchen became too small to cook everything in, sometime in late 1973, a corrugated steel roof was hung off one side of the building and all preparations intended for the devotees began to be cooked outside over open wood fires. New Vrindaban residents affectionately refer to the outdoor kitchen arrangement as “the pits.”

The pits contain four burners that are at different times made of either stacked bricks or fifty five gallon steel drums, cut in half. The bricks, having too much water content, often explode, spreading the equivalent of shrapnel around the area. Although a cook’s lower legs are scorched, the rest of our body is freezing due to the fact we are cooking outdoors with no shelter but a tin roof over our head. And, as I’ve already mentioned, there was more black soot than the amount encountered by the London chimney sweeps of a Charles Dickens tale.
Giving a full idea of what cooking in “the pits” was like It could fill an entire book, but since I am only writing a short chapter I will leave the reader with a few images to ponder.

ISKCON New Vrindaban Bahulaban 1976 or 77 Outdoor kitchen pits Left Lakhima right Sobhavati

Ladies preparing chapatis in the outdoor Kitchen at Bahulaban 1976 or 77. On left, Lakhima; Right, Sobhavati.

Women, like Shyama, Madri and others, rolling hundreds of chapatis outdoors daily in the early morning darkness of winter… Bhokta leaping into a barrel of whey to extinguish his dhoti that caught fire… Sobhavati’s sari catching flame and her spending countless hours cleaning the large blackened pots with cold water in the grungy furnace room… Cooks starting breakfast prasadam before Mangala Arti at 4 AM, first having to drag forty gallons of water twenty feet from the pot room and then starting outdoor fires with wood covered in ice….

So again, I stand behind my statement, which is no doubt subjective – yet, unequivocally true. These cooks – and the prasadam they prepared – are amazing examples of the mood of deep surrender among the pioneer New Vrindaban devotees.

Even more simply put, for me, they were, are, and will forever be, the best.

All glories to their sincere service and devotion!

—————————————————————————————-

Did you miss a previous chapter? Click the links below and catch up:

Chapter 1: Every Journey Begins With a Single Step

Chapter 2: Srila Prabhupada – Jaya Radha Madhava

Chapter 3: Captured by the Beauty of Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra

Chapter 4: Fired Up – We Depend On Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra

Chapter 5: The New Vrindaban Landscape – January 1974

Chapter 6: In The Woods

Chapter 7: Prasadam

Chapter 8: Propaganda

Chapter 9: The Death of Vedic Civilization

Stay tuned for Chapter 11: A Lifelong Pact (Sudhanu and Advaitacharya)

The next monthly installment will be posted February 2019!

20 Day Odisha Padayatra Organized By Iskcon Bhubaneswar
→ Dandavats

Hare KrishnaFor remembrance, the Sri Krishna Balaram Temple of Bhubaneswar was the last project founded by Srila Prabhupada, and it was inaugurated in 1991. It was Srila Prabhupada’s dear disciple, Gour Govinda Swami, the epitome of Krishna consciousness in Odisha, who started padayatra in 1992 for preaching Krishna Consciousness in the rural areas of Odisha in order to inculcate pure Vaisanava philosophy in the minds of simple villagers in the line of Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

Uploaded transcriptions for Janmashtami-krishna-katha part 1 and 2
→ The Spiritual Scientist

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2018/09/janmashtami-krishna-katha-1-krishna-freed-kings-jarasandha-krishna-frees-us//

https://www.thespiritualscientist.com/2018/09/janmashtami-krishna-katha-2-krishna-freed-princesses-naraka//

The post Uploaded transcriptions for Janmashtami-krishna-katha part 1 and 2 appeared first on The Spiritual Scientist.

Ecstatic New Year’s Eve Harinam in Piccadilly Circus, London (2 min video)
→ Dandavats



Ecstatic New Year’s Eve Harinam in Piccadilly Circus, London (2 min video)
Srila Prabhupada: All glories to the all-blissful holy name of Sri Krishna, which causes the devotee to give up all conventional religious duties, meditation and worship. When somehow or other uttered even once by a living entity, the holy name awards him liberation. The holy name of Krishna is the highest nectar. It is my very life and my only treasure. (Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 4.71 purport).

An album of old photos of mother Yamuna
→ Dandavats

Hare KrishnaYamuna Devi Dasi, disciple of Srila Prabhupada, well known as Govindam prayers that we hear and chant daily morning 7:15 at darsan arati, for her love of pure kirtan, for her ecstatic award winning cook books which were infused with spiritual anecdotes, for greatly inspiring and encouraging the younger generation of ISKCON devotees in their Krishna Consciousness.

WSN November 2018 – World Sankirtan Newsletter
→ Dandavats

Hare KrishnaBy Mayapur Sasi dasa

For the pleasure of Srila Prabhupada this report contains the following results of book distribution for the month of November 2018 from the whole planet. World Totals, Monthly Congregation and Weekend Warriors, Monthly Continents, Monthly Top Ten Temples by Size, Monthly Top Ten Temples by Continent, Monthly Top Teams and Individuals, Monthly All Countries, Monthly All Temples, Monthly All Prabhupada Disciples, Cumulative Top Ten Countries, Cumulative Top Ten Temples, Cumulative Top 50 Individuals Worldwide Continue reading "WSN November 2018 – World Sankirtan Newsletter
→ Dandavats"

Yamuna-devi—Serving Vani and Vapuh
Giriraj Swami

Srila Prabhupada’s beloved disciple Yamuna-devi dasi passed away on Saphala-ekadasi, which falls on Tuesday, January 1.

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—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 and on always thinking about Krishna and never forgetting Him. I had heard that Srila Prabhupada had said that if you have trouble hearing you should chant loudly. So 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 across their chests and machine guns slung over their shoulders. And as we deplaned and walked 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. While 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 got the inspiration to approach 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 completely around, saying that Srila Prabhupada had sent me to engage them in thinking about him and about topics of deep significance. 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 Gurvastaka prayers in the morning. He tried to teach it to some of the men, but they couldn’t quite get it. Then he decided to instruct Yamuna, 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.

After a few days, 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. Srila Prabhupada occupied one room, Yamuna and Kausalya the other, and the men slept either in the courtyard or in a large common hall for sadhus.

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 gave 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 would chant in the courtyard. It was very cold in Amritsar in November, but it got 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. When she chanted, she told me, her ears and mind and heart opened up to the holy names and the names would enter and she would just hear the sound. She was not even thinking that she was chanting the holy names or that these were names she was hearing—she was just fully absorbed in the sound.

After Amritsar, Srila Prabhupada and his party returned 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, 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 (in urgent cases, run) around the courtyard to use the simple latrine.

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 hope 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 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. One day there, when I was chanting my rounds on the roof of the house where we all were staying, somehow my mind got fixed on an idea. I had heard that Srila Prabhupada had said that if you could deliver just one soul back home, back to Godhead, then your own deliverance would be 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 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 been translated and published then, so Prabhupada read from his Sanskrit Bhagavatam with commentaries, sometimes translating from Sridhara Swami’s comments and occasionally from Jiva Gosvami’s. While there, I heard that Srila Prabhupada had said that he was speaking for Yamuna.

In April 2007, when Yamuna visited me at my ashram in Carpinteria, California, I asked her about it. And she told me something that etched an indelible impression on my heart. As she explained, she had always thought she had as much right as anyone 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 considered that men should walk or sit closer to Prabhupada, and women further away. The movement had been like that in the early days—like a family.

In Allahabad, however, one of the sannyasis explained to Yamuna that in India the women sat apart and that she should too. So during the next morning’s lecture she sat at some distance from Srila Prabhupada. Later that morning, 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; it 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 always be with them. But, she told me, every disciple must come to a personal realization that there will come 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 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 “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,” she said, “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 understood 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 so 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. Although we were raising funds for the pandal program, we needed it all for the event. And the treasurer, Rishi Kumar, was very tight with the money, which Srila Prabhupada considered a good quality for the treasurer. Sometimes Rishi Kumar would put a sign on his office door: “Closed for three days.” So, Yamuna was charged with raising the funds for the Deities—including the large marble ones that had just arrived. 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 would be a program at the beach, at which the large ones, Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari, would be revealed for the first time to the people of Bombay. And Yamuna 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, and she inspired that kind of response in others.

From Bombay, Srila Prabhupada sent Tamal Krishna and me to Calcutta to arrange a similar pandal program, and eventually Yamuna 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 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.” 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. “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 [though I was actually quite new], 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 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 all 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. Later, 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-Damodar 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. After Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura left, Professor Kapoor had taken shelter of a babaji as a siksa-guru (instructing spiritual master). Srila Bhaktisiddhanta had vehemently criticized this line of babajis, who had staunchly opposed some of his essential principles. So this was a peculiar situation, that Professor Kapoor had taken shelter of one of these babajis. 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. I didn’t see Gurudas or Yamuna for many years. But then somehow my relationship with Yamuna was revived. She had really been 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 concerned about the mission, that Srila Prabhupada’s legacy should be preserved as it is and not adulterated or compromised.

I also saw how absorbed Yamuna-devi was 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.” (Cc Madhya 22.128)

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.

Yamuna-devi was also fully devoted to Deity worship. One of the basic principles of Deity worship is cleanliness, and Yamuna didn’t distinguish between cleaning the guru’s ashram and cleaning the Deity room; she considered personal service to Srila Prabhupada to be in the same category as personal service to the Deity. And of course, she was right. Once, a devotee came forward to fan Srila Prabhupada and Srila Prabhupada stopped him, saying that he wasn’t a brahman. “In Bombay,” she told me, “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.”

Around the time of the first Bombay pandal, when we were 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 whole heart into it.

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—chanting and hearing—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. Thus he didn’t have much time to personally train disciples in pancaratrika-vidhi, procedures related to deity worship. But he did train her. 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 he had trained her very strictly. He had his four-tiered cooker, and if he found a black spot on the bottom of any of the sections, he would really chastise her, or whoever had done the cleaning: “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 in which she would go from bottom to top and top to bottom. First she would get the big dirt off the floor, then she would work her way up the walls 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: What with the drifting 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 replied, meaning the she hadn’t yet learned. “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 stapler. Srila Prabhupada took the stapler, 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, and . . . dust. “When will you learn how to clean?” he asked.

If Srila Prabhupada had had the time, Yamuna 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 to absorb his instruction—and he would train them accordingly.

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

Cooking, like cleanliness, is also part of Deity worship, and Yamuna-devi was 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 red Punjabi wheat berries. You have to grind them in the morning, and then you have to cook the rotis with neem wood.”

When Prabhupada came she didn’t say a word to him, but she got red Punjabi wheat berries, had them ground in the morning, and then cooked the rotis with neem wood. When she went in to serve Srila Prabhupada and put a hot roti on his plate, he took one bite and said, “This is from red Punjabi wheat berries. You ground them this morning and cooked the rotis with neem wood.” She hadn’t said a word to him—he just knew. And even then, he had a suggestion for improvement. “Just one thing,” he said. “If you cook them one or two seconds more, they will be perfect.”

That was at the Radha-Damodar temple in 1972. Yamuna also recounted a sequel, from Raman Reti in 1973:

“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 bearing 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 will still have a crust of flour. So you use a minimal amount for the ball bearing and then flap off the little extra.

“Maharaja’s 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 concluded, “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 had become 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 at Fogel Ashram. Under the circumstances—trying to make arrangements for the devotees’ prasada without any facility, unable to speak Hindi and communicate with the locals, and with assistant cooks ready to walk out at any moment, Yamuna was working practically twenty-four hours a day and really didn’t have time to cook for Srila Prabhupada. So she was very happy that the new cook was there. 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 commented later, “Bad, very bad—really low consciousness.”

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

Yamuna had given the new cook specific instructions. Still, the woman had taken Srila Prabhupada’s cooker and his unclean laundry and stuffed them in a bolster pillowcase meant for his seating area, and it was 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.

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

Of course, Yamuna-devi is still well known for her engagement in the next process of devotional service—kirtan. Once, she had a dream or vision—whatever it was, she took it as very real. She was a sage in the forest and Srila Prabhupada was also there, and he engaged her in doing kirtan. She felt that from her past life there was a connection with Srila Prabhupada in relation to kirtan.

“Srila Prabhupada’s kirtan,” she said, “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 Yamuna 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. 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. “Prabhupada freely gave everything to all of us,” she said. “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 fully Prabhupada knew his disciples. She came to the courtyard of the Radha-Damodar temple in the wee hours of one 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 form, 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. After Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance day in 2009, Yamuna wrote me a letter that shows her deep absorption in Srila Prabhupada and in the holy names, and her intimate relationship with Srila Prabhupada. 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 Mandira with our morning program, 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, she would lead kirtan before thousands of people, speak before thousands of people, and render personal service to Srila Prabhupada. 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 Yamuna-devi’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 regard to her heart. Because of her age and size, the doctors were afraid to perform an invasive procedure, yet if they didn’t, she could 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.

A few times she said 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, 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, but 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 was.

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 she had a slight smile 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, even now.

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 Yamuna wrote me some years ago, which has given me some solace and guidance:

“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.”

New Year’s Eve Harinam in Auckland NewZealand (Album of…
→ Dandavats



New Year’s Eve Harinam in Auckland NewZealand (Album of photos)
Goodbye 2018, welcome 2019.
Srila Prabhupada: Chanting the holy name is the chief means of attaining love of Godhead. This chanting or devotional service does not depend on any paraphernalia, nor on ones having taken birth in a good family. By humility and meekness one attracts the attention of Krishna. That is the verdict of all the Vedas. (Caitanya-caritamrta, Antya-lila, 4.71 purport)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/abXv5j

Happy New Year 2019
→ Servant of the Servant

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year 2019. A devotee always tries to see everything through the vision of Krishna's teachings. Below is Srila Prabhupada's vision of the new year;

So far as we are concerned, our new year is every day because Krishna belongs to the nitya lila. Nitya lila means that all of His Pastimes are going on in either of the so many universes. It is just like the rising of the sun. In your country the sun is supposed to rise at 6:30 at the present moment, but at any time you can inquire in some part of the world and there it is the same 6:30 and sunrise. While you are in this meridian, in another country it may be 6:30 AM, and the sun is rising.
- Srila Prabhupada, 1969

If also cultivate a vision that every day is like a new year by meditating on the nitya lila of Krishna, our life certainly will be fresh and new every day thus giving us joy!

I started writing this blog 11 years ago and now this is my 1000th post. I extend the readers of this blog my gratitude.

Hare Krishna.

Did you know? 545,599,371 pieces of literature authored by His…
→ Dandavats



Did you know?
545,599,371 pieces of literature authored by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada have been distributed worldwide by his sincere followers since 1965 to the end of November.
6,080,380 literatures this year.
601,385 literatures the month of November.
These are official stats issued by the BBT (Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, the publishing agency of Srila Prabhupada’s books)
Sankirtan Yajna ki Jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Snana Yatra celebration at Hare Krishna Melbourne (Album of…
→ Dandavats



Snana Yatra celebration at Hare Krishna Melbourne (Album of photos)
Aniruddha Dāsa: Snana Yatra was celebrated with enthusiasm, dedication and exuberance this year. Great decorations by Jaya Radha and her team. It was also Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Ṭhākura’s Disappearance Day. You’ll see him on the Vyāsāsana and Prabhupāda sitting on our smaller Vyāsaāsana. Just in case you were wondering.
Find them here: https://goo.gl/YJkcwg

Kirtan night at Mayapur (Album of photos) Srila Prabhupada:…
→ Dandavats



Kirtan night at Mayapur (Album of photos)
Srila Prabhupada: Those who are advanced and highly qualified and are interested in the essence of life know the good qualities of Kali-yuga. Such people worship the age of Kali because in this age, simply by chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, one can advance in spiritual knowledge and thus attain life’s goal. (Srimad-Bhagavatam, 11.5.36)
Find them here: https://goo.gl/5rK2pG