Transcendence in Action – Part 6 [granthraj]

Below is a detailed mail on the latest update on Guru Maharaj’s health from H G Devakinandan prabhu. He has also attached the email he had sent to the GBCs’ officially.

Thank you very much.
Yours in service of Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudeva,
Kalacakra Krsna das

H G Devakinandan Prabhu’s Update

Hare Krsna Prabhus and Matajis,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada and Srila Gurudev!

We would request devotees who have taken darshan of Maharaj now to  refrain from coming again to visit him too soon in the near future at the Hospital. Over the last 2 days or so, the Hospital had received many complaints from its patients that too many devotees had been flooding the lobbies and the hallway, and that has effectively broken all the visiting rules of the hospital. Other patients are demanding that they too should enjoy these flexibilities!

So, in the spirit of co-operation with the Hospital, we are requesting, with Maharaj’s blessings, that all devotees now stay at home and chant for Maharaj’s health  – follow his instructions very strictly and continue with our devotional service very seriously – that will please Gurudev more!

We also think it is important for all disciples to know what we have posted officially to GBC, at its request, on their Conference. This message was read to Maharaj and the doctor in attendance, Shamlal Prabhuji, gave us the back-up in terms of medical descriptions. I am forwarding below that message.

Since the message has gone out, we have received an overwhelming tide of messages and calls from all over the Vaishnava world of ISKCON inquiring and praying for Gurudev and his health.

H.H Gopal Krsna Maharaj and H.H Radha Govind Maharaj have visited Gurudev. H.H Lokanath Swami called too. H.H Bhakti Vikas Maharaj sent an inspiring email personally to Maharaj, appreciating Gurudev’s tremendous study and devotion to Srimad Bhagavatam and how well he has inculcated this in his disciples. I received emails from H.H Jayapataka Swami, H.H Hridayanand Gosvami, H.H BVV Narasimha Swami, H.H Kavicandra Swami, H.H Bhakticaitanya Swami, H.H Bhakti Purushottama Swami, H.G Sesa Prabhu, H.G Virabahu Prabhu, H.G Jayashila Prabhu, call from H.G Atmarama Prabhu, email from H.G Pankajanghri Prabhu from Mayapur informing us that they are doing special prayers to Lord Narasimhadev for Gurudev’s recuperation. Senior disciples and counsellors from Radha Gopinath congregation such as H.G’s Devamrta Prabhu, Gaurang Prabhu, Mahaprabhu Prabhu, Upendra Prabhu, Vrsabhanu Prabhu, Damodar Prabhu and Yudhisthira Prabhu all came to take darshan of Maharaj.

The response was always the same – how is it that Maharaj, despite his critical condition, can appear so loving, so glowing, so full of compassion for others, at the cost of ignoring his pains?

Through the years, in my limited capacity, I have come to learn one value in devotional service from Maharaj -never to underestimate the importance of control of one’s senses.

Gurudev is highly deceptive – his demeanour, at first glance, is that of an extremely friendly, amicable and loving sadhu, and he is always so compassionate that he gives us, his disciples, so much mercy and concession so that somehow or other we will grow in bhakti. No matter how errant or deviant a disciple has been, and has not admitted to it, Gurudev, who knows everything that the Lord wants him to know, has always extended more mercy to that disciple. In short, his emphasis is always on mercy and grace.

But the truth is that, while Gurudev is very merciful to us, he is merciless to himself. Gurudev instructed me many times  "…Until we learn to control our senses and bring the mind under the umbrella of devotional service, we cannot progress…".

In this terrible journey of his illness, Gurudev has demonstrated this quality acutely. For the disciples serving him day in and day out, we bear witness to his tremendous capacity to ignore the dictates of his mind and body and transcend them. Medically speaking, his condition will result in extreme fatigue and weakness – 90% of patients will have to be bedridden and have to perform all functions on the bed only.

Maharaj, at 90 years of age, still PUSHES himself (we can sense this literally when we are next to him) only with the power of his control over his mind, to wake the body, heave it into position, use the bathroom normally, take bath, shave, apply tilak and even honour prasadam.

Every physical obstacle that presents itself before Gurudev, he surmounts with control of the senses and his unsurpassable devotional service. He refuses to sleep on the more comfortable hospital bed, which is adjustable and suits his body positions; instead from day one, he has chosen to ignore his senses, which would find more comfort on the bed, and instead sleeps on the couch-sofa, which is narrow! He does not want to take a sponge bath, or not shave, or use a bedpan – he is rebelling against his mind, which is telling him otherwise.

Have you been sick, down with a common flu, and felt wiped-out? Does not your mind coax you with the following words:

"It’s okay – one day you do not have to bathe, just rest in bed, do not move, just take it easy. One day of not chanting or reading is not going to kill you…"

Maharaj told me once, when he had the stroke, that all these thoughts his mind was telling him to do – but he simply ignored and rebelled! He said that once we lose control of our senses, then, especially, in sickness and death, we cannot remember the Lord.

Gurudev refered to me to one of his favourite and most cherised verses from the Bhagavad Gita 2.64:

raaga dvesha vimuktais tu / vishayaan indriyaaish caran
aatma vashyair vidheyaatmaa / prasaadam adhigacchati

"But a person free from all attachment and aversion and able to control his senses through regulative principles of freedom can obtain the complete mercy of the Lord."

This is the only verse in whole Gita where the Supreme Lord directly reveals how to attract his mercy. And Gurudev instructs that freedom from aversion and attachment can only come on the basis of how much serious endeavour (grnatas ca sva-cestitam) you are making to control your senses for the pleasure and satisfaction of the Lord, and not for the sake of control or being like sadhu baba. This genuine attempt to control senses immediately attracts His mercy.

So I learnt that devotional service practiced by Gurudev is very very stringent, on himself, but that stringency attracts the mercy of the Lord, and He reciprocates in a pleasing manner for both His pure devotee and Himself.

Throughout his illness, I have yet to see a day when Gurudev has not chanted lovingly the Lord’s names, albeit with great physical difficulty of breathing. That is why despite all the material bodily difficulties, his perfect and regulated control, based on the platform of his unswerving devotional service to the Lord and His mission, has in fact FREED him from the formalities of this material world.

I have learnt from Gurudev that the biggest formality of this material world is disease and death! And he said to be free of both you must follow in the footsteps of Narada Muni in 1.6.34:

naamaany anantasya hata-trapah patan
guhyaani bhadraani krtaani ca smaran
gaam paryatan tushta maanaa gata sprhah
kaalam pratikshan vimado vimatsarah

"Thus I began chanting the holy name and fame of the Lord by repeated recitation, ignoring all the formalities of the material world. Such chanting and remembering of the transcendental pastimes of the Lord are benedictory. So doing, I traveled all over the earth, fully satisfied, humble and unenvious."

In concluding, the symptom of our devotional service, the control of our senses will be expressed in our character and behaviour – if the end product is that we are fully satisfied, genuinely humble and unenvious, then we are freed of the sufferings of old age, disease and death, as our beloved spiritual master is now demonstrating to us in the journey of his life.

Will keep you updated.
Your servant
Devakinandan Das

Message Sent to the GBC

Dear Virabahu Prabhuji (GBC),

I have discussed Gurudev’s health with the wonderful doctor devotees in Bhaktivedanta Hospital and write to you and respected members of the GBC as follows:-

1. Maharaj has been having bronchial asthma for a long time, at least the last 25 years or so. Since the past 2 1/2 months, however, his physical condition has been deteriorating. He has been running mild fever on and off, with progressive worsening of breathlessness. His age is also a factor – he just turned 90 on 2nd December 2009.

2. Maharaj was admitted to the Bhaktivedanta Hospital 15 days back, where he reluctantly received a short course of antibiotics. I use the word ‘reluctantly’ because Maharaj, in the past, has always sought to avoid allopathic medicine. After the short course of antibiotics, Maharaj returned to Nashik, where he normally stays, in a small kutir, reading and studying Srimad Bhagavatam and chanting.

3. However, his condition in Nashik worsened, and he was once again admitted to the Hospital with severe breathlessness due to an acute exacerbation of bronchial asthma. The senior physicians and chest specialists at the Hospital have a strong suspicion of tuberculosis as the cause of the infection that is worsening Maharaj’s condition.

4. Presently, Maharaj is on a very conservative line of treatment (no injections or antibiotics) as per his desire and wishes.  His condition remains critical with hour to day variations in the general condition, primarily his breathlessness.

5. He has refused any aggressive line of treatment. He told me, "Devaki, I have firm faith in the Lord, I am ready to move according to His will..".

6. The positive thing, Prabhuji, is that Maharaj continues to have a stable appetite and is fully conscious and aware of all that is happening around him. He could be completely breathless for hours, and then, when devotee visit him, he suddenly whips out Srimad Bhagavatam (one volume) and gives a powerful and detailed lecture on devotional service! I am really perplexed – it is true that no one can understand the workings of an exalted Vaishnava.

7. That is all I have right now Prabhuji – I informed Maharaj I am writing this email to you – he informed me to send you and GBC his dandavats – I am very thankful, on behalf of his disciples and well wishers, of GBC’s concern for him, and take comfort in your powerful prayers.

8. I will continue to keep you updated if you so direct me to.

Your servant,
Devakinandan Das

Disclaimer: This article was originally published in the Yahoo Groups granthraj – run by the disciples of H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj – by the devotee name mentioned above. The posting in this article, is original realizations of our Guru Maharaj and the devotee who wrote this. Any comments regarding this article would be passed on directly to the devotee. In this article, ‘Maharaj’ and ‘Gurudev’ implicitly refer to our spiritual master H H Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj.

Related posts:

1. Transcendence in Action – Part 8 [granthraj]
2. Transcendence in Action – Part 7 [granthraj]
3. Transcendence in Action – Part 5 [granthraj]
4. Transcendence In Action – Part 4 [granthraj]
5. Transcendence in Action – Part 3 [granthraj]
6. Transcendence in Action – Part 2 [granthraj]
7. Transcendence in Action [granthraj]