Swamiji calls me into his room. I bow and sit facing him, sensing something special.
"I am thinking it will be nice if you write a play about Lord Chaitanya," he tells me. "I will give you the whole plot complete. Then all you will have to do is execute it."
For two days, I sit in Swamiji’s room listening to his account of the life of Lord Chaitanya. At this time, Swamiji is also lecturing on the Chaitanya-charitamrita. There is also a translation of Chaitanya-charitamrita going about, translated by Nagendra Kumar Roy. Swamiji reads a bit of this translation and quickly finds a discrepancy. It is over one word, "rheumatism," which has been translated incorrectly from the Bengali. Swamiji immediately brands Mr. Kumar Roy a sentimentalist. The translation is inaccurate. Throw it out.
"I will give you all you need to know," he tells me.
I tape record the outline and interrupt only when the action isn’t clear.
On the second day, Swamiji tells of the passing of Haridas Thakur, one of Lord Chaitanya’s principal disciples. Recounting the details, Swamiji becomes strangely indrawn, as if it were all happening before him.
"When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited Haridas on the last day of Haridas’s life," Swamiji says, "the Lord asked, ‘Haridas, what do you desire?’ They both could understand. Haridas said, ‘It is my last day. If You would kindly stand before me…’" Swamiji suddenly falls silent a moment and looks down at his hands. "So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu stood before him," he continues, speaking softly, his eyes filling with tears. "And Haridas left his body."
Then Swamiji sits there crying silently within. It is a silence I can hear above the street noises and hum of the tape recorder. I stare at the floor, then look up, embarrassed, feeling I shouldn’t be in the room. As I begin to ask a question, Swamiji again speaks.
"After his departure," he says, "the body was taken by the Lord to the seashore, and the devotees dug his grave, which is still there, Haridas Thakur’s samadhi. And Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took up the dead body and began to dance with the body at kirtan. Thus Haridas’s funeral ceremony was conducted by the Lord Himself. "
And Swamiji continues outlining the play as though nothing had happened, his sudden, silent weeping passing with the wind.
From the "The Hare Krishna Explosion" by HG Hayagriva dasa
Disclaimer: The article is posted in the Yahoo Groups – Govindadwipa. All credits goes to the group and their services. Hare Krishna.
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