His Care Is Everything We Need

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In Nandagoan, Śrī Vidyāsāgar, a devotee from Hoshiyarpur and also Gurujī’s god-brother, suddenly fell ill.  He was not even able to get up, so some devotees from Bhatinda and Jalandhar served him very much, yet his health deteriorated more and more.  Gurujī started worrying about him very much.  He even went several times to see him.  

When Cidānanda Prabhu returned from Varṣāṇā after completing some service in the evening, Gurujī called him to his room and told him that Vidyāsāgar should be taken to a good doctor at Kosi for immediate treatment.  The place was such that it was difficult to get a taxi at night.  Somehow Cidānanda Prabhu got one Maruti. Many devotees gathered around the van. Some devotees carried Vidyāsāgar into the van and laid him down.  Some necessary things like a water bottle, glass, a woolen blanket, and some clothes were taken along.  Cidānanda Prabhu, Śrī Rajesh of Jalandhar, and Śrī Amarnath Sharma’s son, Śrī Manoj of Bhatinda also accompanied him.  

After the van left, a strange, silent atmosphere prevailed.  It was evening assembly time and Gurujī was sitting before the kathā, and even before he spoke, his eyes were red. He had also seen the van while departing. After kirtan, Gurujī started doing vandanā.  When he opened his eyes for hari-kathā, I saw tears in his eyes. 

He started kathā, “Today my heart is very sad. Vidyāsāgar is our god-brother.  He is not rich but he offers a lot of service through his body; he is a desireless devotee. Today his health is not good.  Externally we may see a devotee to be unhappy, we may feel he is suffering, but internally it is not so. It is only seen externally like this.”  Saying these words, he started hari-kathā.

I had a very deep impression in my heart with this incident that Gurudeva is our everything – father, mother, brother, relative, and Lord.  I was thinking in the case of Vidyāsāgar none of his family members were there, but how much Gurujī was worried about him. The care given was more than family people may be able to give. I was hearing Gurujī’s hari-kathā and was cursing myself thinking that when Gurujī is giving so much attention and care to us, why do we run?

—Śrīmatī Usha Bareja (Delhi) 

Translated from Śrī Krishna Chaitanya Sandesh July-Oct, 1997 (Year 17, Issue No.4, Page 68-69) 

(reposted)


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