He Does Not Let Us Forget Him

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I live in Boston, which is a drive of about three and a half hours from New York. Every year on the second Saturday in June, there is Rathayātrā in Manhattan. So we go down from 45th Street on Fifth Avenue all the way down to Washington Square Park. This is where Fifth Avenue ends. And then there is a festival in the park. So every time when I drive to New York, I recall when I drove Gurudeva when he came here in 2002.

When he came here, he stayed four days in our house where we had programs. At that time we did not live in Boston, we lived outside of Boston. I took Gurudeva to the pier where AC Bhaktivedānta Svāmī arrived in 1965 when he first arrived in the ship called ‘Jaladuta’ to Boston and the next day he went to New York. We also had a couple of days of singing bhajanas in the park and in the Boston Common and I also took Mahārāja to the ISKCON temple. He really liked it over here. 

I had rented a van (something like a small bus) to accommodate all the devotees coming with us and then we drove to New York. During the long drive, Mahārāja asked me to give him the map and he wanted to see our route, so I gave him the map and he had it on his lap. He always asked, he was very curious about everything that he saw. This is very interesting because when you see an elderly person you assume that the person is not completely aware of everything, maybe not interested in the outside world. But Gurudeva was always so sharp, it was unbelievable. 

So when we were driving, Gurudeva asked me questions and told me different stories. It was so nice. So now every time I go to New York I always think of Guru Mahārāja. This is really nice. That is very important because there are so many things going on in our lives and I can see myself quickly forgetting about Gurudeva, about Kṛṣṇa. 

When I login for work from home at 9 AM, always some problems come–this and that. I realize that after 5 or 6 hours, I completely forgot about Kṛṣṇa, Gurudeva and devotees because all of these problems absorb me. So it is very important for me, for example, to receive the quotes by email. 

The first thing I do in the morning when I log into work is to check my emails and then there is Gurudeva and sometimes his sayings are right on time. I start my day with arāti and so on, but when you start working, my job is always to solve computer problems and have some 50 emails with this problem or that. But it is nice when I see emails where Gurudeva’s saying something, and so it changes the whole day. So this is really nice.

When we went with Gurudeva to the ISKCON temple, he told me that when he was a brahmacārī and secretary of Śrī Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭha, Śrīla AC Bhaktivedānta Svāmī met with Śrīla Bhakti Dayita Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāja before coming to America. They spoke behind a closed door and when they finished, Mahārāja walked Bhaktivedānta Svāmī to the gate. Then Bhaktivedānta Svāmī asked Mahārāja to come with him to America. But Mahārāja was the secretary at that time, so he could not go. 

Mahārāja told me that in order not to make an offense, he did not say yes and also he did not say no—he simply did not say anything. He did not want to refuse but at the same time he could not go because he had his duties at the maṭha. So this is an interesting story. So because of that, Mahārāja felt that he offended Bhaktivedānta Svāmī. Mahārāja held that feeling that he did offense, but of course he could not do it. So when we came to the temple, he told me that he has to pay obeisances to Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Prabhupada for forgiveness.

—Sanjaya Das, Boston

spoken on June 25, 2023



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