Sridham Mayapur

Part Two                       

 

Nand Kishor prabhu, the Temple President from Mira Road in Bombay, spoke next. Although there were only godbrothers speaking and glorifying Srila Gurudeva's service to Srila Prabhupada, Nand  Kishor had a special reason for wanting to speak: he had just received word from the Municipal Council in
Bombay that a crossroad on Mira Road was to be called "Tamal Krishna Goswami Chowk." The announcement was met with loud applause and cheering from the audience! Nand Kishor then recalled a pastime in London that he'd had with Gurudeva. "He came to the Manor, this was around 1984. I was to pick him up at the airport. So due to traffic and so on, I arrived a little late, and as I approached the airport pickup, there was Tamal Krishna Goswami climbing into a London taxi. I was beeping my horn and waving but he didn't see me. Or maybe he did! Anyway, I followed the taxi, trying to get his attention, but he was sitting in the back just looking straight ahead. I followed that taxi all the way to the Manor, along the motorway. That's a long trip for those of you who don't know. A long trip. In 1984 it cost 80 British pounds for that trip. When we arrived at the Manor, I pulled up behind the taxi, and Tamal Krishna Goswami was just getting out. I rushed up to the door but he just walked straight past me and said, 'Pay the driver!' and kept walking." I believe Nand Kishor prabhu received the loudest and longest laugh of the day with that tale. It was the straightforward and absolute mood of Gurudeva's that everyone there---his godbrothers and disciples alike---were completely familiar with. We all owe Nand Kishor our thanks for his latest service, but he is also due some thanks that date back to this time at the Manor. Srila Gurudeva asked him to fund the printing of "Servant of the Servant," and he did. There are thousands of devotees worldwide who appreciate that book very much, and so Nand Kishor was an honored guest today at the functions. He spoke about how he was aspiring for initiation from Gurudeva, but after some heavy exchanges he realized, "I can't takethis any more!" and took shelter of HH Bhakti Caru Swami. The first time he met with Gurudeva after his initiation (in 1992) he was thinking, "Oh no,
what will he say? He'll be so angry with me." But Gurudeva was very kind, and pleased with Nand Kishor. He said to him, "You might have escaped me,
but you will never escape Bhakti Caru Maharaja!"

HH Radhanath Swami then spoke of Srila Gurudeva's service, and his own association with him. He spoke of Gurudeva's exceptional preaching abilities: "Directly or indirectly, he brought hundreds of conditioned souls from all over the world to become Srila Prabhupada's initiated disciples." Maharaja recalled a time a few years ago when Sridhara Maharaja (who was living in Bombay) was on the verge of death. "Tamal Krishna Goswami was a long way away, but immediately he flew in. He was invited to give class in Juhu, and in Chowpatty, and in Mira Road. But when I spoke to him, he said, 'I am coming for one exclusive purpose---to be with my dear godbrother Sridhara Maharaja and NOTHING else.' Day and night he sat and read to Sridhara Maharaja from Srila Prabhupada's books. Sridhara Maharaja said later that Tamal Krishna Goswami's visit was 'the greatest honor and highlight of my entire life.' He made that offering, that gesture, to show his love for his godbrother." Maharaja said, "Tamal Krishna Goswami had a spontaneous empowerment to understand with Srila Prabhupada wanted, and to do it, and to lead it."

Maharaja then related how Srila Gurudeva would so swiftly respond to Srila Prabhupada's desires in any capacity. "When Srila Prabhupada emphasized sankirtan, Tamal Krishna Goswami organized a sankirtan party to go out on the street to chant. Srila Prabhupada was so pleased that he asked Goswami Maharaja to do it all over the country.

"When Srila Prabhupada emphasized distribution of BTG, Tamal Krishna Goswami took distribution beyond what anyone could comprehend." Hari Sauri spoke up and recalled how Srila Prabhupada's initial Dai Nippon order, which was a huge amount, was only given the go-ahead because Tamal Krishna Goswami agreed to distribute a certain quote monthly.

Maharaja continued: "When Srila Prabhupada shifted his emphasis to Krishna consciousness in Europe, Tamal Krishna Goswami opened up Germany and London.

"When Srila Prabhupada returned to India, he called Tamal Krishna Goswami to be GBC and lead the projects there. "When Srila Prabhupada wanted Mayapur developed, Tamal Krishna Goswami got the land, an impossible feat at the time. He returned to Srila Prabhupada and said, 'Srila Prabhupada, the land in Mayapur is yours,' and handed him the deed.

"When Srila Prabhupada was in Bombay...how Srila Prabhupada fought for that Juhu land! And Tamal Krishna Goswami was in the heart of it.

"When Srila Prabhupada emphasized big books, Tamal Krishna Goswami returned to the US and established the Radha Damodar Traveling Sankirtan  Party (RDTSKP) and revolutionized devotee-making and book distribution all over the world.

"This list goes beyond my capacity to comprehend. Srila Prabhupada entrusted his Guru Maharaja's projects to Tamal Krishna Goswami. Srila Prabhupada could depend on Tamal Krishna Goswami's complete surrender; buddhir ekeha kuru-nandana 'Those who are on this path are resolute in
purpose, and their aim is one.' He had an intense aim. It is difficult to be around people like that. But Srila Prabhupada loved him dearly. His life is an offering of profound love to his spiritual master. He was, to ISKCON, a loyal and faithful servant. He understood what ISKCON meant to Srila Prabhupada."

Maharaja recalled one humorous pastime that took place 2 or 3 days before Srila Gurudeva left in 2002. "We were standing in the Ganga, he was performing last rites for one disciple of his. The two of us were alone, the other devotees were some distance away, and so I asked him a question that had been in my mind since 1973. I said, "Goswami Maharaja, remember when the RDTSKP came to New Vrindavan in '73? You called me in and spoke to me for one and a half hours. Afterwards I learned you did the same with every brahmacari on New Vrindavan. You preached to them to leave New Vrindavan and join the RDTSKP. You would tell them 'this is no place for brahmacaris!' So Goswami Maharaja, for thirty years this question has been in my heart: Why didn't you ask me! He said to me, 'I didn't ask you because I knew you wouldn't leave. I only asked the ones I knew I could convince to leave!"

HH Jayapataka Maharaja then spoke. As he sat down, he looked behind him at Srila Gurudeva's samadhi, then looked back at the audience with a worried look. He said, "I don't want to put my back to him. I'm not sure he'd like that." He shifted a little to the side so his back wasn't turned to the samadhi. He smiled and said, "You have to be careful with TKG!" and everyone laughed.

Maharaja recounted how he met Gurudeva first in 1968, but never spoke to him. Then in 1971, Maharaja was the TP in Calcutta, and Gurudeva was the GBC. "It was a new concept, this GBC. And Tamal Krishna Goswami practiced everything on me! He was never satisfied. Ten times he removed me as temple president, and Srila Prabhupada would put me back." These accounts brought much laughter from the devotees. Maharaja recalled how Gurudeva decided he needed an office in the Calcutta temple. "So he built this blue room in the corner of the temple. Srila Prabhupada came and saw it and said, 'We have a beautiful English verandah, why did you now build this ugly room?' He had it torn down!"

Maharaja then talked about their service together in Mayapur. "I got transferred to Mayapur to help build the Lotus Building. Tamal Krishna Goswami was like my elder brother. That was the relationship. When we were purchasing materials for building, we purchased 3 truckloads of steel, then we rode on the trucks back to the land to ensure it wasn't stolen. That's the kind of thing he'd do. He was very surrendered. He did whatever it took to do what Srila Prabhupada said. 
"In Mayapur we had 35 rupees a week between 7 devotees. Things were a bit tight! That wasn't anything to do with Maharaja; that was Gargamuni in
Calcutta. I proposed growing our own food, and Tamal Krishna Goswami said, 'They're foreigners, how can they do that here?' But Srila Prabhupada said to try. Afterwards Tamal Krishna Goswami moved to the US to establish the RDTSKP, and we didn't see him much, but we were a real team, through thick and thin. I used to have a photographic memory and thought I'd always remember. There are so many things I wish I'd noted down."

Maharaja recalled one humorous memory: "We had an idea to do full Caturmasya in Mayapur. There was nothing much else going on, there wasn't much in the way of preaching. So we had that idea. Srila Prabhupada agreed, he said it would be purifying. The whole thing: eating off the ground, beards, etc. So during Kartika we went to visit Srila Prabhupada in Vrindavan. Tamal Krishna Goswami was secretary then, and he came and said, 'Srila Prabhupada said you should all take prasad.' I never knew whether Srila Prabhupada really said that, or whether Tamal Krishna Goswami wanted us to break our fast!"

Maharaja went on to speak about the third class devotee, the second class devotee, and the first class devotee, who knows what the spiritual master wants before he asks for it. "He had some kind of mystic power to know what Srila Prabhupada wanted."

Maharaja concluded: "I never expected to be commenting on his disappearance festival. I certainly never expected to perform the final rites ceremony, taking his body down into samadhi. I thought he'd live for so long."  Maharaja paused for a few moments. "The whole RDTSKP fall out, at that GBC meeting here in Mayapur. There was a big revolt from the devotees. That's how it was then: if the GBC decided something, it was announced during the festival and the devotees had the chance to revolt. I think the GBC forgets that now :) But that whole thing, when he was sent to China. He accepted. He went. He had that kind of dedication. I remember his tenderness. And his strictness. He would tell me if I wasn't rightly situated, but in a sincere way."

Maharaja then looked down at his lap, and was obviously very emotional. "He could tolerate me. None of my other godbrothers can tolerate me. I miss him very much. People say of Tamal Krishna Goswami that he was a Prabhupada man. They say that of many people, but he was the senior-most Prabhupada man, to the very end. When you remember Srila Prabhupada, you remember TKG."

Then His Holiness Kavicandra Maharaja came and spoke. This is the first time, he said, that he had had an opportunity to glorify Gurudeva in public. He spoke of the RDTSKP, and how amazing it was to be involved in that. "They made 17 devotees in a month." Then after Srila Prabhupada left, he said, "Tamal Krishna Goswami made me his servant. But he was never satisfied! If I sat down he'd say, 'You are so lazy, look at you sitting around,' and if I walked or moved he'd say, 'You are so restless, can't you sit still for a moment?' He was so heavy, but he said to someone once, 'Kavi knows I gotta take it out on someone!' He made me very determined to never  quit. He could be sweet but I mostly didn't get that!"

Maharaja then gave a further insight into Gurudeva's service to Srila Prabhupada: "On the RDTSKP, he would get up before everyone and chant, then he'd get on the phone and talk to every boy on the party. That was 140 men at that stage. He'd go out in the snow and stand in a phone booth for 3 or 4 hours every morning, talking to each member of the party." Maharaja said he would encourage them all, asking them their scores, asking if they were chanting and reading, asking them to surrender more to Srila Prabhupada. "He was so kind."

The final speaker was Madhudvisa Prabhu, and he spoke so fondly of Gurudeva. "I'm going to call him Tamal, because that's what I always called him. So I first saw Tamal on Haight Street in 1968. He was selling flutes for a living, which was a very noble livelihood. He looked like an angel, with his long dark curly hair, playing this flute. Then he moved to the Morning Star commune in the north of San Francisco. He moved there because he said he wanted to study the Bible. Being from a Jewish background, he'd never had the opportunity to study the Bible. So that's what he did. Then one day, he was living there in his tree, he heard a drum beat playing. He answered itwith the flute. Then the drum answered back, so he answered again with the flute. They moved towards each other, these two sounds, until there they were, standing face to face for the first time: Visnujana and Tamal.

"Tamal was trained in classical silver flute, he'd studied in New York, and Visnujana was trying to form a band. He took Tamal back to his apartment in
San Francisco, told him he had a record he wanted him to hear. It was Prabhupada chanting Hare Krishna, and they danced around to the chanting in Visnujana's apartment. Two grown men! Well, they were young boys then, I guess. They played the record to the end and then turned it over and started
again. They danced for hours to Srila Prabhupada's chanting." Madhudvisa then started chanting the tune they had danced to, and everyone joined in.

He continued: "Many have seen the tough side of Tamal, but beyond that was great, true compassion. The best example of that compassion was Bhavananda.
It was La Cienega Boulevard, before we bought the LA temple we have now. And Bhavananda arrived one Sunday feast with his entourage. They were actors, artists, musicians, and they were calling to him, 'Oh, Charlie, look at this...Oh Charlie, look at that!'They were the Charlie boys." Madhudvisa prabhu is a polished story-teller, and had the audience hooked on this story. I was taking notes, not recording, and it is difficult to describe in print how he was relating the atmosphere and environment. He was explaining how Bhavananda was a big personality, this whole entourage just followed him around and went everywhere with him. He continued with the story: "And meanwhile, Bhavananda is sitting in the corner with Tamal, and Tamal is preaching to him. And all the entourage, they come over and say it's time to leave, and Bhavananda says, 'I'm staying,' and Tamal is sitting next to him, and the Charlie boys, they're saying, 'But Charlie, what about this thing next week you have to attend, and what about that, and what about...' and he says, 'I'm staying,' and Tamal is sitting there nodding and smiling. Then a couple of weeks later, the Charlie boys come back, and there's some premiere somewhere and they want to take Bhavananda, and he wasn't so familiar with all the rules and regs, and he thought, 'I'll take the afternoon off.'"
(everyone in the audience laughed.) "And so he didn't come back. He blooped! But Tamal, he found out where he was living, and he went there...into the 'feathered nest!' And he sat there all night, and he preached to Bhavananda. And he got him to return." Madhudvisa shouted, "He brought him back!!" This was met with applause and loud calls of "Jaya!" and "Haribol!" from the audience. Madhudvisa said, "THAT is compassion. True compassion."
He then went on: "Tamal was the Temple President. In those days Sudhama das (at that time brahmacari) ironed all the dhotis so that everyone would have a neatly pressed dhoti in the morning. And Visnujana would sing everyone to sleep with bhajans. What temple president arranges this these days?!"

In conclusion, Madhudvisa spoke beautifully of his connection with Srila Gurudeva: "He will always be in my spiritual vision. At my first yajna, he was there across the fire taking second initiation. One year later, I was taking second, and across the fire there was Tamal, sitting next to Srila Prabhupada. Then later I took sannyasa, and across the fire was Tamal and Srila Prabhupada. Then in Jaipur, Tamal took sannyasa, and I was there, and across the fire was Tamal and Srila Prabhupada. Then when Srila Prabhupada called me back to Vrindavan..." Madhudvisa prabhu stopped speaking; his voice faltered and he began to cry. He found it difficult to go on, and concluded with three words: "Tamal was there."

The proceedings continued with Niranjana Swami leading guru puja and kirtan after the pushpanjali.

Afterward everyone honored a special feast that was sponsored by our dear godsister, Prema Mayi devi from Stockholm. Prema Mayi is always supporting Gurudeva's samadhi and sponsors feasts in Vrindavan and Mayapur. In the temple in the morning she received the blessings of the all the assembled devotees for her generosity, and they chanted one mala of Hare Krishna in her honor.

Apologies were received from Kesava Bharati Goswami, who is here in Mayapur but who is suffering an infection and a high fever; from Giriraj Swami who regretted his inability to attend; and from Gurudeva's brother Bhakta Carl. All wrote that they were "present in spirit."