Bhaktivedanta Hospice Opening—Day 01

Giriraj Swami: It is certainly a great occasion for us all to be here in this landmark of a completion of some service and the beginning of more service. And that is the nature of devotional service—the means and the end—it never stops. 

The beginning of this particular project as several devotees have mentioned was Mother Arca Vigraha’s suggestion. She built a house in Radha-Ramana [Bageja?] which I believe must have been part of that same large area owned by the Radha-Ramana Gosvamis. And just next to the plot that she bought, it just so happened that the British yatra bought a plot and built a facility where Sivarama Swami and Govinda Swami often spent time.

When Mother Arca Vigraha was diagnosed with cancer, I took it that Krishna is accelerating her journey back home and suggested she just move to Vrindavan. She was a renowned artist in South Africa and she had travelled the world looking both for spiritual enlightenment and finding themes for her artwork. She lived with Bedouins and just different types of people in different parts of the world. And when she came in touch with Krishna consciousness, she thought she’ll go to India and build a place as an art studio and get themes for her artwork here.

So she did develop cancer and she did come here to spend her last days. She loved Vrindavan. Externally it is not exactly what it was fifteen years ago when she left, but it is there, but in those days there was a bird sanctuary here and every morning the trees would just fill with peacocks and you would hear the sounds of the peacocks and there would be cuckoos and parrots which I believe are technically parakeets, but we call them parrots. Just next to her house was a gosala and the cows would be there and the sadhus—Balarama Baba—and the kirtan. One night on Gaura-purnima or Holi there had been a kṛṣṇa-līlā presentation and the children who played Radha and Krishna and were dressed as Radha and Krishna, they came into her room either to give her darshan or to take her darshan. She just loved Vrindavan.

She wanted other devotees to have the same opportunity that she had to live in Vrindavan in a home or homelike atmosphere with the association of devotees. It really seemed that Srimati Radharani or Srila Prabhupada made all arrangements. I had never been aware of the term “hospice” at the time and later when I heard about the term and came to know what hospice care was, I realized that Mother Arca Vigraha had gotten it just by the love and inspiration of the devotees. One devotee knew physical therapy, so he would come; someone else knew massage—of course there were some pretty esoteric healing modalities that had mixed results—but the idea is people came forward on that level and spiritually devotees would come and do kirtan and read: Tamal Krishna Goswami, Sivarama Swami, Kesava Bharati Maharaja. Bhurijana Prabhu would come every day at four in the afternoon. 

Bhakti Bhrnga Govinda Swami was amazing. He was her next door neighbor, but he was just there all the time. After he would do his puja in the morning, he would bring his Deities, his Gaura-Nitai Deities and govardhana-śilās. Whatever it was, he would be there, and if there was a crisis, he would be there. He took care of the caregivers, made sure that they were alright. He was just amazing. He also became a śikṣā-guru to Mother Arca Vigraha because we always talk about remembering Krishna at the time of death, but what does that mean? We think of Krishna playing a flute in the clouds or what does it actually mean? So Govinda Swami explained it, “It really means that you think of Krishna in Vrindavan with His associates in His pastimes and you even think of His pastimes and His associates with a personal mood of longing to assist them in their service to Krishna in Vrindavan.” And from his instruction to her, she got the idea what it really means to think of Krishna, especially at the time of death.

And then all the readings, japa, kirtan, and pilgrimage visits, took on even greater meaning and significance. Devotees would come and read to her. Sometimes we would read a prayer—of course wonderful prayers by our acharyas—but we also read a drama written by Rupa Gosvami and we took different parts. I don’t remember who was who, but Tamal Krishna Goswami and Sivarama Swami and Govinda Swami, different devotees would each play a role by voice and entertain her and try to enliven her. Vidagdha-mādhava and Lalita-Madhava—Kusakratha Prabhu’s translations.

It was a very uplifting experience for all of us and I think that is something that everyone who works with dying people, especially who are God conscious, experience. 

I developed a friendship with a rabbi in Santa Barbara. A rabbi is a Jewish clergy. He was very open to Vedic culture and knowledge. He came from a relatively small congregation at the University of California in Santa Barbara to take charge of a big prosperous congregation. I don’t think there were many people he could confide in as a peer then, so he told me that he actually felt drained dealing with the big congregation and just the way they did things it was different from his previous congregation. I said, “Yes, it is something we all deal with because you want to elevate people but it is like we are pulling them up and they are pulling us down. We are also being held by people and we are probably a bit of a drag for them.” So I said, “Amongst your different activities, are there any that particularly nourish you?” At that time he was giving an early morning class in Jewish mysticism. He said that was nourishing. Then he was almost shy to express it to me because he thought it might have sounded odd that he gets a lot of nourishment ministering to congregants who are leaving their bodies. He said somehow ministering to a congregant who is leaving his or her body, you enter into a very sacred, spiritual space, and he found that to be especially nourishing to him spiritually. 

So serving devotees, caring for devotees, and especially at the end of life, is extremely rewarding. Like Shakespeare’s line, “The quality of mercy is not strained. It falls like the rain and nourishes. . .”—something like that. It is really the service to the devotees that pleases Srila Prabhupada and Krishna and that is really what bhakti means, to please Krishna, and please Krishna by pleasing His devotees.

The last time I visited Vrindavan about three years ago, I was here for only five days, and in those five days one day was dedicated for pilgrimage. I planned quite a number of visits on that day from morning to night. At the end Deena Bandhu Prabhu who accompanied or escorted me said that many devotees come with the idea of visiting many places in a single day, but it rarely happens, and he was surprised that it actually did happen. But I was just trying to follow Srila Prabhupada’s example of being a servant. Someone had commented that Srila Prabhupada in Vrindavan, even before he went to America, he was always very focused on his service. You didn’t see him roaming here and there. He had his mission, he had his service to his spiritual master, he was always very focused. So, out of those five days, I got one day, but this time I had many thoughts of places to visit, but it didn’t take long before I understood, got the idea that I may not get beyond the neighborhood from Srila Prabhupada’s samadhi to the Bhaktivedanta Hospice. That is going to be as far as I get and that is fine because everything depends on service to the guru and the mercy of the guru.

I was going to say that is my faith or that is my conviction. Maybe I should say that is my only hope—Prabhupada’s mercy, serving Prabhupada and getting his mercy is my only hope, wherever it is. It could be Bombay. It could be Kazakhstan. It could be Philadelphia. 

Originally I had very big ideas for fulfilling Mother Arca Vigraha’s desire or request and I thought we will get a big plot of land and we will construct cottages like small houses, so every devotee will have his or her own house just like Mother Arca Vigraha had. But when we looked into it, we saw to get that much land for any affordable price would take us far from the Krishna-Balarama temple which we didn’t want to do. As time passed and inflation increased—not just inflation, a lot of people started moving and buying up land and prices would increase—we figured we will do what hospices try to do which is create the atmosphere of a home in an institutional setting. Visiting different hospices in America, they really tried to do that. There was a living room, a dining room. They tried to make the patient feel at home, that he is in or she is in his or her home.

So many people helped along the way I can’t even begin to name them, but one was Abhirama Prabhu. It was just before Tamal Krishna Goswami came to Mayapur for the last time, we had a long talk on the phone for which I am very grateful because we discussed practically every aspect of my service and my life, including the hospice project. He said, “I am very interested in this project and if you want you can make me a trustee.” Then he left and that created. . . we’ve all been seeing how the departure of a Vaishnava has tremendous effects. In some ways they can have more effect through their departures than they had during their presence. So one effect of Tamal Krishna Goswami’s departure was the whole movement became united—which is very rare—in Mayapur. The movement became united in remembering him and glorifying him, a Vaisnava, a servant of Srila Prabhupada. And then the people who were dear to the person who left, they become more dear to you because of their connection with the departed soul. I know Abhirama Prabhu, Tamal Krishna Goswami, he at one stage felt the management in ISKCON needed a little jolt or boost—the same people doing everything, having too much to do, and maybe not even having that much experience or qualification to do it—he had the idea that certain householders, he felt very qualified householders who should be given a chance. One was Abhirama Prabhu, one was Naresvara Prabhu, one was Advaita-candra Prabhu. So there was some sort of reorganization, different committees, MVT.

So I knew that Abhirama Prabhu had a relationship with Tamal Krishna Goswami and that he was expert in building resorts and ashrams. I was very impressed with the MVT, so I phoned him, and we both saw it as an opportunity in a way to serve Srila Prabhupada and Tamal Krishna Goswami together. His contribution in terms of the development was great. 

One contribution that I should acknowledge here is that for Srila Prabhupada Centennial different devotees had contributed for what was to be a Prabhupada Park. This land was actually bought through the donations of different ISKCON devotees to become to Prabhupada Park, but nothing had really been done with it, it was just there. As Abhirama Prabhu saw, one after the other apparent opportunity to get land just vanished. He thought of the park land and he approached the different donors and they were all completely willing. They thought, “This is Prabhupada’s service, serving Prabhupada’s devotees. Prabhupada will be more pleased.” So they willingly for just a token amount really gave the park land for the use of the hospice.

There are literally too many to mention. So I will skip ahead a little more to the present and future. As we saw in the case of Mother Arca Vigraha, so many devotees from the community, from the neighborhood, they just came around and offered to help—kirtan, read, bringing deities, bringing mahā-prasāda. Govinda Maharaja made some chocolate peanut burfi that she really liked. That raises another important question in hospice care which is quality of life versus quantity of life. It is axiomatic principle in hospice care that the patient has the right to decide how he or she wants to spend her last days. It is often like that that we may face a choice between quantity and quality. I have picked on the peanut butter burfi as a humorous example that quality of life means peanut butter burfi even if it reduces one’s duration of life, but in a more typical context, it means to what extent does the patient want to accept medical interventions that will disturb his or her consciousness for the sake of prolonging his or her life. To what extent does one want to be free from those encumbrances to just think about Krishna, chant and hear about Krishna, and have loving exchanges with the devotees, with family members. Often a devotee will decide, “I don’t want all these tubes in me,” or, “I don’t want to go to the hospital,” “I don’t want chemo,” “I don’t want radiation. I just want to live my life in its natural course and chant and hear about Krishna and reciprocate with devotees and loved ones.” That is something we have to respect. Of course family and loved ones will naturally want the person to stay longer—I am like that. We were like that with Prabhupada—but ultimately it is really between them and Krishna. It is not for us to decide or try to impose our will upon them. Sometimes by getting out of the way of their desires in terms of their departure, we are doing a better service. So that is there.

Just to come back to the last point, we want this to be a house, Prabhupada’s house, for his sick children and we invite you to come and serve the devotees here in any way. At the end, a devotee even during life, but especially at the end, a devotee may go through different periods. For some time a devotee may really just want to be alone and process things on his own—just him and Krishna and Prabhupada or maybe a few intimate friends—and other times the person may be ready, “Open the doors wide. Let anyone enter.” So we have to be sensitive to that. When I welcome you or invite you to come and spend time with the devotees, it is of course with sensitivity to what they want.

Apart from the specific services to the patients, which would require some training, for two months—January, February—Mother Sangita and Mother Kaulini are coming and they will be giving a training course for skilled volunteers to help the patients. But there are other services—making garlands for the deities, cleaning, whatever—and a lot of hospice care as you have seen from the figures is just extended to people in their own homes. They don’t have to come here. We also want to extend our care to them. 

It is a landmark. We have come to a certain stage in our service, but it is a beginning. When people have a terminal illness, you could say it is the beginning of the end, and for us, opening the hospice is the end of the beginning and now our real service begins. I am greatly blessed and privileged and honored and almost overwhelmed to be part of this effort with so many wonderful devotees. His Holiness Radhanath Swami, the way he came forward and encouraged. . . of course I must say, before that Krishna-candra Prabhu had visited me in Santa Barbara and before anyone I mentioned the idea to him, ‘Is this possible? Can we do this?” And he said, “Yes, I will be there for you. Don’t worry.” He gave assurance. At that time it was more on an individual basis. Raghunatha dasa was the director of the hospital then and he was interested and very dynamic and charismatic and cosmopolitan. So it began like that and gradually we realized this is huge, “This isn’t just Krishna-candra and Raghunatha and Abhirama and Sangita and me. This is huge and we need local devotees who will always be here. They won’t come and go.” Then I discussed the whole thing with Radhanath Swami. Our debt of gratitude is unlimited because he had just been serving Bhakti Tirtha Swami and Bhakti Tirtha Swami was so much in the mood of caring for devotees. Maharaja had just cared for Bhakti Tirtha Swami and was undoubtedly inspired and influenced by his mood of care for devotees. But anyway he said, “Yes, I will speak to the doctors.” Madhavananda and Visvarupa, they are very complimentary, and I think they have been friends for decades from college days. 

It is unlimited. All I can say now is Hare Krishna. It is unlimited. How to fit the unlimited into our limited time and space, it is all in those two words: Hare Krishna. [applause]