Bhaktivedanta Hospice Opening—Day 02

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna.

It is a great pleasure to be here with Padmanabha Goswamiji and so many esteemed and beloved godbrothers and godsisters and devotees. Hearing Padmanabha Goswamiji speak about the land, I was reminded of Srila Prabhupada and the Juhu Land because before Srila Prabhupada even went to America he was staying in Andheri at the Scindia Navigation Colony and he was coming every day to read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to Srimati Sumati Morarji. On the way to her bungalow he would pass some land and he just had the thought, “This would be a nice place to have a temple of Krishna.” And then, so many years later, it came to be. Now hearing the rich tradition of bhajana here and how Srila Prabhupada also came here on his morning walks and chanted, I am thinking he must have appreciated the place no doubt and now it has come in his service. 

I also thought in relation to how Srila Prabhupada cared for devotees and in this case in particular Tamal Krishna Goswami, once in Bombay Tamal Krishna Goswami had a hernia and he was admitted into Jaslok Hospital which was the leading hospital in Bombay at the time to be operated. When Srila Prabhupada who was in Juhu at the time heard, he became very concerned. He wanted to stop the operation because he did not trust the Indian hospitals. He thought Tamal Krishna Goswami should rather go back to America. But we couldn’t get through by phone and finally Prabhupada said, “Then I will go personally.” At that time we had a jeep, Mahindra Jeep. So Prabhupada got in the jeep with a few devotees and drove all the way downtown to Jaslok hospital to try to stop the operation.

But he reached too late. The operation had already been performed and Tamal Krishna Goswami was being wheeled out and just coming out of anesthesia. When he opened his eyes and saw Srila Prabhupada, he told Srila Prabhupada that, “I just had an amazing dream and in this dream you, Srila Prabhupada, were reporting to the previous acharyas, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, Sri Gaurakishora dasa Babaji, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, and Srila Jagannatha dasa Babaji about your activities on the planet earth. They wanted to know what is the progress. In the dream you replied that, ‘The people on planet earth now, especially in the West where I am preaching, they have no culture, they have no background in spiritual knowledge, they have very few pious credits—all in all they have no qualification for spiritual life except they have one qualification and that is they have complete faith in me. Whatever I tell them they do.’” 

That is the fact and Srila Prabhupada told us that if you just chant sixteen rounds a day, follow the four regulative principles, and spread the saṅkīrtana movement to the best of your ability, you can go back home, back to Godhead in this very lifetime, which was demonstrated in the case of Nirguna Prabhu and in many other cases of Prabhupada’s disciples and grand disciples. 

But again, what Padmanabha Goswamiji said is true, Lord Brahma, the supreme creator of the universe prayed to take birth as a bush or a clump of grass in Vrindavan so he could be blessed by the dust of the lotus feet of the eternal residents of Vrindavan. Uddhava also, Krishna sent him to Vrindavan to deliver a message. He came to Vrindavan thinking that he is going to give some instructions, some śikṣā to the residents of Vrindavan and when he arrived here, he saw he does not know anything about love for Krishna compared with what they know. He realized that he was being sent to become their student, but because of their natural humility, they considered themselves to be ordinary people. So Uddhava felt that he just wanted to get the dust of the lotus feet of the eternal residents of Vrindavan on his head, especially the gopīs, but he knew that they would never entertain such an idea. So he also prayed, “Let me take birth as a clump of grass, as a blade of grass in Vrindavan. That way, when the gopīs in their intoxication of love of God, are wandering in the area of Vraja, some dust from their lotus feet will come on my head.” 

So that is true, going back to Godhead doesn’t mean necessarily going to a physical location or spiritual location. It really means to be engaged in pure devotional service: na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi, which I am sure what Deena Bandhu Prabhu had in mind.

We have been blessed by so many wonderful devotees who have come forward to help with this project. I don’t want to repeat, but as been said before, Abhirama Prabhu was there in the very beginning and from the very beginning even independent of the land he was saying that we should approach Padmanabha Goswamiji that he is a well-wisher of ISKCON, a very prominent person in Vrindavan, and that with his cooperation we can go forward. In the beginning it was our first priority to care for Srila Prabhupada’s disciples who had given their lives for his service, but discussions with Abhirama Prabhu and Padmanabha Goswamiji and other devotees, we concluded that we must also serve the local devotees, the vrajavāsīs, and that is happening. 

Just so many people, we are so helpless on our own, so minute, we really depend on the help and cooperation and mercy of others. Yes, in the case of Krishna lifting Govardhana Hill, He was capable, but it was their mood that they should help Him, that, “Krishna is just an ordinary boy and we have to put up our sticks otherwise the mountain may fall and crush us all.” So that is a nice image about the sticks and I just hope. . . you know how they have with the murtis, they have the stick, so my favorite position will be I will hold the stick under the arms of the vrajavāsīs who are holding the sticks [applause].

I think that anything else I could say would just be an elaboration of points that others have already made, but yes, we want to invite all of you to participate in whatever way you want and can. There are so many different types of services and in hospice care there are trained volunteers. Of course so many of you already have abilities in different areas, but there are also trained volunteers who are taught how to care for the patients physically—how to turn them over on the bed, how to lift them out of the bed, how to help them in the bathroom, how to keep their mouth moist—there are so many details. 

Our godsisters, Mother Sangita and Mother Kaulini will be coming for two months—January, February—and they will be holding a training seminar for hospice volunteers. So, any of you who want to learn how to help in that particular area of skilled assistance, can come. So much of hospice care is offered to patients at home and this is something that is really good to know, like what Deena Bandhu Prabhu said about CPR. These are skills that will enable us to serve devotees better, serve our family members better. The main thing is the association, the kṛṣṇa-kathā, the krsna-kirtana. I will take the opportunity to announce that His Grace Deena Bandhu Prabhu has agreed to visit and give his association, his hari-kathā both to the vrajavāsīs because he knows Hindi and to the ISKCON devotees [applause].

It is just wonderful. Now I would like to ask one younger devotee, Gaura Mani dasi, she was here yesterday and as we came out of the upstairs ward after the tour, I met her in the corridor and she spontaneously gave such a nice appreciation of the concept of hospice care, the value of hospice care from someone who like most of the people in the world didn’t really have a conception that such a program existed, such an idea existed. So I would like her to share with all of us for a few minutes some of what she said to me yesterday. Then we will take a tour in batches beginning with the Prabhupada disciples and then prasāda. Hare Krishna.

[next recording]. . . think that he or she might like to volunteer but not be sure, so what we want is names of people who might be interested and then when you learn more about what is involved, make a more considered decision about in what way, if at all, you can contribute.