Mother Arca Vigraha

Giriraj Swami: I can speak. It is a very auspicious occasion. Mother Arca Vigraha was a very special devotee and she really gave everything to Prabhupada and Krishna and the devotees. It reminds me of the verse,

akāmaḥ sarva-kāmo vā
mokṣa-kāma udāra-dhīḥ
tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena
yajeta puruṣaṁ param

That, akama, whether one has no desires; sarva-kāmo, or is full of desires, mokṣa-kāma, or is desirous of liberation, tīvreṇa bhakti-yogena, if one engages in bhakti-yoga to Krishna, tīvreṇa, with great intensity, that is a very important point; with great intensity. In a sense it doesn’t even matter what your service is, but if you give yourself to it fully, if you put your heart into it fully, then you can approach the Supreme Lord, the supreme destination.

So Mother Arca Vigraha did that, and in a way, she was helped in the end by her pain, intense physical pain, because the only thing that it turned out gave her relief, was hearing and chanting about Krishna. His Holiness Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami Maharaja recounts an incident when he went in to see Arca in her room, and she was literally crying in pain. And Arca was a very strong woman, and she never complained but she was just in so much pain, she couldn’t control herself, she was just weeping. And Govinda Maharaja began to speak kṛṣṇa-kathā, speak about the pastimes of Krishna to her, and miraculously she didn’t feel pain anymore. She started to smile and laugh and enjoy the hearing and remembering of Krishna. So she had discovered a secret that, as long as she was absorbed in Krishna, she could pretty much transcend the pain but as soon as she was less in remembering Krishna, the pain came back in full force. So she was in a situation where her pain actually helped her. And of course, even otherwise, she was a very caring and compassionate person. She always did her best to help devotees and she genuinely liked devotees and appreciated them. Sometimes even devotees who were considered somewhat renegades in ISKCON, or somewhat eccentric in ISKCON, they would come to visit her and she would always receive them and encourage them. Sometimes the other devotees were worried because, and they even mentioned the devotees’ reputations to her, how the devotees were perceived by other devotees. But that didn’t stop her. She just wanted to extend herself to anyone and everyone and she genuinely appreciated them as very dear friends.

And of course, her artwork; she was a real artist. She found a way to convey a deep spiritual truth in a new vocabulary of form and color. She did one series called “The Eye Opener” that illustrated different principles of Krishna consciousness through her artwork. And on occasion she would put a little reference to a verse from the Bhagavad-gītā, but the images themselves said so much. And she displayed the first ones on her wall, in her home in Johannesburg. And two people, two completely different people, became vegetarian just by seeing her depiction of meat eaters sitting around the table, how they were developing the faces of animals. Of course, that reminds me of a cartoon I recently saw of a squirrel on the Psychiatrist’s couch. The Psychiatrist is sitting down taking notes and the squirrel says, “Ever since I heard that I am what I eat, I figured I must be nuts.” So Mother Arca Vigraha conveyed that idea that by eating the flesh of animals, the eaters were becoming like animals, and probably preparing their next birth as animals. And then of course, one of her last desires, that just as she loved Vrindavan and had all facility to associate with senior devotees in Vrindavan, and relish the spiritual atmosphere of the dhāma, so she wanted others to have the same opportunity. So her desire, her compassion and her desire gave rise to the idea of the hospice in Vrindavan, which has actually taken shape; it is open and running. And in my own life, her desire brought me into the field of devotee care in a very specific way, and that has also expanded into other ways, and it also has brought me into the field of death and dying.

And so my next book will actually be called Life’s Final Exam—Death and Dying in the Vedic Tradition. And the most recent book, which was just printed about ten days ago, called Many Moons—Reflections on Departed Vaishnavas and it deals with nine of Srila Prabhupada’s exalted departed followers, including Mother Arca Vigraha. So maybe I will show you the book. There are about two pages of pictures for each of the moonlike devotees, so I will show you Arca’s two. The one here on my right, it shows her at her initiation ceremony. She had her full head of red hair and she was coming forward to get her beads. And of course I gave her the name Arca Vigraha dasi, because she was a painter, an artist; she was a sculptor also but mainly a painter. And once one disciple asked Srila Prabhupada which of the nine processes is painting. And Srila Prabhupada said, arcanam, decorating the form of the Lord. So we gave her the name Arca Vigraha devi dasi, and then one of her main services became painting deities. She began with the Gaura-Nitai deities in Mulder’s Grip, Johannesburg, and she went on to do beautiful painting of deities; Radha-Gokulananda in Mauritius, and she also did Radha-Rasabihari in Juhu, and she even did the deities in Vrindavan, although it was strictly against the rules for a lady to go in the deity room, don’t tell anyone, but I guess Bhaktisiddhanta Prabhu arranged for her to come on the altar after all the deities had taken rest, and all the devotees had taken rest. And she would paint the deities from 9:30 or 10:00 at night until 2:00 or 2:30 in the morning, and she would hardly sleep. She wouldn’t sleep during the day. She might sleep an hour or two and then work; she would really work, just hardly eat or sleep.

So yes, she did that service wonderfully. Her painting of the deities was beautiful. And then this picture shows her in front of her home in Raman Reti. She had already retired to Vrindavan and she had cancer but it wasn’t so bad, and she was still active and very blissful; happy to be in Vrindavan and very attached to chanting the holy name, and of course hearing about Krishna and then eventually... She also had begun to paint the deities of Vrinda Devi at Vrinda Kunda. She also had a very special relationship with Vrinda Devi at Vrinda Kunda and the pujari there had engaged her in painting the deities. But it was very much towards the end, and the use of her arm became very painful, it was painful even otherwise, and so it was hard for her to paint and she could never complete the work. But after she passed away, Bhakti Bringa Govinda Swami and I, and some of the deities took the devotees who were attached to her, the disciples who were in Vrindavan to Vrinda Kunda. And I mentioned to the pujari that she had not completed her service to Vrinda Devi, that she felt sorry that she had been unable to complete her service to Vrinda Devi. And then the pujari closed his eyes and then pointed upwards and said, “Now she will complete her service there.”

This is important. She also painted a painting of Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami to be placed in his renovated bhajana-kuṭira at Radha-kunda. And that was also supposed to be a big secret because the mahants at Radha-kunda, the bābājīs, at that time they tended to see foreigners as mlechchhas and unqualified and unworthy, and then on top of it she was a woman, so she was, from that conception, even more unqualified and more unworthy. So this devotee named, I think, Akinchana Krishna, he was a grand disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, but somehow, he had become a Babaji at Radha-kunda, and because of his association with Srila Bhaktisiddhanta and he was also good friends with Bhurijana Prabhu and Jagattarini, so he had some of that dynamic ISKCON spirit, that Prabhupada spirit. So he wanted to renovate, practically he rebuilt the whole bhajana-kuṭira. And so, Bhurijana Prabhu and Jagattarini arranged for Mother Arca to paint the picture. So Arca and Kunti went to the unveiling, it was on that auspicious day, the disappearance day of the three acharyas including Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, and it is a little hard to know exactly what happened, but someone said, “And there is the artist, right there,” and pointed to her. She wanted to just disappear into the earth. Anyway, then Akinchana Prabhu wanted to do the same thing. He renovated Jiva Gosvami’s bhajana-kuṭira at Radha-kunda and she also did the portrait of Jiva Gosvami, and then the head mahant at Radha-kunda actually spoke openly about her. He surprised everyone and he spoke openly about her and said, “This devotee has come all the way from South Africa and she has done so many austerities to serve Krishna, and she painted this beautiful painting of Srila Jiva Gosvamipada and he actually started to weep when he was speaking about Mother Arca Vigraha.

So yes, she made many contributions in many different ways. I think the main thing is she just gave her heart fully to service; to the service of the devotees, to Radhe Shyam. And her consciousness became extremely elevated and her destination was extremely auspicious.

Hare Krishna.

So I don’t want to keep you too late, you have probably been there for a few hours.

Devotee: It is not too late Maharaja; it is 8:30 here.

Giriraj Swami: All right, I guess we could do a little kirtan. Of course, Srila Prabhupada had said no function is complete without prasāda. You have already honored her remnants, which is very good, so we can do a little kirtan. You can accompany me I will play kartals and lead.

Devotee: Haripriya Mataji has the desire to speak to Kunti devi. Is it possible?

Giriraj Swami: Kunti devi is in another building. I will see; I can’t guarantee as I am not sure what she is doing. We will take a few minutes. Let them wash their hands or whatever they need to do.

I couldn’t reach her. I know this from yesterday, there was some technical difficulty and, in the farmhouse, the number two extension which is downstairs in the farmhouse was not working. So she gave her intercom phone for the downstairs and so she doesn’t have her intercom upstairs. And I also tried her cell phone but it is turned off. It is probably too early for her to turn on her cell phone. But yes, she is certainly thinking of all of you and she gave some information about Mother Arca Vigraha’s prasādam tastes, and I suppose you must have gotten it because one of the things. . .

Devotee: Nama Cintamani Mataji read the excerpts of the notes you had sent. She read it to all of us.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, because I saw there was a jackfruit subji on the menu and she liked jackfruit subji. In fact, there was a very nice Bengali devotee name Raghavananda, Narottamananda Prabhu might remember him. He is a quite refined Bengali gentleman and he used to cook for Arca sometimes, and she really relished his cooking. And once he made a jackfruit subji, and a green mango chutney that Arca just loved. He is a very nice devotee; he came to see me the last time in Vrindavan. He wasn’t sure how long he would live. I hope he is still alive; I hope someone would have informed me otherwise. He is ready and he just felt he wanted to see me one last time. Nice devotee, Raghavananda, very nice. We really never know how long devotees will be with us, so we should take every opportunity to avail of their association and be nice to them, serve them, help them in whatever way we can.

All right, so I will just sing the prayers and then Hare Krishna.

[Chanting]

All glories to the assembled devotees; all glories to the assembled devotees; all glories to the assembled devotees; all glories all glorious to Sri Guru and Sri Gauranga

So, have you sung the Nṛsiṁha Prayers?

Devotees: No.

Giriraj Swami: I think we should sing the Nṛsiṁha Prayers. Would any of you like to lead?

Devotee: Everybody wants you Maharaja, to lead.

Giriraj Swami: Have you taken statistics that everyone wants me to lead? Okay, I believe you.

[Chanting]

Giriraj Swami: So thank you all for gathering on this auspicious occasion and arranging such a wonderful festival. And my special thanks to Narottamananda Prabhu, my dear, dear godbrother who was also very close to Mother Arca Vigraha, and he is also a fellow artist and pujari, and he is also very personal and affectionate in his dealings. He also can cut through all barriers of caste and creed, and establish very deep heartfelt relationships with pretty much anyone. So when any of my family members come to India, as in last Kartik, my cousin John and his wife Jenny came. So Narottama is the favorite guide to Bombay, because he can relate to India, he can relate to America, he can relate to different cultures, different mentalities, different souls. And one thing he said was that India is a land of opposites. On one street you can see these big mansions and on the same street you can find these little huts; these big high-rise apartment buildings and then these little hutments. So that is very true, and just the other day someone who had visited India, not related to me, just a very nice lady, she is in her 80’s and she was commenting on the same thing, on that contrast. So I quoted what Narottamananda Prabhu said and that made it easier to live with, because some people feel the rich people should be here and the poor people should be there, but in India it’s all mixed together.

So yeah, it is a blessing to have a Prabhupada disciple with you and one who was personally so close to Mother Arca Vigraha. He is also a good cook but he might have moved on to other… of course, Bombay, there are many good cooks. So, thank you, Narottamananda.