Mother Arca Vigraha’s Disappearance Day—with Mumbai Devotees

Giriraj Swami: 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 akamah, 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, that in a sense it doesn’t even matter what your service 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 difficult pain because the only thing that it turned out gave her relief was hearing and chanting about Krishna. His Holiness Bhakti Bhrnga 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 lax 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 very caring and compassionate person. She always gave 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 and they would mention 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.

Of course her artwork, she was a real artist. She found the way to convey deep spiritual truths 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. On occasion she would put a little reference to a verse from the Bhagavad-gītā but the images themselves said so much. She displayed the first ones on her wall in her home in Johannesburg and 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. That reminds me of a cartoon I recently saw of a squirrel on a psychiatrist’s couch and 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 her last desire, 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 is actually taken shape. It is open and running. 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 has also 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. 

The most recent book which was just printed about ten days 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 moonlight devotees, so I will show you Arca’s two. The one here on my right 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. 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 Muldersdrift, Johannesburg, and she went on to do beautiful painting of Deities, Radha-Golokananda 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 into 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 like nine-thirty or ten at night until two or two-thirty 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 Ramana-reti. She had already retired in Vrindavan and she had cancer but it wasn’t so bad and she was still active and very blissful, happy to be in Vrindavan, very attached to chanting the holy name and of course hearing about Krishna. She had also begun to paint the deity of Vṛndādevī at Vṛndā-kuṇḍa. She also had a very special relationship with Vṛndādevī at Vṛndā-kuṇḍa and the pujari there had engaged her in painting the deity but it was very much towards the end. 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 Bhrnga Govinda Swami and I took some of the devotees who were attached to her, the disciples who were in Vrindavan, to Vṛndā-kuṇḍa and I mentioned to the pujari that she had not completed her service to Vṛndādevī, that she felt sorry that she had been unable to complete her service to Vṛndādevī. 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 Kavirāja Gosvami to be placed in his renovated bhajana-kutira at Radha-kunda and that was also supposed to be a big secret because the mahāntas 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 Akiñcana Krishna, he was a grand-disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, but somehow he had become a bābājīs at Radha-kunda and he, because of his association with Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and he was also good friends with Bhurijana and Jagattarini, so he had some of that dynamic ISKCON spirit or Prabhupada spirit, so he wanted to renovate. . . practically rebuilt the whole bhajana-kutira. Bhurijana Prabhu and Jagattarini arranged for Mother Arca to paint the picture.

Arca and Kunti went to the unveiling, it was on that auspicious day, the disappearance day of the three acharyas including Krishnadasa Kavirāja Gosvami. Someone, it is really hard to know exactly what happened, but someone said, “And there is the artist right there,” and he pointed to her. She wanted to disappear into the earth. 

Then Akiñcana Prabhu wanted to do the same thing, he renovated Jiva Gosvami’s bhajana-kutira at Radha-kunda and she also did the portrait of Jiva Gosvami. And then the head mahānta 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-Syama, and her consciousness became extremely elevated and her destination was extremely auspicious. Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Hari-priya would like to speak to Kunti devi.

[Cannot reach her. . .]

Giriraj Swami:. . . She is certainly thinking of all of you and she gave some information about Mother Arca Vigraha’s prasāda tastes and I suppose you must have gotten it because one of the thinks she liked was jackfruit sabji and I saw there was jackfruit sabji on the menu and she liked jackfruit sabji.

In fact there was a very nice Bengali devotee named Raghava Nanda, Narottama Nanda Prabhu might remember him, he was quite refined Bengali gentleman, and he used to cook for Arca sometimes, and she really relished his cooking. Once he made jackfruit sabji and a green mango chutney that Arca just loved. Very, 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.

We never really 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 whatever way we can.

[Kirtan begins]

Thank you all for gathering on this auspicious occasion and arranging such a wonderful festival. My special thanks to Narottama Nanda Prabhu, my dear, dear god-brother who was also very close to Mother Arca Vigraha. 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 Kartika, 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.

One thing he said was that India is a land of opposites and 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 huts. So, that’s very true. Just the other day someone who had visited India, not related to me, just a very nice lady, she is in her eighties, and she was commenting on the same thing, the contrasts. So I quoted what Narottama Nanda Prabhu said and that made it easier for her to live with because some people feel, “Well, the rich people should be here and the poor people should be there,” but in India it is all mixed together.

So it is 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 in Bombay there are many good cooks. So, thank you, Narottama Nanda.

Narottama Nanda dasa: Maharaja, there is only one Mr. Bombay and that designation came from Srila Prabhupada himself. And it is not me, it is you. [laughter] We would all thank you for making this all possible. This gathering of devotees only exists because of you and I would like to thank you on behalf of Mother Arca Vigraha for being there for her because this relationship is very complex between guru and disciple and between you and everyone here and you are thanking us and we are thanking you and Radha is thanking Krishna and Krishna is thanking Radha. [laughter] It is the study of contrasts. 

It is a pleasure being with your family. It is a pleasure being with you. It has just been a lovely evening. So thank you for. . . I have never been in a Skype kirtan before. So I am sure everyone here is eager for your next visit.

Giriraj Swami: I am planning to come in October and then go to Vrindavan then go to Mauritius. I actually haven’t been to Mauritius in thirteen years or so. That would be for two weeks. And then come back to Bombay in January. I am keeping it open. I am feeling drawn back to India to spend more time. [applause] So, yes, I am taking it seriously.

Your words were really heartfelt and touched my heart. I would thank you again but I might instigate another round of thanking me and we could never get out. . .

Narottama Nanda dasa: Of course that is not a problem.

Giriraj Swami: We will just stay in that endless circle of mutual appreciation. But yes, it means a lot yes, your presence and what you said just now coming from so deep within your heart, it really touched my heart. Hare Krishna.

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Gaura-bhakta-vṛnda ki jaya!

Mother Arca Vigraha devi dasi ki jaya!