Yamuna Devi’s Disappearance Day

Giriraj Swami: 

ŚB 3.25.20

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

The propensity for attachment cannot be stopped; it must be utilized for the best purpose. Our attachment for material things perpetuates our conditional state, but the same attachment, when transferred to the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His devotee, is the source of liberation.

Here it is recommended that attachment should be transferred to the self-realized devotees, the sādhus. And who is a sādhu? A sādhu is not just an ordinary man with a saffron robe or long beard. A sādhu is described in Bhagavad-gītā as one who unflinchingly engages in devotional service.

COMMENT

Can anyone other than Dravida Prabhu quote the verse in the Bhagavad-gītā?

Devotee: What to do?

Giriraj Swami: Well, who knows any verse in the Bhagavad-gītā that includes the word sadhu? Yes.

Devotee: paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṁ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām dharma-saṁsthāpanārthāya sambhavāmi yuge yuge

Giriraj Swami: Good, good. Now, does anyone know any other verse in the Bhagavad-gītā that contains the word sadhu?

Devotee: api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ samyag vyavasito hi saḥ

Giriraj Swami: Very good. How did you get it?

Devotee: I learned it a long time ago.

Giriraj Swami: Okay, and can you translate it?

Devotee: Not really.

Giriraj Swami: Or anyone, can anyone translate it?

Okay, api cet su-durācāro, even if one is engaged in the most abominable activity but if he is rightly situated in devotional service he is considered a sadhu, he is considered saintly. So that is what Prabhupada is paraphrasing here.

PURPORT (continued)

A sādhu is described in Bhagavad-gītā as one who unflinchingly engages in devotional service.

COMMENT

That means no demigod worship, or other process, but just devotional service.

PURPORT (continued)

Even though one is found not to be following the strict rules and regulations of devotional service, if one simply has unflinching faith in Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Person, he is understood to be a sādhu. Sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ. A sādhu is a strict follower of devotional service. It is recommended here that if one at all wants to realize Brahman, or spiritual perfection, his attachment should be transferred to. . .

Devotee: Sadhu.

Giriraj Swami: Too much, too much internet, too much Facebook, too much text, not enough hearing. But anyway, somehow they are saying Krishna, sadhu, liberation. Okay, all right. Now I am going to read that again so you can see how the sentence was logically heading towards a particular conclusion.

PURPORT (continued)

It is recommended here that if one at all wants to realize Brahman, or spiritual perfection, his attachment should be transferred to the sadhu, or devotee. Lord Caitanya also confirmed this, lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya.

COMMENT

Does anyone know that verse?

Devotee: ‘sādhu-saṅga’ ‘sādhu-saṅga’-sarva-śāstre kaya lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya

One can attain perfection just by brief association of a sadhu.

Giriraj Swami: Correct.

PURPORT (continued)

Lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya: simply by a moment’s association with a sādhu, one can attain perfection.

Mahātmā is a synonym of sādhu. It is said that service to a mahātmā, or elevated devotee of the Lord, is dvāram āhur vimukteḥ, the royal road of liberation. Mahat-sevāṁ dvāram āhur vimuktes tamo-dvāraṁ yoṣitāṁ saṅgi-saṅgam (Bhāg. 5.5.2). Rendering service to the materialists has the opposite effect.

COMMENT

Now, what does that mean? What is the effect of rendering service to a sadhu or mahatma? And what is the effect of rendering service to a materialist? Karim?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:07:57].

Giriraj Swami: And what is the result of being a materialist? Where do you go?

Devotee: Return in birth and death.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, yes, you remain in the cycle of birth and death. And what is the result of rendering service to a sadhu or mahatma?

Devotee: Get detachment from material world.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, you become detached from material things, you become liberated from the cycle of birth and death.

PURPORT (continued)

Rendering service to the materialists has the opposite effect. If anyone offers service to a gross materialist, or a person engaged only in sense enjoyment, then by association with such a person the door to hell is opened. The same principle is confirmed here. Attachment to a devotee is attachment to the service of the Lord because if one associates with a sādhu, the result will be that the sādhu will teach him how to become a devotee, a worshiper and a sincere servitor of the Lord. These are the gifts of a sādhu. If we want to associate with a sādhu, we cannot expect him to give us instructions on how to improve our material condition, but he will give us instructions on how to cut the knot of the contamination of material attraction and how to elevate ourselves in devotional service. That is the result of associating with a sādhu. Kapila Muni first of all instructs that the path of liberation begins with such association.

COMMENT

And then the next verse, because understanding the necessity to associate with the sadhu raises the question: Who is a sadhu? How do we recognize a sadhu? Now, there is a general characteristic of a sadhu that we have just read about in the purport, and what is the single qualification of a sadhu?

Devotee: Devotion to Krishna.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, and what is the verse that substantiates that point?

api cet su-durācāro bhajate mām ananya-bhāk 

sādhur eva sa mantavyaḥ samyag vyavasito hi saḥ

Okay, but if we want more information how to recognize a sadhu, or if we are endeavoring to become saintly, what qualities should we be developing? Those questions are answered in this verse.

ŚB 3.25.21

titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ

suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām

ajāta-śatravaḥ śāntāḥ

sādhavaḥ sādhu-bhūṣaṇā

TRANSLATION

The symptoms of a sādhu are that he is tolerant, merciful and friendly to all living entities. He has no enemies, he is peaceful, he abides by the scriptures, and all his characteristics are sublime.

PURPORT by Srila Prabhupada

A sādhu, as described above, is a devotee of the Lord. His concern therefore is to enlighten people in devotional service to the Lord. That is his mercy.

COMMENT

So one of the symptoms is kāruṇikāḥ, merciful. So how do we see the mercy of a sadhu?

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:13:20] in the service of the Lord.

Giriraj Swami: Yes, yes, excellent.

PURPORT (continued)

His concern therefore is to enlighten people in devotional service to the Lord. That is his mercy. He knows that without devotional service to the Lord, human life is spoiled. A devotee travels all over the country, from door to door, preaching “Be Kṛṣṇa conscious. Be a devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Don’t spoil your life in simply fulfilling your animal propensities. Human life is meant for self-realization, or Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” These are the preachings of a sādhu. He is not satisfied with his own liberation. He always thinks about others. He is the most compassionate personality towards all the fallen souls. Therefore one of his qualifications is kāruṇika, great mercy to the fallen souls. While engaged in preaching work, he has to meet with so many opposing elements, and therefore the sādhu, or devotee of the Lord, has to be very tolerant.

COMMENT

That is another one of the qualities, titikṣava.

PURPORT (continued)

Someone may ill-treat him because the conditioned souls are not prepared to receive the transcendental knowledge of devotional service. They do not like it; that is their disease. The sādhu has the thankless task of impressing upon them the importance of devotional service. Sometimes devotees are personally attacked with violence.

COMMENT

Can any of you think of examples of famous devotees who were attacked with violence because they tried to preach the message of the Lord?

Devotee: Lord Nityananda.

Giriraj Swami: Lord Nityananda.

Devotee: Prahlada.

Giriraj Swami: Prahlada.

Devotee: Haridasa Thakura.

Giriraj Swami: Haridasa Thakura. Indradyumna Swami.

Devotee: [Unintelligible 00:16:28].

Giriraj Swami: And one other famous one.

Devotee: Jesus.

Devotee: Who is it?

Giriraj Swami: Yes, Jesus.

PURPORT (continued)

Sometimes devotees are personally attacked with violence. Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, Haridāsa Ṭhākura was caned in twenty-two marketplaces, and Lord Caitanya’s principal assistant, Nityānanda, was violently attacked by Jagāi and Mādhāi. But still they were tolerant because their mission was to deliver the fallen souls. One of the qualifications of a sādhu is that he is very tolerant and is merciful to all fallen souls. He is merciful because he is the well-wisher of all living entities.

COMMENT

This is another one of the qualities, suhṛdaḥ. we discussed this the other night. suhṛdaḥ sarva-dehinām.

PURPORT (continued)

He is not only a well-wisher of human society, but a well-wisher of animal society as well. It is said here, sarva-dehinām, which indicates all living entities who have accepted material bodies. Not only does the human being have a material body, but other living entities, such as cats and dogs, also have material bodies. The devotee of the Lord is merciful to everyone — the cats, dogs, trees, etc. He treats all living entities in such a way that they can ultimately get salvation from this material entanglement. Śivānanda Sena, one of the disciples of Lord Caitanya, gave liberation to a dog by treating the dog transcendentally. There are many instances where a dog got salvation by association with a sādhu, because a sādhu engages in the highest philanthropic activities for the benediction of all living entities. Yet although a sādhu is not inimical towards anyone, the world is so ungrateful that even a sādhu has many enemies.

COMMENT

That is one of the qualities of a sadhu, that he has no enemy, but here we see that sadhus do have enemies. But a sadhu is not the enemy of anyone, he is not the enemy even of his enemy. But some people out of envy may become inimical to a sadhu, although the sadhu is faultless.

PURPORT (continued)

What is the difference between an enemy and a friend? It is a difference in behavior. A sādhu behaves with all conditioned souls for their ultimate relief from material entanglement. Therefore no one can be more friendly than a sādhu in relieving a conditioned soul. A sādhu is calm, and he quietly and peacefully follows the principles of scripture. A sādhu means one who follows the principles of scripture and at the same time is a devotee of the Lord. One who actually follows the principles of scripture must be a devotee of God because all the śāstras instruct us to obey the orders of the Personality of Godhead. Therefore sādhu means a follower of the scriptural injunctions and a devotee of the Lord. All these characteristics are prominent in a devotee. A devotee develops all the good qualities of the demigods, whereas a nondevotee, even though academically qualified, has no actual good qualifications or good characteristics according to the standard of transcendental realization.

COMMENT

Hare Krishna. So, tonight I am going to discuss two sadhus who I had the good fortune of meeting and by whose association I realized some of the benefits mentioned in the verses. The first was Srila Prabhupada and I saw Srila Prabhupada exhibit the qualities of a sadhu as mentioned in the verse under very difficult circumstances in Juhu.

Srila Prabhupada entered an agreement to purchase some land at Juhu beach in Bombay but the landlord was a very cunning and crooked person and he wanted to cheat Srila Prabhupada or cheat Krishna. So he took the first installments from Srila Prabhupada and then on some technical point he canceled the agreement and with a group of cohorts he tried to drive Srila Prabhupada and the devotees from the land and keep the money. Srila Prabhupada really wanted the land but he said, “If you want to take the land then give us our money back or else give us the land and we will pay you your money.” Now, the intrigue was so complicated and fraught that Srila Prabhupada ended up staying in Juhu for many weeks. Although he had other commitments, he canceled them or postponed them in order to try to get the Juhu land for the deities Sri Sri Radha- Rasabihari.

And during his extended stay he spoke on these verses from the Third Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Lord Kapila’s instructions to Devahuti. And the lectures were actually published as a book: The Teachings of Lord Kapila to Devahuti. And when he came to this verse, titikṣavaḥ kāruṇikāḥ, he related it to his own struggle in very direct terms. And he explained that kāruṇikāḥ titikṣavaḥ, that as he said in the lecture, “You know what has happened on this land, a big click has formed to drive us away and they are saying that these devotees are foreigners.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “They are not thinking like that, I am Indian, or I am American, or I am Russian, or I am Chinese, and they have no other business than to serve Krishna. From four in the morning to ten at night they have no other business but to serve Krishna. But still, people are envious, although a sadhu has no enemy, but still, people out of envy become inimical to a sadhu.” And he quoted Chanakya Pandit sloka that there are two kinds of envious creatures: the snake and the human being. And of the two the envious person is more dangerous than the snake because a snake can be pacified by mantras and medicinal herbs but an envious person cannot be pacified by any means.

Then Srila Prabhupada said that he could have thought, All right, if the people here don’t like us we can go somewhere else, we have centers all over the world. If people in Bombay don’t like us we can go anywhere else. But no, kāruṇikāḥ, we have come here for a purpose, to enlighten them in devotional service, so what can be done? Titikṣavaḥ, we have to tolerate all this nonsense and continue with our mission. And then at the end of the talk, he indirectly gave a blessing to the devotees who were cooperating with him. Of course, the previous verse says that by becoming attached to a sadhu the door to liberation opens, and so by becoming attached to Srila Prabhupada the door to liberation opens. And by serving a sadhu one develops the qualities of the sadhu. So these are some of the blessings of serving as sadhu even in very difficult circumstances.

Now, much more could be said about Srila Prabhupada and how he exemplified the qualities of a sadhu and how the devotees who served him were blessed with the benefits that come from serving a sadhu as mentioned in the scripture. But today I am also going to speak about another devotee named Yamuna devi dasi. Yamuna devi dasi was an extraordinary disciple of Srila Prabhupada and I am speaking about her today especially because today is the first anniversary of her departure. And actually, I was planning to be in Vrindavan today for her memorial service, and the dedication of her samadhi, and the immersion of her ashes in the Yamuna. But due to circumstances I am here, but frankly my heart has been there. And His Holiness Radhanath Swami and I were going to be there together, and I thought he knew, but somehow he didn’t know that I wouldn’t be there so he was feeling separation. He actually phoned me from Vrindavan just about when I should have left to reach here at six o’clock.

So, one could speak volumes about Yamuna devi, one could write volumes about her. And she herself, being requested by so many devotees, was writing her memoirs but she never let anyone see what she was writing and it was only when she left a year ago that her lifelong friend, spiritual friend, Dinatarini saw Yamuna devi’s work. And she told her story in such a way that every detail was included except for Yamuna devi, she was so humble that she completely wrote herself out of the story. Now, before she left, sometime, maybe three years before she left, she said to Dinatarini that, “If I am unable to complete my memoir I want you to finish it.” And Dinatarini within herself was thinking, That will never happen, no, only Yamuna devi can write her memoir. So thinking it will never happen, she said, “Yes, I will do it.” And Yamuna devi left and she has accepted that responsibility. So I know that volumes could be written and Dinatarini is taking up the process of putting together the story of Yamuna devi including the stories of so many other devotees speaking about Yamuna devi. But I will tell a little about my personal association with her, although that actually spanned many decades, but I will begin when I first met her which was in India. And actually I don’t have my watch, maybe I should, what is our. . .

Devotee: Never complete in our heart Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: All right. So, in 1970 Srila Prabhupada decided to return to India and he wanted the best person who could be spared from each temple in America to go. So generally speaking, the number two person in each temple went. But apart from those there were two couples from England, extraordinary devotees, Gurudas and Yamuna, and Shyamasundara and Malati. And Gurudas knew an Indian man who worked for an airline called Bosco which nobody’s ever heard of, even when it existed no one ever heard of it because it had one airplane which was an old propeller prop plane left over from World War II. And once a week it made a run from Brussels to Bombay via Cairo. Anyway, more could be said about that airline, but it has been confirmed by a body that evaluated the safety of aircrafts and airlines that Bosco was by far the most unsafe airline on the planet at the time.

So, our group from America went to Brussels, that was the idea, we would meet in Brussels, and there for the first time I met these legends, Shyamasundara and Malati and Yamuna devi. Briefly I had met Gurudas when he passed through Boston, he was in England but he came back to America through Boston and then went back to England. And I walked into that room, it was an apartment, I think it belonged to that Indian man, and the atmosphere was so thick with Prabhupada consciousness, it was palpable, you could just feel the devotion. And I would have been happy just to have stayed there with these wonderful devotees but the time came, we had to go to the airport, and the experience on the plane was extraordinary in a different way. And so many events. But in Cairo I was a little oblivious, I didn’t really realize what was happening. But the President of Egypt had recently died and there was a lot of unrest and there were remnants of aircraft exploded on the tarmac, and so there were all these armed guards at the airport. And Yamuna devi described that as the devotees were coming down the steps the guards had their automatic weapons. They are looking at the devotees and she saw that the gun was going up and down and up and down, and then she looked behind her and there was Giriraj dasa brahmachari then, jumping up and down, chanting Hare Krishna. And meanwhile. . .

So, we went into the tarmac and we started to do kirtan. And Nandakumar is also a wonderful devotee, Nandakumar, he may not have been the only one but he had a very uneasy feeling about doing kirtan in the Cairo airport, especially at that troubled period. So he thought, I think I am just going to go for a little walk. So he disappeared, and meanwhile all the armed guards had their weapons trained on the devotees. And after a while he thought, Let me just take a peek and see what is happening, I mean they are my godbrothers and godsisters. And he looked and he saw all the machine guns leaned up against the airplane and the guards were holding hands with the devotees, chanting Hare Krishna and dancing in a circle. So, that was one incident. Then we got to Bombay, and at that time, I was having a difficult time for certain reasons and I just didn’t know what to do, and I couldn’t go to Srila Prabhupada, I just wasn’t going to go to Srila Prabhupada and tell him about my difficulties. So somehow I just had the idea, I will go to Gurudas and Yamuna. So I went into their room and what happened was extraordinary. They turned the whole thing around, instead of me coming in to get their shelter and guidance they turned the whole thing around as if Prabhupada sent me to engage them in thinking about and speaking about deeper topics of Srila Prabhupada and Krishna consciousness. And from then I became very attached to both of them. And at a certain stage the devotees were being divided up to go to different places in India, and Tamal Krishna Goswami was the GBC, so I said I wanted to go with Gurudas, I wanted to stay with Gurudas and Yamuna. He said, “That is just a sentiment, it is a nice sentiment, but just sentiment like no go.”

But from Bombay we went to Amritsar and it was quite cold, it was October, it was quite cold up north. And in the afternoon when we didn’t have a program, Yamuna devi would sit in the courtyard of the Vedanta Sammelan or the Vedanta ashram, and sit cross-legged. She was like a yogi, yogini, just with her back erect, close her eyes and she just chant the holy name continuously. And she described to me that when she chanted it is like her ears just opened up and the sound would enter her ears and fill her mind, her heart, and she wasn’t even thinking in an intellectual way or cognitive way that these are names of God, but just the vibration, that transcendental vibration was one with her consciousness. And she was always very deep in her absorption in the holy name. When she was in England the devotees, it is really worth reading this history, I mean first Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta and then there is a very nice book published by the BBT called When The Sun Shines about Srila Prabhupada, and the devotees in England, you can learn so much from them. And Mukunda Goswami also wrote a very nice book called Miracle On Second Avenue which discusses the Hare Krishna movement coming in New York, and San Francisco, and then London.

So, when the devotees met The Beatles, and The Beatles, especially George Harrison, but they were all involved, John Lennon, they recorded together and that album which is called The Radha-Krishna Temple album has one song, probably the longest cut on the album, of Yamuna devi singing Bhajahū re mana. And she wasn’t singing to be recorded, she was just singing on her own, but George Harrison he recorded it and then he dubbed in a little instrumentation, but it was really just her spontaneous heartfelt singing. And he told her that if she wanted to work with him he could make her of the most celebrated female vocalists in the world, but of course, she wasn’t interested in that. So, from Amritsar, many stops, many adventures, many experiences, but there is one in particular that had a profound effect on her and that was when we were at the Ardh Khumba-mela in Allahabad. Yamuna devi had the idea, and it was the common practice but she had the idea that she had as much right to be close to Srila Prabhupada as anyone else. And she was always eager to hear and eager to serve, and so she would be close to him in so many pictures. And Srila Prabhupada had actually commented because he was speaking on the story of Ajamila, that he was speaking that story for her.

So, I am on the stage in the pandal, Yamuni devi was sitting at Srila Prabhupada’s feet as usual and one of the sannyasis said to her, “Do you see where you are? And do you see where all the men are? And do you see where all the other women are?” She said yes. And he said, “This is India and the culture here is different. And people look at us and the way we behave reflects on Srila Prabhupada.” So then she didn’t sit there. So maybe the same morning when she didn’t sit close to Srila Prabhupada, later in the morning he noticed her outside his tent. We had three tents at the Khumba-mela camp. And he called for her and he said, “So Yamuna, you don’t want to hear me anymore?” And she broke into tears and she said, “Of course, I want to hear you, more than anything else on earth I want to hear you.” And then Srila Prabhupada asked, “Why weren’t you there?” And then she explained what happened and Srila Prabhupada was silent because there was truth to what that sannyasi had said, so he was silent. And Yamuna devi suddenly had the realization that she would not always have access to Srila Prabhupada’s physical association and she felt that she had to prepare herself for that. So, she asked Srila Prabhupada, “How much association did you have with your guru Maharaja?” And he said, “I am never separated from my guru Maharaja.” Which is true on a certain level. But still, she said, “But when your guru Maharaja was personally present, how much time did you spend with him?” And Srila Prabhupada said, “Not very much time, I only met with him a few times, but when we were together our talks were very intimate. But some of my godbrothers had very extensive association with him but they were just like the mosquitoes on the lap of the king. They were in very close physical proximity to the king but they just were a disturbance. He might have said they sucked his blood. And Yamuna devi took this as a confirmation that she could not expect to always have close association with Srila Prabhupada, and that what was really important was hearing and following, not physical proximity. And that was a turning point in her devotional service and from then on she always had that in mind and always was preparing herself.

And she said that Srila Prabhupada was also preparing her, that he spoke about his departure from time to time in a very matter-of-fact way even before India when they were staying in England at John Lennon’s estate, once they were in the car, and the way the car was Yamuna devi was in the back sort of squeezed in. And Srila Prabhupada just suddenly said to her, “You sang that song wrong.” And immediately Yamuna devi came close and put her ear close to Srila Prabhupada and she said, “Which song, Srila Prabhupada?” And he said, “That song on the record, Bhajahū re mana. And Yamuna devi said, “I am sorry, Srila Prabhupada, I didn’t know that.” Because they didn’t have song books then, she just picked it up by hearing, very good at hearing. And then he said that, “When I die I want my body to be taken in a procession to all the main temples of Vrindavan.” So Yamuna devi said, “Yes, Srila Prabhupada, but why are you telling me? You know you should tell one of the leaders, Tamal Krishna Goswami should tell one of the men. He said, “No, I am telling you, you can tell them.”

And another time in Vrindavan, Yamuna devi was expert at so many things, one was cooking and she would cook for Srila Prabhupada expertly. But at a certain stage, Srila Prabhupada was quite ill, he wasn’t able to eat much, and he told her, “Practically, this body is finished.” If you have no appetite, if you can’t eat, it means the body is finished. So like that he was also quite matter-of-fact about his inevitable departure, and so she was all along preparing herself. And basically, her example for us is that just by following Srila Prabhupada’s instructions strictly, one can achieve the highest destination. Before we got the Juhu land we had an apartment in Bombay called the Akash Ganga on Warden Road, and one morning, the usual program was that there would be maṅgala-ārati and then the devotees would chant their rounds in the temple room and then Srila Prabhupada would come in and give class. But one morning Srila Prabhupada came in during japa, and as Yamuna devi described, her eyes were closed, she would always close her eyes when she chanted japa or kirtan pretty much. But something changed in the atmosphere, she could feel that something was different and so she opened her eyes and there she saw Srila Prabhupada sitting on the vyāsāsana, but he didn’t have his eyes closed chanting his japa. He had his eyes open and he was looking around the room at each and every devotee and assessing their consciousness, their japa, everything about them. So there was a nice brahmachari, Bengali brahmachari named Tatpara, and his bead bag was dirty. And Srila Prabhupada said, “You should have a clean bead bag.” And he said, “You should have two bead bags and every night you should wash one bead bag and then the next morning you use the other bead bag while the first one dries and like that every morning you have a clean bead bag for your japa-mālā.”

Now, Yamuna devi she had her notebooks and she would always, especially when Srila Prabhupada spoke, she would take notes. So, she had her notebook out and Srila Prabhupada said, “How many rounds have you chanted?” She said, “Fourteen.” And Srila Prabhupada said, “You should not do anything else until you finish your sixteen rounds.” And she took that instruction, like every instruction from Srila Prabhupada, very seriously. And from then on she never did anything before finishing her sixteen rounds; no notebook, no making lists. And although she did say when she was living in the rural community in Canada, Sharanagati is very cold in the morning so she said that she would put the wood in the fire, that would be the only exception, she would put the wood in the fire so there would be some heat in the room, otherwise nothing until she finished her rounds. And in her later years you could say, she was very concerned that Srila Prabhupada’s legacy be passed on as it is. She was very concerned that Srila Prabhupada’s teachings and even Srila Prabhupada’s behavior not be lost. And she was very concerned about compromise, that there should be no compromise. And at the same time she was concerned about the youth. She was a great inspiration to many of the younger generation and she had a profound effect on them.

I do wish we had more time, but again, I recommend that you read, of course, Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, that is a must, everyone should read Śrīla Prabhupāda-līlāmṛta, and then these other books like When The Sun Shines, the two, Miracle On Second Avenue and When The Sun Shines. And yes, she is a real example. And she was pretty open and straightforward and honest about times when she felt she was having difficulty and how she dealt with difficulties, difficult periods in her Krishna consciousness, is also instructive. It is not that everything was always easy, it definitely was not always easy. But whatever it was she had full faith in Srila Prabhupada. She would often say that Srila Prabhupada was completely aware of every disciple, both their internal consciousness and their external execution of service, and that when she was struggling internally he was aware of it and he would deal with her in such a way as to help her even if it was painful and sometimes it was painful. And so, I think her life can teach us not only in terms of her great successes, and I think ultimately everything was successful in the end, but also her struggles. And sometimes the struggles were internal, one’s own consciousness and sometimes they were external. Sometimes the conditions in the temple or in the movement were just extremely difficult. But somehow she showed her resilience and whatever the situation was she was able to learn from it and progress further. How many of you met her? Can you say something?

Devotee: [01:11:05].

Giriraj Swami: You mentioned the book Lord Krishna’s Cuisine, one of the award for the best cookbook of the year, but last October I went to Melbourne Beach to meet Dinatarini, and [Unintelligible 01:18:29], Shuddha Rupa was also there and Dinatarini told me that a couple of years before she left they had gone to a health spa in the Himalayas, maybe in Rishikesh or something, and attached to the health spa was the Maharishi’s school for training people in Ayurveda. And the head of the school who had been the head of the school for decades, maybe in his eighties. So he heard that the devotees had come and so when they were having prasāda, he came and he introduced himself and they introduced themselves. And when he heard Yamuna devi he said, “The Yamuna devi?” And he offered flat daṇḍavats at her feet, eighty year old sadhu, professor of Ayurveda, and he said that he has been using her cookbook as the main textbook for cooking in the school and in the spa from the time it came out. So we don’t even know how many people she has affected and to what extent.