Mukhya Devi Dasi reporting: Thank you to everyone who took their time to visit with Sukriti Dasa at the Riverwood Care Home. It was enlivening for him to have association of devotees. He left his body sometime early Saturday, July 23, 2022 morning, we think about 3:00 am. Radha Krishna Dasa did the shraddha for him at the cremation center in Lake City on Sunday morning. His ashes will come with me to India this year and we will do a shraddha ceremony at the Yamuna River for him there also.
A lot of thanks goes to Radha Krishna Dasa who cared so nicely for Sukriti for the past year. He treated him like a beloved family member and navigated the difficulties of emergency room visits, hospital stays, rehabs and finally hospice care. He always thought of Sukriti’s needs first and foremost, he cooked him special prasad, and helped him reconnect with his niece in India, one family member who really cared about him. I learned a lot about caring for devotees from Radha Krishna Prabhu and admire his dedication to the service of devotee care.
Sukriti prabhu was initiated by Srila Prabhupada in Detroit in 1975 along with his mother. He thinks his grandmother had been a disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. They were a Vaishnava family.
He worked for a large munitions company in Detroit for 45 years, and in the beginning his mother stayed with the ladies in the ashram in the temple.
He met with and spoke in Bengali with His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada a total of twelve times, and although his work took him mostly away from temples he always felt very close to Srila Prabhupada.
He moved to the Alachua community in 2008. He always enjoyed coming to the temple for Guru Puja and danced with abandon at the vyasasana and the deity altar. He was generous with his friends, always donated for book distribution, and loved harinama kirtan.
EULOGY below written by Radha Krishna das
Dear Sukriti Prabhu, my friend, my brother.
Thank you for allowing me your association and to serve you. You once told me that you had a brother between you and your younger brother, but he died at birth. You thought he might be me. Though I don’t like to speculate on the Lords plans, the magic of Lord Krishna is unlimited, and anything is possible.
I had seen you dancing for many years during greeting of the Deities and Guru Puja yet never knew anything about you. By fate you needed assistance so I was asked by Mother Muhkya if I could help. What started simple, became a passion. Trying to help you accomplish your desire at the end of life, little did I know the adventure ahead.
Details are not that important. It’s the development of the relationship that marks the true transformation of the consciousness when done with Lord Krishna in the center.
Your family lineage on your mother’s side were practitioners of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Your Grandmother was a follower of His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Maharaj. Both your mother and you were initiated by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada loved your mother’s cooking and saw you as a son. The instructions His Divine Grace gave to you on your duty or dharma, you followed your whole life.
One of your most cherished moments is when you enter the room of devotees with Srila Prabhupada talking, is amazing and sweet. Though you were at the back of the room, coming in after working outside, dressed in suit and tie, Srila Prabhupada called you from across the room. He had you sit next to him on the sofa and then Srila Prabhupada continue his darshan.
Devotees are deep personalities because of their intimate relationship with Krishna. Through many years of service and past life impressions your Sukriti was overflowing. The false ego can be our biggest foe which keeps the living entity trapped in the illusion of the material world. Pain and death can be the best conquer for the stubborn false ego. Your final journey took you through the pain of destroying the false ego and reconnecting you with the unlimited. It was like the last piece of the puzzle appearing. The causeless mercy of the Lord appeared at the darkest hour, which glorifies Lord Krishna’s commitment that His devotee will never perish. Your purification complete, you were ready to move forward.
Happy travels my friend, my brother. You showed me the path we must all take. You never stopped loving Srila Prabhupada and the Lord, and you always said, “Krishna can do as He pleases, for I have full faith in Him.”
You have a bright future ahead and there is only cause for rejoice. Whenever I remember you, my heart will fill with joy for having known and served such a wonderful soul. God sent. My heart felt pranams. Aloha and Hare Krishna!