His Grace Rakshana Das
It is with mixed feelings of sadness and gratitude that we acknowledge the passing away of Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental body guard, Rakshana Das at 3am this morning of June 6th, 2026 in the Holiest of month of Purusottama in North Carolina.
Rakshana Das served as a personal guard for Srila Prabhupada during the mid 1970’s during his North American tour. He was temple commander for New Dvarada around 1975. He helped take care of the FATE museum in LA. Gandhari and her sister would give tours of the museum on Sundays.
Rakshana Das shared an intimate, affectionate spiritual relationship with Srila Prabhupada. One time Rakshana prabhu confessed to Srila Prabhupada that he had a deep attraction to serving Krishna’s form of Parthasarthi. Srila Prabhupada validated his disposition, acknowledging that Rakshana’s natural protective, warrior instinct was perfectly aligned with his spiritual attraction to Parthasarathi.
He married Caitanya Dasi, ACBSP in 1980. He was a loving stepfather to Gandhari, Mirabai, and Draupadi. Caitanya Dasi and Rakshana had a son, Dhruva in 1981.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada! All glories to His Grace Rakshana Das!