Remembering Lila Shakti Devi Dasi

By Bhakti Madhurya Govinda Goswami (formerly Makhanlal das)

Another great soul has left this world to join Srila Prabhupada in nitya lila, that is my God sister, Lila Shakti Devi Dasi. In “modern ISKCON” she is known hardly at all by “newer devotees”. However, there was a time in the history of ISKCON decades ago when she was world famous as one of the world’s top distributors of Srila Prabhupada’s books. I knew her very well in her “hey-days”, or “golden years” of fame as a book distributor, for we were both living in Los Angeles, California, USA in those days. She was a Los Angeles book distributor, helping to make world history when Srila Prabhupada was so pleased by the hundreds of thousands or more books being sold, especially by the Los Angeles temple. In those days, L.A. was the world “king” of Prabhupada’s book distribution, rivaled by none, and she was a great general in that army! It was in that era that Srila Prabhupada gave his famous order to the devotees “double it”, even though the numbers of books sold were already huge in number, absolutely phenomenal—the greatest in the history of ISKCON. Lila shakti did her level best to help Srila Prabhupada’s dream come true, although t was “mission impossible”; still, hundreds of devotees were working twelve hour days to try to have Srila Prabhupada’s order and his dream fulfilled.

Although famous in those days, Lila Shakti was never puffed up—simply unconditionally dedicated to Srila Prabhupada’s desires. She was a self-sacrificing, humble devotee with many good qualities. She underwent many years of severe tapasya distributing books for Srila Prabhupada. It was tough being shouted at by demons in the airport “Get a job!” It was very hard to hear so many of hundreds of people say. “I’m not interested!”and walk away as swiftly as they could. Yet, she did not become discouraged, though there were certainly very rough and not so productive days. That was part of the service; yet just when things were looking hopeless, due to constant prayer, Krishna would send a sincere soul, or two or four, who appreciated the books and could sense the value by the distributor’s total dedication. Of course, Lila shakti knew the art of how to sell books under very unfavorable, tough conditions. In effect, she and the other top book distributors were professionally expert at sales. They knew what to say and what to do to change the mind of even a seasoned demon! Sometimes the distributors would approach the CEO of a multibillion dollar corporation. Quite often, the CEO would complement the devotee: “You’re good! I want to hire you for my company!”, but I never heard that any book distributor took up those lucrative (big wealth-producing, high salaried) job offers. They selflessly remained faithful to Srila Prabhupada’s mission. Lila shakti was certainly amongst such dedicated devotees, tolerating all material set-backs on a daily basis. They fearlessly approached everyone, without care for their social status, high or low, famous or unknown.

There is no doubt that during her book distribution “career”, Lila shakti approached many celebrities—movie stars, famous musicians, etc, and often they would walk away with several of Srila Prabhupada’s books! Over the years, more or less, she wore out her body in that service without consideration of the back pain, body aches, and all the other negatives that came with that extremely difficult service. The book bags alone might weigh 30 pounds (13 kg) or more—a real physical strain, but she and all the other leading distributors tolerated it.

With time, Lila Shakti was forced to retire from book distribution, no doubt for physical reasons. I haven’t seen her for many decades, but apparently she retired in Carpentaria, California, a pleasant citrus-orchard area just south of Santa Barbara and about 1 1/2 hour drive from Los Angeles. She must have been living with her wonderful parents, Sam and Rose Forkash, who were / are 16 round chanting, initiated devotees. Sam may have passed away, but in 2013 Rose had her 93^rd birthday celebration, which was attended by Giriraj Swami, who also is headquartered in that most pleasant area near the ocean. Sam and Rose headed up and pioneered the Los Angeles “Folk” (Friends of Lord Krishna) program for many years, one of the first congregational preaching outreach efforts in the US. They also guided the “Meals on Wheels” program which delivered fresh, hot Krishna Prasadam to the elderly; So we see that lila Shakti’s whole family were and are (whoever is surviving) great souls.

Dina Bandu prabhu wrote that he was “sad” upon hearing of Lila Shakti’s departure from this (miserable) material world. However, I have to declare what a fortunate soul she is to be re-united with Srila Prabhupada and his ever-growing family in Goloka Vrindavan. Srila Prabhupada told us “There will be another ISKCON in the spiritual world”. This certainly did not refer to an institution, but rather to an eternal spiritual family. We are all part of Srila Prabhupada’s family and will all join with him in Goloka, even those who never physically met him but follow his instructions carefully, unless they want name, fame, power, sex, money, opulence, etc, in which case they may go to the heavenly planets (Swarga Loka).

In a famous letter that Srila Prabhupada wrote to Jayananda prabhu after his departure from this world, he declared “If you had any material desires, then perhaps you went to the heavenly planets, but I don’t think so!” Similarly, I fully agree with Dina Bandu prabhu that Srila Prabhupada personally came and escorted Lila shakti to Vraj! Why not? There are multiple, witnessed reports of Srila Prabhupada personally comng to take much less qualified or dedicated persons than Lila Shakti D.D!

There is a true story told by Jananivas prabhu, head pujari in Mayapur, about an elderly lady whose health was failing; so her devotee family took her to Vrindavan for full, Vraja Dham parikram, knowing that she was going to leave her body soon. For some reason, they then returned her to Mumbai instead of keeping her in Vrindavan. The woman then left her body in Mumbai. Her sister came up from South India to join in observing a memorial service. She went to the temple with the family and saw Srila Prabhupada sitting on the Vyasasagn. She loudly exclaimed, “I SAW THAT MAN! He appeared to me in a dream and said “Don’t worry about your sister. She is under MY protection now!” Yes, this is indeed a true story! This being the case we can certainly understand that Lila Shakti is now with Srila Prabhupada in Vraj beyond all doubt, regardless of what his swarup (spiritual body) may be! There is no need even to pray for her, because Srila Prabhupad is (present tense) taking care of everything, just as he promised his sincere disciples at the time of initiation.

So there is another ISKCON in the spiritual world, with Srila Prabhupada in the center of the fully transcendental, fully liberated family. Lila Shakti has gone to join Brahmananda, Bhakti Tirtha Swami, our God brother Sridhar Swami, Swarup Damodara Maharaj, Tamal Krishna Goswami, Mula Prakriti D.D. (another pioneer book distributor) as well as so many other less famous Prabhupada initiates. They are all in nitya lila beyond doubt, while we still suffer in material bodies in this world of birth, death, old age, and disease. We should all sing “Ye analo prema dana”, for we are left behind; but our time is coming soon. Almost all the Prabhupada disciples are over sixty years old now, having joined ISKCON in our early twenties. My body is 69 years old. For all readers, please take note that there is a great urgent need to support the GBC’s fledgling retirement village plan in Mayapur, for while the sannyasis and brahmachris can find a home in Mayapur Senior Brahmachari Ashram, the elderly Vaishnavis have no place to take shelter, even though they spent the best years of their life, with their own “blood” building this movement!

There are “unsung” heroes and heroines like Maithili D.D. who chained herself to the Juhu deity shed (no temple yet) when the police came to destroy the make-shift deity room. She fearlessly declared, “You will have to kill me first!” The police had to back off! Yet last I heard, she was still in Southern California trying to make a living on her own in her elderly years. In America, unlike India, there is rarely family to fall back on. Most Western disciples gave up everything for Srila Prabhupada, cutting all family ties. In their youth, they spent their best years assisting Srila Prabhupada when they should have been developing career, by material standards. They sacrificed everything for Prabhupada, but now they are mostly forgotten, out to pasture to die on their own, now old with no shelter. It is absolutely essential that ISKCON provide this shelter without delay, for they cannot create it themselves. The planned Mayapur retirement village is much needed, but there should be at least 1,000 apartments, for the parents in India who have donated their only son to ISKCON should also be able to retire there in a devotional life. The current plan for retirement apartments, I fear, is far too small. California GBC member Badri Narayan Maharaja is apparently in charge of this project, so everyone reading should give their full support. Not all are as fortunate as Lila shakti to have a “happy ending” to their story; rather, many are left with a brutal struggle for existence in old age, and action must be taken to support them, especially the elderly single Vaishnavis, some of whom are still struggling to earn a living while competing with the youth that employers prefer to hire. This is truly sad, not leaving the wretched material world, but struggling in old age without support from anyone.

Remembering Lila Shakti, please help assist the elderly devotees. This will help strengthen the legacy for the Prabhupada disciples in their final years.

Respectfully submitted,

Bhakti Madhurya Govinda Goswami