By Pandava vijaya dasa
One of the best devotees ever-left his body last night 10/24/07- Radhanath dasa of San Diego. We called him sick Radhanath. My first service was in taking Radhanath out to distribute books and flowers in his wheelchair. I would drop him off for the lunch time rush and someone would pick up up that evening. He was initiated by Srila Prabhupada. I only knew him from 1978 on and he was in a wheel chair. He would give class occasionally. He would always be upbeat and made many devotee- with his smile and soft preaching abilities. Tamal Krishna Goswami showed him very much respect and thought of him as a very realized devotee. He would call me about once or twice a year. The phone calls were always very warm-I am not the nicest person to talk with-but he did and would talk about Krishna and my life. When his father passed away he was left a fair inheritance. He called me and asked what I thought he should do with the money he was left. I told him to buy a house/duplex and live in it or rent it. He bought a house near the San Diego temple and told me how much he appreciated that advise. Last time I saw Radhanath prabhu-was at LA rathayatra about 6 years ago. I was pulling Subadra’s cart and he was rushed up to me. He was so happy to see me and gushed with Krishna consciousness. I was taken back- he had no legs. He told me he had them cut off as they were causing him illness. Then he changed the subject and talked about me and Krishna and what I was doing. Many things made Radhanath so special-his preaching-constantly going out on book distribution in his dire physical predicament. His mastery of the Krishna consciousness philosophy and ability to speak it so wonderfully soft. His warmth and not making others uptight. He knew his condition bothered me –so he would only be with me for short periods.
I know he is back with Srila Prabhupada.
Your servant, Pandava vijaya dasa
By Srutadeva dasa
Radhanatha das Brahmacari, the stalwart sankirtana devotee of Srila Prabhupada’s transcendental army passed away on Wednesday night, October 24, at 8:22pm. He was surrounded by his loving friends and admirers who were chanting the Holy Names with great love and affection. Today, Friday morning at 10:00am, amidst more kirtan and prayers, puja was performed at the crematorium and then his broken body was placed in the fire never to cause him suffering again.
Hare Krishna.
Thank you all very much. The pictures say everything, He could not ever turn his head, and he keep the big smile all the time.. I am always trying to use small pain in my body as an excuse to hide out. He never complained and the faces of the souls who met him show that.
RADHANATH PRABHU KIJAY.
All Glories to His Grace, Radhanath Prabhu, who inspired me each and every time I saw him. He also evoked a deep embarrassment in me that I could ever complain about my material condition of life, and that I dared to use that as an excuse not to perform more service. Indeed, I never once heard him complain about his condition, and more importantly, never did he allow it to keep him from his devotional endeavors.
I often wondered aloud how he could remain living in that body, and why he would choose to. It occurred to me that by maintaining himself in that body, he was allowing myself and other conditioned souls an opportunity to render service to a true Vaisnava. My only qualification to write anything about His Grace Radhanath Prabhu, is that I occasionally had the opportunity to fetch him his lunch, and to assist him in his wheelchair from time to time.
While we are all poorer without his physical presence, his memory will always serve as a shining example of devotional determination and dedication.
Dear Prabhus, Pamho-agtsp
HARE KRSNA!
His Grace Raddhnath Prabhu was my Godbrother.What great soul!
We joined the Philadelphia Temple in the USA in 1975 and we were initiated at the same time at the First NY Rath Festival in (1976).
Radhanath Prabhu was always a source of inspiration to me and other Godbrothers and his commitement to ISKCON and to his book distribution is a lasting
example to everyone in ISKCON.
I will miss him dearly!
All Glories to HG Raddhanath Dasa!
ALL GLORIES TO SRILA PRABHUPADA!
Your servant,
Jaya Madhava dasa-Moscow
Hare Krishna.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I lived in a small efficiency apartment about two blocks from ISKCON San Diego with His Grace Radhanatha Prabhu for the summer of 1992. I had answered an ad from ISKCON World Reviw in which he explained his situation and said he was looking for a new assistant. So I feel that after living with him 24 hours a day, seven days a week for three months I got to know him.
I was lucky.
Radhanatha Prabhu you inspire me!
Your Servant,
Bill Duke
Dhanesvara Says:
November 1st, 2007 at 4:28 am
Jaya Radhanatha Prabhu!
Radhanatha was a wonderful devotee and a very good friend of mine. I lived with him several different times and in 1997 drove him around America on a pilgrimage tour of 19-20 temples. In all the time I was with him I never once heard him complain about his circumstances!
He had his own morning program. He would wake up around 4-5, and chant his rounds while in bed. Then he would listen to a tape or read Srimad Bhagavatam. Several days a week he would go about 30 miles to the San Diego temple for Mangal Arotika and to hear Dravida’s classes.
He considered his situation the result of his karma and accepted it as such. And he even felt blessed by the situation which caused him to have completely given up any attachment to his body. When his legs were amputated after futile attempts to restore them by fitting them with artificial knees I asked him if he felt any loss or lamentation about it. He replied “for about 2 hours. Then I just let it go.”
He would speak about his body in the third person, such as “can you scratch THE leg?” Not “my leg” as most of us would say.
I would drive him to Walmart or Target to sell his flowers and distribute books, and he often would speak about somebody that he had the opportunity to preach to or sell books to.
For years he struggled with sporadic help of others to print and mail his Krishna Kids newsletter for devotee children in several countries, and he would correspond with many and encourage them in Krishna consciousness. He set up a “Bank of the Holy Name” in which the children could make a “deposit” by writing the mahamantra dozens or hundreds of times. He also made a serious but unsuccessful effort to adopt a child so that he could train him in Krishna consciousness.
Although he was almost invalid he was not deterred. He took a course on buying houses with no money down and succeeded in purchasing one small duplex. After a few years he parlayed that into a larger house east of El Cajon, and then sold that at a profit with the intention of using the money to pay his living expenses while in India.
He did go to the Chowpatty temple for some months, preaching every day in the Bhaktivedanta Hospital. He was in bliss doing that service, but his care taker became ill and he was forced to return to America, but had plans to return after his house was sold.
He was a determined preacher and an inspiration to everyone who came in contact with him. An exemplary devotee who taught us by his good example.
He told me about a dream he had wherein he had legs and was walking around speaking with people. Finally he is freed from the mortal coil that was so much trouble for him, and I am sure that he is now walking around in a wonderful spiritual body.
Farewell my dear friend. I hope to have the good fortune to have your association again in the future wherever that may be.
Dhanesvara Das
Dhanesvara prabhu,
Thank you for your beautiful eulogy for Radhanatha prabhu. It was like the unfolding of another lotus petal of his wonderful devotional mood.
It was inspirational for both Kanchanbala and I.
Where are you these days?
ys
Madhusudan and Kanchanbala
Jaya Sadhu!
Madhusudana Prabhu,
I’ve been in Ukraine for the past two years. Please contact me at: dhanesvara@pamho.net
I had the mercy to do sankirtan with radhanatha dasa back in st. Louis 1978, then radhanatha dasa could somewhat walk though he always did sankirtana from his wheel chair at the local zoo, books and flowers. The temple then was in an old house on laclead ave. note: In the 11th canto of srimad bhagatam it states that of all of the siksa guru’s one may have during ones life giving didactic instructions/ information of the body, the body is the best siksa guru because it teaches us day to day that this material body is no real happy place, nor should we try and be comfortable within it. Radhanatha dasa did what his divine grace srila a.c. bhaktivedanta swami prabhupada asked us all to do, preaching. Radhanatha das enjoyed doing this some how or other. my humble respects to radhanatha das hari bol AGTSP.
Our beloved and inspiring friend and Godbrother, Radhanath das Prabhu, surely has gone to be with Srila Prabhupad in Goloka Vrindaban. I treated his difficult condition known as ankylosing spondylitis. This condition destroys the joints and causes them to fuse into one bone. From head to ankle, Radhanath’s body had become “one single bone without joints”. As an experienced orthopedic surgeon in joint replacement surgery, he asked me to help him. He hadn’t stood or walked in over 18 years. Krishna bless the many people who helped care for him over the years. In the mid 1990’s, I treated him with very, very complex surgery, two hip replacements after taking down the fusion of the femurs to the pelvis. We also used tissue expanders on his knees to create more room for his future knee replacements. Six weeks after the hip replacements, I took down the knee fusions and performed two very complex knee replacements. Indeed, Radhanath was then able to walk short distances, for some time. He and his mother were very grateful. However, treated by other physicians in the San Diego area, Radhanath unfortunately developed serious infections in his knees, and eventually the infections threatened his overall health. He underwent above knee amputations to salvage his already frail health about 6 years ago. Being immunocompromised by this autoimmune disease, and unable to breath deeply because the entire ribcage also did not expand at all due to his disease, he had many, many, many episodes of pneumonia. Finally, it was time for his passing.
Radhanath never felt any bitterness, looking upon the physical body as Srila Prabhupad had taught him to. His cheerful and Krishna-optimistic attitude is worshipable! He loved to preach Krishna consciousness. He tried to encourage children in Krishna consciousness with his Krishna Kids Newsletters. He frequently called numerous devotees, and I was fortunate to be amongst them. I last spoke with him on the phone about one month or so ago. His sweet positive nature transcended the pathetic physical condition he had to endure. Every one of us actually has a pathetic condition compared with the beauty of the spiritual eternal serving forms we can have. Radhanath reminds me of Arjuna who always had his eye on the target and nothing else. He lived to serve Srila Prabhupad, and he did it joyfully, without complaints, full with gratitude, and with a heart full of so much love. Please dear Radhanath Prabhu, bless us, bless me, with a drop of the transcendental love that Sri Sri Guru Gauranga blessed you with.
Your servant, your friend, your Godbrother,
Pusta Krishna das