By Amarendra Das
Gayatri dd and I joined Krishna consciousness when Gargamuni Prabhu [then a sannyasi] came to Gainesville, FL in November, 1970. We were living together in a small duplex a couple of blocks from the University of Florida campus, where we were going to school. A short time after meeting Gargamuni, we invited him to move in with us.
By mid-January, 1971, over 100 students a day were coming to the original “Krishna House” for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. About ten students soon moved into the living room of the duplex, and another six or seven were camping in the back yard. That program, of course, went on to become one of the most successful college preaching centers in the history of ISKCON, in no small part because of Gayatri’s dedication and loving disposition.
Gargamuni, who was one of the original eleven devotees to join Srila Prabhupada at 26 Second Avenue in New York City in 1966, learned how to cook directly from Prabhupada. He, in turn, taught Gayatri everything he knew. Later, along with Mangalananda Prabhu and several other very hard working devotees, Gayatri baked (in an open brick oven) the legendary Vyasa Puja banana cake for Srila Prabhupada at the 1972 Bhagavata Dharma Festival in New Vrindavana. She was also the “Inventor” of the modern version of Gauranga Potatoes, and is famous for the renowned “4:00 offering” that she would cook everyday for Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai when the Gainesville Temple was located on Depot Avenue.
Gayatri and I stayed in Gainesville until 1979. Gayatri preached, cooked and sewed many gorgeous outfits for the Deities, while I proceeded to drive everyone crazy as the Temple President. Still passionate and insane from my participation in the anti-war movement, I would “heavy” out the devotees and create a complete mess. Gayatri would quietly slip in behind me and clean everything up with her motherly love, compassion and kindness. We were initiated together around midnight on July 29, 1971, when Srila Prabhupada came to Gainesville to speak at the University.
While in Gainesville, Gayatri convinced countless students and young people to join Krishna consciousness. Simultaneously, she made more true friends than I can ever recount. However, it was after we moved to the Los Angeles in July, 1982, that Gayatri’s true character fully blossomed. In addition to the hundreds of friends that Gayatri had made in Gainesville and all over the world, including and especially Srila Prabhupada’s sister, Pishima (who often referred to Gayatri as her “daughter”) she made hundreds of new friends on the West Coast, and developed a special bond with devotee children.
Gayatri had been battling ovarian cancer for over three years, when an obstructed bile duct required hospitalization at Providence St. John’s Health Center in February, 2017. Her liver and lymph nodes were also enlarged. She was initially admitted to the ICU in the hope that the doctors could get the cancer under control. When four weeks of dialysis, antibiotics, and other treatments failed (she was no longer a candidate for additional chemotherapy) it became clear that she would not be coming home, and she was transferred to a hospice room in the hospital. When we told her that she was going to leave her body and join Prabhupada and Pishima in the spiritual world, she sweetly and simply replied, “okay, that’s nice.”
When word of her condition spread, a steady procession of devotees, friends, and other well-wishers came to see her in order to express their love and appreciation for her friendship, kindness, and service to Srila Prabhupada and Pishima, and to say goodbye. Much of the time her room was so crowded that devotees had to wait in the hall to get in. The hospital staff was very kind and understanding (it was a Catholic hospital) and tolerated constant kirtan and commotion. When devotees walked in the front door of the hospital, the staff immediately knew who they were and directed them straight to Gayatri’s room.
After the doctors stopped the dialysis, they gave her about 48 hours to live, at most. Being who she was Gayatri hung on for another 10 days or so, probably because she was having such a good time being around all of the devotees. As I was leaving the hospital early one morning, one of the nurses said to me, “well, she’s probably not leaving [her body] because you keep chanting that Hare Krishna thing all the time. Maybe if you stop chanting, she’ll go.”
When Gaura Purnima approached and the reality set in that she would not be able go to the temple, Manjari Erlichman brought her beautiful, installed Gaura-Nitai Deities down to the hospital from Northern California and set them up at the foot of Gayatri’s bed. Pictures of Prabhupada and Krishna were plastered all over her room. On Gaura Purnima morning the devotees helped Gayatri offer arotika, dress, and bathe the Deities. They also watched Mayapura Mangala Arotika on the internet, and had their own little celebration at the hospital.
Gayatri’s dear friends Balavi dd and Anangamanjari dd came from Alachua to be with her in her final days, as did Krishna Kumari dd from Arizona. Madhavi dd, Jagadambika dd, Kalpalatika dd, Divyadrstri Ward dd, Parvati dd (and so many others – please forgive me if I have forgotten someone) as well as our children Parama Karuna, Manjari, and Danapati were a constant presence at her side.
On one occasion, Yadubara Prabhu came and showed Gayatri an extended, advance preview of his upcoming movie, which made her very happy. On another occasion, our long-time friends, Pusta Krishna Prabhu and Darubrahma dd, came to visit for three days. One afternoon, Pusta chanted, by himself, for six straight hours without instruments, until his voice gave out.
In the midst of all of this, one thing in particular caught my attention – the large number of “devotee kids” that were also coming to visit. When we arrived in Los Angeles in July, 1982, the gurukula system was still moderately functional. In Los Angeles, there was a day school and the farm in Three Rivers. Whenever there was a break from school or the ashram, all of our kids’ friends would rush to our apartment to hang out and have fun. Gayatri, of course, would feed them to their hearts’ content. As I have now come to realize, however, that was not the real reason they came.
Recently, it was necessary for me to revisit a child abuse matter that occurred at various places between 1972 and 1989. In reading the heartbreaking account of what this child went through, I realized that the person was one of my daughter’s friends. I also suddenly realized that this is why so many children were flocking to Gayatri’s association – to take shelter from the world of chaos and pain that we so-called ISKCON adults had created for them.
Like everyone else in her life, Gayatri accepted them unconditionally for who they were – devotee children born into a movement that we adults had voluntarily chosen to join. With Gayatri, there was never any judgment, criticism, or harsh instructions. She loved them without condition or reservation, and they loved her back. This was never more apparent than when they came in droves to show their love and affection and to say goodbye when Gayatri was getting ready to depart this world of birth, death, disease, old age, and perpetual pain.
As I now look back on Gayatri’s life and my own impending mortality, the most telling thing I can say is that in the 47 years that we were together in the Movement, I never heard her tell another devotee “Oh, Prabhu, you are in maya” or “Oh, Prabhu, that is maya.” Nor did I ever hear her criticize other devotees, either to their face or behind their back. Whenever there was a misunderstanding with another devotee, she would blame herself, and (much to my consternation) still not criticize.
Some may say that Gayatri was in “hippie consciousness” and doing a disservice by not correcting the mistakes that may have been there. That, however, is not who Gayatri was . . . as a person or as a devotee. She had no time or interest in fighting, faultfinding, or gossip. And, judging by the incredible number of Prabhupada disciples, and their children, who knew and loved her, and the auspicious way that she peacefully passed from this world on March 17, 2017 in the immediate presence of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai and the devotees who loved her most, maybe there is something that we can learn from her example.
~ Amarendra das
I have the sweetest, most cherished memories of this great soul, Her Grace Srimati Gayatri devi dasi, who was truly my beloved mother. In 1973 I was sent from ISKCON Miami to join Amarendra and Gayatri, who were preaching in Gainesville. It was just the two of them living in an apartment, which was the upstairs of a house near the University of Florida campus. Now it was just the there of us, and Amarendra and Gayatri became like my mom and dad. I still remember the wonderful day when Gayatri invited me into the kitchen and taught me how to make Cauliflower pakoras. Both of them were very sweet and wonderful to be with. However sometimes Amarendra would get very heavy like a thunderbolt, but Gayatri was the soft rose to balance everything out beautifully.
For example, one day after we attracted a number of devotees Amarendra got angry at me and decided to kick me out of the temple. He drove me out to the interstate highway and dropped me off with the instruction that I should now hitchhike to Atlanta to join ISKCON Atlanta. I stood there with my thumb out in my dhoti with my shaved head and tilaka and was not getting a ride. After about a hour Amarendra Prabhu comes back with the word that Gayatri said that he should accept me back as a devotee of the Gainesville temple. So in this way by the sweet mercy of my wonderful mother I was welcomed back to ISKCON Gainesville.
So this is the Gayatri I remember. I also remember when she came back from the Mayapur festival and excitedly told us all about Srila Prabhupada's sister, whom we affectionately called Pisima. I was thinking that what an exalted soul is Gayatri to have a personal relationship with Srila Prabhupada's sister.
I was most fortunate that within the last year or two while visiting Los Angeles I had the opportunity to meet with my beloved "father and mother" Amarendra and Gayatri again.
Sankarshan Das Adhikari