Dear Devotees,
Our humble obeisances to you. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
I am writing on behalf of the group of carers who are serving Her Grace Ramadevi Dasi, Srila Prabhupada’s disciple and a long-standing resident of the Mayapur community, to inform the local and international devotees of Ramadevi’s state of health.
Some days ago, Ramadevi collapsed, and it was clear her condition had accelerated. Ramavijaya Prabhu arranged her swift transfer to the Calcutta hospital who had been treating her pre-lockdown. After an MRI and talks with the specialist doctors tending to Ramadevi, the diagnosis is that her condition is now terminal, and no treatment is possible.
Ramavijaya escorted Ramadevi home to Mayapur last night. She will be receiving 24-hour palliative care, and personal attendance, in the coming days.
Of course we are all still observing lockdown, most especially inside the campus, so there will be limited, scheduled visiting. There will be even more limited access to Ramadevi electronically, as she is in no condition to do so. We are asking, therefore, that all communications, questions, or messages for or about Ramadevi be posted here in this thread, or via phone (+91 9775186307). Be assured that Ramadevi will receive every message sent, and ask that you please direct all communications this way.
In regard to the question that may arise of quarantine, Ramadevi and Ramavijaya traveled to the Tata Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in Calcutta, who have strict protocols for Covid-19 screening, and no Covid-19 patients. They also returned to Mayapur via ambulance, so no quarantine is required.
Everyone please pray and chant for Ramadevi, remember her, and offer your loving support for her coming journey….
On behalf of the care team,
Braja Sevaki dd
Mayapur
Dear Braja Sevaki,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
If possible, kindly read the following excerpt to Ramadevi and tell her that I am praying to Sri Sri Krishna-Balarama for her swift passage to her eternal, blissful life in Goloka Vrindavan.
Your grateful servant,
Visakha Priya dasi
From 1987 to 1988, the Food for Life project gradually expands to Durban and Capetown. In October 1987, huge floods devastate the coast of Natal, so I decide to leave Johannesburg for the time being and go to the Sri Sri Radha-Radhanath Temple in Durban. With the help of Ramadevi, a British disciple of Srila Prabhupada whose expertise is in sewing Deity outfits, and my godbrother Dina-bandhu das, a local devotee who helps manage the temple, we set up a makeshift kitchen in a hired pandal outside the temple gardens and start cooking hundreds of kilos of kichari prasada every day. The Red Cross is donating us bags of rice and dal for the duration of the crisis, and so, every day, after sweating it out under the pandal full of wood smoke for as long as it takes to cook the kichari, Ramadevi, Dina-bandhu, I, and a wild bhakta from England who relishes danger, go out in the pouring rain with a truckful of kichari to stranded small villages in Zululand.