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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By Giriraj Swami<\/strong><\/p>\n My dear Madhudvisa Prabhu,<\/p>\n I am feeling your separation so much right now. My mind is flooded with memories of our service to Srila Prabhupada together, not the least of which was our meeting in the last months and remembering his glorious qualities and activities.<\/p>\n All the circumstances surrounding your departure were auspicious. As was your desire, you lived through Ratha-yatra in Los Angeles and sang before all three carts. Then, just two days later, while your caregiver chanted Hare Krishna by your side, you departed\u2014with a smile on your face. You were a great pioneer and champion of Ratha-yatra. During last year\u2019s procession we discussed the importance of following Srila Prabhupada\u2019s instructions in regard to Ratha-yatras, and in our last meeting in your room at New Dvaraka, six weeks ago, you told me how Srila Prabhupada sent you from Juhu to Australia and you introduced Ratha-yatra there:<\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018Australia sounds like a pretty good place.\u2019 So I went down there, and it was great. Immediately I decided that we had to have a Ratha-yatra. One leader said, \u2018No, no. We\u2019ve got all these books. We have to sell these books. We have a whole warehouse of books here.\u2019 But I said, \u2018Yes, we will sell all those books\u2014don\u2019t worry. We\u2019ll hold a Ratha-yatra and we\u2019ll make devotees and all these devotees will sell all the books we can get.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThen I said, \u2018We are going to make the whole country into one temple. The whole country is going to cooperate, and we\u2019re going to have this Ratha-yatra, and then we are going to sell books.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cSo we started organizing a Ratha-yatra. \u2018You need money for Ratha-yatra,\u2019 I told the devotees, \u2018a lot of money, so we\u2019ll collect a lot of money and use it for building the Ratha-yatra cart and for publicity and for everything like that.\u2019 So we started collecting money like crazy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe built a big, beautiful Ratha-yatra cart, and meanwhile we were saving money, too, because we were looking for a temple. They didn\u2019t have any temples down there\u2014just two small centers\u2014and we needed a big temple, a big establishment. \u2018But we can\u2019t afford two,\u2019 I realized. \u2018We can get one, so let\u2019s get one.\u2019 So I started collecting money for a temple. I didn\u2019t care if it was in Sydney or Melbourne; they were equally good. But we decided to have the Ratha-yatra in Melbourne. So, we collected money and built a Ratha cart. Melbourne was, and still is, an intellectual kind of place, with several universities. And there is a lot of interest in Krishna consciousness\u2014they embrace Krishna consciousness.<\/p>\n \u201cAnyway, Prabhupada decided for me to go to Australia\u2014that it would be a good idea\u2014so I went, and that was great.\u201d<\/p>\n When you left Juhu, it was a loss for us. But I can see, in retrospect, that you went on to do even bigger and better things in Australia.<\/p>\n Now I am deeply lamenting your loss, but I know that you have gone to do greater service. And I hope that just as we met in New Dvaraka, after your serving in Australia and my serving in Bombay, and were reunited in service to Srila Prabhupada and the holy name, we will be reunited again, in service to Srila Prabhupada and sankirtana, and that again, as brothers, we will relish devotional service under Srila Prabhupada\u2019s guidance and shelter.<\/p>\n In separation,<\/p>\n Your eternal servant,<\/p>\n Giriraj Swami<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All the circumstances surrounding your departure were auspicious. As was your desire, you lived through Ratha-yatra in Los Angeles and sang before all three carts. Then, just two days later, while your caregiver chanted Hare Krishna by your side, you departed\u2014with a smile on your face. You were a great pioneer and champion of Ratha-yatra. During last year\u2019s procession we discussed the importance of following Srila Prabhupada\u2019s instructions in regard to Ratha-yatras, and in our last meeting in your room at New Dvaraka, six weeks ago, you told me how Srila Prabhupada sent you from Juhu to Australia and you introduced Ratha-yatra there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-memoriam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13376,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12833\/revisions\/13376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hare](\"http:\/\/dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads4\/2014-08-07_07-34-05.jpg\")
By Giriraj Swami<\/strong><\/p>\n