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By Deena Bandhu Das<\/strong><\/p>\n In the courtyard of Krishna Balaram Mandir in Vrindavan there stood a tall and shady tamala tree. Tamala trees are strong and provide very dense cooling shade from the blazing sun. It stood there for years decorating one corner the temple courtyard and no one could ever imagine such a wonderful tree would leave us. But one day unexpectedly he left.<\/p>\n Originally that tamala tree was small and not so beautiful.The architect planned to cut him down as he was in the way of laying out the temple. Srila Prabhupada intervened and saved that tamala tree. In the same way, Srila Prabhupada found one unkempt fellow living in a tree and saved him from being cut down by the onslaught of maya. Just as Prabhupada had protected the tamala tree in the courtyard and it grew into a lovely tree loved by all, Prabhupada protected this Tamala and he grew into a wonderful devotee,respected by all.<\/p>\n Tamala trees are very strong and can weather all types of difficult conditions, so Tamala was very strong and Srila Prabhupada used his services in the most difficult situations. The tamala tree is famous for his very dense foliage. Our Tamala was in the same way filled with unlimited amounts of knowledge of Krishna. Those dense leaves of the tamala tree provide pleasing shade for all from the hot summer sun. So Tamal, filled with full devotion for Srila Prabhupada, gave soothing shelter to many many souls from the blazing sun of material existence.<\/p>\n The wood of the tamala trees is extremely hard and difficult to cut. But the leaves of the tamala tree are especially smooth and soft.Krishna\u2019s soft fingers are called pallava, meaning soft newly grown leaves. I once showed the soft newly grown leaves of the tamala tree to Umapati Swami. He remarked that in the very old days on 26 Second Ave., Srila Prabhupada had to show them how to put on tilaka. His soft delicate fingers running up their foreheads felt just like this tamala leaf. Our Tamala was also extremely firm in his service to Srila Prabhupada and was very stern in keeping others in Prabhupada\u2019s line. Still he was very soft and caring for all the devotees around him.<\/p>\n In the beginning of the hot season, the tamala tree becomes filled with thousands and thousands of small yellowish-white bell-shaped flowers that exude a subtly sweet perfume. Especially early in the morning, you will find hundreds of humming bees attracted by that scent bumbling here and there extracting the nectar from those fragrant flowers. When the breeze blows,you can catch the fragrance even in the gurukula building. Our Tamala scented the world with the sweet fragrance of Radha and Krishna\u2019s pastimes and the glory of Vrindavan. But unlike the tamala tree, he did this in all seasons and times. Many bee-like devotees buzzing with the mahamantra used to always surround him, drinking this relishable nectar of Krishna-lila and kirtan-rasa. And this fragrance spread not just nearby, but throughout the entire world.<\/p>\n No one imagined our beautiful stout tamala tree would leave us so soon, but one day he fell to the ground and was gone. No one could imagine that our Tamala would leave us so soon, but one day he left us in the Holy Dhama and was gone. Now we sit here and weep with only memories of our Tamalas to keep us alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" No one imagined our beautiful stout tamala tree would leave us so soon, but one day he fell to the ground and was gone. No one could imagine that our Tamala would leave us so soon, but one day he left us in the Holy Dhama and was gone. Now we sit here and weep with only memories of our Tamalas to keep us alive. <\/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-12950","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\/12950","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=12950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13541,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12950\/revisions\/13541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/dandavats.com\/wp-content\/uploads4\/2014-06-18_11-31-56.jpg\"\/)
By Deena Bandhu Das<\/strong><\/p>\n