{"id":3829,"date":"2007-07-01T14:46:30","date_gmt":"2007-07-01T13:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3829"},"modified":"2007-07-01T14:51:52","modified_gmt":"2007-07-01T13:51:52","slug":"the-passing-of-suci-devi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=3829","title":{"rendered":"The Passing of Suci Devi"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Tribhangananda das<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Maharajas & Prabhus,
\nPlease accept my respectful obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada. <\/p>\n

It is with mixed sadness and gladness that I write to inform you of Suci Devi dasi’s passing away from this place on Monday 25th June at 10AM.<\/p>\n

She was suffering from cervical cancer which had spread to her liver and lungs, making most bodily functions we tend to take for granted (like digesting and passing stool and urine) practically very difficult indeed if not impossible, and was affecting her breathing. The long wound from the original operation (long, wide & deep) was not healing and remained open even after months of treatment and the original tumor, like a big grapefruit in size, was completely inoperable. When her kidneys finally failed from infection and inability to empty out the toxins, two procedures involving drainage tubes and bags were done to try to give them a chance for self repair but quickly proved useless. The excess liquids were filling up her body gradually from the legs up to the lungs and were finally coming to her lungs and out of her mouth. <\/p>\n

Why am I telling you all this? Well you may be surprised to know that she never really lost her sense of humour, and naturally became more introspective and reconciled with the world in general and the people in it in particular. She gradually became more resigned and simultaneously spiritually awakened. Lord Krsna and Srila Prabhupada had a nice plan for her. <\/p>\n

During the last intensive 14 hour kirtan in her hospital room, she expressed herself quietly that she longed to go back to her beautiful Krsna, and that she had worked her whole life for this moment. In the last couple of hours she became very alert, although in awful pain, becoming very eager to go back home but wondering why she was not going.<\/p>\n

Towards the last half hour, after her sons left to go home and rest for a while, the liquids were coming out much faster. Very intently, as the kirtan of our daughter Lalita, Rasika and myself became more intense and the mopping up became more frequent, Suci took charge of the situation herself. With what little strength remained in her, she pointed at me saying, “That’s a good tune, sing louder!” She engaged Rasika in getting the fluid out of her chest showing her how to rub it hard in an upwards motion, and Lalita in getting fresh “hats” as she called them (cardboard vomit bowls) as the kirtan became ever more insistent and urgent. In spite of the horrific pain, with geat presence of mind, eager desire for Krsna and amazing determination literally to the very last breath, suddenly she was gone. <\/p>\n

We continued chanting and rubbing and collecting liquids for some time, somewhat tearfully, as we realised gradually she really had made it, the transcendental adrenaline pumping through us still.<\/p>\n

So I just wanted to share a few thoughts with you, about how gloriously Suci passed from this world, and how may we all be fortunate enough to shine at our final moments like her, and be fortunate enough to be in the association of other devotees, to help us pass the final test. Suci has gone, leaving us all far behind, still here. But she has shown an amazing example. Mad bhaktim na pranasyati. <\/p>\n

She was always a pretty unasuming person. I can say that as I was married to her previously for many years. But she didn’t take my mistakes much seriously when I recently aplogised for them, rather she admitted she had made plenty of her own. She made her peace and apologised from her heart for her own darkness to others also, making her peace with the world. <\/p>\n

I confess I am humbled, touched and purified by witnessing, by the exemplary way she dealt with all this. Thank you for letting me share this with you. <\/p>\n

Your servant,
\nTribhangananda das<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"HareBy Tribhanga – nanda das<\/strong><\/p>\n

You may be surprised to know that she never really lost her sense of humour, and naturally became more introspective and reconciled with the world in general and the people in it in particular. <\/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-3829","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\/3829","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=3829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}