{"id":60631,"date":"2018-03-30T12:52:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T10:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=60631"},"modified":"2018-03-30T12:52:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-30T10:52:53","slug":"the-passing-of-vrikodara-prabhu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=60631","title":{"rendered":"The passing of Vrikodara Prabhu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

By Yogindra Vandana Das, ISKCON NEW TALAVANA, Mississippi
\nnewtalavana@gmail.com<\/p>\n

Vrikodara das, (Victor Mistretta), disciple of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, passed away January 26, 2018, in Miami, Florida. He was 68 years old, and had terminal cancer. He had been the temple president of ISKCON New Orleans and the ISKCON New Talavan farm community for many years, as well as in charge of the devotee school at New Talavan.<\/p>\n

He battled terminal cancer for several years while never complaining, being always in good spirits and checking on the welfare of others. From the material perspective he was a lot like General Patton, the famous WW11 hero. In a spiritual light he was similar to the person, Srila Prabhupada, named him after, the great fighter- Bhimasena.\u00a0 Vrik, as we often called him, could really rally the troops to get a job done no matter how tough the work.\u00a0 He was a powerful warrior figure who ran a clean administration which didn’t tolerate any sort of nonsense especially serious matters like child abuse. He served during a time when we were a tiny religious minority that suffered much religious intolerance; but, Vrk, would stand up to any of it, and give the devotees working under him protection. Whomever caused trouble, Vrik, didn’t tolerate it.\u00a0 He would be the first one confronting the troublemaker forcing him to change, leave or fight with him.<\/p>\n

When it came to finances he was willing to work to earn the needful while organizing the local temple devotees to serve to the best of their capacities. He never flinched to take a risk to carry out his spiritual master’s mission. If the risk was financial he worked hard to pay every single debt big or small.\u00a0 As the temple President he would create debts and work super hard to pay them while never personally banking or touching the money.<\/p>\n

He went out of his way to engage people in some respectable devotional service, and inspire them in their endeavors.\u00a0 He was very merciful to unfortunate people.\u00a0 He would always try to engage them in some devotional service or give them prasadam or even a place to sleep if they were not a disturbance.\u00a0 He was generally respectful to his superiors; but never backed down from any challenges they threw at him.\u00a0 He was always ready to take the tiger by the tail.<\/p>\n

Tall,\u00a0 handsome and soft spoken when not confronting an aggressor he would smile and often play a humble role to motivate people to help us out.\u00a0 He was a devotee with\u00a0deep faith in God and his guru.\u00a0 He was never unfaithful nor afraid to voice his opinion in an intelligent way.\u00a0 He loved friends and often felt bad when politics, business or philosophical issues separated him from them, although, he didn’t hesitate to speak his mind to them.\u00a0 He was often known as “Vrik the Stick” in our society since he didn’t put up with any nonsense nor anyone undermining him nor his administration and it’s officers.<\/p>\n

I learn a lot from, Vrik. One thing was trust.\u00a0 Vrik trusted people and he could bring the best out of a person.\u00a0 However, if he thought someone was cheating him or his organization he didn’t waste time confronting that person.\u00a0 He possessed a great ability to forgive and always made you feel wanted. He was certainly the average man’s commander, but commanded respect from other leaders.<\/p>\n

He knew his limitations and never tried to be something he wasn’t.\u00a0 He was always ready to go to bat for you whenever a person needed him.\u00a0 Vic never took advantage of people nor did he let others take advantage of him or the organization he lead and managed.\u00a0 He had a way of bringing out the best in people.\u00a0 Of course some people were put off by his no nonsense style, but he didn’t let it bother him.<\/p>\n

Vrikodara was very loyal to his family and friends, and helped all of them as much as possible.\u00a0 He was a true brother, uncle, father, friend and cousin.\u00a0 He always remembered anything & everything anyone did for him or the group he served.\u00a0 He had a fantastic way of turning enemies into friends and often did so.<\/p>\n

Vrk, was never afraid to spend money to push things on.\u00a0 He was a risk taker for good causes and rarely got burned.\u00a0 He consistently took responsibility to pay any debt he helped create.\u00a0 The accounts he managed were clear and easy to understand.\u00a0 He would feel very bad if something went wrong including paying a bill on time.\u00a0 He would call the people and sing the blues so sweetly.\u00a0 Even BB King would be proud of him.\u00a0 He didn’t mind people crying on his shoulders.\u00a0 They always left feeling better.\u00a0 Vrk would help people through thick & thin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Hare Vrikodara das, (Victor Mistretta), disciple of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, passed away January 26, 2018, in Miami, Florida. He was 68 years old, and had terminal cancer. He had been the temple president of ISKCON New Orleans and the ISKCON New Talavan farm community for many years, as well as in charge of the devotee school at New Talavan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recent-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60631","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=60631"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60633,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60631\/revisions\/60633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}