<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
(True Dianne Faust-Finnin) September 7, 1946 \u2013 August 12, 2008<\/p>\n
By Nikunjavasini dasi<\/strong><\/p>\n Our dear friend Bimala devi dasi departed this world on the auspicious day of Pavitraropana Ekadasi, the first day of Jhulan Yatra, at 6:28 AM just after hearing a recitation of the twenty-five qualities of Srimati Radharani. Bimala was surrounded by her loving Godsisters and her husband Will. She was taken by cancer that had spread to vital parts of her body.<\/p>\n During Bimala’s last 24 hours many family members and friends came to her side to sing beautiful Vaisnava songs, to read to her from Krishna Book and Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita , to tell her of their love for her, to tell her stories from her life, and to tell her what a wonderful mother she was and how well she had loved and cared for others. After Bimala passed away, a smile and a look of peace remained on her face. Her angelic presence will be missed by all.<\/p>\n Early days <\/p>\n Bimala joined ISKCON as Bhaktin Dianne at age twenty-four in March 1971 at Dallas, Texas along with her then husband, Bhakta George. The temple was on Turtle Creek. The couple were initiated by Srila Prabhupada four months later on July 23, 1971, in Brooklyn. They became Bimala dasi and Mandalesvara das.<\/p>\n Quote from Srila Prabhupada at Bimala’s initiation:<\/p>\n Prabhupada: Bimala, Bimala. “Bimala” means spotless, where there is no dirty things. You know the rules and regulations? Yes. If you follow the rules and regulation, then there will be no dirt. Hare Krishna. Ceto-darpana-marjanam Bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam.. Our, process is simply to make the mind dirty-less. Due to misunderstanding of our position we have created so many dirty things. Our mind is full of dirty things. So this chanting of Hare Krishna means Ceto-darpana-marjanam , cleansing the heart. And as soon as one is cleansed within the heart, then pure consciousness comes. Then he is liberated. Bhava-maha-davagni-nirvapanam. All problems solved immediately.<\/p>\n One of Bimala’s first services was as type composer for Srila Prabhupada’s books at ISKCON Press in New York.<\/p>\n Of those early days Yogesvara says: I always thought of her as this feisty Southern bell. I don\u2019t even know if she came from the South. But I just imagined her fitting a role on a sitcom about a Southerner coming to the North and taking them [the Northerners] all on.<\/p>\n You have to imagine this: A building on this desolate old street. You had to climb up these rickety set of stairs into a supplies\u2019 loft. The composing room was the size of a closet. Bimala and I, we\u2019d be laughing our heads off at 2:00 am about God only knows what. I always remember the pleasure of her company. She was always buoyant. Her attitude was, \u201cThis is the way it is. Let\u2019s do it.\u201d She was a reminder for me to not take myself or life too seriously. Bimala was one of those people who took it all with a grain of salt. The glass was half full for Bimala. And I remember she always had a concern for young people. She knew children were the future, and she was always thinking of them.\u201d <\/p>\n In 1973 Bimala returned to the Dallas temple, which had moved to its present day location on Gurley Street. Her services were working with the Gurukula children and Deity services. When the small Deities of Radha Kalchandji were installed, Bimala became their personal pujari. In July 1973 she gave birth to her first son, Isvara Puri (known to many simply as “Ish”). <\/p>\n From Vinode Vani dasi:<\/p>\n \u201cI knew Bimala in Dallas. She was the pujari for little Radha Kalachandji. Jhulan Yatra seemed to be her favorite Deity festival. In the old Dallas temple room (with lime green cinderblock walls), there were hooks in the ceiling with chains hanging down to support the swing, which was round with a brass railing. <\/p>\n I can see Bimala decorating the little Deities and bringing Them to the swing, then supervising while the devotees, adults and children, swang Their Lordships. Little Radha Kalachandji were Bimala’s Deities, in every sense. Bimala dressed Them in the mornings and supervised Their care, dressing ,and clothing. Those Deities were everything to her, with her son Isvara Puri following closely behind. That is my strongest memory of her: Jhulan Yatra and little Radha Kalachandji. She was absolutely absorbed and ecstatic in that service.\u201d<\/p>\n When the Dallas Gurukula closed in the mid-Seventies, Bimala served in temples in LA, Laguna Beach, Detroit, and once again, Dallas.<\/p>\n In 1978, the Dallas temple management shifted from Satsvarupa Das Goswami to Tamal Krsna Goswami, and Bimala and her family migrated with most of the other temple devotees to temples in the mid-Atlantic States. Little Radha Kalachandji went to Gita-Nagari and so did Bimala. At this time (1978-83) Bimala’s main services were pujari to Little Radha Kalachandji, production and proofreading for Srila Prabhupada Lilamrta, production manager for Back to Godhead in New York, editing, design, and proofreading for Gita-Nagari Press, Deity sewing and outfit design, etc., all the while keeping a keen eye on her son Ishvara as he grew and developed.<\/p>\n In 1983 Bimala gave birth to her second son, Pandava Vijaya. She then moved to Philadelphia where her services were more domestic and centered on raising her sons and working in her own business enterprises. She continued her work as book designer and editor for Satsvarupa das Goswami, Gita Nagari Press, and various ISKON authors. After the dissolution of her marriage in 1989 and after teaching English as a second language in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1991 she moved with her two sons to the Alachua Community of devotees.<\/p>\n Alachua Days<\/p>\n When Bimala arrived here in Alachua with her two son\u2019s Ishvara and Pandava in 1991, she was so pleased to be greeted by devotees. Some old friends from her past as well as many new friends warmly embraced her and made her feel like she belonged. With her many skills and talents she was quickly engaged by the ISKCON Foundation and worked directly with Sudharma on the project. For several years Bimala did secretarial and graphic work for the Foundation.<\/p>\n Sudharma dasi remebers: When the ISKCON Women’s Ministry was formed Bimala played a supportive role by actively helping single moms in need. In the early Nineties Bimala along with other Ministry members (Pranada, Kosa Rupa, Nanda dasi and Sudharma) traveled to the second Women\u2019s Ministry Conference in Los Angeles. Empowered, Bimala found her voice and gave a moving speech about the plight of the single mom in ISKCON. Bimala boldly stated: \u201cWhen the women\u2019s voices were silenced in ISKCON, then came the opportunity for the children to be mistreated.\u201d <\/p>\n In 1993, Bimala along with five of her godsisters created the first devotee support group in the Alachua devotee community. This marked the beginning stage of a new system that would be duplicated many times over, creating small, intimate support groups, some for men and some for women. These support groups, often functioning as a surrogate family, became the backbone of the Alachua devotee community. Some of the groups (such as The Radharani Club, of which Bimala continued to be a member) still remain in active service to the community today. Both the women’s and the men’s support groups continue to serve the needs of individual devotees and also to render temple services, such as sponsoring Deity outfits and decorations for festivals, maintenance of the temple grounds and much more. <\/p>\n Bimala was a writer, Her creations included poetry, essays, children’s literature, and even fiction. She also did copy writing and editing for various publications. She was also a talented designer, painter, graphic artist, and decorator. In Bimala’s eyes even ordinary things had potential to be a beautiful piece of artwork: an old chair, a blank wall, a feather, a stone. She always saw the potential beauty. She created beautiful clothing from scratch and made a simple ordinary mirror into a collectible piece of art. She created beautiful and exotic pieces of jewelry from beads, stones and found objects. In 1993, Bimla along with her friend Akara, another super-creative devotee and single mom, opened a small shop in Gainesville where they could showcase their art to the public. The shop was called Chintamani, and it was a co-op for single mothers to sell handmade art pieces as way out of poverty. The Gainesville Sun ran an article about the shop.<\/p>\n In 1995 Bimala helped Pranada to design and create the beautiful flags that, until just recently, decorated the temple room. Bimala\u2019s contribution was the flags adorned with birds that hung over the front wall next to the altar.<\/p>\n Also in 1995, Bimala and Kosa Rupa worked together on a project called Arts of Vaisnava Culture. Their focus was on developing books and materials for devotee children. During this time Bimala developed a beautiful perpetual calendar in the form of a children’s interactive coloring book entitled, Radha and Krishna\u2019s Pets. The artwork was inspired by Srila Rupa Goswami’s book, Sri-Sri-Radha-Krisna-ganodesha-dikpika. Each pet has a particular name which was endearing to Srimati Radharani and Lord Krshna in Their childhood. These calendars are still available today from Krishna.com.<\/p>\n In 1999 Bimala and Mandalesvara\u2019s son, Ishvara Puri (Ish) married Gopalandini (Gopal), the daughter of Akuti and Dinabandhu. A Vedic wedding was performed on the grounds of the Vaishnava Academy for Girls, where Gopal had lived and attended primary school. In May of 2003 Bimala became a grandmother, when Ish and Gopal’s daughter Kinnara was born.<\/p>\n Already a dedicated fine artist, Bimala turned her artistic eye to the new technology of computerized graphic design. She created the cover and layout for Vaiyasaki\u2019s book, Radha-Damodara Vilasa and designed the cover for Vaiyasaki’s CD, The Best of Viyasaki. She also learned web design and created the website for Krishna Vallabha dasi (Professional name Krishna Rose) http:\/\/www.krishnarose.com\/ and designed the cover for the CD, Beneath the Rose.<\/p>\n Bimala used her publishing and graphic-design experience to help in the production of the bi-monthly publication, Friends and Bhaktas, the New Raman-Reti Community Newspaper, and the ever growing Alachua devotee community phone list. She continued working on these projects for several years. It was Bimala’s vision to produce a North Florida Community Resource Dirictory in 2001, and she spent hundreds of hours of gathering information and making editorial decisions regarding the Directory’s content. Bimala and Nikujavasini completed the first edition, all while Bimala was also attending Santa Fe Community College full-time studying graphic design. Due to the size of the Alachua devotee community, producing the first edition of the Directory was a massive undertaking.<\/p>\n Nikunjavasini remarks:<\/p>\n “We were working day and night to get the first Directory out for Janmastami. We wanted The Directory to really exemplify our community with all of its complexities, projects, departments, businesses, and hundreds of devotees, etc. Bimala saw it as a cross between a telephone book and a travel book. \u2018Come see the Alachua temple, it is amazing\u2019 was her point of view. \u2018There is so much going on here, so many creative devotees.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n Bimala continued to work on subsequent annual directories until 2004, when she moved to Dallas after marrying Dr. Rev. Will Finnin., senior Chaplain at Southern Methodist University (SMU) were her life was transformed. Interestingly, they had been boyfriend\/girlfriend in the 8th grade, reconnecting after 44 years. In an ironic twist of fate, she wound up back in the home town of Sri Sri Radha Kalachanji, Bimala and her husband would often visit the temple and enjoy the delicious cuisine at the well known Kalachanji\u2019s Restaurant. <\/p>\n As a twenty-plus-year Chaplain and Minister to the University at, Will introduced Bimala to the academic community where Bimala became known as Mrs. True Dianne Finnin. Because Will has dedicated himself to interfaith work, Bimala fit right into the scene. On many occasions the two would arrive at events together–he donning his ministerial attire and she wearing her sari and tilak. She never compromised her dedication to Krishna and was in a marvelous position to offer knowledge of Krishna’s glories to the community at SMU.<\/p>\n Also during this time, Bimala and Will traveled the world together, often attending interfaith conferences and meeting dignitaries from both the academic and the religious communities. Bimala was a dedicated wife and stayed by Will’s side as much as she could, although she often took extended visits to Alachua to spend time with her family and especially to attend to her little granddaughter, Kinnara. “I often ran to catch up with her!\u201d Notes Will<\/p>\n In June of 2007, Bimala was diagnosed with breast cancer, and she spent most of her time and energy dealing with the medical community in both Dallas and Gainesville while still managing to find time for her creative work on several book design projects. At one point Bimala was sure she had her cancer beat, but she was later informed that the cancer had spread.<\/p>\n On August 14th a funeral service held in honor of Bimala, was attended by family and friends. The ceremony was infused with affectionate stories of Bimala’s life and the chanting of Hare Krishna. Bimala’s cremation followed. <\/p>\n A Memorial will be held at the Alachua, New Raman Reti Temple at 6 PM Friday August 29th. Friends are encouraged to contribute stories about Bimala and articles will be on display that exemplify her creative life. A collection of stories about Bimala\u2019s life will be compiled to honor her and to keep in memory for her family and friends. If you have any fond remembrances of Bimala dasi (True Dianne Faust-Finnin), please email them to Nikunja@alltel.net <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\n\u201cI worked with Bimala in 1972 at ISKCON\u2019s location in Tiffany place. We had two IBM Selectric typewriters. Composition of English books was going on around the clock. I was typing French books, so my time slot was in the middle of the night. Bimala volunteered to type the English books in the middle of the night as well.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBimala always went the extra mile . When ISKCON Foundation was organizing the 25th Anniversary Victory Dinners all around the U.S., I would be out on the road setting up the events while Bimala held down the fort at the home front. She did all the back-up work at the office and kept everything coordinated. She often put in 80 or 100 hour weeks when needed. We couldn\u2019t have accomplished all we did without her positive energy and dedication.\u201d <\/p>\nNikunjavasini dasi: Our dear friend Bimala devi dasi departed this world on the auspicious day of Pavitraropana Ekadasi, the first day of Jhulan Yatra, at 6:28 AM just after hearing a recitation of the twenty-five qualities of Srimati Radharani. Bimala was surrounded by her loving Godsisters and her husband Will. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obituary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6307","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=6307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}