During the first two weeks in October I had the good fortune of visiting the devotees in Pune which is one of the most dynamic and vibrant Vaishnava communities in India. Apart from the main temple (NVCC - New Vedic Cultural Centre), there is the original temple (RKBM - Radha Kunjabihari Mandir) and two more devotee communities - the BCEC (Bhakti Centre for Education and Culture) and an extension centre in Hinjewadi. I had the opportunity to spend time in all four communities, and devotees kept me busy with lots of programs at the temple and in people's homes. I could clearly feel that devotees have cultivated a genuine taste for hearing and inquiring which is a healthy sign of devotional practice.
The New Vedic Cultural Centre has around 250 families living right next to the temple in different blocks of flats which were constructed by a devotee when the temple was built. What a great boon for the congregation and the temple! In this way, the grihasthas can easily attend at least some part of the morning program, and many of the ladies are not working but do all kinds of services at the temple. An ideal arrangement! There is also a school for the kids, which is another attractive feature for families. In this way, the conditions are perfect for devotees to cultivate their devotional life and build a vibrant community.
The presiding deities of the temple are Sri Sri Radha Vrindavanchandra, Sri Sri Gaur Nitai and Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra. There is also a separate temple for Balaji.
The presiding deities of the temple are Sri Sri Radha Vrindavanchandra, Sri Sri Gaur Nitai and Lord Jagannath, Baladeva and Subhadra. There is also a separate temple for Balaji.
One of our favourite topics for discussion was death - our final challenge. Death is the only thing in life which is hundred percent sure - everything else may happen, or it may not happen. We don't know. But death will happen for sure - unquestionable! And yet, we are so expert in pretending that it will never happen to us. And still, sometimes death approaches quicker than we expect. Already at a young age, something may happen and boom - we are kicked out of this body. We don't know when this moment will hit us…
Sometimes we may wonder whether a devotee may also have to face the Yamadutas at the moment of death. In this regard an extraordinary story comes to my mind which I experienced in Bangladesh - an Ajamila-story of the modern days of ISKCON.
One day at the Swamibag temple in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, a larger amount of money and gold jewelry went missing from the Deity department; somebody had stolen it. Devotees were offering an appeal to kindly return the money and jewelry, reminding everyone that even Lord Brahma became bewildered and stole Krishna's calves and cowherd boys to later return them. As Krishna forgave Lord Brahma, He would surely also forgive our thief. Some of the gold jewelry reappeared, but the money remained lost.
Then, the idea came up to use a special technique to detect the thief, by inviting a distinguished brahmana who knew the art of chanting some mantras to a small bag of raw rice. All devotees who could have possibly been involved in the thievery had to sit in a circle, with a banana leaf with the raw rice grains in front of them; and we were invited to chew the raw rice while transforming it into a semi-liquid paste. And whoever could not produce the semi-liquid paste but had a rather dry, crumbly mass of raw rice in his mouth would be detected as the thief. It sounded rather mysterious.
Present in Dhaka at the time, I was curious to take part in the unusual investigation process, beginning early in the morning, immediately after mangal-artik. Myself and a large group of brahmacharis met in a designated room, and sitting in a circle, with a banana leaf plate and some rice in front of us, we put some grains into our mouth and chewed it. After some time, the distinguished brahmana went around the circle of sitting devotees, requesting everyone to spit the paste of rice onto the leaf plate. Everybody's paste was liquid, except for one brahmachari's whose rice was very dry and crumbly. The brahmana frowned as he approached that one person, saying: "Ohoh, this doesn't look very good! Your rice is very dry. Pick it up and put it back into your mouth, and chew a bit more." After another five minutes he checked again to detect that this time it was even drier - indeed, it was so dry that the raw rice had cut the skin inside his mouth, with blood mixing with the grains.
The temple authorities asked everyone to leave the room, except for the one brahmachari. And in a typical Bengali manner they confronted him, "So where is the money? What happened to it?" He responded, "Alright, I will go and get it from my room." He returned to his room, but instead of fetching the money, he drank a little bottle of poison which he had already placed into the pocket of his kurta. The poison was so strong and fatal - enough to kill him. Obviously, in fear of getting caught, he had arranged for this.
After a few minutes of not returning to hand in the stolen money, some devotees went to his room to look for him. He was lying on his bed, with a strong smell of poison permeating his room. The devotees immediately knew what had happened, and they rushed him to the hospital, taking along the empty bottle of poison to show to the doctors. Thank God it was early in the morning, so there were no traffic jams along the road, as on other times during the day. One of the brahmacharis stayed with him throughout the entire day and following night. When the doctors saw what poison he had taken, they commented, "No hope for him, we cannot save him." Nevertheless, the doctors tried their best and admitted him to the ICU ward.
During the following night, the poisoned boy turned to his companion, saying," I think I will leave my body. Let's chant the Nrsimhadeva prayers." And so, in the middle of the night, in the Intensive Care Unit, they sang the prayers to Lord Nrsimhadeva together, followed by a little kirtan of the maha-mantra. Amazingly, the boy did not leave his body - to the utter surprise of the doctors who did not give him a slightest chance to survive.
Some days later, upon his return to the temple, I regularly spent some time in his room to encourage him, as everyone else had condemned him to be a thief. Once he felt a little better, he personally shared with me how he had received the darshan of the Yamadutas. Judging from the intensity and bewilderment in which he described them, I knew it was a true story he had encountered - he was not inventing it to be sensational. He related how two Yamadutas were standing at his head, and two at his feet - black and fiercely looking, with frightening horns on their heads. Describing them he became overwhelmed by emotions of fear and horror, sobbing in despair. They had come three times to try and pull him out of his body; but since the two brahmacharis had taken shelter of Lord Nrsimhadeva by singing His prayers, the Yamadutas were not successful in taking him.
What an amazing and heartfelt pastime! Truly an Ajamila-story of the modern days. Even though he had tulasi-beads around his neck and maybe also tilak on his body, the Yamadutas nevertheless tried to take him away. Obviously, poisoning oneself after committing a theft is not a situation for the Vishnudutas to appear - even though one may wear tulasi-beads around one's neck and chanted the maha-mantra during one's life. Nevertheless, because he took shelter of Lord Nrsimhadeva at the moment of impending death, he proved himself to be a devotee, and the Yamadutas could not touch him. The story shook up all the devotees in Bangladesh, offering many lessons to be learnt. It took this boy quite some time to digest the whole episode - he was visibly shaken and disturbed. Ultimately, Krishna gave him a second chance, turning him into a stronger devotee of the Lord.
On the 15th of October I travelled on to Nashik....
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
Sometimes we may wonder whether a devotee may also have to face the Yamadutas at the moment of death. In this regard an extraordinary story comes to my mind which I experienced in Bangladesh - an Ajamila-story of the modern days of ISKCON.
One day at the Swamibag temple in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, a larger amount of money and gold jewelry went missing from the Deity department; somebody had stolen it. Devotees were offering an appeal to kindly return the money and jewelry, reminding everyone that even Lord Brahma became bewildered and stole Krishna's calves and cowherd boys to later return them. As Krishna forgave Lord Brahma, He would surely also forgive our thief. Some of the gold jewelry reappeared, but the money remained lost.
Then, the idea came up to use a special technique to detect the thief, by inviting a distinguished brahmana who knew the art of chanting some mantras to a small bag of raw rice. All devotees who could have possibly been involved in the thievery had to sit in a circle, with a banana leaf with the raw rice grains in front of them; and we were invited to chew the raw rice while transforming it into a semi-liquid paste. And whoever could not produce the semi-liquid paste but had a rather dry, crumbly mass of raw rice in his mouth would be detected as the thief. It sounded rather mysterious.
Present in Dhaka at the time, I was curious to take part in the unusual investigation process, beginning early in the morning, immediately after mangal-artik. Myself and a large group of brahmacharis met in a designated room, and sitting in a circle, with a banana leaf plate and some rice in front of us, we put some grains into our mouth and chewed it. After some time, the distinguished brahmana went around the circle of sitting devotees, requesting everyone to spit the paste of rice onto the leaf plate. Everybody's paste was liquid, except for one brahmachari's whose rice was very dry and crumbly. The brahmana frowned as he approached that one person, saying: "Ohoh, this doesn't look very good! Your rice is very dry. Pick it up and put it back into your mouth, and chew a bit more." After another five minutes he checked again to detect that this time it was even drier - indeed, it was so dry that the raw rice had cut the skin inside his mouth, with blood mixing with the grains.
The temple authorities asked everyone to leave the room, except for the one brahmachari. And in a typical Bengali manner they confronted him, "So where is the money? What happened to it?" He responded, "Alright, I will go and get it from my room." He returned to his room, but instead of fetching the money, he drank a little bottle of poison which he had already placed into the pocket of his kurta. The poison was so strong and fatal - enough to kill him. Obviously, in fear of getting caught, he had arranged for this.
After a few minutes of not returning to hand in the stolen money, some devotees went to his room to look for him. He was lying on his bed, with a strong smell of poison permeating his room. The devotees immediately knew what had happened, and they rushed him to the hospital, taking along the empty bottle of poison to show to the doctors. Thank God it was early in the morning, so there were no traffic jams along the road, as on other times during the day. One of the brahmacharis stayed with him throughout the entire day and following night. When the doctors saw what poison he had taken, they commented, "No hope for him, we cannot save him." Nevertheless, the doctors tried their best and admitted him to the ICU ward.
During the following night, the poisoned boy turned to his companion, saying," I think I will leave my body. Let's chant the Nrsimhadeva prayers." And so, in the middle of the night, in the Intensive Care Unit, they sang the prayers to Lord Nrsimhadeva together, followed by a little kirtan of the maha-mantra. Amazingly, the boy did not leave his body - to the utter surprise of the doctors who did not give him a slightest chance to survive.
Some days later, upon his return to the temple, I regularly spent some time in his room to encourage him, as everyone else had condemned him to be a thief. Once he felt a little better, he personally shared with me how he had received the darshan of the Yamadutas. Judging from the intensity and bewilderment in which he described them, I knew it was a true story he had encountered - he was not inventing it to be sensational. He related how two Yamadutas were standing at his head, and two at his feet - black and fiercely looking, with frightening horns on their heads. Describing them he became overwhelmed by emotions of fear and horror, sobbing in despair. They had come three times to try and pull him out of his body; but since the two brahmacharis had taken shelter of Lord Nrsimhadeva by singing His prayers, the Yamadutas were not successful in taking him.
What an amazing and heartfelt pastime! Truly an Ajamila-story of the modern days. Even though he had tulasi-beads around his neck and maybe also tilak on his body, the Yamadutas nevertheless tried to take him away. Obviously, poisoning oneself after committing a theft is not a situation for the Vishnudutas to appear - even though one may wear tulasi-beads around one's neck and chanted the maha-mantra during one's life. Nevertheless, because he took shelter of Lord Nrsimhadeva at the moment of impending death, he proved himself to be a devotee, and the Yamadutas could not touch him. The story shook up all the devotees in Bangladesh, offering many lessons to be learnt. It took this boy quite some time to digest the whole episode - he was visibly shaken and disturbed. Ultimately, Krishna gave him a second chance, turning him into a stronger devotee of the Lord.
On the 15th of October I travelled on to Nashik....
Your servant, Devaki dd
Please visit www.theholynameretreat.net
www.therootsofspiritualculture.net
https://www.facebook.com/instituteforspiritualculture/
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