A lway s E m b r a c e d
by
Kåñëa
Mallik had lost contact with Brajabandhu (who was now Çré Çrémad Gour Govinda Swami) when Brajabandhu had left for Håñikeça in April 1974. When Sukadeva Mallik met Subhash Biswal, Subhash said to him, “You were doing this Gétä-yajïa and you brought along this Balaram Das to speak on the Gétä, but there was another bäbu you brought: Brajabandhu Manik. He is now in Nayapalli. He has taken sannyäsa and is there preaching.” Upon hearing this news, Sukadeva Mallik immediately set off for the Bhubaneswar-Nayapalli area, to meet up with his old friend Brajabandhu Manik. Sukadeva Mallik arrived in Bhubaneswar and saw Çréla Prabhupäda. He recalls, “Çréla Prabhupäda was very old, very, very old, at that time, and a lot of devotees came; I remember seeing fifty to sixty Western devotees. Some paëòitas from Puré were there, the King was there, Nityananda Kanungo was there, and the opening took place where the Lotus Temple is being constructed now [1994].” Çré Garbha däsa: I spoke to Gurudeva [Çréla Gour Govinda Swami], and even though he was among so many people, Gurudeva was very happy to see me. During the years when I had lost touch with Gurudeva, I was still doing this Gétäyajïa, but with a bäbäjé, Balaram Das. This Balaram Das was from a deviant sampradäya. In Orissa they call them, ‘Not so good.’ Gurudeva was very happy to see me, and said, ‘I will not let you go. I will keep you here for three days.’ So, while I was there, Gurudeva served me prasäda with his own hands.
While Sukadeva Mallik was in Bhubaneswar, he asked Çréla Gour Govinda Swami to attend the next Gétä-yajïa and speak there. But Çréla Gour Govinda Swami said that he could not come back to the place where he had done the Gétä-yajïa previously. He said, it was not correct to go to where his family 172
