A lway s E m b r a c e d
by
Kåñëa
The Māyāpura Festival The scene is Mäyäpura, in the year 1979. During the celebration of the advent of Çrémän Gauräìga Mahäprabhu, Çréla Gour Govinda Swami Mahäräja fell ill at the festival. The disease? No one knew what it was. The doctors said that he was not sick, but it appeared that he was. The doctors could not ascertain the problem; they did not know; no one knew. Laguòé däsa had acted as Çréla Gour Govinda Mahäräja’s servant in total for a period of four months: one month prior to the Mäyäpura Festival of 1979; two months in Mäyäpura and one month when they returned to Bhubaneswar. He had personally witnessed the different symptoms that developed in the body of Çréla Gour Govinda Mahäräja. Thus, by far, Laguòé däsa had the most association of Çréla Gour Govinda Mahäräja during this period and his testimony is invaluable. Laguòé däsa: I am very much indebted to Gour Govinda Mahäräja. I know that I was offensive to him somehow or other when he was sick, but he did not take offence. I had the chance to be with him for all that time. He stayed in Mäyäpura for two months because he could not be moved very much. When he was better, we put him into the bus and took him to Bhubaneswar. When we arrived at the Bhubaneswar land, we saw that nearly everyone had left.
Devadharma däsa was also in Orissa at that time, serving the mission of Çréla Prabhupäda in Cuttack, which is twentysix kilometres from Bhubaneswar. Deva-dharma däsa: I was living in Cuttack, where we collected funds and tried to make life members on behalf of the Bhubaneswar temple. We had some small success and 268
