Concluding Remarks

A lwAys E mbr A c E d by K åñë A

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

C hapter 17 t he S ädhu from the f ourth d imen S ion

it was a great privilege to meet so many nice, humble Oriya Vaiñëavas.

We Thought that He Was in Samādhi

Even though Devadharma däsa was not too far away from Çréla Gour Govinda Mahäräja, he still did not know how sick he had been until he arrived at the Mäyäpura Festival and saw his condition.

Deva-dharma däsa: His health was very bad and of course, he never believed in taking medicine. He would say that the mahä-mantra is the only medicine, and when other devotees would get sick or something would happen, he would say, ‘Chant Hare Kåñëa! This is the only medicine!’ When Gour Govinda Swami came to the Mäyäpura Festival, he had not been eating; he had been fasting and his health had worsened until he actually became delirious. Generally, when people become delirious, they just speak nonsense. It is as if they just go a little bit crazy. But Gour Govinda Mahäräja was simply chanting, ‘Nitäi Gaura Hari-bol! Nitäi Gaura Hari-bol!’ We would try talking to him, but he would not respond. He would just look at us and say, ‘Nitäi Gaura Hari-bol! Nitäi Gaura Hari-bol!’ This was certainly an indication of his being fixed in Kåñëa consciousness. When we experience such bad health ourselves, we find it almost impossible to mentally recite the mahä-mantra, not to speak of reciting it out loud. It is very, very hard to chant when you are in such a weakened, half conscious state, but Gour Govinda Mahäräja was still very Kåñëa conscious. So, because we could not communicate with him, we could not get any response from him about taking some medicine or some prasäda. We tried to get him to take some mahä-prasäda (spiritual food), some caraëämåta (holy water), but he would not take anything. But he was still very Kåñëa conscious. You could say that he was in samädhi, but the circumstances

A lwAys E mbr A c E d by K åñë A

that brought about that state of consciousness were not ordinary. Technically speaking he was just delirious, but from the spiritual point of view, it seemed to us that he was in a samädhi like state. At the time, however, we could not figure out what was really wrong with him.

Previously, when he was in good health, Çréla Gour Govinda Mahäräja would walk twenty miles straight, and when he was sick, he would just fast. The devotees would ask him, “Are you sick?” and he would reply, “No, I am fasting.” Prior to this Mäyäpura Festival, one disciple of Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura Prabhupäda, Çré Çrémad Bhakti Dayita Madhava Mahäräja, left this world.

The Disappearance day of Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Dayita Madhava Mahārāja

On Tuesday, 27 February 1979, the disappearance day of Çréla Jagannätha däsa Bäbäjé Mahäräja and Çréla Rasikänanda Prabhu; a godbrother of Çréla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda, Çré Çrémad Bhakti Dayita Mädhava Gosvämé Mahäräja left this world at 9:00 a.m. in Calcutta. Two days later, on Thursday, 1 March, 1979,* a festival of separation was held in his honour at the Çré Caitanya Gauòéya Maöha in Mäyäpura. Many sannyäsés from ISKCON had been invited to Çré Çrémad Bhakti Dayita Mädhava Gosvämé Mahäräja’s disappearance festival and had assembled at his maöha, which was nearby to the ISKCON temple in Mäyäpura. Among those sannyäsés was Çréla Gour Govinda Swami. All devotees and sannyäsés were engaged in a massive ecstatic kértana, when suddenly, at the peak of it, Çréla Gour Govinda Mahäräja fell to the ground

* Author’s note: This would equate to 16 March, 2021 and 5 March, 2022. This day should be observed by, at least, all disciples of Çréla Gour Govinda Mahäräja. And the book Mäyäpura 1979 read and discussed.