The Closing of His Pastimes

Don't Take Me in Hospital

Just before Kartika, 2008, Śrīla Gurudeva ordered me, "Don't take me to any hospital during my last stage. I want to leave this world being in dhāma and matha. I don't want to be in a hospital. So many needles will be stuck in my body here and there, so many tubes in nostril and other places of the body." I humbly asked, "O Gurudeva, why are you telling all these things?" Gurudeva replied, "Sooner or later, it must happen. This is the nature of this material world. Whoever comes has to depart from this world one day. So, for your benefit, I am instructing you." I again asked, "How I can understand that this is your last moment?" Gurudeva replied, "Among all mathavasis, only you can understand that this is my last moment. If you are do not agree, no one can take me to hospital. This is my last and final order for you. You must have to fulfill my last instruction." I replied, "O Gurudeva, for your pleasure we will follow your order." So, seeing the fragile condition, early morning 29th December, we never tried to move him from matha. Śrīla Gurudeva ordered me same time in 2008, "If I depart from this world from either Mathura, Vrndavan or Govardhana, then arrange my samādhi in Govardhana. This is my first choice. If I depart from either Jagannath puri or Navadvipa dhāma, then arrange my samādhi in Navadvipa dhāma." According to his desire, we arranged his samādhi in Navadvipa dhāma, Śrī Śrī Kesavaji Gaudiya Matha. This Navadvipa matha will be the main attraction centre all over world due to Gurudeva's samādhi.

Antardhāna-līlā

On the morning of 29 December, 2010, Śrīla Gurudeva woke up very early, at about 2.00 a.m. His shift incharge, Sanjaya Prabhu asked him, “Śrīla Gurudeva, will you drink some water?” “Yes,” he replied, and the sevaka helped him to sit up. Śrīla Gurudeva said that first he wanted to use the washroom, so the devotees assisted him and then helped him back to sit on his bed. Śrīla Gurudeva began to drink the glucose water while the sevaka held the glass, but straight away he said, “I am not able to sit.”

The sevaka quickly helped Śrīla Gurudeva lay down. Śrīla Gurudeva then asked him to help him turn over, and as the sevaka did so, Śrīla Gurudeva took a deep breath and his face seemed to change somewhat. Upon noticing this, Sanjaya prabhu immediately called me. I (Śrīpada Mādhava Mahārāja) entered Śrīla Gurudeva's room and immediately checked his oxygen level and heartbeat. The oxymeter showed the fluctuations of Śrīla Gurudeva’s pulse and oxygen intake on the monitor. Then I asked the devotee who was present there, "Please call devotees who used to serve. Gurudeva will leave us very soon. This is not a very good symptom." Then they called Brajanātha Prabhu, Mādhava Priya Prabhu, Siddhanti Mahārāja and others.

Yet despite this alarm, Śrīla Gurudeva seemed very peaceful and as he gazed upon all present, it did not seem at all that he was about to conclude his manifest pastimes.

But then the monitor indicated a drop in pulse and oxygen level and the devotees began to loudly chant harināma. Śrīla Gurudeva’s tongue quivered as he chanted harināma along with the devotees. A few minutes later, just a minute before his departure, he closed his eyes, and gradually his tongue also became still. According to the clock on the wall, it was three in the morning. All present were stunned and in a state of shock.

Devotees Gather in Śrīla Gurudeva’s Room

Gradually all the sannyāsīs, brahmacārīs and other devotees who were staying in the maṭha and outside guest houses gathered in Śrīla Gurudeva’s room, and upon seeing him, all began to lament. As per Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition, Śrīla Gurudeva was bathed with fresh water, anointed with tilaka on the twelve parts of his body, and dressed in new cloth. He was then seated in padmāsana, or the lotus position. His body was soft and looked so natural it seemed as if he would open his eyes at any moment. Gradually, the winter sun rose and he began to glow golden in its rays. The devotees began singing one kīrtana after another: Śrī Gurvaṣṭakam, Śrī Guru-paramparā, Je ānilo prema-dhana, and Śrīla Gurudeva’s favourite bhajanas, like Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī Pada, Dekhite dekhite, Cintāmaṇi-maya rādhā-kuṇḍa-taṭa, Śrī Nandanāṣṭakam, Śrī Rādhā-kṛpa-kaṭākṣa Stavarāja, Śrī Dāmodarāṣṭakam, the mahā-mantra in the Australian tune that he was so fond of, and many other kīrtanas.

As news of Śrīla Gurudeva’s departure from this world spread, devotees from all over Śrī Jagannātha Purī, especially the Gauḍīya maṭhas, began to arrive to take his darśana for the last time. Devotees tearfully offered āratī to Śrīla Gurudeva as they sang Śrī Guru-caraṇa-padma.

Within a few moments, news of Śrīla Gurudeva’s entering nitya-līlā spread throughout the entire planet, anguishing thousands of devotees and plunging them into the heartbreak of separation.

Divine Departure

[On the Appearance Day of Oṃ Viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja]

The day Śrīla Gurudeva departed from this world was the appearance day of his senior godbrother, nitya-līlā praviṣṭa oṃ viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja. The devotees in Jaya-śrī Dāmodara Gauḍīya Maṭha had made elaborate preparations for the auspicious celebration and had invited all Sārasvata Gauḍīya Maṭha Vaiṣṇavas for hari-guru-kathā, kīrtana and the honouring of Śrī Jagannātha mahā-prasāda. But such a grand celebration did not take place that day.

The fact that Śrīla Gurudeva departed on the very day of his senior godbrother’s auspicious appearance indicates that even though he was not informed of when it would be, he was quietly waiting for this day, just as Bhīṣma Pitāmahā waited for the sun to move into the northern hemisphere (uttarāyaṇa) to depart.

By this we can understand something of the intimate relationship of those three pillars of the Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti, the three foremost disciples of Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja: Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Trivikrama Gosvāmī Mahārāja and Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja manifested his pastime of disappearance on the exact date (tithī) that Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Trivikrama Gosvāmī Mahārāja departed from this world, and Śrīla Gurudeva manifested his disappearance on the exact date that marked the appearance day of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja.

Concluding His Pastimes in the Abode of Separation (śrī vipralambha-kṣetra)

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu spent His last eighteen years in Śrī Jagannātha Purī in the association of Śrī Rāya Rāmānanda and Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara, remaining absorbed in relishing the emotions of Śrīmatī Rādhikā’s vipralambha (mood of separation). Śrī Rāya Rāmānanda and Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara would chant specific poetry from Śrī Caṇḍīdāsa, Śrī Vidyāpati and other Vaiṣṇava poets in accordance with Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s moods in order to nourish His emotions. Thus absorbed in relishing the moods of vipralambha, Śrīman Mahāprabhu brought His pastimes to an end by entering into Ṭoṭā Gopīnātha. Absorbed in relishing similar moods of separation, Śrīla Gurudeva also concluded his pastimes in this same abode of vipralambha, Śrī Jagannātha Purī, at the very spot, Cakra-tīrtha, where Lord Śrī Jagannātha made His appearance.

Because Śrīla Gurudeva manifested his disappearance pastime at Cakra-tīrtha, this tīrtha has now become mahā-tīrtha, or great holy place, especially for Śrīla Gurudeva’s followers. For Śrīla Gurudeva, the mahābhāgavata rasika-jana, the name cakra (wheel or disc) served as a constant uddīpana (stimuli) for cakravartī-līlā, that is, rāsa-līlā. Thus absorbed at the time of the rāsa-līlā pastimes, Śrīla Gurudeva entered that very pastime.