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EDITORIAL November 11, 1998 VNN2487 The Death Phenomena BY MAHAKSA DASA EDITORIAL, Nov 11 (VNN) — Haribol, dear VNN readers and writers, PAMHO. This article is dedicated to Sriman Damodara dasa, and is written for those who feel impending doom, either from speculations about Y2K, or from dabbling in the likes of Cayce, Scallion, Morton, and other seers. I agree with Sriman Nikhilananda dasa's article, we should not give absolute truth status to the versions of the empiric scientist, but we need not reject them, either. Srila Prabhupada did not expect us to remain infants forever with overprotection. We question and defeat them all, but their versions are not unfounded. Do we reject tornado warnings, do we stay on the beach just because a meat eater weatherman says the hurricane is coming? No, Srila Prabhupada raised practical children. I have been cursed since birth with uncanny clairvoyance, it only gives me joy playing around with sports-page fascinations shared with my karmi friends at work, at other times, not so much joy seeing the future of Kali. Just more and more deterioration, more demoniac activity, more misinterpretation, more chaos, quarrel, and confusion. My work mates ask me, "Is it the volcano, the tornado, the solar ejecta, the tsunami, the comet, the earthquake, the nuclear holocaust? Tell us." The answer is "all of these things". The answer is that a noble green skinned mahajana in red robes, with matted hair riding on a buffalo carrying a silver thread to retrieve a soul under his jurisdiction follows our every move, because catastrophe is there. The answer is that Lord Sri Yamaraja, similar to us at work in our jobs, would like to sluff off, now and then, if given the opportunity, and we can help him in his desire by removing ourselves from his dutiful jurisdiction and becoming his friend instead. He is cent-percent pure Vaisnava acarya, so much so, that he is one of the twelve authorities on devotional service. Probably most of the readers here have read all of Srila Prabhupada's books, and a very nice project is to seek out the words of Sri Yamaraja (as well as his partial manifestations, Sri Vidura and Sri Yudhisthira) to find DHARMA. He is the first mahajana we deal with on the other side, and he would rather engage in joyful Krsna Consciousness with us at that time than just do his occupational duty, because He knows, He is the first created being to die. This is not a doomsday scare story, just a realization of mortality given to me by my wife, who is not of Vaisnava persuasion, yet possesses Vaisnava qualities in her own right, that I cannot describe, nor properly understand. She is not interested in impending doom of the Ross Ice Shelf separating from Antarctica and raising global sea levels two-hundred feet, she cares not to hear of Popocatepetyl Volcano ready to give the earth a ring like Saturn. She tells me that I only got a few years, max, as do we all, so get with it. Srila Prabhupada does not teach doomsday science, he does not teach us how to die. He teaches us how to live. He shows us that, if at all possible, even in an incapacitated condition, we should desire to circumambulate Sri Govardhana Hill in Remembrance of Sri Govinda, this act of life, and living, is what gives both the living entity and the stalking Lord Yamaraja transcendental happiness, destroys the time (and place, too) effect temporarily affecting our lives. The death phenomena is ONLY (my favorite word that Srila Prabhupada uses often) phantasmagoria, a will o' the wisp. I am remembering a dear friend, Bhava devi dasi, removed from our presence by the chemotherapy. She was young, full of life, and, though apparently only 80 pounds of dying flesh, taught fellow hospital patients in the same condition how to be pleasing to Yama, by pleasing his dear Sri Govinda. Point is, when the lava flows and the water rises, the joy of performing bhakti yoga as taught by His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupada does not diminish. Because the word YOGA appears, all ideas of being ALONE are also phantasmagoria, a celluloid manifestation, illusion. Even as the body bursts into flames and the mind is disturbed by seeing such an event happen, Sri Govinda approaches, protects, rescues, never abandons. No artificial behavior influenced by loneliness is required, no need to place a picture of Krsna in front of the eyes. Srila Prabhupada teaches the facts that this process of devotional service is descending to us from the Groves of Goloka Vrndavana, our job is to take the wonderful gift only. Some of us have lost a few as described, headed by our beloved Guru Maharaja himself, as well as dear disciples of his like Jayananda, Visnujana, Sudama, Gauragovinda, Bhava devi dasi, et al., yet we know Srila Prabhupada's Science (at least theoretically), therefore we do NOT say they are dead, and in some cases, imbued with advanced devotional symptoms, we do NOT even feel that they are away. The reason for this phenomena is the gift described, that bhakti yoga is SPIRITUAL LIFE, transcendental to both Samsara cycles and threefold miseries. So, though faced with doom, (collectively as I see in lucid dreams or appropriately as wonderful reality facing the individual), we can all take courage and give praise, again and again, for the fortune of association with the great gift-giver, Srila Prabhupada. Haribol, your servant in exile, mahaksadasa About the Author | Other VNN Stories by this Author Comment on this Story This story URL: http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET9811/ET11-2487.html
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