Glorious departure of a wonderful devotee : Shyamlal prabhu :- Although Shyamlal Prabhu collected enormous amounts of money for our movement, he did not save anything for himself - he did not even have a bank account. When he was a young boy serving in Kolkata, Srila Prabhupada once assured him that he would take care of him. Shyamlal Prabhu remembered that assurance his whole life and simply depended upon Srila Prabhupadas mercy and indeed Srila Prabhupada took care of him in all respects. The people that Shyamlal Prabhu had befriended and cultivated so sincerely took care of all his needs. In fact, his three children (two daughters and one son) received very good educations and grew up to become very successful in life and wonderful assets of ISKCON. About 18 months ago, the doctors detected that Shyamlal Prabhu had a brain tumour and as a result of that his memory started to get affected. Although brain tumours cause intense pain, so much so that one literally bangs his head against the wall trying to get rid of the pain. However, miraculously, Shyamlal Prabhu did not experience any pain at all. He became just like a child, oblivious of everything except Lord Krishna and Srila Prabhupada. He would speak about Lord Krishnas glories and Srila Prabhupadas mercy. Time and time again he would just repeat Srila Prabhupadas assurance of taking care of him. When His Holiness BB Govinda Swami broke the news to him of his illness and its terminal nature, Shyamlal Prabhu simply smiled, showed no emotion and said “Whatever my Spiritual Master wants, Srila Prabhupada personally told me that he will look after me.” When the doctors detected that he got brain cancer, they declared that he would not survive for more than three months. However Shyamlal Prabhu lived for another 18 months. The doctors also presented a distressing case scenario of what to expect over the preceding months before death, however, Shyamlal Prabhu did not experience, the severe pain, visual loss, speech defects or inappropriate behaviour that was predicted. The medical profession was completely baffled by this considering the type and the aggressiveness of the tumour that he had. In fact, his oncologist Dr Diana Pillay said that this can only be explained as Divine intervention. In the last 6 weeks he was apparently in a coma. However, this was another display of Srila Prabhupadas mercy because in this way he was able to withdraw his senses from the external world and become completely absorbed in Krishnas pastimes. The doctors said that usually when one goes into a coma, all ones senses become dead. However, this was not the case for Shyamlal Prabhu. From time to time, he would open his eyes and look around and, although he would not communicate with anyone, when he heard Srila Prabhupadas singing bhajahu re mana sri-nanda-nandana, he would repeat very softly, sri nanda nandana.....sri nanda nandana..... Finally when the time came for him to leave his body, he audibly uttered “Hare Krsna” and left. Although Shyamlal Prabhus body was in the morgue for two days, when I saw him, there was a beautiful glow around him. As his body was being prepared for cremation and all the garlands and flowers were taken off, I noticed that Shyamlal Prabhu had his beadbag on his hand but that his hand was stretched to the lower part of his body. I felt that it would be nice if his hand with his beads was on his chest. When I mentioned this to Jahnavi, Shyamlal Prabhus daughter, she requested that I do that myself. When I lifted Shyamlal Prabhus arm, I noticed that I could effortlessly bend his arm and place his hand with his beads to his chest. Generally after the souls departure from the body it becomes stiff due to rigor mortis, but Shyamlal Prabhus body was supple like a baby’s. That reminded me of an incident after Srila Prabhupadas departure. After His Divine Grace left this world, some leading devotees were considering putting him in samadhi that very night. However, the prominent Vaisnavas from different temples of Vrindavan requested that Srila Prabhupada should be taken to the temples of Vrindavan so that the deities could see Srila Prabhupada one last time. Tamal Krishna Maharaja expressed his concern that Srila Prabhupadas body might become stiff due to rigor mortis. However, Damodar Prasad Shastri, the Ayurvedic doctor who was treating Srila Prabhupada during his last days, responded by saying, A pure devotees body will never be affected by rigor mortis. The next morning we took Srila Prabhupada to all the prominent temples of Vrindavan. Afterwards, when Tamal Krishna Maharaja and I were lowering Srila Prabhupada into his samadhi, I noticed, true to the words of Damodar Prasad Shastri, that Srila Prabhupadas body was absolutely soft and supple. Seeing Shyamlal Prabhus body, I remembered the words of Damodar Prasad Shastri: A pure devotees body will never be affected by rigor mortis. Time and time again we are seeing the practical demonstration of Srila Prabhupadas mercy. The final test is at the time of death. In Krishna consciousness, death is actually a glorious occasion for a devotee because at that time the door of the spiritual sky opens wide for him to enter there. Srila Prabhupada used to say, Service now, samadhi later. Shyamlal Prabhu practically demonstrated the authenticity of that statement. His whole life was committed to uninterrupted and unmotivated devotional service. Finally, at the end Srila Prabhupada arranged for him to retire from his service with the pretext of his ailment of brain cancer. Then, for six weeks he was in a continuous state of samadhi, which less informed individuals thought to be a state of comatose, and then, when he left his body he was chanting the holy name audible enough for even the nurse to hear. Anyone can well imagine what he has achieved and where he has gone. All glories to Srila Shyamlal Prabhu’s glorious departure!
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 16:21:47 +0000
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