30-Dec-08, Report from Bhakti Charu Maharaja

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Yesterday late morning, I came to Bombay, and went to see Jayapataka
Maharaja in the afternoon. Bhakti Purushottama Maharaja, Braja Hari prabhu
and Sunil Madhav from Chicago, came along with me. While driving to the
hospital, I was feeling quite depressed. Just to think of the person who
used to be so full of strength and vitality lying on bed in this condition
is naturally painful.

I was remembering those early days in Mayapur – going to swim in the Ganges
with him. With steady, powerful strokes he used to casually swim across that
river. So many incidences flashed across my mind – once Radha Jivan lost his
breath in the middle of the river and panicked and started to cry out for
help, and Jayapataka Maharaja came to his rescue and carried him to the
shore. Guru Kripa, (at that time a Swami), used to come to Mayapur with his
tough group of devotees, called the Nama Hatta, from Japan. Often we used to
sport on the bank of the Ganges. One day I was forced to wrestle with one
tough American devotee who defeated me and it was seen as a defeat of
Mayapur. Jayapataka Maharaja could not tolerate that. He just stood up and
challenged anyone from that group to fight with him. A devotee who was equal
to his size accepted his challenge and they started to fight. After a little
struggle, Maharaja pin him to the ground and started to slam him again and
again on the mud. We all, Mayapur devotees, felt that this was our victory
in response to my embarrassing defeat. Once we got a false alarm that the
Muslims attacked our Goshala and we all ran towards the Goshala with sticks
and spears to protect our cows and on the head of our group was Jayapataka
Maharaja. Once someone brought a crossbow from America and we used to
practice occasionally with that. Jayapataka Maharaja would always hit the
bull’s eye without fail. He disclosed that he used to be a champion shooter
in his early days.

When we arrived in the hospital, we were informed that Maharaja was still
taking rest. So we decided to go to the ISKCON temple in Mira Road and have
darshan of Sri Sri Radha Giridhari and Jagannatha-Baladeva-Subhadra. When we
came back, Maharaja was awake and greeted us with a happy smile.

There was a big difference between my last visit to him and this one.
Although he lost a lot of weight he seemed to be doing extremely well. He
was obviously happy to see us.  With a big smile he started to speak,
“Bhakti Charu Maharaja ordered me to stay. How could I disobey his order?
Therefore, I am still here.” Everyone began to laugh. I corrected him, “No,
I did not order you to stay but I begged you to stay. The devotees were
praying for you all over the world. Thank you very much for listening to our
appeals.” He folded his hands and said, “The devotees are very kind. They
are very merciful. I will do whatever Krishna wants.”

I told him that I heard that the day before he went to Sri Sri Radha
Giridhari temple and led a kirtan. He said, “Yes. For about five minutes I
led the kirtan.” Then he started to sing, “jaya Jagannatha, jaya
Jagannathi.” In order to show us how he led the kirtan. I told him that in a
few days he would also be dancing while leading the kirtan. He laughed
loudly and said, “Let us see what Krishna wants.”

Just by being with him, the sadness that was prevailing in my heart
disappeared and the whole mood became very jovial. I told him, “Let us go
for a walk”, and he told me that he started to walk holding on to the
parallel bars. One of the devotees who were taking care of him told me that
he was almost running this morning. He mentioned how these physiotherapists
are really making him work hard. They ask him to stand up and sit down or
walk. But then he admitted that their treatment was very good and it is
working. One therapist is teaching him how to close his eyes and move his
eyebrows. Then he mentioned that even such simple things became so difficult
to do at times, as if he is learning everything from the beginning. I
reassured him that the way his condition is improving, very soon he will
become alright again.

He is having difficulties to move his right hand and right leg. The devotees
helped him to sit on a chair and he seemed a lot more expressive and joyful
being in that position. He remembered that when he was in the Hinduja
hospital, I was singing some bhajan and he thanked me for that. I was
surprised that he could remember that because we were under the impression
that he was completely unconscious at that time. I told him that his
consciousness seems to be so clear and his memory so vivid. He agreed that
with his mind he doesn’t have any difficulty. He has difficulty only with
his body. I felt very confident that his body would also become alright
within a short time. I remembered Badrinarayan Prabhu’s comment, “It seems
that Jayapataka Maharaja is an irresistible force of nature that can never
be stopped.” I remembered those Kshatriya warriors of the Vedic times who
would be injured almost to the point of death, but then in a flash, they
would recover from that injury and start to fight again as if nothing
happened to them.

He mentioned that Sivarama Maharaja phoned him yesterday and how much he
enjoyed talking to him. He feels very happy when senior devotees phone him
or visit him.

Gopala Krishna Maharaja called and he told him that we were there with him
and what a wonderful time he was having with us. A little after that, Guru
Prasad Maharaja called from Mexico and Maharaja told him the same thing.

I told him that he should get well quick and go to Mayapur. All these years
he had been traveling around the world. Now he should just stay in Mayapur
and let the devotees from around the world come and see him. This is how due
to so many devotees involvement Mayapur is going to develop. He accepted
that proposal. One of his disciples who is taking care of him jokingly
mentioned that he has a ticket from Bombay to Kolkata, which will expire if
he did not use it within a certain time. We all started to laugh and
Maharaja also started to laugh. We expressed our concern that he would have
difficulty going to him room on the roof of the Lotus Building. Bhakti
Purushottama Maharaja suggested that he could stay on the ground floor of
the Conch Building. I reminded him that if he had to stay in the Conch
Building, then did not have to stay in the ground floor. He could rather
stay in my room because there he could go by the elevator. Maharaja jokingly
reminded us that still he will have to climb half the flight of stairs
because the lifts there do not go to the landing of the floors. We assured
him that we could carry him in a palanquin. He accepted that idea.

Many devotees were waiting outside for Maharaja’s darshan. Therefore, after
spending about two hours with him, we left.

Bhakti Raghava Maharaja, who had been suspected to have a contagious disease
called Chicken Guinea, was also in the Bhaktivedanta hospital, in a room
opposite to Maharaja’s. So, we went to see him.

Maharaja was sitting on a chair in front of his deities, chanting. When I
tried to embrace him, Maharaja tried to resist because of his infection. But
I insisted, saying, “I touch you to get purified myself.” Maharaja looked
very embarrassed and kept on saying, “please, please.”

I met him after many, many years. We remembered the early days in Mayapur.
We used to be so close and rendered so many services together.

His condition is much better now. In a couple of days he will be discharged
from the hospital. He has many preaching projects developing in different
parts of India, and he told us how he was going to spend time in different
places and eventualy come to Mayapur for the GBC meeting.