The Passing of a Real Prabhupada Disciple

Beggar · December 25, 2007

By Hari Sauri Prabhu

HG Bibhucaitanya Prabhu passed away.

> Aindra Prabhu was leading Kirtan melodiously and many of his god

> brothers, god sister and devotees were present. He left at 9:50 pm tonight.

I received this news with mixed feelings. On the one hand, we can be joyful at the glorious passing of such a wonderful Vaisnava. And on the other, we have to lament the loss of his sublime association. It would be remiss not to say something about the glories of Sri Vibhu Caitanya prabhu.

I don’t have a lot to tell, and I hope others who knew him better than me will inform us of this extra-ordinary soul’s qualities. I am very keen to hear about him because, as one sannyasi godbrother told me some years back in Vrndavan, “Just by seeing Vibhu Caitanya you feel like you hvae been blessed and purified.” And that was actually the fact.

As Madhavendu prabhu has mentioned in his report, I first met Vibhu Caitanya in 1975 when I was the temple commander of the newly-opened Krishna Balaram Mandir. Vibhu just appeared one day and asked to join up. I think it was around October. My policy with new devotees was to have them stay with me for a couple of weeks so that I could assess them and then assign them some service, and eventually a room in the brahmacari asrama (in those days there was no facility for anyone other than brahmacaris).

Vibhu was different in that he was about 20-30 years older than the rest of us. Most of the KB Mandir inmates were young, passionate westerners with a smattering of India boys, all of us aged between 18-30 years. Now here was this middle-aged, gentle, soft spoken man who had decided to renounce his family life and take shelter in ISKCON. I wondered at first how we would deal with him and how long he would last.

My experience with several other middle-aged Indian men who had ’surrendered’ to the mission was less than satisfactory. They had their own ideas and their own needs and demands. I was a 24-years-old inexperienced boy from the west, without a clue about India, or indeed devotional service. So my previous dealings with older men hadn’t been so successful. Now I was faced with another.

But Vibhu right from the beginning proved himself of an entirely different calibre. He was the humblest, sweetest soul I had yet encountered

(and maybe ever will). Totally compliant. All he wanted to do was serve, and it didn’t matter what he was asked, he did it with diligence and no complaints.

Another devotee joined about the same time, a little Nepali fellow with white hair and pink eyes, who later became initiated as Dadhi Baksha dasa. He was another pleasure to serve with. Together, briefly, the three of us were living in one room in the old brahmacari asrama.

In early November 1975 we embarked on the first ‘clean sweep’ of the KB Mandir since its opening. Inspired by the newly-published volume of Caitanya Caritamrta that describes the cleaning of the Gundica Temple, we three began at the back, sweeping down the ceilings, walls and floors and having a great time hosing and washing everything in sight sparkling clean. Vibhu didn’t baulk at the sometimes heavy labor involved. He was happy, and even though he only spoke Bengali and I only spoke English, we had perfect communication. Service was the medium and a deep mutual respect.

At the end of that month (miraculously!) I became Srila Prabhupada’s personal servant and that was the end of my tenure in KB Mandir. For Vibhu Caitanya it was the beginning. The beginning of thirty two years of unstinting, selfless service. Amazingly, he never left the grounds of KB Mandir in all that time, except once a couple of years ago when he was seriously ill and the devotees insisted on taking him to a local hospital. And once he returned he stubbornly refused to ever leave again.

It wasn’t long before Srila Prabhupada initiated him. I may be wrong but I believe in 1976 he was given both 1st and 2nd initiations together. As soon as he got his diksa, he went into the deity kitchen to reveal another wonderful aspect of his character and abilities. He was a cook like no other. From morning to night, day after day, year after year, he cooked nectarean dishes for Their Lordships. Working on clay lined buckets of hot charcoal, he prepared and cooked unbelievable quantities of the best offerings in ISKCON–every offering, every day, single-handedly. Think about it. All at the age of 50+.

In late 1976 Srila Prabhupada was doing an early morning parikrama around the temple rather than go out on his traditional morning walk. At the back of the temple there is an underpass over which the deity kitchen was located. As Srila Prabhupada approached it, we could hear a sweet melodious voice singing a Bengali bhajana. Srila Prabhupada stopped and asked, “Who is that?” “Its Vibhu Caitanya Srila Prabhupada. He sings all day long as he is cooking the offerings.” “Ah, this is Krsna consciousness,” Srila Prabhupada said with a bright smile on his face. “Very nice.”

One of the devotees mentioned that Vibhu Caitanya was not chanting his rounds. He was so busy in the kitchen from early morning till late at night that he had no time to do them. Srila Prabhupada didn’t mind. “That’s alright,” he told us, “he doesn’t need to chant them. He is singing all day and doing his service.”

He did this service I believe for over 15 years. Eventually age took its toll, as did the hard labor of lifting heaving pots and stooping over hot cookers. He developed a chronic back problem which left him unable to straighten up, and eventually reduced his physical stature to half his normal height. But if his physical state reduced, his spiritual condition reached greater and greater heights.

The temple authorities allowed him to retire from the kitchens on condition that he chant his rounds, which he did conscientiously to the end. His new service was to sit in the alcove opposite to Srila Prabhupada’s vyasasana, dutifully spooning out caranamrta to the visitors. It was a delight to have him grab your hand, strongly pull it forward and fill your palm with nectar and tulasi leaves. His touch was as purifying as the prasadam he was handing out.

Eventually his physical condition became so chronic he couldn’t even do that service anymore and he retired to a room in the asrama to spend his last days chanting and doing his own puja to his Deities on a make-shift altar, always ready to greet any visitors who dropped by with his brilliant smile, clear eyes and his sheer spiritual presence.

I hadn’t seen him for some years when I went to Krsna Balaram Mandir this year during Kartika for two days to attend some meetings and Srila Prabhupada’s Disappearance day festival. My wife Sitala had been in Vrndavan some weeks before and she told me how she had paid a visit to Vibhu Caitanya prabhu before she returned to Mayapur. She urged me to seek him out and just be with him for a few minutes. I took it as timely advice and I followed it. After the evening ‘disappearance arati’ in Srila Prabhupada’s room, I realized it was now or never if I wanted to see Vibhu. I was leaving at two in the morning and I still had things to do. I bumped into another Godbrother, Kiranash prabhu, who probably knows as much about Lord Caitanya’s pastimes in Bengal as anyone in the Movement. I told him where I was going and he eagerly agreed to accompany me. So we went round to Vibhu’s room on the ground floor at the back of the guest house. I am eternally grateful I did.

He was very happy to see me, and I was ecstatic to see him. Even though he had difficulty moving around, he smiled beautifully, exclaimed “Hare Krsna” many times, got up and grabbed my hands and forced me to sit in his chair. Again that touch, strong and firm, as unshakeable as his Krsna consciousness. I felt instantly purified by the physical contact, and what to speak about being in his presence. Presence is the word; he was entirely present. Clear-eyes, clear heart, clear consciousness. Happy in Krsna consciousness, with no shadows.

Although we only talked for a few minutes, it was actually the longest conversation I have ever had with him. One of the Bengali boys assigned to his care translated, and for the first time since I met him in

1975, I found out a hint of his past. He had been a family and business man in a village near Calcutta but gave it all up to come to Vrndavan and dedicate his life to Radha Shyamasundar, Krsna Balaram and Gaura Nitai.

Our meeting was brief but totally timeless. Being with Vibhu was like being in the spiritual world. He heaped me with some gifts-a new cloth shoulder bag, several new stainless steel cups, some chunks of misry (rock candy sugar), a few copies of a temple-published magazine with a brief biography of himself on the back, and, the best gift of all, a renewed rememberance of himself.

That was it. Now he’s gone. I am glad and sad. He wasn’t the kind of personality that went around the world preaching and elevating the fallen. But in Vrndavana, the whole world came to him. And just by being who he was, he elevated and purified everyone who came in contact with him.

All glories to H. G. Vibhu Caitanya Prabhu, one of the sweetest and most dedicated disciples of Srila Prabhupada I have been privileged to know. I will miss him alot.

Your humble servant, Hari-sauri dasa