Tamal Krsna Goswami Passed Away

[atma]

 

News came from India that Maharaja passed away in a car accident 5AM,indian time, on his way from Mayapur to Calcutta, 10 miles away from Ranaghat.

Death may come any moment for anybody.

[bhaktashab]

Haribol,

Is this an auspicious or inauspicious death? And if either, what does that mean?

 

------------------

shab.

[Avinash]

Irrespective of auspicious or inauspicious, the meaning is clear in the post. "Death may come any moment for anybody."

[gHari]

I guess it is true; I saw it on Chakra as well. I was very shocked and saddened, although I had only read about him.

 

And of what I read, I only accepted the positive. I am hoping everyone can show good taste here.

 

Recently I had been reading his diaries from the early days, realizing how indebted we all are to the selfless dedication of so many of Srila Prabhupada's dear disciples. I fear I would not have had the guts for their austerity.

 

I will finish that diary and that is how I will thankfully remember Tamal Krishna Goswami, one of the key figures in helping Srila Prabhupada to create the worldwide infrastructure for Lord Caitanya's sankirtana movement.

[Tarun]

I just heard by telephone. I immediately called my local seniors:

Pradyumna, Bhaktijan, Jambavati dd

Then I emailed 30-40 others.

When I joined in NY, 1971, TKG had just gone from LA to India.

He became GBC for India while still grhastha.

Then I heard he accepted sannyAs which PrabhupAd praised.

I 1st met TKG face to face in LA 1974.

He was returning from India to join Radha-DAmodar TSKP.

And to rejoin his friend Visnujan Swami.

So many pastimes.

We should wish him, his godbrothers & his disciples well.

ParamAtma is Supreme Witness: Saksi-GopAl carries & sees all.

[Gauracandra]

This is very sad indeed. Best wishes to his disciples.

 

[This message has been edited by Gauracandra (edited 03-15-2002).]

[Jagat]

This is most untimely. I am truly shocked and saddened. My sympathies to all of Tamal Krishna Maharaj's disciples.

 

Jagadananda Das.

[Pita das]

I am very upset to hear of Goswami Maharajas passing .

 

NUMB

 

He was a very intense person, charming ferice ,highly intelligent and very funny also which was rarely shown to many.

 

When I think of my most favorite times with him it is with me in the Kitchen cooking .

 

I would greatly enjoy watching him enjoying the prasadam we had prepared for our Hong Kong Temple lunches.

 

He would say to me Pita das are you aware of the great amounts of rice you and Ramasurana are eating????

 

And then threw the lunch he would allways comment

 

He this prep is just right but that ones too salty this one needs to be more sweet and Oh this one I dont know how you have done this!!!!!!

 

How did you cook this eggplant ?

 

Who taught you how to cook this ?

 

It tastes exactly like the eggplant Srila Prabhupada used to prepare for us.!!!!!

 

So I am crying for my dear godbrother Goswami Maharaja

 

May Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya and Nityanada Prabhu who are oceans of mercy incarnate place him as an atom at their Lotus Feet.

 

In my last corresponsed with Maharaja I expressed the desire to be free from all responiblities and with purified hearts sit under the trees surrounding Shree Goverdon

and hear Srimad Bhagavatam together

may that day come soon.

 

All are welcome

Jaya Goura Nitai

Your Servant

Pita das

 

[atma]

In my last corresponsed with Maharaja I expressed the desire to be free from all responiblities and with purified hearts sit under the trees surrounding Shree Goverdon

and hear Srimad Bhagavatam together

may that day come soon.

 

All are welcome

 

Jaya Goura Nitai

Your Servant

Pita das

 

Pita prabhu you are a very kind soul, thank you for remind me of Shri Govardan. I'm thinking of a very sweet devotee named Gopal who was Maharaja's cook in Vrindavan and Govardhan. He lives there in the ashrama in Govardhan with Jagannath Puri prabhu and my heart goes out especially to them.

 

I thought a few days ago of writing something about missing Mayapur because of late I'm aching for going there. Two days ago I woke up from a dream were Vrindavan and Mayapur were mixed and I was with a friend near the Krsna Balaram tree and we heard a huge kirtana and I told her that that kirtan was from the devotees from the Navadwip parikrama and we should run and join them and I saw the devotees coming from the fields in Mayapur, so many of them, so happy with all the chanting.

 

Recently we were talking with other devotee about the road condition to go to Mayapur. I swear that I always avoided fall sleep on that trip because I was afraid that an accident may happen at any moment and if I was sleep how I could chant if something happened.

 

May Lord Krsna give us all the mercy of remembering Him at the moment of death.

[atma]

For pictures about the ceremonies for Maharaja's in Mayapur go to:

www.mayapur.info

[dasa]

Thank you for posting the link, Atma, there are many wonderful pictures there of the ceremonies. I only met him three times, but he was so gracious and personal each time, even tho he did not even know me. It is very sad, and very sad for his disciples.

 

[This message has been edited by dasa (edited 03-15-2002).]

[atma]

 

A couple of his disciples here went to see Maharaja's mother last night and they spent time with her. This Sunday will be a service at the temple on his memory.

[Guest guest]

His drama on Jagannatha is great

[leyh]

Krishna is the Original Cowboy! [A 1984 BTG Article]

 

Srila Tamal Krishna Goswami Gurudeva is one of the present spiritual masters in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. He oversees ISKCON's affairs in the south-central United States and parts of the Far East, and is the author of Servant of the Servant, a memoir about his activities in the Krishna consciousness movement. ISKCON Television taped the following interview in Dallas on May 30, 1984.

 

Reporter: Why did the Hare Krishnas participate in the Cotton Bowl Parade?

 

Srila Gurudeva: We feel that we are as much a part of Texas as anybody else. In other words, we are the Texas Krishnas. We were out there marching in the parade with our float. And we got a special prize, and everybody loved it. They loved it.

 

Reporter: All right. Given that, it seems to me that a parade is all pomp and flowers and glitter and so on. Where do you fit in?

 

Srila Gurudeva: We're festive. We're always singing and dancing. That's what we're famous for. We are the biggest parade people in the world. We're always singing and dancing and making festivals.

 

Reporter: It seems on the surface that this somehow flies in the face of the anti‑material position you report to profess.

 

Srila Gurudeva: No, no, no. I'll tell you why. There's a distinct difference. The difference is that when we sing and dance and hold festivals, it's in praise of Krishna, in praise of God. And we hope that we inspired other people at the parade to do the same.

 

Reporter: Are you saying that you alone, out of all those other people in the floats, were there to serve God, and everyone else was there to serve the population on the streets? Is Hare Krishna, the only way?

 

Srila Gurudeva: I don't feel that way at all.

 

Reporter: How does Hare Krishna differ from other religions worldwide?

 

Srila Gurudeva: We have a lot of detailed information about God and God's kingdom. That's one big difference I see. And we practice strictly what we preach, also. But I don't say it's the only way. When I speak to someone about Krishna consciousness, I'm trying to think how to inspire him to serve God.

 

Just to give you an example, I was recently at the airport in San Antonio, and this state trooper came in. He must have been about six feet four. I was sitting there waiting to get on the plane. The state trooper came right up to me and I thought, "Okay, what did I do wrong?" Then he looked at me, and he said, "Do you accept Lord Jesus Christ?"

 

I said, "Certainly I do."

 

He was a born‑again Christian. My feeling was that this man is a man of God, so I started to encourage him to preach to me. If I thought that we were the only way, I wouldn't have let him get a word in edgewise, and I would have just preached to him. But I thought, "Okay, this man is doing some witnessing on behalf of the Lord. Let him witness. That will increase his love for God, and I will have helped to do that, so I would have been His servant. And that's good."

 

Reporter: Any good salesman knows that you let the potential buyer do the talking first. Is that what you were doing?

 

Srila Gurudeva: Oh, no. This man wasn't about to buy anything I had to sell.

 

Reporter: Is that why you didn't witness to him, so to speak?

 

Srila Gurudeva: No, because I could see that it was good for him to preach. He was going strong. He was speaking about God, so I thought, "Let him speak about God. It's nice."

 

Reporter: Did you feel because of his closed­offness he was not going to be open to you by the time he was finished? Do you feel that your religion was still better than his?

 

Srila Gurudeva: No. I was in ecstasy letting him speak about God. I thought it was great. I thought, "This is really fortunate. How many people would have a state trooper come up to them and start preaching about God?" Usually the only thing you do with a state trooper is you get a ticket. I thought, "This is certainly an arrangement by God that this happened."

 

Reporter: You are obviously doing well for yourselves, both financially as well as in numbers. Do your numbers grow daily?

 

Srila Gurudeva: That would be nice.

 

Reporter: It's not true?

 

Srila Gurudeva: It's true. Sometimes they grow daily, sometimes they grow weekly. It's hard to predict. After all, when you're dealing with Ph.D. courses, you don't expect too many candidates.

 

Reporter: Develop that point. It's an interesting metaphor. I would like to hear it translated.

 

Srila Gurudeva: We give many guest lectures in colleges around Texas. It's a good forum for our message, and while on campus you can see the composition of the student body. Freshmen are the top number. Sophomore students, a little less. Juniors, less. Seniors, still less. And the postgraduates, masters, and Ph.D. candidates‑‑very few.

 

Similarly, ours is the Ph.D. course of religious studies—Krishna consciousness. That means we are demanding the most rigorous adherence to God's principles of any religion in the world. And we are giving the loftiest philosophical explanations of the science of God of any religion in the world. Krishna consciousness is the topmost knowledge.

 

Look at these books that are right behind us here. Here you see a whole library of knowledge. And these books, this knowledge, can change a person's life and teach him how to realize the goal of life. The goal of fife is to become self-realized. The goal of life is to understand who you are and why you are on this planet. It's not just to become another confused, lost person groping for some temporary satisfaction and ultimately ending up in frustration and death. The real purpose of human life is to avoid having to take another material birth again. The real purpose of human life is to go back home, back to Godhead.

 

Reporter: Let me put a hypothetical situation to you. I'm a normal Dallas kid, normal experiences, and so on. Let's add to that that my father is a Christian clergyman. Let's add that I have gone to a private Christian school, where every day began with the Apostles' Creed and the Pledge of Allegiance. At fourteen or fifteen I began to think that perhaps my father doesn't know everything I thought he knew all along, and, like many other American teenagers, I'm out of there. Does this happen among your children?

 

Srila Gurudeva: Not very often.

 

Reporter: Does it happen?

 

Srila Gurudeva: Sometimes. It happens with our adults, also. It's not just the children. In other words, many are called, but few are chosen to enter the kingdom of God. Even in the Bible that is stated. We don't expect that every single person who comes here is going to remain a devotee for life. Ours is not a place of indoctrination. It it is a place of teaching. We're trying to teach people more about the science of self-realization. If someone learns two percent of that science, we consider that their visit here has been a success. That's our outlook.

 

Reporter: Is it fair to children, who don't have the choice, who are not at an age where they can make that choice?

 

Srila Gurudeva: Can I ask you a question? Is it fair for children to be subjected to four hours of television a day? Is it fair for a child to be subjected to the type of thing that practically every parent subjects their kids to in America these days? People feed their kids junk foods. Is that fair to that living entity, that organism, to be fed things that are going to harm his body and rot his teeth?

 

Reporter: I know of no religion that requires a child to sit down and watch television for four hours a day and eat Twinkies.

 

Srila Gurudeva: No? There is a religion‑‑it's called "The Great American Way." That's the religion I'm talking about. I'm talking about Americana. I'm talking about the “good old American way.?

 

Reporter. If anything, that would be viewed as an a-religious expression that has nothing to do with freedom of choice for a religion.

 

Srila Gurudeva: It's heavy indoctrination, and that's my point. All parents, according to their way of life, subject their children to indoctrination.

 

Reporter: Indoctrination carries with it an assumption of will. Conditioning carries with it an assumption of response to an environment. I would suggest that a child watching four hours of television a day and eating Twinkies is not being indoctrinated but is in fact being conditioned. I would suggest that a child being drilled on catechism responses by an authority figure within a church or movement is in fact being indoctrinated.

 

Srila Gurudeva: Well, call it what you want, but anybody who sits in front of a boob tube for four hours and eats Twinkies is a vegetable, as far as I'm concerned. He's just a vegetable. He may be a "free" vegetable as opposed to an "indoctrinated" vegetable, but he is a vegetable. So we want to turn out some intelligent beings. We feel that there's enough vegetation already on the planet, and we would like to see some advanced creatures walking around on the face of the earth giving some direction to the world instead of having to open a newspaper every day and read about how every single country is at war.

 

Reporter: Well, how does your Dallas Palace help the world situation?

 

Srila Gurudeva: The Dallas Palace is really Kalachandji's Palace. "Kalachandji" is a name for Krishna. As you've seen in our temple room, there is a Deity of Krishna. The Deity is like a statue of Krishna, but He is not just a statue. We take it that this Deity form of the Lord is a transcendental form that's worshipable. This is stated in scripture, and we have personal experience of it. When I first came here, I thought, "This Deity deserves to have the best care. We have to build Him a palace." And that was my whole motive. I was thinking that somehow Krishna is going to be pleased. It was an inspired feeling I had. I felt that this Deity is like covered fire; this Deity is so powerful that if He is worshiped properly He is going to attract all the people of Texas. All the people of Texas, because Krishna is actually a cowboy also. Krishna is the original cowherd boy.

 

Reporter: I beg your pardon?

 

Srila Gurudeva: In Texas, everybody feels they are the original cowboys, but the original cowboy is Krishna. Krishna's activities five thousand years ago are described in our scriptures, and He used to take care of the cows. He was a cowboy. So, I feel that Kalachandji will be recognized as the original cowboy here in Dallas and that gradually the Texans are going to come and worship Him.

 

Reporter: You talk about Kalachandji as the Deity to be worshiped by Texans. It sounds almost like you are introducing idol worship to a rather conservative state. Don't you expect a negative reaction from folks to that?

 

Srila Gurudeva: Well, I don't base my actions on whether someone reacts negatively. In other words, I consider that if someone doesn't understand something, it's my duty to educate him and not back off if his reaction is based in ignorance. No. It's not idolatry at all. An idol is an image. And the word image connotes something about the imagination. You imagine something, and you just start to worship it as God. That is not what we're doing. Our Deity‑‑Kalachandji, or any other Deity Of Krishna‑‑is described in great detail in our scripture. This Deity was made exactly according to scriptural directions as being a likeness of the features of God.

 

When you put a letter in a post office box, it will go to its destination, whereas if you make your own box, the letter won't go anywhere. Similarly, if you just worship some kind of stone statue according to your own imagination of God, it's not going to help you. But if you follow the scriptural advice and make a Deity exactly according to the scriptural references, and if you worship that Deity according to the very strict principles mentioned in the scriptures, then you will find that your worship is accepted and received by the Lord. So we don't call it idolatry.

 

Reporter: All right. But we're talking about an East Indian culture, as compared to a cowboy culture. Do they have anything in common at all? How can they be related?

 

Gurudeva: The similarity is in the cows. Krishna is the original cowboy, because one of Krishna's activities when He was present on earth five thousand years ago was to take care of the cows. And similarly, here in Texas, there are cows and there are cowboys taking care of the cows. Unfortunately, they are not taking very nice care of them. So the common factor is the cows. The distinction is how we take care of them. We want to introduce the original cow culture, which is based on the protection of the cows. Another name of Krishna is Govinda, or one who gives protection to the cows. We feel that the Texans should now learn that there is a better way to deal with cows than the way they've been dealing with them. In fact, we would say that if the Texans want to avoid massive karmic reaction they had better stop slaughtering cows immediately. We know if you keep up this type of sinful behavior of slaughtering cows, then there's going to be a very severe karmic reaction. There are a lot of heavy karmic reactions coming.

 

Reporter: So everyone involved in the cattle industry who does not come to Krishna consciousness by the time of his death is moving in the opposite direction?

 

Srila Gurudeva: Not only individually, but as a group.

 

Reporter: Societies can suffer death?

 

Srila Gurudeva: Yes, there's such a thing as national karma That's what's going on in the world today. And there is international karma. For all the abortion and all the slaughtering of animals, there is huge karma being created all over the face of this world, and the result comes in the form of unseasonable weather conditions‑‑drought, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes‑‑and ultimately, if it gets too heavy, atomic war. That's international karma.

 

Reporter: And the Texans' response to that might be, "If I want to avoid economic ruin, I've got to continue slaughtering the COWS."

 

Srila Gurudeva: The arrangement of Krishna, God, is that man should cultivate the land and protect the cows. Everything that you need for a balanced, healthy diet can be gained from these two things‑‑wheat you grow on the land and the products that you can derive from the cow. But not the cow's flesh.

 

Once you kill the cow, you lose all the valuable things you can get from milk. And, from a moral point of view, we feel that the cow should be protected. If she's going to give you eight or ten years of her milk, that's quite a contribution. So, as a matter of thankfulness, gratefulness to her, we feel "Let her live out her life peacefully. " And if someone is really into eating meat, well, she's going to die a natural death anyway. Then you can go ahead and eat the meat. Maybe the cow will be a little thinner and there will be a little less meat.

 

In fact, there was a very interesting study that revealed that if you produce beef rather than grains, it takes five times more land to get the same nutritional value. So this is a very sound economic policy‑‑to grow grains and vegetables and fruits and to take care of the cow and get her milk products ‑because then you have the food problem solved.

 

Reporter: Isn't the idea of God as a cowboy kind of laughable?

 

Srila Gurudeva: In 1968 I was preaching on the streets of Los Angeles, and I met this preacher from a Baptist revivalist church. He was a very nice man. He appreciated what I was saying to him, and he said, "I want you to come to my church." At the church meeting, I gave my sermon, and he gave his. And he was telling everybody in the audience about God. He said, "You know, no one has ever seen God. And do you know why? Because He's so big that you can't get far enough away from Him to actually see Him." That was his explanation. Another explanation I heard is the common one that God is an old man with a long, white beard. He's sitting on a big throne, and He's got a line of people stretching out into infinity‑‑people with so many things they want to talk to Him about.

 

When I hear these things I don't laugh, even though I could, because this is all speculation. They don't know what God looks like. When you turn to most scriptures of the world, they don't give very much information about how God looks, except to say that man is made in God's image, which simply lets us know that God has a more or less humanlike appearance. But in the Vedic scriptures from India you get detailed information about the appearance of God. And just for your information, He happens to be, in His original form, a very beautiful, transcendental personality with exquisite features and qualities. That's why we can develop love for Him. And one of His favorite activities just happens to be taking care of the cows.

 

 

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

Is this an auspicious or inauspicious death? And if either, what does that mean?

For devotees of the Lord there are no auspicious or inauspicious circumstances. Everything is the divine will of the Lord, which only the Lord Himself can understand.

 

[Tarun]

api cet sudurAcAro bhajate mAm ananya-bhak sAdhur eva...

Whatever may've happened at Raman-reti Nov1977, for our own benefit we should see another's devotional side;

YamarAj rectifies the rest.

[Gauracandra]

I also think its important to point out that a devotee lady named Vrndavaneswari Devi Dasi passed away in the car accident. This is most unfortunate, and I can only pray for her family and wish them all peace and comfort.

[gHari]

Has anyone else wondered whether this was a jihad incident? Was the taxi driver Muslim? Did he purposely send the passenger side of the vehicle into a tree at high speed?

 

They say he fell asleep, but I only fall asleep after maybe ten hours non-stop on the road.

 

Please excuse me if this speculation seems inappropriate.

[BDas]

MEMORIES OF RDTSKP and TAMAL KRISHNA GOSWAMI:

 

By Brahma Das

 

I worked extensively under Tamal Krishna Maharaja from 1975 through 1979.

We met when I was in San Francisco working with Swami Tripurari on his BBT book distribution party. At that time TKG asked me to join his party as leader of one of the

new Radha-Damodhar Buses.

 

Upon returning from India TKG had teamed up with his old friend Visnujana Maharaja and turned his festival bus program into a dynamic preaching party. Together their preaching was so powerful that they recruited enough devotees to fill up two new busses. Soon those devotees were selling more BTG’s than any other zone in North American. Therefore BTG featured ads for RDTSKP in every issue. This ad had a picture of Visnujana Maharaja chanting and playing harmonium that read: “Travel with advanced devotees of the Hare Krishna movement” and “Learn to play ancient Indian Instruments.”

 

Because of these ads every devotee in the movement knew about RDTSKP and secretly almost every brahmachari wanted to travel and preach with TKG and Visnujana Maharaja. New men were also joining as well so TKG commissioned two more busses and was looking for devotees to put in charge of them. It was at this time in 1975 that Radha-Damodhar visited San Francisco and there is an amusing and insightful story regarding how I came to be part of the RDTSKP team.

 

The first day the bus arrived in SF I was in the brahmachari ashram and came across Visnujana Maharaja singing in the shower. Everyone knew Visnujana Maharaja and loved him. He had a warm dramatic style that had the power to transport a person immediately to Vaikuntha.

 

As I stepped into the shower room Maharaja recognized me and said, “Brahma, why are you here in SF, did you know that TKG and I wanted to put you in charge of one of the new busses?”

 

I was shocked at this statement as I had only been in the movement three short years and was barely twenty-two years old. Certainly one had to have more experience and maturity than I to be in charge of a Radha-Damodhar bus. When my ego and mind recovered from the shock I asked VJ Swami what I would do if I became a bus leader.

 

There dripping from the shower Maharaja dramatically outlined everything to me in vivid terms.

 

He said,” You will be the spider.” “The spider”, I replied with a puzzled look.

 

“Yes, he said, At the festivals Radha-Damodhar weaves a web through the chanting of their Holy Names and various types of conditioned souls are caught on that web. You as the spider will have to find out which of the souls caught on their web of chanting are ready to surrender their lives to Radha-Damodhar. Those souls who are worthy you transport to your lair on the bus and turn them into shining new bhaktas for Krishna and Prabhupada. Then he opened his arms leaned into the shower and as the stream of water cascaded over his head he chanted in a loud voice Radha-Damodhar Ki-JAI!”

 

Needles to say I was spellbound by Visnujana’s ecstatic presentation and the picture it painted in my mind. I was now speechless and in a half a minute VJ Swami had turned my world upside down and I began to believe that Prabhupada and Radha-Damodhar wanted me to be the“ spider” on the bus.

 

Such was the power of Visnujana Swami’s amazing love for Radha-Damodhar.

 

There was however a slight problem. Before I could join RDTSKP and begin “spider training” I would have to talk to Tripurari Maharaja who had just recruited me to be in charge of the SF airport book distribution party. Outside VJ Swami’s influence I became confused and depressed at the thought of letting down Tripurari Maharaja and the BBT party. I was in a dilemma but little did I know that TKG the great preacher, organizer, and problem solver was about to work his magic behind the scenes.

 

First he called me in and asked if I wanted to join RDTSKP. At this point although I really wanted to be “the spider” I was confused and told him I was undecided. He was not happy about this and gave me a strong lecture about taking on responsibility for Prabhupada. He said I had leadership potential and on RDTSKP that potential could be developed for Krishna’s service. I objected and said that I was distributing books for the BBT and knew that service was extremely pleasing to Prabhupada. At this TKG hesitated and thought for a moment. Something was going on in the back of his mind. He ended the conversation by saying yes book distribution is no-doubt pleasing to Prabhupada and asked me to join him for prasadam after I came back from the airport tomorrow.

 

The next day at the airport I was too disturbed to distribute many books. To be the spider or not to be the spider was the question disturbing my mind. And that was my mental state when I went to the bus for dinner with TKG and VJ Swami. As I was dined and flattered by two of the most respected devotees in the movement the bus book distribution team came in take prasadam.

 

One by one TKG introduced each devotee and asked how many books they had sold that day. Each devotee replied with a number that ranged from ten to thirty books. After he was done he said this is Brahma Das he is a famous BBT book distributor. Then he asked how many books I had sold today. Having had a bad day I was embarrassed to report that I had only sold about fifteen books that afternoon.

 

At that TKG pointed his finger at me and said very sternly, these men are all new bhaktas and they have almost to a man each sold more books than you. With good training these devotees will be able to preach and sell more and more books but none of them are qualified now or any time in the near future to be a RDTSKP bus leader. These new men need experienced guidance and that is why the best service for you is to take command of one of the new busses.

 

Again I was speechless. Both Visnujana Swami and TKG each in their own way had overwhelmed me in a matter of minutes. I knew at that time that these two were the most dynamic preaching team in the movement and I wanted to be part of that team.

 

But there was still the problem with my responsibilities to the BBT party. TKG quickly took care of this problem to everyone’s satisfaction by offering three of his best book distributors as replacements for me on the BBT party. But before he did this TKG asked me one important question.

 

Are you considering grihasta life?

 

“Grihasta life is fine for Bhaktivinode but not for me” ,I replied.

 

He then smiled and said that was the right answer as he wanted only dedicated brahmachari’s or sannyasi’s as leaders on his bus party. And with that I was welcomed aboard.

 

I served on RDTSKP for the next three years as a bus leader. TKG was a hard taskmaster but he was able to motivate me like no one had done before and in turn I was able to motivate others.

He saw something of my potential for service and I had faith and appreciation for him. As bus leader I had to call him from the field once a week and those calls either left me tearful because I had let him down or elated because he was pleased. He had a powerful effect on my life that has been with me ever since.

 

By 1979 the RDTSKP busses were all broken down or dry-docked and I was serving on the Indian library party out of Bombay. TKG called me in Bombay and asked me to return to the states to take a bus on the road again. I loved the bus party and was reunited again with many from my old party.

There was Hasyagrami who had been my driver and festival equipment manager, Sunanda the cook and kirtan leader, and Drista the sincere leader of the book distribution party. We were all happy to be serving together again on the bus.

 

Once our bus party alone consisted of twenty-eight brahmacharies packed together on a bus and accompanying three vans. Now we were going to Texas to distribute books, preach and put on festivals with a total of seven devotees. Times had changed and now TKG was in charge of temples rather than busses and had to put most of his energy into those responsibilities. We were on the road in Texas for about six months. Finally we parked the bus in Austin and started a restaurant preaching center near the University of Texas that TKG named Govinda’s Super-Natural Foods.

 

That was the last ride of RDTSKP. But anyone who took that or any ride on RDTSKP between 1974 and 1979 will never forget it. And all owe a debt of gratitude to TKG for making the arrangements so Radha-Damodhar and their devotees could travel down that road into the glorious history of the Krishna consciousness movement.

 

Sincerely, Brahma Das

 

[Rati]

I likewise have fond memories of his repartee w/Visnujana on the bus. VJ would often sing while driving the big greyhound, knocking over parking meters and scraping sides of buildings, oblivious to his wake on the street and TKG would be yelling at him the whole time. He will be missed as VJ has been.

 

[This message has been edited by Rati (edited 03-21-2002).]

[dasa]

Those are wonderful memories posted by Brahma Das. You are very fortunate to have them.

[Rati]

I joined up w/Dhrstadyumna on his van when they came through Evanston, IL in the summer of '74 and we drove out to New Vrndavana for the guru puja festival. VJ had me audition for the party and I was taken aboard as one of the musicians in the 'band'. We went from one college campus to another doing the daily festival and it was really one big party the whole time. One time an obnoxious fellow tried to grab TKG's caratals away and he just shoved the lout aside and glared at him. It was apparent to the aggressor that this particular devotee was not going to be intimidated and he just slunk away.

 

[This message has been edited by Rati (edited 03-22-2002).]

[Pita das]

Goswami Maharaja is now in the compeltly purified postion whatever where his mistakes were made

 

Krishna has covered for them

 

In Gita Chapter 7/30

 

Those in full consciousness of Me.who know Me,the Supreme Presonality of Godhead ,to be the Supreme govering principle of the material maniestion and the lord of the demigods and all the methods of scarfice ,can understand me and know me even at the time of death

 

One who knew Goswami Maharaja would also know that this was the main topic of almost ever lecture he ever gave.

 

I would sometime become so bored by his repeative lectures on the same topics again and again

In HK temple Only the srimad Bhagavatum canto i was ever discussed.

 

So yesterday we have come to know the details that His Holiness met death at a high speed hitting a tree Killing him at once.

"Hare Krishna"

At once transfered

and He died instanly

"Hare Krishna"

wakeing up to the eternal reality of Radha Krishna

 

The unliminted bottomesless ocean of the mercy of srila Prabhupada, we can only amazine

 

Once Goswami told me of a great and foolish discilp of srila Prabhupada who His Divine Grace acceapted back after giving this man sannyas he left Srila Prabhupada to live with a so called sadhu person who would do magic tricks passing a coin from one ear to the next to cheat the public and earn money this person left His divine Grace Srila Prabhupada to learn this???

 

After some time this sannyas disclip returned and Srila Prabhupada at one reinstaed him in his orginal position he held before leaving.!!!????

 

Goswami Maharajs went to Srila Prabhupada and expressed

"How could you allow him back Srila Parbhupada he was doing such nonsense?

How can you be so mercyfull towards him"?

 

and Srila Prabhupadas reply was

 

"I must be so mercyful because Lord Chaitanya is so mercyiful."

 

 

[Gauracandra]

The only lectures I've seen from Tamal Krsna Goswami were on video. The Dallas devotees utilize Public Access television (much like Siddhaswarupananda does) to broadcast Krsna Consciousness. The few videos I've seen were very good. I found his approach to be very methodical and quite a logical presentation of the philosophy.

[Rati]

When we obtained the harinama initiation and our new names in the spring of '75, TKG was very conscientious about choosing only names from CC (which is an old long-standing tradition in Gaudiya sampradayas), whereas elsewhere in the Society there were many strange names chosen by various of SP's disciples (sometimes SP would have to change a selected name on the spot to something appropriate).

 

 

[This message has been edited by Rati (edited 03-22-2002).]