Subject:   Death in Vrindaban
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Here is a report from our ashram in Vrindaban.

> "Ananda prajnata Das, disciple of Srila Harikesh Maharaj left his body
> here at our Prabhupada Vani Asram, in the holy land of Vrindavan at
> 10:10am on June 16th, 1997, on the auspicious day of Pandava Nirjal
> Ekadasi.
>     He arrived at our asram 10 days before. The morning after arriving in
> Vrindavan he insisted to go by motor riksaw to see Radha Damodar and asked
> for ice cream and potato chips to eat. 7 days before his passing he
> expressed that his suffering was so inconceivably great that he could no
> longer understand in which part of his body the pain was. His whole body
> was consumed with pain. Because of weakness he was not able to chant the
> mahamantra. Other devotees came and read to him and chanted japa and
> kirtan in his association. He could not focus on hearing very intensely
> the chanting of the holy name due to the pain and confusion he was going
> through. He said to his closest friend and associate, Cakrina das, "I am
> so, so, tired...let’s be tired together."(meaning, we’ve done everything
> else together so far, let’s also go through this experience of being tired
> together) Cakrina said before Ananda came to Vrindavan he  had been taking
> care of Ananda for 6 monthes. Once when Cakrina went away for 2 weeks
> leaving Ananda in the care of the devotees, they put him in the hospital
> to try some other type of cure and tried to instill hope that he would
> somehow survive. Ananda used to often express to Cakrina how his only
> desire was that he die without pain. When Cakrina returned to Senferopal
> and found that the devotees had put him there, he asked Ananda what he
> wanted to do now. Ananda said, "let’s go out and do some sankirtan
> service". He had been a book distributer for his 7 years as a devotee.
> When Cakrina tried to inspire hope of his recovery, Ananda said, "What is
> the use of trying to do any service in a body such as this? Better for me
> to die and take birth as a gurukula boy and do nice service right from the
> start." As a temple president, he was always meditating on how to preach,
> and when he gave Cakrina instructions on how to manage a temple, he said,
> "the primary mission of a temple president is to carry on the sankirtan
> mission and if he does that then everything else will develop." Ananda’s
> mother was very pious, following the 4 regulative principles, but not
> chanting regularly HareKrsna mantra. She urged Cakrina to make sure Ananda
> could leave his body in Vrindavan and gave him her blessing to take him
> there. Ananda’s had passed away years ago. Ananda was 40 years old when he
> left his body.
>      Before his departure, Ananda was unable to sleep at all for 2 full
> nights because of pain and even the pain-killing injections which devotees
> administered, were of short duration or un-effective. On the morning of
> June 14th, Ananda was looking very disturbed in the face. A devotee who
> was helping him asked, "Why are you so disturbed?" and Ananda  answered,
> "I am not very satisfied about myself." Vallabha asked, "Why?" Ananda
> Prajnata answered, "I just saw Srimati Radharani in my dream and she said,
> "Don’t be afraid, cheer up, because everything will be alright!" Then
> Vallabha das asked him, "What else did you speak about with Srimati
> Radharani?" Ananda Prajnata said, "I do not remember." Cakrina said that
> Ananda expressed several times that Radharani had appeared in his dreams
> during his last week, but Ananda always said he could not remember what
> she had said to him. Devotees taking care of him feel that he perhaps only
> ‘said’ that he could not remember because it too confidential.
>     On the same day that Ananda had this dream of Radharani,  Navayogendra
> Swami came to see him with some other bramacaries. He asked about his
> general condition and if he was chanting the mahamantra and if the
> devotees were reading to him Srimad Bhagavatam. He asked Ananda if he
> needed anything and Ananda said, "no". Then Navayogendra Maharaj gave him
> a garland and said, "Everything will be alright if you chant Hare Krsna."
> Then he said, "If you need something, contact me, I will help you."
>   The last 5 nights before his leaving, Ananda cried out all the time
> because of pain and regularly begged for an injection of pain-killer, but
> they were ineffective. The day before his leaving he requested to have ice
> cream, but only took a little when given. The night before his passing, he
> was asked if he wanted an injection against pain and Ananda said, "no".  A
> few hours before his passing, a devotee who had been regularly massaging
> his body was massaging his feet and legs. Generally, when he received his
> massage he cried out in pain, but on this morning he felt no pain at all.
>    A half hour before Ananda’s passing, he asked that his head be raised
> up and said, "I don’t have enough air".  He also asked that a poster of
> Srila Prabhupada and Srila Harikesh Maharaja be placed on the wall in
> front of him so he could see them clearly. At this time there was
> constantly playing the tape of Srila Prabhupada chanting japa and he
> appeared to be hearing and focusing on the sound of the mantra. 20 minutes
> before his passing, the devotee-doctor, Kesha das was taking his pulse and
> saw that it was quickly fading away. He asked for some tulasi leaves just
> in case Ananda were to leave his body now. 5 minutes before his passing
> Kesha asked Ananda how he was feeling and he indicated that he felt
> alright by raising his thumb up. He was smiling. By the time the devotee
> returned with the tulasi leaves, (about 1 minute) he had peacefully left
> his body. Unfortunately, Ananda was only able to be cremated the following
> day, June 17th at 3:00pm and was kept on ice until that time in order to
> preserve his body. The day he departed, Cakrina had gone to Delhi to the
> Ukrainian Embassy to get the last
> authorization that he could be cremated in Vrindavan and because the
> Embassy was closed, he was not able to finish the legal procedings until
> the next day. Ananda’s body was prepared by the devotees and taken with
> full kirtan to the banks of the Yamuna where he was cremated very
> auspiciously. All glories to Ananda Prajnata das!!

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 *VERY IMPORTANT LESSON FOR ALL DEVOTEES:
(Please copy these notes to your disk for future records)

This devotees's body could not be cremated for more than 30 hours.
Imagine that in 115 F  or 52 C of heat and you can understand what our
devotees went through.

Therefore:

If one wants to leave his body in Vrindavan and be cremated here
immediately without having to wait around for all the legalities required
of a foreigner in India, you must do the following:
(These procedures should be done by ALL devotees wishing to be cremated
in Vrindavan irregardless of whether or not their death is insight. Don’t
wait until the last minute to organize this at the inconvienience of other
devotees. Do it yourself before you are ill or perhaps even die
unexpectedly. Every karmi has a Will which they organize and keep securely
along with all their other legal papers like passports, and birth
certificates, etc. Why not devotees? )

What you must do:
1-Make your last Will and Testament saying that it is your desire to die
and be cremated in the Holy Land of Vrindavan, India. Sign it yourself and
get a witness to also sign it.
2-Have the Will notorized by a bonafide Notorietor.(authorized stamp,
etc.) 3-Have the Will assured by the Ministerof Justice.(authorized stamp,
etc.) 4-Have the Will assured by the Minister of External
Affairs.(authorized stamp, etc.)
5-Have the Indian Embassy of your home country give their authorization
stamp, etc.
6-Once you actually come to India, you must finally get your will
authorized by your home country Embassy here in India. (For example, if
you are from the Ukraine, you have to get permission from the Ukrainian
embassy here in India before you will be legally allowed to be cremated
here. Failure to do so is a criminal offense and action will be taken
against ISKCON or the devotees in whose care is the expired devotee.)
7-The expired devotee must be examined by a qualified doctor having a MBBS
or MS degree in medicine, who verifies the cause of his death.

*Before all of the above is completed, your expired body cannot be
cremated. Recently, there was a Russian devotee who died here without
having organized all of the above. His body sat lifeless in Delhi for 3
full days before he was ‘allowed’ to be cremated. Don’t let this happen to
you. It is really an inconvenience also to those who are left with the
burden of having to deal with it when you could have organized it all now
while you are still able to do it yourself.
*All of the above can also be done here once you come to Vrindavan, but it
requires a lot of time. Once your body has expired there is too little
time to get started on all of this. You need at least 3 weeks to see all
legalities peacefully to completion. Best is to do it all before you come.


***If you are planning to leave your body here at PRABHUPADA VANI ASRAM
you must inform us at least 3 weeks in advance of your coming, otherwise
we  may not be able to accommodate you.

Our Ashram caters only to devotees in good standing in ISKCON and a good
service record.
We will not accept outsiders our family members.
We are primarily concerned with devotees who have served ISKCON faithfully
and heve come to the end of their lives.
Therfore you must have your local authority and your spiritual master
contact us
and verify that you have been a regular contributer to the ISKCON society
and a devotee of goodstanding, otherwise we may not agree to accommodate
 you.

***You must come equipped to pay ALL expenses from the time of arrival to
the time of cremation. Roughly $ 100 a month.
***Cremation fees cost aproximately 1500.00rupees as of this writing.
We are not able to pay for these expenses.
So the money situation has to be clear.
Also:
Every yatra must send one accompanying person, best a person who is known to
the dying person.

your servant
Prithu das  Adhikary
(Text SOCHI:15138) -----------------------------------------