RAMBHORU - Страница 1

Niranjana Swami, A Very Considerate Person

By Rambhoru dasi

The first time I met Niranjana Swami was at our grand deity

installation in Ireland. He was sitting informally amongst all of us

and I was surprised that he was a sannyasi. He appeared then to be

just another young boy like the other bramacaries; very friendly and

bright. I remember he would often laugh as he was talking and he had

a great sense of humor. We were all sitting around having kirtan and

watching a video and he just fit in. He seemed to feel quite at home

in the association of devotees although none of the devotees had met

him before.

After this I did not see him for about 7 years and by then we had

moved to Vrindavan. When my youngest son went to Gurukula, I went on

traveling sankirtan in India with some of my husband`s disciples. In

India especially, I knew it did not look well for a mataji to be

traveling with a group of single men, but I was determined to preach

and I could see no other way. Still, I kept thinking, somehow I

should preach with ladies, but in India women are not organized so

much in an asram, so the only opportuniy was to meet women at the

Mayapur festival. I had taken on the responsibility of organizing the

women`s kirtan at the Gaur Mandala Parikrama. I led a lot of kirtans

for the ladies and did some managing.

For the past year I had been praying to Gaur Nitai to somehow find a

use for me. Generally, when a woman is no longer needed by her

family, it is a little frightening, because that has been her main

service for so many years. Especially in Vrindavan, there isn`t a lot

of strong preaching going on, so I was having a bit of a shaky time

finding out what Krsna really wanted me to do. Anyway, daily I would

present my petition before their Lordships, aware that I don`t have

an awful lot to offer the Hare Krsna movement, after all, the whole

basis of my realization of Krsna consciousness was through assisting

my husband and nurturing my children. What could I offer Lord

Caitanya`s mission?

Meanwhile, Lila Smarana, the senior mataji from Odessa approached me

at the Mayapur festival during the parikrama and asked me if I could

come to the Ukraine and help with the ladies there. I didn`t take it

very seriously as the previous year another woman had invited me to

CIS and nothing ever came of it. So I said, "Sure, I can come, but

you have to ask your GBC first and you will have to buy me a ticket."

I figured that would sufficiently discourage them if it wasn`t

Krsna`s desire. I thought nothing more about it.

When we returned from the parikrama, I was called to meet with

Niranjana Swami in the Lotus Building. I was really surprised that he

was enthusiastic for me to go to the Ukraine. Often when the women

nag in our movement, the leaders comply just to create peace, but he

was actually expressing gratitude that I should come and help the

devotees. At that time he revealed that he had been praying for an

older mataji to come and he had even made several attempts for wives

of his god-brothers to come, but so far nothing had worked out. By

this time I had the sneaking suspicion that this was the personal

arrangement of Their Lordships Sri Sri Gaur Nitai. Everyone knows,

if you have any desires in Vrindavan, Krsna personally arranges to

fulfill them.

When I finally went to the Ukraine, I was overwhelmed with how much

special consideration Niranjana Swami had given to my coming so I

would not be inconvenienced in any way. The devotees said that he had

personally called them and instructed them that I should not have to

pay for any personal expenses and that they should take care of me

nicely. After 23 years of being married in ISKCON I had already

grown quite comfortable being the shadow of my husband and playing

the role of the Muci Mother that I am. So, I was very surprised to be

treated with so much respect as an old lady. I could only understand

that Niranjana Swami had given the devotees personal guidance and

training how to treat the guest as `God`. This was all to his credit,

as the disciples are simply a reflection of the mood of their

spiritual master.

As I got to know Lila Smarana, she revealed to me that she had also

been praying to Krsna the previous year, how she was going to

convince me to come to the Ukraine. When she said this to me I could

understand that Krsna had organized a situation for the satisfaction

of all three of our desires; Niranjana Swami`s, Lila Smarana`s and

mine. It was no accident. I realized that Niranjana Swami must be a

very confidential servant of Krsna,