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EDITORIALNovember 8, 2001
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Tribute To
Tribhuvanatha Prabhu
BY SANJAY
EDITORIAL, Nov 8 (VNN) —
'duhkha-madhye kona duhkha haya gurutara?'
'krsna-bhakta-viraha
vina duhkha nahi dekhi para.'
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asked,
"Of all kinds of distress, what is the most painful?" Sri Ramananda
Raya replied, "Apart from separation from the devotee of Krishna, I
know of no unbearable unhappiness." - Sri Caitanya Caritamrta,
Madhya 8.248
"When Lord Chaitanya asked Ramananda Raya what
is considered to be the most painful existence, Ramananda Raya
replied that separation from a pure devotee constitutes the most
painful existence. In other words, when there is no devotee of the
Lord present, there is great suffering in society, and association
with other people becomes painful. In Srimad Bhagavatam (3.30.7) it
is stated that if one who is bereft of the association of a pure
devotee tries to become happy through society, friendship and love
devoid of Krishna Consciousness, he is to be considered in the most
distressed condition. In the Fifth Canto of Brhad-Bhagavatamrta
(5.44) it is stated that the association of a pure devotee is more
desirable than life itself and that in separation from him one
cannot even pass a second happily." - Teachings of Lord Chaitanya,
Conclusion, p341)
The news that Tribhuvanatha Prabhu, a
stalwart disciple of Srila Prabhupada for over 30 years, has
departed from this world is indeed a shock to the Vaishnava world
and also to those who were blessed to have close association with
him. I personally do not have any qualification to glorify him as I
hardly knew him intimately on the material plane, but I always used
to admire him greatly from afar and so I hope that my small offering
can be placed in his tribute.
I first heard of the "great
Tribhuvanatha Prabhu" through a Janmashtami souvenir book in which a
short article was written about how Tribhuvanatha Prabhu had been
organising Hare Krishna Festivals for the last 30 years on Srila
Prabhupada's order. What is most astounding about this is that he
was always very successful in his organisation of such festivals and
that a great number of people all over the world knew and loved him.
He touched many thousands, and possibly millions, of people through
his service to Srila Prabhupada. One of his many qualities that
never failed to impress me was his utter humility. I truly admired
him just for that, and I have been very enriched by reading the
other articles on CHAKRA by fellow devotees that outlined just some
of his many achievements. It is plain obvious that such a soul as
Tribhuvanatha Prabhu was a very great pioneer in Krishna
Consciousness. His achievements in preaching and fulfilling the
mission of Srila Prabhupada surely require that his name goes down
in the history of ISKCON. Just as Sriman Jayananda Prabhu is revered
for pioneering the Ratha-Yatra festivals, so Tribhuvanatha Prabhu
deserves to be remembered for pioneering the famous "Hare Krishna
Festivals" that brought the holy name and prasadam to millions of
hungry mouths. And after all this, he was just so HUMBLE. Just by
seeing him, you would have wanted to embrace him tightly. Just by
seeing him, you would have wanted to offer your obeisances and touch
his feet. Just by seeing him, you would have wanted to hear some
Krishna-katha from him.
Also, one of the greatest things that
I liked about Tribhuvanatha Prabhu was his wild kirtans and I fully
enjoyed singing wildly with him. He sometimes seemed to sing in a
trance-like state and I am sure that he could see his Guru Maharaja
with spiritual vision. I will ALWAYS remember Gaura Purnima 2000
because that was the first time that I heard him sing the Guru-Puja
to Srila Prabhupada and ever since then the memory of that kirtan
has stayed with me. Any devotee who has witnessed a Gaura Purnima
celebration is well aware of the extra amounts of kirtan and
celebration that take place and that much singing and dancing is
participated in. So also, whenever Tribhuvanatha Prabhu lead the
kirtan the whole temple room would join him in singing and dancing
loudly. One little anecdote I would like to tell you about the Gaura
Purnima 2000 celebration is that after about an hour of non-stop
singing and dancing, the devotees were obviously quite tired,
singing a little quieter than before and dancing more slower, even
moving away in an attempt to sit down somewhere to take a break. And
yet Tribhuvanatha Prabhu, there he was, singing and dancing and
leading the kirtan like there was no tomorrow. Considering the fact
that we were fairly young as compared to Tribhuvanatha Prabhu and we
were dancing tiredly, it is amazing how he could keep going without
stopping. It was so joyful to see.
One other anecdote about
his humility: This happened during the Gaura Purnima 2001 Street
Harinam. We were halfway through and I think that Tribhuvanatha
Prabhu joined us late. It was much too loud to speak to him and so I
conveyed to him by means of hand gestures that he should go forward
and lead the kirtan. He looked at me and grinned one of his huge
grins and attempted to move forward. It is absolutely impossible to
describe the look that was in his eyes at that very moment. It was
softness, childlike innocence, humility and spontaneousness all
rolled into one. Coupled with his huge grin to me it endeared him
very warmly to me and I took that memory of him and place it
eternally in my heart. It is impossible to describe the sheer
HUMILITY that he displayed on being asked to deliver the kirtan. He
honestly acted as if I was doing him some sort of favour and that he
did not "deserve" to lead the kirtan, even though he is famous for
his singing.
With external eyes, I could see that he was very
devoted to Srila Prabhupada. The last time I saw him was on Srila
Prabhupada's Vyasa-Puja of this year. As modern technology sometimes
turns unreliable, we were having microphone problems. It was a
hugely irritating situation to experience as the equipment kept
shutting down in mid-offerings. I was silently infuriated at how
such things can happen on such a momentous occasion. And yet when it
was Tribhuvanatha Prabhu's turn to speak, he made us all smile with
his very first sentence which was something to the effect of: "I do
not need the equipment to speak because I speak from the heart." I
laughed inside at his capacity to remain jolly even in an obtuse
situation.
Ultimately, he was a great preacher of Krishna
Consciousness. A friend recently passed on one of his instructions:
"Chanting is your umbilical cord to Krishna." We have it on the word
of one of Tribhuvanatha Prabhu's associates that he passed on with
the sacred name of Krishna adorning his lips, and therefore we can
sincerely affirm that he has gone back home to Goloka Vrindavan and
is probably driving the residents of the spiritual sky wild with his
ecstatic kirtans just as he did with us.
Just as with a
sunset when the sun disappears out of our sight behind some clouds,
it leaves behind its rays to illuminate the world for a little
longer. So also, the sun-like Srila Prabhupada who is now out of our
sight was merciful enough to leave some his ray-like devotees behind
to illuminate the community of devotees for a little longer.
Therefore I bow down and pay repeated obeisances to Srila Prabhupada
for being so merciful enough to allow us little rascals to have the
association of such a wonderful devotee like Tribhuvanatha Prabhu.
We hope that one day we may join him in his eternal service
to Srila Prabhupada and Sri Sri Radha-Krishna in Goloka
Vrindavan.
TRIBHUVANATHA PRABHU KI JAI !!!
"O son of
Kunti, declare it boldly that My devotee never perishes." BG
9.31
- Bhakta Sanjay Dadlani, London UK
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