Sri Sri Radha-Damodara Lila
BY: HASYAGRAMI DASA
Mar 11, USA (SUN) — On Srimati Radharani's Appearance Day.
In 1974, I was at the Gita Nagari farm in Pennsylvania, a member of the R.D.T.S.P. bus carrying Sri Sri Radha-Damodara, Visnujana Swami and Tamala Krsna Maharaja.
How many of you believe in miracles? They happen frequently in Krsna's service all over Srila Prabhupada's movement and I have heard many stories of how this one said that that one said that someone saw, etc. Personally I believe them all, because the concept of the miraculous is absolutely necessary to following the path of Bhakti.
The layers of the material energy are so complete that no application of man's solutions can free the conditioned soul. Yet the Vaisnava devotee, acting on Krsna's behalf, can remove karmic bondage and elevate the living entity to the spiritual world, violating all sorts of so-called "physical laws".
Oh, THAT kind of miracle, you say, well we all know that SOMETHING extraordinary must be going on because bhakta Fred was absolutely hopeless and now he's up for Sannyasa, but I thought we were about to hear of levitating devotees or maybe the deities leap off the altar and join the kirtan…you know: something from nothing. Well, I will not cheat you, my humble offering today is just that kind of story and you will hear it as it happened in '74, right in my hands.
Vipra dasa and myself were at that time charged with driving and maintaining Radha and Damodara's personal conveyance, which was also home to the 10 or so bus devotees who were cooks, pujaris, festival crew and assistants to V.J.S and T.K.G. A lot was riding on
those six wheels and the "fix-and-repair sankirtan" never ended.
Now, as it happened, this particular GM bus was special, one of about 40 built as custom jobs for Adirondack Trailways for the mountains. It had four times the suspension, twice as many gears, 2-speed differential and as a consequence many parts were not common to the standard GM line.
This became a serious problem when the oil pump began to fail. An idiot light on the dashboard would flash in the driver's face when the oil pressure dropped to danger levels. It said in the manual "do not operate engine when light indicates low pressure. Replace pump". Unfortunately, that was a big bright lamp, and Tamal saw it one day.
"What's that mean?"
"Oil pressure's off, Maharaja"
"Well fix it!"
Seems obvious, right? At that time of no Internet and no cell phones, getting the pump meant finding a pay phone and feeding it quarters for hours. In our case those were futile hours. GM had about six parts distribution centers for trucks and buses, and, you guessed it, that pump was made only for Adirondack Trailways, and was discontinued a few years ago. Any N.Y. mechanic who had one was saving it for the fleet. There were also a half dozen bus graveyards and our hopes would be dashed time and again when someone on the phone would respond "Oh yeah, I seen one of those, lemme think, about a year back, yup, I sold it a year ago." You are getting the picture?
Meanwhile, Tamal never forgets anything and at least once a week:
"When are you gonna fix the pump?"
"Uhh, we can't find it anywhere… so uhh I was thinking.."
"Don't think! This is your responsibility! Just get it done!"
So cut to Radhastami, we are close to Harrisburg, Pa., so Visnujana directs us to Gita-Nagari. All the traveling parties love Gita-Nagari, the devotees are so friendly and all those milk sweets! We will bring in our Deities to the big altar and this makes a wonderful sight and V.J. will lead ecstatic kirtans and in the evening there will be hours of bhajans and maybe I'll get to play esraja too. This is the bliss!
Now a distinct advantage of bus life in those days was access to Maha Prasad. Even when Radha and Damodara were on another temple altar, often the Mangala and 7 am offerings were prepared in our own little kitchen, easy to use the Lord's personal paraphernalia and not mix up with a large temple's pots and pans, etc. Of course, this meant after the offerings all the goodies came down the narrow bus aisle and a competent Maha vulture (such as myself) could manage to be in the right place, at the right time with my empty paper plate and coerce a friendly pujari for a "donation". On appearance days, when the cooks went all out, I usually got a large amount of everything, and stowed it in the driver's locker. This was a compartment in the dash and we'd put the maps, a book or two, your bead bag, and of course the plate I'd just secured, with carefully inverted top
in place to prevent spillage and dirt.
Ah, Radhastami! No irritating fasting ‘till whenever, 12 noon it's a feast! Well, for some of us, anyway. The temple is packed for the noon arotik, and I can hear the kirtan clear across the yard, but Vipra and I will spend the day on Vehicle Maintenance Sankirtan, so after 7 am I've changed into my coveralls, we've got to deal with the power steering today. At 11:55 I am comfortably parked in the driver's seat, feet up, chanting the last 5 min down, then I'll attack those sweets.
The moment arrives, I pop open the compartment door and there's my plate…but…it's sagging under the weight of a grapefruit-sized cloth bag. (You're way ahead of me, right?) There follows that weird interval when you KNOW you're a part of something special that has no logical explanation. I pick up the bag, I am well aware of how GM
packages their parts like this, and I read the little tag: 4104 pump, oil.
"Jeez," I think to myself, "Vipra found a pump!" I run to the temple with my Holy Grail in hand, Vipra is shuffling at the back of the kirtan like he does, and I wave him over.
"Look what I found," I say, waiting for a story about the phone call to some junk yard that finally paid off, but he's as shocked as I was.
Then a smile: "You dog! Where did you get that?"
"It was on my Maha plate."
"It was on the Maha plate?!"
"No, no not the deities plate, I had a plate of morning sweets stashed in the glove compartment."
"Wow!" he says, "We gotta show Tamal."
So we run inside and someone says he's in the guest room, probably on the phone. We barge right in and sure enough he's on the phone, giving us an annoyed look. At least he doesn't say, "Gosh, I'm sorry Srila Prabhupada, a couple of my idiot brahmacaris have something to add." Anyway he hangs up shortly and he can see by our faces it's not bad news.
"Look," I say "It's the oil pump, we found the oil pump."
Tamal raises his eyebrows inquiringly at Vipra.
"Yep," he says "That's the right one"
"O.k. You finally found one", Tamal says.
He's a senior who's spent months with Srila Prabhupada… those guys aren't impressed with much, so I blurt: "Sitting on my Maha plate."
"What? It was on the Maha plate?!"
"No, no not the Deities plate," and I repeat the great discovery story.
T.K listens, but with a grave attitude that is puzzling, then there's a few beats of silence while he puts it together.
"Oh, this is not good." Huh? Not good? This is a miracle, is what it is, how could….
"You two are entrusted by Prabhupada to keep Radha and Damodara's bus in first-class condition, and due to your incompetence, you have allowed this Vaisnava aparadha."
Wow, talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, I am sinking back to my usual position at the collar end of a leash when I see that Maharaja is having trouble concealing a slowly spreading grin. He gives us a brief narration of how Rupa Goswami was having trouble scraping together any kind of offering at all for his Deity, when a "village girl" happens by with a big plate of expertly prepared foodstuffs and he is able to satisfy his Lord. Sanatana, when he heard of this was horrified (apparently) and chastised his brother for accepting service directly from Srimati Radharani herself! My head is buzzing with mixed up mental speculation when Tamal brings me back to earth.
"You are fortunate that Radharani has allowed you to continue your duties to Her beloved devotee Visnujana. She has intervened due to the purity of HIS devotional service." He wags his finger at me and Vipra, "Not yours."
I can't remember anything else about that plate of sweets, but I do know Vipra and I scooted out of Maharaja's room and spent the next two hours installing the mystic pump, which worked perfectly.
Visnujana, when told of this later gave a big chuckle and said: "Radha and Damodara can do ANYTHING. They can even take you back to Godhead." That was our mood then, when everything was possible.
So, as a postscript, do you think that anyone, anywhere, anytime could ever tell me that my amazing Sri Sri Radha and Damodara are not "real"? Or that the omniscient Personality of Godhead does not directly involve Himself in the lives of even His most undeserving devotees?
Hasyagrami dasa
Composed 2/2009
P.S. for photo i.d. offering: there are three B/W photos from the SF Examiner taken at the '74 Rathayatra. Two show Visnujana Swami in a circle of devotees chanting with his harmonium. I am the person sawing on the esraja.
