Kurma Rupa dasa Brahmachari

BY: ROCANA DASA

Jun 29, 2015 — CANADA (SUN) — I would like to offer this brief memorial to Kurma Rupa dasa Brahmachari. As one of his many close friends, it came as a great shock when I heard that he had passed out of his body so unexpectedly. At the same time, of course, his departure was most auspicious.

I have been reading some of the eulogies and glorifications of Kurma Rupa prabhu appearing on the devotee news sites, and I felt compelled to share something about his early days -- when Kurma Rupa came to join Srila Prabhupada's movement, and the circumstances surrounding that. This story reflects upon what his future service to Srila Prabhupada would be, and I hope it illustrates the fact that he is by far an exceptional disciple and servant of Srila Prabhupada and the Sankirtan movement.

I can say without reservation that of all the persons I've helped introduce to Krsna Consciousness, he is by far the greatest, and the most shining example of the potency of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's Sankirtan movement. All the exceptional qualities that he exhibited throughout his life were present right from the very beginning.

In the mid-1970's, I was given the responsibility to try and save a rural project that had been ill-conceived by both the GBC and the local authorities. The Bridesville property they had purchased was situated on a mountain top in the interior of British Columbia, right on the American/Canadian border. While serving in that capacity, the GBC representative, Jayatirtha das, came for a visit. After his visit wound up we had to take him to the Spokane, Washington airport, which was closest to the farm. Around that time someone from Seattle informed us that there was a person who had showed some interest via mail, and they lived just across the border, in Washington. If it was convenient, we could stop by and even spend the night at his place, then go on to the airport. So that's what we did. We contacted Kurma Rupa, and myself, Jayatirtha and a few other devotees showed up at the rural abode where he was living with his wife. We had a wonderful time there, chanting, cooking, taking prasada, and so on.

Shortly after that visit Kurma Rupa decided that he was going to join, and he showed up with his wife at the Bridesville farm. Right away, both at the first meeting at his place and upon his arrival at the farm, I could see that he was an amazing personality. At that point in time I was having to deal with the reality of having all these cows at the farm. These beautiful, large Brown Swiss cows had been introduced into the project prior to my arrival. We did have a barn for them, but it was inadequate. When Kurma Rupa prabhu arrived he just jumped right in, and immediately took charge of the cows. He helped to reconstruct the barn, and just worked tirelessly to accommodate these servants of Krsna. Of course, as we see now in hindsight after all these years, this experience was just a prelude -- an early indication of his attachment to cows, which didn't manifest again until sometime later, in Vrindavan.

After personally talking to Srila Prabhupada about Bridesville, the conclusion was that we were going to fold up that project. The Deities, Sri Sri Radha-Madana Mohana, Who had come from the Vancouver temple, would be returned. Many of the devotees from the farm were transferred to Seattle. Most of the Sankirtan party that had been supporting the farm was women. We all went down to Seattle. Kurma Rupa dasa and I, and a few teachers who were at the farm, began a gurukula in Seattle.

Without getting into too much detail, we had a problem when we arrived -- there was an over-representation of women. Ironically, both our wives left us, within a few months of one another in Seattle. He was not in the least disturbed by it.

Of course, there was another problem going on throughout the movement at the time -- the Women's Parties were being proliferated and promoted by the GBC. At Seattle, we resisted the pressure put on us to make our temple into a women's sankirtan temple, and the only way we could tip the balance was to put emphasis on recruiting and training men. Kurma Rupa dasa was by far the most ideal bhakta/sankirtan leader for the men that I could ever have wished for. Within a year we had a really vibrant brahmachari program. He would take the brahmacaries out on traveling sankirtan. They all loved him. It was very inspiring and positive. The temple itself became known as a temple of book distributors, and for the size of our temple, we were #1 in book scores.

Then Srila Prabhupada departed, and we were cursed with the Zonal Acarya System. I won't go into detail on that either, as many articles have already been written describing that circumstance. But in the end, the Seattle school was forced to move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Myself and Kurma Rupa prabhu were ordered, and forced to get in a car in the middle of winter, and we drove together across the country, first to Philadelphia, and then to New York City. The Zonal Acaryas were very nervous about us broadcasting the actual circumstances surrounding their decision to leave the temple to their mad representative, Hansadutta, so they came up with a plan where I was forced to go to England, and Kurma Rupa dasa stayed in New York.

I visited Kurma Rupa prabhu a number of times in New York and it was a very pleasing experience. He had gone from one extreme to the other. Because of his desire to live a peaceful life, he went from living in a rural situation when he first joined, to ending up in the middle of New York City, and staying there for years. Of course, he embraced that service. But the person who recently mentioned that he joined in Manhattan doesn't have his facts straight. Before New York, Kurma Rupa had embraced that same service in Seattle, taking charge of the Bhakta Program then after some time taking on other service.

After some time, when he and a number of other disillusioned devotees could no longer tolerate the influence of the Zonal Acaryas, Kurma Rupa went to Vrindavan and served there. I believe he was involved with the gurukula for some time, and was also disappointed there. As he described it to me, he was unceremoniously thrown into the streets because of his disagreement with the management. He was wondering what he was going to do, when he saw all these cows wandering around… he got a message from Supersoul and Srila Prabhupada, and began the seva that he has now become famous for.

I personally never lived in India for any length of time, but I was visiting there quite often, and I saw Kurma Rupa on many occasions. I was happy to see how he embraced his service with the cows, once again. Through his spiritual potency, dedication and hard work that service developed into what it is today -- Care For Cows.



Here is a picture of myself that Kurma Rupa prabhu took. I was sitting in front of a little hut beside the goshala that he had just constructed for himself. I'm not entirely sure when this was… late 1980's I think. He was always encouraging me to join him full-time in Vrindavan, but due to my contamination, I never did. Despite the physical distance between us, I feel very fortunate to have had a very long conversation with him just a few months back, on Skype. Even then, he talked about wanting to make arrangements for us to come live permanently in Vrindavan.

Over time, I came to realize how close Kurma Rupa dasa and I were in terms of our views on so many of the subjects we address here in the Sampradaya Sun. To my knowledge, he and I had absolutely no disagreement whatsoever on any issues. We both had developed our service -- mine with the Sun, and him with Care For Cows, neither of which is under the GBC/ISKCON umbrella. We supported one another's programs over the years. Kurma Rupa prabhu was a member of the Constitution Workgroup, from 2013. We were both focused on ISKCON As It Is, and what Srila Prabhupada desired.

And as far as what Srila Prabhupada desired, I feel that Kurma Rupa dasa Brahmachari personifies what he really wanted his disciples to be like. Kurma Rupa prabhu is obviously so humble and so spiritually qualified, but he never aspired to take sannyasa back when no one would have objected whatsoever. In fact, he was far more qualified to take sannyasa than most of the sannyasis who did. There was some encouragement by the Spanish devotees, because he was perfectly bilingual in Spanish/English, and they were encouraging him to come help down in South or Central America. Of course, he would have made a wonderful renunciate leader/sannyasi, but Krsna had different plans for him.

It is a shame, in a sense, that he had to leave his body at this particular time, but such is the will of the Lord. It is a great benediction that he departed in the Holy dham, without having to suffer extended pain and anxiety, and at a relatively young age. But of course, this surprised everyone, because he always appeared to be so austere and the picture of good health.

My hope is that this article will help the devotees to realize that the qualities Kurma Rupa dasa exhibited, which are so rare -- the humility and tolerance and compassion -- he exhibited these qualities from the very beginning. It wasn't like he just developed them over many years. I've never seen him angry, I've never seen him frustrated. He helped me greatly throughout my sojourn, and I have to give him great thanks. In fact, I have a great deal of debt to pay to him, just for my own personal spiritual well being, even though I didn't get to associate closely with him during the latter part of his life.

In the picture below, taken in the late 1990's, I was showing friends and reminding Kurma Rupa of the very beautiful japa beads he had given me years before. Made from Vrindavan Tulsi, all perfectly sized, he had put a lot of time and devotion into carving, sizing, stringing, soaking, and finishing them for me.

I am hoping that all the readers can gain some understanding of who this rare soul is. Even though I doubt if anyone's going to build a big samadhi for him (not that he would want it), or what kind of eulogy is going to follow him, I think if anyone deserves it, it's him.



Homepage


| The Sun | News | Editorials | Features | Sun Blogs | Classifieds | Events | Recipes | PodCasts |

| About | Submit an Article | Contact Us | Advertise | HareKrsna.com |

Copyright 2005, 2015, HareKrsna.com. All rights reserved.