"Oh, a very good person"
BY: BHAKTA HARRY
Aug 19, 2010 — UK (SUN) —
I read Hrdaya Caitanya Prabhu's report, "Letter of Condolence at the Death of and Appreciation for Citra dd" with interest. I had a similar understanding to his, until I discovered the following from an unpublished Morning Walk Conversation, September 19, 1972, Los Angeles (720919MW_LA_C036). It should be available in a future edition of the Vedabase.
Svarupa Damodara: "Srila Prabhupada those people who are committing suicide
Srila Prabhupada: Yes.
Svarupa Damodara: If they sometimes? The people say that, "well I chant Hare Krsna." Or we have God conscious and then take some poison and die immediately. What happens to their life?
Srila Prabhupada: They get again body. Or maybe they maybe liberated. Chanting Hare Krsna and committing suicide, can be allowed, can be allowed.
Karandhara: It can be allowed?
Srila Prabhupada: Yes
Karandhara: Just like, eh......
Srila Prabhupada: Because Hare Krsna means counter acting your sins. Even though you have committed sin, it is counter acting. There is no sin.
Svarupa Damodara: There is no sin?
Srila Prabhupada: [aside] Be careful. That you have chanted Hare Krsna mantra at the time of death, that will be taken seriously.
Svarupa Damodara: No.
Karandhara: Isn't that one of the offenses though?
Srila Prabhupada: Eh?
Karandhara: Isn't that one of the offenses? Committing sinful activities on the strength of chanting.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes it is. It may be offensive but still.
Karandhara: But it is so.........
Svarupa Damodara: Well sometimes one is so frustrated with the material body that he........
Srila Prabhupada: Offensive means, if it is taken as offensive. He is getting a human body. Not a ghostly body.
Karandhara: Just like our devotee in Calcutta who committed suicide.
Devotee: He was called....
Karandhara: That tallboy, Indian boy.
Srila Prabhupada: Eh?
Karandhara: That tallboy, Indian boy, he committed suicide. He was chanting and had a picture of Krsna before death.
Srila Prabhupada: Oh, he did like that?
Karandhara: Yeah,
Svarupa Damodara: What did he do?
Karandhara: He had a picture of you and a picture of Krsna and Radharani when he killed himself.
Srila Prabhupada: Why is it he committed suicide? What happened?
Karandhara: Well I don't know the full story but Bhavananda said that he was implicated with some girl...
Srila Prabhupada: Ah.
Karandhara: And he became addicted to drugs...
Srila Prabhupada: Oh.
Karandhara: And he kept coming to the temple and he realised that his life. He could not change his material life. He wanted to get out of it so he killed himself.
Srila Prabhupada: He was living nicely in the temple. His parents took him, eh?
Karandhara: No, I don't know why he he left the temple. He, just the day before he suicide. Bhavananda brought him to the temple....
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, he came to me.
Karandhara: Then he made him sit down and chant. He chanted in front of the deities all day...
Srila Prabhupada: Ah.
Karandhara: Then he went home that night and killed himself. He left some message, note behind.
Srila Prabhupada: Ah.
Karandhara: That how he just wanted to end his life. He hoped that he would get a better body next time, for becoming a devotee.
Srila Prabhupada: Oh, a very good person."
Hope this helps us understand Citra mataji a bit better.
best wishes,
Bhakta Harry
