NIMAI NITAI DASA- HEAD PUJARI CHENNAI ISKCON RADHA KRISHNA TEMPLE
This after noon ( 16th May 2016 ) I received a phone call from Chennai Iskcon. Since the caller has used the cell of Nimai Nitai Prabhu, Head Pujaari, Chennai Iskcon Temple, with whom I had the good fortune of associating for thirty years, I spoke immediately. " Hare Krishna Nimai Prabhu how are you" I said. From the other end came the voice of bhaktha Kumaar, Nimai's assistant. " I am sorry Prabhu this is not Nimai . This is Kumar. Nimai Prabhu attained the lotus feet of Lord Krishna this morning " .
I was shocked and my voice choked. “What happened ? Why you have not informed in the morning itself ?” I demanded. But people always have some excuses in such situations. Bhaktha Kumar said he could not locate my cell number. It hurt me so much that I could not even attend Nimai’s funeral and last rites. I became inconsolable. Nimai Nitai was a great Vaishnava. His knowledge of Goudiya Vaishnavism and Srila Bakthivedanta Swami 's works on Bhagavat Gita Srimad Bagavatham and Chaitanya Charitamrutham was very vast. He joined Iskcon in London in seventy nine. A French by birth he took to Krishna Consciousness like a duckling to water. When he first stepped into London Iskcon temple "out of curiosity" to find out what was going on inside, the alluring deities of Radha and Krishna, vibrant maha mantra kirtan and jumping and dancing devotees won his heart immediately. He just joined the movement of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu then there. The next morning he shaved . Wearing tilak he entered kitchen to cook for Radha and Krishna. When he told me this I felt like touching his feet. For two years he stayed in London temple undergoing austerities and performing saadhana. He took initiation from one of Srila Prabhupaadaa's senior disciples. In 1983 he came to India to take part in the padayatra with a river of devotees from Gujarat's Surat to Mayapur in West Bengal covering states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa .
He walked for five thousand kilometers behind the chariot that carried life size deities of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu and Prabhupaadaa's murthy. When the padayatra was completed he came down to Chennai Iskcon Centre located then on Kilpauk Garden Road. I met him first in May 1986. The way he looked after Krishna Rukmani Satyabhamam and Jagannath Baldev Subhadra deities touched my heart. Somehow he too took a liking for me. I was just introduced to Krishna Consciousness and Srila Prabhupaada's books. A fledgling I was. But Nimai Nitai started treating me magnanimously. He used to offer to Krishna what I brought to temple . They were mostly fruits and provisions for deity kitchen. He always gave me lots of maha prasadam . Due to his merciful association I progressed. I liked being with him and assisting him in his duties as pujari. Each and every day he used to get up at 3 in the morning for preparing for managala aarati . After taking cold shower he woke up deities, offer them sweets, and made wicks for ghee lamp. Following mangala arati he bathed deities and dressed them. At noon Rajbhoga offering and arati. After noon again dhoop arati. Then came sandhya arati . When the curtain drew he will be inside dressing the deities for the night. By the time he came out taking leave from deities it would be 10. He hardly slept four hours a day. This he did for thirty years. He was not paid . He lived in temple and ate Krishna prasadam. I was more into gazing at his lustrous face with thilak than into looking at Krishna Rukmani Satya bhama. When he spoke of Krishna he spoke with such devotion and surrender. He was practical. He was not sentimental. For him Krishna consciousness was the only tangible thing. He never sat on Vyaasaasan but did his own preaching speaking to individual visitors . Once a visitor heard him, he started coming to temple again and again and search for him. Every time I talked to Nimai I felt like having advanced an inch towards Krishna. The bhakthi he had for Krishna stemmed from the knowledge he drew from reading Prabhupada's books. While all other western devotees came and went Nimai stayed put in Chennai. He was one of my siksha Gurus. Whenever my Gurumaharaj Jayapataka Swami visited Chennai Iskcon every one in the temple would go , have darshan and pay obeisances to Him but Jayapataka Swami Maharaj himself used to go straight to Pujari room and hug Nimai. Jayapataka Maharaj had so much affection for Nimai. Nimai came to Iskcon not for being taken care of by Krishna he came to Iskcon to take care of Krishna. Said Gurumaharaj once.
Those days I used to take him in my bike for purchasing things for Krishna. I can never forget the weekly trips we used to make to the fruit market in flower bazaar at George Town every Saturday. He would not only bargain hard but also was very careful in selecting best items of fruit from baskets. His knowledge of fruits and vegetables was extensive. On Sundays we travelled on my bike to temples dedicated to Vishnu in around Chennai and neighboring districts on one such trip I took him to Sri Ranganaath temple situated on top of a hill beyond Chennai Airport. When we reached the summit and entered the temple precincts offering was going on. After ten fifteen minutes the pujari , a Sri Vaishnava Brahmin came out of the sanctum sanctorum carrying a vessel filled with only rice. When he saw the offering consisting of only rice Nimai was upset. He stopped the Brahmin and asked him “ You are offering to Lord only rice?”
The Brahmin was visibly irked. “ Yes we offer what we can.” He replied. Nimai did not accept the haughty reply from the poojari Brahmin. “ What you are taking in your home? Only plain rice? Are you not taking dhal subji sambar etc? What stopped you from offering at least a subji or a cup of dhal along with rice ? Don’t you realize Lord is more than King of Kings”.The poojari, though angry could not give any reply. He turned to me and said in Tamil “ Why you are bringing these people here?”
He had not much attraction to Sri Vaishnavism and Brahmins . He was so loyal and faithful to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's movement and Gaudiya Vaishnavism which upholds worship of Radha Krishna as top most spiritual activity. Whenever his fellow devotees try to mix Gaudaya Vaishnavism with Sri Vaishnavism he would get wild. " Do not dilute Srila Prabhupada's teachings with Sri Vaishnavism of South India" he would shout. It really disturbed him when a certain devotee started injecting Sri Vaishnava practices and rituals into the activities of Chennai Iskcon. "The very first verse of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Sikshaashtakam reveals the wide distinction between Gaudaya philosophy and Sri Vaishnava philosophy. Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's movement is "Sarvaatma snaapanam". No other movement can claim to be so not only on earth but also in three worlds". He observed during one of the conversations I had with him.
I have seen him bringing around even people of other faiths to appreciate the sublime teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the sweetness of Hare Krishna Mahamantra.
I have to also mention about how once Nimai fractured his ankle one Saturday after noon when we met with an accident while returning from fruit market. That time Iskcon was housed in a small place on Burkit Road T.Nagar. His right leg was covered with plaster up to knee. It was impossible for him to stay in the temple in that condition. I told him to move to my flat . My parents were away in Allahabad with my brother and I was alone. His one and a half month stay gave me an opportunity which, only one in thousand million would get, to serve a devotee of Krishna personally. How many birth's karmic reactions I got rid of by serving Nimai then, Krishna alone knows.
I too got old and retired from service. I bought a small flat in Vrindavan and went to settle down there under Krishna Balaram’s shadow. The one and only thing I missed by leaving Chennai was my trips to Chennai Iskcon temple to see Nimai. His health condition always disturbed me. I was actually planning to take him to Vrindavan . When I met him at Jagannath Rathyatra in January he looked very pale. When I suggested that he should take treatment in some big hospitals like Apollo or Miot . "No". Government Hospital at Royapettah is good and enough. Why to waste temple money?" was his answer.
Even as I was looking forward to seeing him on Narsinga Jayanthi the shocking news of his passing reached me. No one in the Chennai iskcon cared to inform me about his health which deteriorated during the last few days and his passing away this morning. Bhaktha Kumar informed me after the cremation was over. I don't think I could ever live down my inability to be with him when he breathed his last and to be present at his last rites. How much I long now to touch his lotus feet. He remained a humble devotee, a kind of Cinderella, of Iskcon Chennai for thirty years without craving for reward and leadership. I miss Nimai and cry for him eventhough I am sure that he went Home back to Godhead, Krishnaa's abode Goloka Vrindavanam. Even if he remembers me once from There I will be delivered. Hare Krishna
anandgopaldas
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