I first met Gopiparanadhana Prabhu in 1979 in LA. We spent time together here in Bangalore from 1981-83 while he was working on the translation of the rest of the Bhagavatam. Over the years we had a nice friendship. He didn’t have a mean bone in his whole body and was incapable of offending any one; he had such humility and kindness in him.
Ironically today my wife and I had lunch at a devotee friend’s house. We had recommended that they read the Brhad Bhagavatamrta translated by Gopiparanadhana. Srila Prabhupada had said that if you want to understand what real Bhakti yoga is you must read BB. Just by reciting from memory whatever we could remember of the BB our hosts were so moved that tears were coming down their cheeks because of the wonderful descriptions of Lord Krsna’s dealings with His devotees contained in that book. Especially moving was how Krsna said to Gopa Kumar after he returned back to godhead in Goloka: “I have been looking at that path every day and wondering when will you show your mercy onto Me and come back to Me, and now you have returned to Me.”
Lord Krsna is so humble that He is waiting for us to show our “mercy” on Him. There was no dry eye in the room. So in this way for at least 1-2 hours we were glorifying the BB and Gopiparanadhana Prabhu for translating it. Just then I got the SMS message that Gopiparanadhana Prabhu had left his body and could not believe that the person who I had been glorifying had just died. All I can think is that now Lord Krsna’s wait for His dear friend Gopiparanadhana Prabhu to come back to Him is now over.
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