By Krishna-kripa Das
Yamaraja Dasa, a disciple of Srila Prabhupada who served BTG for decades and left his body a few days back, was a great soul. I wrote a letter thanking him for how he benefited me and our ISKCON society in general. Shri-Ram Poddar gave the letter to Punya Kirti Prabhu, who read it to Yamaraja the day before he left. Punya Kirti said upon hearing it, Yamaraja Prabhu smiled. I shared the letter with my Facebook friends to glorify him, and because many people liked it, I decided to share it with Dandavats readers to give them pleasure and to inspire others to share memories of him. After the letter I also include some of the comments I received by several devotees on Facebook which add to the appreciation of Yamaraja Prabhu.
Dear Yamaraja Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances again and again. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Visvambhar Prabhu mentioned on Facebook that he visited you yesterday. I am in Paris so I cannot.
I just wanted to thank you for being a model of dedication to Srila Prabhupada, his Back to Godhead, his society, ISKCON, and his mission.
You have been designing, laying out, and taking photos for Back to Godhead ever since I met you in Philadelphia around 1984. When did you start?
Thank you for designing practically all of Sadaputa Prabhu’s books, both in the past and present. You were always a great supporter and friend of his. I do not think any devotee appreciated Alien Identities to the extent you did.
Thank you for cooking for all the devotees, the halava for the Sunday feasts, the capatis for lunch, the pancakes and the upma for breakfast.
Thank you for teaching me typesetting and proofreading so I could do layout for Sadaputa Prabhu’s books and so I could help out by proofreading those books, Back to Godhead, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami’s books, Tattva Sandarba, Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, and so many more.
Thank you for teaching me how to make capatis, upma, and tricks for mass quantities of halava.
Thank you for being a good example of a steady devotee and a steady brahmacari.
One devotee commented on Visvambhara Prabhu’s post:
Akinchan Damodar Das: I became a member of Iskcon back in 1999 due to a picture clicked by Yamaraj Prabhu in BTG. Interestingly I didn’t know it was a BTG magazine as the main cover was torn off but the devotee in the pic clicked by Prabhu was so ecstatic that it inspired me to be a devotee.
All I can do is pray to Lord Gauranga that He might bless you with His causeless mercy and His supreme benediction at this important transition in your life.
Thank you for your friendship.
If there is any service I can do for you, let me know.
Your servant,
Krishna-kripa das
[Since I wrote this letter, I recalled that in addition to doing the design and layout of Sadaputa Prabhu’s books, which I am most familiar with, Yamaraja Prabhu also served many other devotee authors in the same way. – KKD]
Comment by Dasaratha Suta: Minimalist offering glorifying a devotional minimalist: he owned few possessions, no distractions, just his computer, cameras, and a few peripheral gizmos only for his service, a handful of simple brahmachari clothes; we had a few minimalist conversations here and there over the years, always Prabhupada and seva oriented; a few wry jokes and dry humorous observations of life, and devotees; a man of few words, and multitudes of service…
[As for his minimalist conversations, I remember a couple of things he said. Regarding marriage, he once said it wasn’t the ultimate solution. Once I told him that a mutual friend, a very respectable grhasthaGodbrother of his, told me that at one point he felt some emptiness in his life and decided to get married. Yamaraja Prabhu indicated that he was so busy with his various devotional services that he did not experience such an emptiness, and I empathized with him. – KKD]
Comment by Sankarsana Alec Boyer: I wrote an article for Back to Godhead in 1986 I believe. Yamaraja Prabhu drove all the way from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia just to take a photo of me for the article. Another devotee from Philadelphia was going to Norfolk before Yamaraja and he offered to take the photo of me to save Yamaraja the trip. Yamaraja refused the offer. That just goes to show how dedicated he was to the service he did.
Comment by Greg GuruKrsna Dasa: One day Yamaraj Prabhu was taking photos of NY Ratha Yatra and he was there in from the of us at Balaramas cart with a message on his face. Our eyes met and it seemed the message was, “I might have a great shot of this arrangement of Balaram if only you could take off that silly floppy hat!!” So I did that and he smiled and began shooting. One photo made it to BTG. He was able to communicate with me just by looking at me that day. Humble and amazing, what a great example of Krsna’s devotee!
Bada Hari das: Kosa and I visited His Grace Yamaraja Prabhu about a week before his departure. We were leaving town the next day, so I knew that this would be our last meeting. He was weak, but very lucid and we had a nice conversation. He expressed his desire to be with devotees, as he said, “doing what they do best, hearing and chanting about Krsna”, and to help him ‘make the transition’. He seemed peaceful, ready to go and not at all fearful. On his request we had kirtan, and to my surprise, although he was so weak, he was singing along and chanting very intently. That kirtan, which lasted more than an hour, was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I was overwhelmed with emotion and Krsna gave me a little glimpse how special a soul Yamaraja Prabhu is. I was overpowered by the feeling that Srila Prabhupada loves him so, so much. I feel blessed to have known such a great soul as Yamaraja Prabhu who dedicated his whole life in service to Krsna and to have had this last time with him. Thank you Yamaraja Prabhu. Thank you Srila Prabhupada.
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