Indradyumna Swami: Dear disciples, friends and well wishers,
On Saturday i.e 11th Nov, 2017 my beloved disciple, Braja Vallabhi dasi, from Brisbane, Australia passed away in a tragic car accident while on her way to attend a seminar at Govardhan Hill here in Vrindavan. She was only 23 years old. She was a wonderfully talented devotee with an effervescent smile, who most recently helped tremendously in organizing our month long Karitka parikrama. We will miss her dearly. Please everyone say a prayer for her, as well as for her parents, Sakhi Rai das, Vraja Laksmi dasi and her sister Kaishori Sindhu dasi who must now all bear her separation.
For those devotees living in Vrindavan: The Bhaktivedanta Hospice on the parikrama marg has agreed to let the friends and well wishers of Braja Vallabhi dasi, who departed this world yesterday, to come and see her and offer prayers throughout the day. Tomorrow we will leave the Krsna Balarama Mandir at 9:30 a.m. in a procession to the Yamuna river for cremation.
Shimal Shah: Please join us tomorrow evening (Monday 13th) at Soho Temple from 7.30 – 9pm for kirtan – honouring and praying for dear Braja Vallabhi who was involved in a fatal accident yesterday in Brindavan. As we chant we also pray for the strength and solace of her family who are bearing this sudden and unimaginably painful loss. We also pray sincerely for the wellbeing of Tejal Shanker and Samir Shanker from ISKCON Crawley who were also in the accident and are currently in hospital.
Garuda Das: Dear Sister of Braja Vallabhi Dasi, Kaishori Sindhu Dasi, and parents of Braja Vallabhi Dasi, Vraja Laksmi Dasi and Sakhi Rai Das,
Although I have never met any of you, recently I was informed that Braja Vallabhi Dasi, of only twenty-three years, has left this world. I was terribly saddened by this news, and want to offer you some heartfelt thoughts and reflections here.
This is a time of grieving such a great loss for you and your family and friends. If the passing away of a loved one were not already challenging, the added factors of Braja Vallabhi Dasi’s young age and her unexpected departure and the suddenness with which she left this world intensify the grief so much, for sure.
How much more of a life she could have lived . . . how she was unaware of her departure . . . how she was unable to say good bye and how all whom she loved were also deprived of saying good bye to her . . . these are just some of the thoughts that must be running through the minds and hearts of those who grieve her loss.
And there is no way that anyone can assuage the vexing pain that is so often felt in the area of one’s solar plexus, even feelings of dread, and at times a sense of the uselessness and hopelessness in everything, that deep crack that forms in one’s existence that such a loss surely creates in a life, amazingly, filled with yet so many blessings. It can often call into question the whole point of living, and the purpose of living, the very meaning of life itself.
Times like this also sharpen existential issues that confront us all at least one time or another . . . the inevitable departure from this world that we all must make . . . and the total life process in which we all participate and in which we all unwittingly find ourselves.
Your Braja Vallabhi Dasi’s family and friends did not know her before she was born. Her life then built a network of loving connections, and surely the ways she embodied life and love in her short sojourn here in this world undoubtedly touched the hearts of a certain portion of humanity along the way. Your grief is and will continue to be a sober testament to this.
I hope that you and those around you can dwell at this time on the very miracle of her! The world of however many or few persons whose hearts she has touched—this is what she came here to do. Her unique presence in the lives of those whom she loved was essential, vital, and irreplacable. And she will continue to be an unduplicatable, special presence in the hearts of those who loved her.
What I feel is important to contemplate at times like these is that while her physical presence is no longer, your relationship with her is, indeed, longer—it, in fact, remains. Your love, your affection for her special person and persona, your appreciation of so much of what she was in her short life . . . all of this and more is a special gift from Sri Sri Radha and Krishna.
Your love for her will continue and thus your relationship with her indeed continues on. It is this sudden shift that we call death that is our challenge in the re-orientation of our continued relationships with those who have departed. You will continue to love her, you will continue to remember her and recall all the times you’ve spent with her, and you will continue to relate to her.
Though you won’t have her embodied presence in your life anymore, you have parts of her in your heart that no one can take away from you and that are still part of you because she has never been limited to her state of embodiment. The gift she has given all those whom she has loved is the gift of a greater heart. Had she not been in the lives of those whom she loved, all of them would have been deprived of her special contributions; all of you would have not loved as much as you have loved because of her unique presence in your lives.
Even so, while all of this can be so beautiful, and the miracle of her being and presence in your life for such short years has been undoubtedly such a gain, it is now a time of such deep sorrow, and even at times, even a fury or anguish at the very process that removes such dear souls from us. These feelings are okay. Don’t push them away. This is not a time to hold back or to put off what so deeply pains the heart, for the extent that you have loved Braja Vallabhi Dasi, it is to that extent that you will feel a kind of pain that perhaps you’ve never experienced before.
You must go through this painful process, and give yourself the time to do so. You may weep for her, and you may celebrate her, at the same time. You may need to talk it out to others and with others, and you may need to talk it out to yourself. You may need to take walks in nature in order to let life embrace you and comfort you at a time such as this, and may need to fall before Prabhupada and the deity form of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna to beg them for their help. You may need to create a special shrine for your sister within your heart or in a special place within your home.
Please do not limit all the ways you must process this loss, for if you do, to the extent that you do, you would then commensurately prevent those special gifts from coming to you that await you for having gone through this process fully.
There are indeed special blessings that come from this, blessings that could not come any other way. Braja Vallabhi Dasi’s passing is the very harbinger of a deepened sense of life, and greater depth of heart, and of heightened awareness of the devotional path that you yourself are treading. Braja Vallabhi Dasi is showing you the way to a more profound sense of life in the here and now by her very death.
May Braja Vallabhi Dasi’s gifts ever flow into your heart and into your life and continue to do so for the remainder of your time here. Offering you and your family my condolences at this time of loss and wishing you and your family all the blessings that can come through this loss,
– Garuda Das, Ph.D. (acbsp)
Govinda Swami: Dear Friends,
Yesterday we lost an effulgent young Vaisnavi here in Vrindavan.
Braja Vallabhi, a disciple of HH Indradyumna Swami, passed from this world to Radhe Shyam’s world, in a traffic accident near Radha Kund, Govaradhan.
She was ever bright, decorated with a beautiful smile, always devoted to her guru, vaisnavas, and a real lover of Radha Raman.
She was just 23 years of age.
Now she will be a much younger girl, an ever fresh Kishori in Vrindavan, to serve Sri Radha as She serves her Ramana.
Please say a prayer for her wonderful father and mother Sakhi Rai Prabhu and Vraja Lakshmi Mataji, and her sister Kaisori Sindhu … who will all be bearing the weight of her separation.
Srila Bhaktivinode has written;
He reasons ill who tells that Vaishnavas die
When thou art living still in sound
The Vaishnavas die to live and living try
To spread the holy name around
Braja Vallabhi certainly lives, and we will all remember her devotional life for long to come.
Damodara Dasa: I feel like a bright light has suddenly gone out. Only from the mundane vision, of course. I feel aggrieved both for the immediate loss and pain for all loved ones but also for not being able to witness the further expression of this wonderful devotee’s potential. Braja Vallabhi Dasi – Godspeed to the Lord’s eternal pastimes.
Urmila Devi Dasi: Can’t stop crying….
Hari Parsada Das: A devotee named Braja Vallabhi Dasi, a disciple of HH Indradyumna Swami Maharaja left her body in an accident today near Govardhana.
I pray that the following words written by the Lord in śāstra come true for her:
सर्पदष्टाः पशुहताः पावकांबुविनाशिताः।।
लब्धाऽपमृत्यवो ये च माथुरे मम लोकगाः
sarpa-daṣṭāḥ paśu-hatāḥ
pāvakāmbu-vināśitāḥ
labdhāpamṛtyavo ye ca
māthure mama loka-gāḥ
“Those in Vraja-maṇḍala bitten by a snake, killed by animals, killed by fire, water or any unnatural cause become residents of my own planet.” (Skanda-purāṇam, Mārgaśīrṣa-māhātmya, Chapter 17, Verse 50)
This verse is also quoted in two other places: The Mathurā-māhātmya of Srila Rupa Goswami and Bhakti-ratnākara of Srila Narahari Chakravarti.
Currently the month of Mārgaśīrṣa is going on. Coincidentally, It should be noted here that the Lord is describing the glories of the month of Mārgaśīrṣa in this section of the Skanda-purāṇa.
In the Bhagavad-gītā, the Lord says that among all months, he is the month named Mārgaśīrṣa. I am sure that the Lord will not allow the glories of his own month and the glories of Mathura-maṇḍala go in vain and will keep the word given by him in śāstra.
Sakhi Vrinda: Dearest Braja Vallabhi.
Please accept my humble obeisances wherever you are now.
All glories to our beloved Spiritual master Indradyumna Swami and all Glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Dear Vallabhi I have notice that sometimes we appreciate what we don’t have anymore because then we see the actual value of what we use to have.
My heart just broke into pieces when my mom call me and said Gurudeva had posted something about you on my wall, I couldn’t believe it, I thought she was wrong or she was confuse but when I saw, I guess in my limited language I cannot explain what my heart felt while reading that I was never going to see you again.
I want to say Thank you my dear vallabhi, thank you for make me remember that we should never give things for granted; life is so fragile and we are used to forget that. You were only 23 and I think that hit me the most, we were the same age, I always thought of seen you getting marry going on tour and becoming stronger and stronger but I guess your beloved Ramanji had a different plan for you.
Although is such a devastating situation I’m so happy for you.! A lot of devotees around the world think and pray to leave the body in such a holy place as Mayapur or Vrindavana and you have achieve the goal in this life. I have no doubt you are back to your beloved Sri Sri Radha Raman.
So now I beg you my dear, please bless me so I can always remember to be grateful for what I have and to become a better devotee day by day, because no one knows when is the last. Keep your family and friends in your prayers they will need you and we will all miss you.
May your beloved Giriraja and Ramanji watch over you in your upcoming journey, I love you and I will always miss you.
Always at your service
Sakhi Vrinda.
Comments
Braj Vallabhi Mataji ki jai !!
Hari Bol !