On the 4th of November 2010, 22:25 PM Moscow time Purnacandra Goswami passed away. It is a great loss for the entire ISKCON community.
On September 15th Maharaja was hospitalized with internal bleeding, and from October 19th he was in coma. Despite deep coma he manifested some signs of consciousness every time when devotees would come to him to chant the holy name.
Purnacandra Maharaja joined Srila Prabhupada’s movement when he was 17 years old. For more than 38 years he served ISKCON with great dedication. His knowledge of the Vedic scriptures was vast and profound. For many years he was teaching Bhakti-sastri course and many other courses to the devotees.
He had very deep attachment to Sri Vrindavana-dhama. He divided his preaching time between Russia and Balkans, but Karttik he would always spend in Vrindavan. Over the last few years he was writing a book dedicated to Lord Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavana. He was always deeply absorbed in the holy names. The concentration and intensity with which he would chant the holy name every day was incomparable.
By Niranjana Swami
The following is a partially-edited transcript of a short talk I gave during the memorial service for Purnacandra Goswami in Moscow on November, 9, 2010.
We are gathered here to pay our respects to His Holiness Purnacandra Goswami. For those of you who know him, you know that he is a person of substance. I often speak about this topic –substance versus form. If there is substance then everything else will eventually follow.
For the life of a Vaisnava this substance is his Krsna Consciousness, the activities which are performed by him in Krsna Consciousness, and the ability to share that Krsna Consciousness with others. That is the essence of our Krsna Consciousness Movement. And that substance is the heart of a Vaisnava. A Vaisnava is one who fully dedicates his life in service to the Supreme Lord. He feels compassion for the suffering of others.
Purnacandra Maharaja was such a Vaisnava. He was not interested in the external affairs of this world. I know that because of my personal association with him. I’m sure that we’ll hear more confirmation of this from others today– that Maharaja was more interested in sharing substance and less concerned about structure or form. That is one quality of Purnacandra Maharaja I’ve always appreciated.
Purnacandra Maharaja would oftentimes keep his firm commitment to substance even at the risk of being unpopular. He was not at all interested in winning some popularity contest. He was interested in preserving that which was passed on to him by his spiritual master.
Many times I would be with him and I would observe how meticulous he was in his simple, basic activities of sadhana. Sometimes I would come to see him and he would be sitting and chanting his japa alone, very much absorbed in chanting the holy name. His meditation was on his relationship with his spiritual master, and his service to his spiritual master, while aspiring for eternal devotional service to the Supreme Lord.
Because he always preserved this substance in his life, I am confident that it will continue to maintain his life as he continues serving his spiritual master and his worshipful Lord.
In many respects Purnacandra Maharaja was more of a teacher by his example. And though he taught this way, through this firm dedication to the simple, basic practices of Krsna Consciousness, we also know that he was very learned in sastra. He was very meticulous about his study of Srila Prabhupada’s books and the books of our previous acaryas. He was always eager to share his realizations and knowledge obtained from his studies.
Purnacandra Maharaja didn’t need large crowds to be satisfied sharing what he had learned and what he attained in his Krsna Consciousness. He would share his Krsna Consciousness even with a small group of devotees, or even with one devotee. I personally experienced this when we would sit and talk as he would share his realizations with me. This is another one of his qualities I will always remember. I’m sure that many of you who know Purnacandra Maharaja will also remember this quality of his too.
There is more that I could say about my remembrances of Maharaja but I’d like to just focus on this feature of him as a person of substance. So I’ll stop here and maybe I’ll have an opportunity some other time to speak about other remembrances of him.
I am also very eager to hear from those devotees with whom this substance was shared. I’m quite sure that their words will be a testimony to my words. I consider these Vaisnavas very fortunate to have an intimate, close relationship with him.
Thank you very much.
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