Remembering Affectionate Exchanges Beyond this Lifetime

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This morning, at around 9:30 AM, while Śrīla Gurudeva was taking his breakfast, I conveyed the heartbreaking message of Parama-pūjyapāda Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja's departure from this world. As soon as he heard, he was shocked.

"Left the body?" He asked, his mouth fell open in shock. He paused for a while and again said, "He left the body? I was informed that his health had improved. Is it not?"

I said that there was an improvement after what he had heard about Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja's serious health trouble in October but that he left the body at about 3:00 AM today.

Śrīla Gurudeva then said, “Everyone has to leave one day. Anytime anything can happen. This cause, that cause is just instrumental.”

He took his next spoonful of breakfast and said, "He roamed a lot outside India even at his advanced age. What is good is that he left his body in India and that too in a dhāma." 

After a while, he asked about when and where the samādhi would take place. I said it would be tomorrow in Navadvīpa. 

Śrīla Gurudeva remembered, “His Gurudeva used to stay there. I went many times to that place. We used to go and do kīrtan at their place. Even now I go.”

Śrīla Gurudeva then remembered that he had recently written to Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja upon the request of his disciples for the occasion of his upcoming Vyāsa-pūjā celebrations. 

Repeating what Śrī Mādhavapriya Prabhu had conveyed, I told him that Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja received that letter and he felt happy reading the contents. “After Śrīla Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja read your remark that 'I have the desire to meet you,' he replied, ‘If Kṛṣṇa desires, it is possible.’ ”

Śrīla Gurudeva replied, “Now it is not possible.”

After some time passed, he said, “It is not that it is impossible. It happens on a few occasions. Narottama Ṭhākura met Śrī Rupa Gosvāmī though the latter was not physically present at that time. Śrī Rupa Gosvāmī fed milk to Narottama Ṭhākura.”

—Śrī Bhakti Suhrid Paramadvati Mahārāja


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