Disappearance of HDG Vana Maharaja

By Richard Shaw Brown

These are the facts about the disappearance of HDG Srila Vana Maharaja as reported in the book "Supreme Divinity and Sad-guru" by Dr. Tapodhir Krishna Dastidar.

Date: 9.04 pm, July 7, 1982

Location: Bhajan kutir, Vrindavan

Vana Maharaja had been in bad health since 1979 when he collapsed during a South India tour and nearly died. After that he was treated in different places and stayed for some time in Calcutta at the residence of Sri Pranatosh Basu, but sometime in 82 he returned to Vrindavan to oversee (amongst other things) a grant given to IOP by the government of Assam and to introduce the new research scholar that was to arrive. However his health was still bad and only got worse. Gopananda Vana Maharaja told me that for the last month or so he would only take charanamrta.

Tapodhir Krishna describes his glorious passing thus:

"Our hearts, laden with anguish and anxiety, we spent all day taking part by rotation in the kirtan which somehow continued even after the expiry of the midday of July 7. In the evening when a few of us were singing sadly kirtan before the ashram Deities, we were hastily summoned from the Natmandir by Swami Rasikananda Maharaj and requested to gather round Gurudev's bedside.

While ceaselessly chanting the "Hare Krishna" Mahamantra over and over again, we watched helplessly as Gurudev's chest slowly heaved up and down with every intake and exhalation of breath. All the while, even in his semi-comatose condition, his tongue was rhythmically chanting the Holy Name of Krishna. Swami Keshavananda Maharaj was feeling Gurudev's pulse all the time. The end, as already stated, came at 9.04 pm on July 7, 1982. The last giant amongst the best exponents of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, His Holiness Swami Bhakti Hriday Bon Maharaj left his mortal coils to join the company of the Supreme Godhead's Eternal Associates who are ever engaged in offering esoteric and supra-mundane devotional service to Sri Krishna and His Counter-whole projection Sri Radha in their transcendental love-sports. We shall never see the like of him again." (SDASG, 83-84)

I was also told afterwards, that when he was taken out for a parikrama of Vrindavan, his eyes opened when the palanquin left the Bhajan Kutir, and they closed when it returned. Also, Lalit Krishna Brahmacari in Madras told me that some lady disciples of HDG Bhakti Vilas Tirtha that were present said that they felt a distinct smell of sandalwood coming from his transcendental body...

Thank you for reading this. Hare Krsna!!

Y/s
Hrsikesananda das