“Govinda dd (ACBSP) remembering Bagachi”

Govinda dd: “In 1987-88, I was in Vrindaban, chanting japa atop the Krishna Balaram guesthouse. It was early morning, sunrise, and just as the red sun rose, four huge vultures flew over my head and landed on Prabhupada’s unfinished samadhi.

He had been gone for 10 years, but his samadhi was a tangled mass of bamboo structure. It was neglected while the young gurus traveled around the world and had fifty thousand dollar birthday parties. I watched in horror as the vultures landed on the bamboo structure, and picked and preened themselves in the morning sun.

It was a picture of Prabhupada’s Iskcon. He was forgotten, and vultures sat roosting on his uncompleted samadhi. Even the Vrajabasi townspeople were asking why our gurudev’s samadhi sat unfinished.

With this scene before me, my mind reeled and I ran over to Bagachi’s house. Bagachi was a close friend of Srila Prabhupada, he had donated the land for the gurukula, and he was also next to Srila Prabhupada at the time of his departure. Prabhupada spoke to Bhagachi in Hindi, so they had many private talks, as almost no one knew Hindi at that time.

Agitated by the glimpse of deception I had seen, I demanded the truth from Bagachi. I asked him what really happened to cause all this. His reply, which I took as the instruction of my guru, Srila Prabhupada, was:

“Govinda dd, Prabhupada never appointed anybody. They have simply done this, that’s all. You are a very small fish in a very big pond. You go on with your Krishna consciousness. This is Krishna’s movement, He will correct it in due course of time as He sees fit. But you don’t become involved; you take care of your own Krishna consciousness, that’s all.”

I took Bhagachi’s instruction very seriously, as if it had come from Srila Prabhupada himself, as I felt that in truth it did.

And I watched quietly as Haley’s comet came into the Earth’s orbit in 1988, toppling South American dictators and false gurus alike. Prabhupada used to say that comets are like the policeman’s flashlight; the good people like them, but the criminals are exposed by their light.”