Makhancora Das Departs

https://www.columbiafuneralhome.com/obituary/Mark-Anderson?

(center with yellow drum)

Hare Krsna to all

Obeisances

All glories to Srila Prabhupada


It is with a saddened heart that we announce the passing of our dearly loved Godbrother Makhancora prabhu who left this world yesterday, around early afternoon time Friday April 23 2021 on Kamada Ekadasi, as the sun travels in his northerly direction, He was struggling with cancer for some time but it finally consumed his body and it was time for him to leave it. He had constant kirtan / japa by Srila Prabhupada playing 24/7 and was able to hear it while he laid in his bed.

That morning, yesterday, his wife called me to ask to speak with him over the phone which I did and he was not responsive but he could hear me and I heard him murmur some sounds once in a while. Later Kanhaiya das and his wife Noble visited him and did some kirtan while there. A few hours later, he was gone. His surviving son (Balarama) and daughter (Jahnavi) will be making funeral and cremation arrangements.

In Makhancoras early days (he joined in 1975 I think) he was a bramachari for over 10 years and did much sankirtan traveling all over Canada, even one time going to Australia with another devotee. I remember one story he would always tell devotees. We both lived in the Seattle Wa temple in those days and when he showed up as a new bhakta I would preach to him about Krsna book stories and he got so enthused from hearing these stories, he told me it convinced him to join the movement. 

In those days you were either really "fired up" or in total maya. He was in some sort of rock and roll band at the time with high school friends but left them and everything else and joined almost fresh out of high school. I think he was 19 years old when he joined up.

Below you can see a few pictures taken over the yeas when he attended our weekly Sunday feast programs. He and I had a wonderful relationship as he did with all devotees who also relished his association. Many times during class time of our programs he would challenge me on some points of the philosophy playing devils advocate. 

I enjoyed those parlays back and forth greatly as he kept me on my toes and could not get anything by him that wasn't param para. He was one of the smartest devotees I ever knew and he knew the books very well. Besides being a very nice devotee he and I had a kirtan connection that is rarely found. He would play mrdunga and I would play harmonium as we sang on and on our bond grew ever tighter together. Kirtan rasa is the most basic point upon which devotee relationships are formed and which will last "lifetimes".

He was one of the very first to join our group in the Seattle area and the only original one still remaining after 25 years of doing Hari namas and Sunday feast and festival programs. 

I will miss you Makhancora prabhu-greatly.

Hare Krsna

Damaghosa das

[PADA: Sad to say, but another "senior devotee" goes away. That is why our best hope is with the younger people. Let us try to guide them properly -- so they can guide the mission better than we did. 

It is also another indication that my regular society's nurse friend is correct, there is a sort of cancer epidemic afoot within the society of Hare Krishna devotees. She attributes that process to "stress that poisons the body," and while she is not really a Krishna type devotee (she is a devout Christian) she knows that much is correct. 

Srila Prabhupada says the same thing, stress can make a person ill. 

Evidently, also fatally. The source of stress? I believe, it is the bogus guru process going on in their religion which caused them to suffer grief. Meanwhile, a woman devotee who is at stage 4 cancer is trying to find a room, somewhere, anywhere in the USA. 

That means in a number of cases, we as a society are not taking care of these seniors properly, even at the last stages of their life where they should be fully supported. She does not need "a room" -- she needs full on support for the elderly and dying programs, which we are sadly lacking -- unless you are one of the elite GBC guru types. 

Anyway! 

GOD SPEED SPIRIT SOUL!

ys pd]