Jagadananda Departs / Ramananda Roy 05 28 24

Henry Doktorski:

I just heard that our friend Jan Brzezinski (Jagadananda dasa, formerly Hiranyagarbha dasa) has passed away in Montreal (I think his hometown) from cancer of the brain, or complications from.

He lived at New Vrindaban, and directed the Varnashram College in 1974. He served as the headmaster for the Mayapur, India gurukula from 1975-1979.

He explained, "I left [ISKCON] in disgust when I realized that I was not spiritually nor materially qualified to run such a school and when I realized that the ISKCON institution itself did not seek to improve the situation."

Later he lived in Vrindaban, India, and served as editor for "Gaudiya Grantha Mandir" and the online news blog "Vrindavan Today." He is quoted in "Gold, Guns and God," Vol 4, regarding teaching youngsters in New Vrindaban and Mayapur.

He also liked my Hare Krishna history books and wrote to me, "I consider your work very important, a necessary archive to cover a particularly significant moment in history, which will be very useful to sociologists and psychologists of religion in the future. I hope that you can get your books to be accepted in university libraries. Perhaps if you can find some scholars who work in those fields to support it, you will have the chance to see your work have more influence."

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PADA: Well here we go again, another devotee with -- wait for it -- cancer. Very odd coincidence. I was chatting with a follower of Gaura Govinda Maharaja, who was saying we should just worship whoever our heart is attracted to. OK well that has lead to total mayhem in ISKCON because people's sentiments are not always up to the actual standards of guru. Meanwhile, offering food to conditioned souls is not good for one's spiritual or material health. I think a lot of devotees have become ill for many reasons, and stress is probably another reason. 

Jagadananda and me had a sort of love / hate thing going on. He liked what I was doing, more or less, but thought I was "too critical." Well yeah but it is a critical situation. I also did not like his running off to the Jiva institute, whose idea is that we do not originate with Krishna. But most devotees have run off to all sorts of things, at least this was more moderate. At least he was overall friendly with me, which says a lot compared to a number of my other brothers. 

He blamed himself for not being more vocal about the children's situation in the gurukulas, and I agree he should have done more. But at least he admits there was a problem, and he was not dealing with it fully. He felt remorse and that is more favorable effort than a lot of them.  

Anyway, he was fried with the ISKCON management. No kidding. In any case, his troubles and toils here are done. We wish him all the best in his future life. He did believe in Krishna, and he wanted to be in the holy dham, and that is all good. Godspeed spirit soul! ys pd angel108b@yahoo.com 

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𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟮𝟴 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰 [𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗮𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗮, 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗹, 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲]
𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗦́𝗿𝗶̄ 𝗥𝗮̄𝗺𝗮̄𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗥𝗮𝘆𝗮

rāmānanda rāye mora koṭī namaskāra
yāṅra mukhe kaila prabhu rasera vistāra

"I offer ten million obeisances unto the lotus feet of Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya because from his mouth much spiritual information has been expanded by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu."

(Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta » Madhya-līlā 8.311 | 1975 Edition)

"Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu taught His principles through four chief followers. Among them, Rāmānanda Rāya is exceptional, for through him the Lord taught how a devotee can completely vanquish the power of Cupid. By Cupid’s power, as soon as one sees a beautiful woman he is conquered by her beauty. 

Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya vanquished Cupid’s pride because in the Jagannātha-vallabha-nāṭaka he personally directed extremely beautiful young girls in dancing, but he was never affected by their youthful beauty. Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya personally bathed these girls, touching them and washing them with his own hands, yet he remained calm and passionless, as a great devotee should be. Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu certified that this was possible only for Rāmānanda Rāya [....]

(Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta » Ādi-līlā 10.84 » Purport | 1973 Edition)

"Bhavānanda Rāya had five sons, one of whom was the exalted personality known as Rāmānanda Rāya. Bhavānanda Rāya first met Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu after His return from South India. At that time Rāmānanda Rāya was still serving at his government post; therefore when Bhavānanda Rāya went to see Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, he went with his other four sons. They were named Vāṇīnātha, Gopīnātha, Kalānidhi and Sudhānidhi. A description of Bhavānanda Rāya and his five sons is given in the Ādi-līlā (10.133)"

(Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta » Madhya-līlā 10.49 » Purport | 1975 Edition)
এই পঞ্চ পুত্র তোমার মোর প্রিয়পাত্র ।
রামানন্দ সহ মোর দেহ–ভেদ মাত্র ১৩৪ ॥

ei pañca putra tomāra mora priyapātra
rāmānanda saha mora deha-bheda mātra

𝗦𝗬𝗡𝗢𝗡𝗬𝗠𝗦

ei—these; pañca—five; putra—sons; tomāra—your; mora—Mine; priya-pātra—very dear; rāmānanda saha—with Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya; mora—Mine; deha-bheda—bodily difference; mātra—only.

𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡

Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu told Bhavānanda Rāya, “Your five sons are all My dear devotees. Rāmānanda Rāya and I are one, although our bodies are different.”

𝗣𝗨𝗥𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧

The Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (120-24) states that Rāmānanda Rāya was formerly Arjuna. He is also considered to have been an incarnation of the gopī Lalitā, although in the opinion of others he was an incarnation of Viśākhādevī. He was a most confidential devotee of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, “Although I am a sannyāsī, My mind is sometimes perturbed when I see a woman. But Rāmānanda Rāya is greater than Me, for he is always undisturbed, even when he touches a woman.” Only Rāmānanda Rāya was endowed with the prerogrative to touch a woman in this way; no one should imitate him. Unfortunately, there are rascals who imitate the activities of Rāmānanda Rāya. We need not discuss them further.

In Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s final pastimes, both Rāmānanda Rāya and Svarūpa Dāmodara always engaged in reciting suitable verses from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to pacify the Lord’s ecstatic feelings of separation from Kṛṣṇa. It is said that when Lord Caitanya went to southern India, Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya advised Him to meet Rāmānanda Rāya, for he declared that there was no devotee as advanced in understanding the conjugal love of Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs. While touring South India, Lord Caitanya met Rāmānanda Rāya by the bank of the Godāvarī, and in their long discourses the Lord took the position of a student, and Rāmānanda Rāya instructed Him.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu concluded these discourses by saying, “My dear Rāmānanda Rāya, both you and I are madmen, and therefore we met intimately on an equal level.” Lord Caitanya advised Rāmānanda Rāya to resign from his government post and come back to Jagannātha Purī to live with Him. Although Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu refused to see Mahārāja Pratāparudra because he was a king, Rāmānanda Rāya, by a Vaiṣṇava scheme, arranged a meeting between the Lord and the King. This is described in the Madhya-līlā, Chapter Twelve, verses 41-57. Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya was present during the water sports of the Lord after the Ratha-yātrā festival.

Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu considered Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya and Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī to be equal in their renunciation, for although Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya was a gṛhastha engaged in government service and Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī was in the renounced order of complete detachment from material activities, they were both servants of the Supreme Personality of Godhead who kept Kṛṣṇa in the center of all their activities. Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya was one of the three and a half personalities with whom Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu discussed the most confidential topics of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu advised Pradyumna Miśra to learn the science of Kṛṣṇa from Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya. As Subala always assisted Kṛṣṇa in His dealings with Rādhārāṇī in kṛṣṇa-līlā, so Rāmānanda Rāya assisted Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu in His feelings of separation from Kṛṣṇa. Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya was the author of Jagannātha-vallabha-nāṭaka.
(Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta » Ādi-līlā 10.134 | 1973 Edition)

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲:

Srila Prabhupada explains the unique position of Sri Ramanada Raya https://krishnaconsciousnessmovement.com/?p=15633&

Ramananda Raya’s conversation with Lord Caitanya 

https://krishnaconsciousnessmovement.com/?p=9796

Srila Prabhupada summarizes the discussions between Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Ramananda Raya
https://krishnaconsciousnessmovement.com/?p=31349&