Story of an Auspicious Departure
Hare Krishna, please accept my humble obeisances, all glories to Srila Prabhupada!
In October we were on a marathon for the pleasure of our spiritual masters, and our party was distributing books for the whole week in the industrial area of Ostrava and its surroundings. By the mercy of my spiritual master, I experienced a very intense week, rich in realizations and personal purification. One story surpasses everything else, so I have decided to share this powerful spiritual experience with other devotees.
The second day of the marathon I spent in Cesky Tesin, a town near the Polish border. I began to distribute on a parking place in front of the local shopping center. Soon one older, decently looking man arrived in a big luxury car, and he parked there. I approached him and tried to briefly introduce our books and the Prague center in a nice way. That man very quickly appreciated the books I presented to him [sch, pl, sb 1.canto] , took them and gave a nice donation.
When he put them in the car and locked it, he disclosed that he knew Prague because until recently he had been working there as the leading personality in the biggest engineering factory in the Czech republic, CKD. When I recognize a cultured and serious man, I explain to him more about the philosophy and our activities with the hope that he could take more books, so I put the Bhagavad-gita in his hands. After he looked at the Supreme Lord on the front cover of the Gita, driving the chariot of His devotee Arjuna as Partha-sarathi, to my surprise he began to breathe very heavily and to lose balance. When he began to catch my body, I asked him whether he was epileptic and suffering fits. He only mildly smiled and collapsed to the ground. It was all very quick, and since he was heavy, I failed to hold him. He lost his consciousness and injured his head by his falling. I had somebody call for an ambulance and asked the gathered crowd to help. Then with the assistance of another man we turned him on his back and did whatever we could, The man almost stopped breathing, his face turned blue and there was a foam coming from his mouth. As his pulse was growing weaker, it was clear to me that the soul was leaving the body.
I was disturbed, but at the same time happy. I knew that Krsna bestowed His causeless mercy upon this conditioned living being who left his body under very auspicious circumstances. As soon as I could see the ambulance coming, I left the scene not to waste time unnecessarily and to again distribute Prabhupada's books in the proximity of the place of the accident. I felt a great spiritual inspiration, so I began to directly preach to everybody about the temporary nature of the material life. I distributed 100 big books that day. While distributing I was observing the doctors who were vainly trying to save life of that man. After half-an-hour struggle, however, they gave up their endeavor, put the dead body in the car and departed.
I pray to my spiritual master that this realization will not disappear from my heart because it gives a direct experience of the ephemerality of living in the material world, and at the same time it attests the unlimited mercy of the sankirtan movement. Although this man dedicated all his life to ugra-karma and sinful activities, by the mercy of Lord Caitanya he left his body smiling, immediately after performing devotional service, and with his attention fixed on the Supreme Lord in the form of the Bhagavad-gita which he was holding with respect and appreciation in his hands during the last moments of his life.
Bg. 8.6
yam yam vapi smaran bhavam
tyajaty ante kalevaram
tam tam evaiti kaunteya
sada tad-bhava-bhavitah
"Whatever state of being one remembers when he quits his body, O son of Kunti, that state he will attain without fail."
Srimad Bhagavad-Gita ki JAYA! The book distribution mission ki JAYA! Srila Prabhupada ki JAYA!
