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EDITORIAL  A Devotee No One Wanted BY SRI NRSHINGHA DASA EDITORIAL, Jan 27 (VNN) — At 11 AM on January 14, 2004 at a temple in North America, there was a fire sacrfice commemorating the passing of Valmiki Muni dasa. The second of only two Prabhupada disciples His Divine Grace ever intiated from the Soviet Union, Valmiki distributed in Moscow the Change of Heart and Prabhupada Meditations LP's among other items. He did so under enormous risk to himself. His Russian godbrother, Ananta Shanti dasa, was the target of repeated KGB persecution including internment in a psychiatric hospital where he was lobotomized with psychotropic medication. While it's not known precisely what horrors Valmiki suffered at the hands of the KGB, it's certain his activities giving Prabhupada to a new generation of Russian spiritual seekers did not endear him to that country's security forces. So how did this soul who gave his youth to the propagation of Krishna Consciousness spend his last days? In the association of devotees who lovingly placed tilak on his forehead and chanted him into the next world? Hardly. Valmiki Muni dasa died homeless, the elements contributing to the pneumonia to which he ultimately succumbed. This is not a criticism of the temple which asked him to leave its ashram. Valmiki struggled with intoxication, reportedly telling a temple authority who called him on his drunkeness, "But I'm Russian!" Certainly, a temple needs to regulate the activities of the devotees it maintains and intoxication is intolerable. But there has to be a place where devotees, even struggling devotees, can go as we face the end of our lives. If the goal of life is to 'remember Krishna at the last', homelessness is not the best circumstance under which to do so. Fire sacrifices are important. Places where we can retire/prepare for death are important too. Those interested in working on a project to create such places, are invited to write to ChezGovinda@aol.com. Your servant, Sri Nrshingha dasa Contact VNN about this story  Send this story to a friend
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