By Acarya Dasa
Some four years ago our padayatra party was travelling in Punjab. One day we did a program at the home of Mr. Vinod Sindi, a high ranking officer in the military. The program went well and was attended by many soldiers who danced with us in kirtana and took prasadam. After the program, on our way from Amristsar to Batala, one of our padayatris, Ranganath Dasa who was from Tirupati, was walking at the back of the ratha/ bullock cart when suddenly a vehicle crashed into him. The car had hit him very badly; his skull was broken and the wheels had gone over his leg. There was blood everywhere. We were afraid that we had lost him. Our party sprung into action and holding onto hope we rushed him to a nearby hospital. His condition was critical. He remained unconscious and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The doctors were doing their best and we decided not to inform his family at that time.
Soon after the incident we called Mr Vinod Sindi to tell him what had happened. He recommended that we move Ranganath Dasa to the military hospital. He arranged a military ambulance and transported him to the military hospital where he was quickly operated on. We were all praying intensely for his recovery and when we informed Lokanath Swami of what had happened –he said to take good care of Raganath Dasa and to get him the best doctors. “The Lord will take care of him”, he said and “we will all pray for him.” Thanks to the mercy of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar the operation was successful. The hospital expenses were paid for by both our padayatra funds and by Mr.Sindi. Ranganath Dasa’s family was then informed and as soon as he regained consciousness Lokanath Swami advised that he should go back to his home to rest. At this point he had spent about a month in ICU.
It was six months later when our padayatra party travelled to Allahabad for the Kumbha Mela –and to our surprise Ranganath Dasa came to see us there. He was walking in spite of the fracture in four places. The doctors had to put four rods in his leg because of the extent of the damage, yet here he was walking again. It was indeed a miracle. When he saw us he began to cry and asked to see Nitai Gaurasundar, “They saved me” he said. “I am punar janma (reborn). It’s all because of Them that I am walking. I want to take darsana of the Lord. I want to walk with padayatra” he said. We consoled him and told him that soon padayatra will come to his town and he will have the Lord’s darsana there. When we saw Ranganath Dasa walking it reminded us of this sloka:
paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande[1]
By the Lord’s mercy even the lame can cross mountains. Ranganath Dasa recovered quickly in order to fulfill the mission of his Guru and to return to the seva of Nitai Gaurasundar. He is a great soul who never thought, “I have done so much seva for the Lord, why did this accident happen?” Instead he thought, “I was saved by the Lord.” After he recovered all he wanted to do was see Nitai Gaurasundar.
Sometime later our party travelled to Tirupati where Ranganath Dasa finally received the darsana of Nitai Gaurasundar. He paid obeisances and wept with love at the sight of the Lord. Without any hesitation, he said to us, “I will come with you!” When we told Lokanath Swami about Ranganath Dasa’s desire to join us once again Maharaj said that he should take rest, become fit and fine and then rejoin the padayatra. Lokanath Swami, our Gurudev and spiritual father understood Ranganath Dasa’s condition and gave him instructions to take care of his health and recover completely before rejoining.
śarīramādyaṃ khalu dharmasādhanam
“This body is an instrument for doing good deeds.” This phrase from Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhavan tells us that our first duty is to care for the body –because this body is the means with which we can pursue spiritual life. It is a gift from the Lord which we can use to serve Him. It is also by guru-krpa (the mercy of Guru) and Bhagavan-krpa (the mercy of God) that even the most impossible things become possible. Ranganath Dasa is an example of this. He had recovered so quickly that even the doctors that treated him were astonished. “We have never seen a man recover so fast. Whenever we treated him, we could tell how eager he was to walk again”, they said. We told them that it was Nitai Gaurasundar who had given him the power to recover –because they wanted Their child to come back to padayatra, to walk with Them and serve Them.
A year and half later Ranganath Dasa rejoined our padayatra party. He surprises us all when we see him walking 15 kilometers a day. We cannot believe that not too long ago he was involved in a terrible accident and had to undergo a big operation, and yet here he is today distributing Bhagavad-gitas on the street. Whenever he meets someone he preaches to them and his special practice is to get them to write the mahamantra 108 times on paper. He then asks them to offer the paper to the lotus feet of Nitai Gaurasundar, after which he then gives them japa mala for chanting. Ranganath Dasa has intensified his book distribution and is very eager to preach. He says, “Nitai Gaurasundar saved me, now I will devote this life to Their service.”
We must remember that in all calamities the Lord and our spiritual master are always with us.
Nitai Gaurasundar ki!
[1] The Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya 17.80: The Supreme Personality of Godhead has the form of sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha — transcendental bliss, knowledge and eternity. I offer my respectful obeisances unto Him, who turns the dumb into eloquent speakers and enables the lame to cross mountains. Such is the mercy of the Lord.
