By Acarya Dasa (All India Padayatra leader)
Rupa Raghunath Maharaja was already a padayatri when he joined padayatra. Previously he had travelled from Argentina, his country of birth, to various places in the Himalayas going to different sages and saints for complete spiritual devotion to the Lordand self-realization. He did not like most of what he found.
Rupa Raghunath Maharaja was a devotee ofLord Shiva.One timein the Himalayaswhen datura flowers were required for Shivaworshipthere were none available. He prayed to Shiva and as he went out seeking the flowers he found many in bloom.He then offered them and served Mahadev selflessly. Due to his devotion to Shiva, and Lord Shiva’s mercy, he got promoted to Krishna bhakti.
He met Lokanath Maharaja in Dwarka in Gujarat in 1986 and surrendered himself at his lotus feet, accepting him as his spiritual master. Then he joined ISKCON and the All India Padayatraand waswith us continuously for two to three years.He liked padayatra very much, hence his joiningthe AIP.
He was strongly supportive of padayatra. He would go on padayatra with the devotees in Argentinaand spend time with the Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh padayatras as well as the AIP.He would tell us Krishna katha and used to distribute prasad to the devoteeshimself. He was very nice and was about to join us in Jagannath Puri dham for ratha yatra but left his body on the day of Snana yatra.
Maharajahad a desire to go to Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, home of the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga, one of the twelve Shiva Jyotirlinga shrines, andwhere the Kumbh Mela is held every twelve years, so as per that desire his body was cremated there on July 4.
He was already a yogi, but he became a bhakti yogi and after taking sannyasa he spread the message of Godhead everywhere.Such a Maharaji has passed away from us. Whenever he stayed in padayatra we would get his company, and he would do excellent katha and kirtan.Now he is goneour memories of him will remain, and we willdefinitely miss him.
Rupa Raghunath Maharaja ki jai.
