The fear of death is always emerging again and again, but a devotee must gradually rise above! I remember here in Mumbai we had over here our Sridhara Maharaja who became ill. His liver became defected and his health was going down. He stayed in Mira Road near the Bhaktivedanta Hospital for treatment.I recall that I came to visit Maharaja and at the door of his apartment there was a schedule, which said;
“Morning: Mangal Aarti, then Japa, then Bhagavatam….then a little break…then bhajans. At 12.00 more Srimad Bhagavatam followed by Kirtan”
The whole day there was schedule of hearing and chanting. I came in and said;
“Maharaja you have a pretty nice schedule posted on the door”
He said;
“Yah, otherwise people will just talk about my liver all day, and they’ll ask how my liver is and I will have to tell them how it is – that my liver is not so good. What can be said!"
So in this way Maharaja was using his time in hearing and chanting – and by that hearing and chanting he became more and more absorbed in being fearless! So much so that at the time when finally his health was really breaking down, he was in Mayapur and there was fluid in his belly - Maharaja already had a little bit of a belly, but there was fluid and it was getting blown up to huge proportions. Maharaja was lying on the bed and someone came and touched the belly. Maharaja was lying there with his eyes closed, and then he opened his eyes and said;
“It’s a boy!” (laughter)
Who can joke on his deathbed? About his own condition? One who is transcendental. One who is not identifying with his material body. Then one morning he told his servant;
“Okay, I’m going to give up my body today”.
He never made a thing about it and he said it earlier in the morning, and around 10 o’clock he left this world totally peaceful, totally unaffected, because he knew that Krsna is the well wisher of his devotees. He had no doubt about it. He was firmly fixed in that faith;
“ Krsna is my well wisher, Krsna is my shelter, there is no other shelter”
(Kadamba Kanana Swami, Chowpatty, 12th December 2010)
