Gauri’s husband, Sujitendriya dasa, is a Mayapur gurukula graduate who has lived in the ISKCON Mayapur community his entire life. Her youngest daughter, Bhagirathi aged ten months was rescued together with the maid by Sujitendriya’s brother Hari dasa who was dragged under by the current and was drowned.

The following day a team of devotees accompanied Sujitendriya prabhu to Krsnanagar to collect the bodies for cremation. They took a motorized boat along the Jalangi River. Arriving at 1.30 pm it took nearly two and one half hours to get there. Sujitendriya prabhu said that his wife had once made him promise that she would be cremated in ISKCON Mayapur.

Prabhupada’s Samadhi

A boat was used to ferry the bodies and about 20 devotees to high ground for the cremation at Mayapur. Hari-sauri dasa said that while sailing across fields in the near dark, the devotees had to dive for cover on the deck as telegraph lines scraped over the boat. Some devotees were almost swept off by the wires; one wire snagged across the deck cabin and snapped, the rest of the wires got caught on the wheel house and were ripped out of the pole. Luckily no one was hurt or electrocuted.

Martial Arts Practice

The boat docked at the main cow shelter and the bodies were washed, clothed in new garments and all the Vaisnava pujas were done for the departed souls. They were then cremated

“The most incredible experience I have had yet” was how His Holiness Bhaktisiddhanta Swami described the recent floods in Mayapur. Bhaktisiddhanta Swami lived in New Zealand for several years traveling in a bus and preaching. The floods began on September 25 and Brahmacaris laid 1000 sandbags to try to control the rising waters of the Ganges but to no avail. Bhaktisiddhanta Swami said that in the temple Ganga’s “fingers stretching about, inching across the floor”. He said that many felt it was an “auspicious occasion” .…” a sign of sankirtan inundation to come.” See website http://www.hknet.org.nz/MayapurFlood2006.html

Spirits were high and a devotee was seen boating around the buildings playing an accordion and chanting the Hare Krishna maha mantra. Bhaktisiddhanta Swami was “busted” when he swam around the Deities four times with flippers. He was taken before the Pancha Tattva deities for inspection then he swam away from the temple. He returned to the temple to play with Pankajanri and Jananivasa the head pujaris, and he said “I have never seen the twins so angelic and naughty.” It was expected that it would take two weeks for the flood to go down.