Malaysia - April 21-23, 2004
A report by Vijaya Krsna dasa


[Although now 84 years old, since 1996, his divine grace Srila Narayana Maharaja has been doing two whorl-wind world preaching tours each year, and for the last few years he has been taking a month-long writing retreat in Hawaii before each tour. This year, he spent the first week of that month (from April 21-28) in Penang, an island in Malaysia, at the end of April he will give discourses at a 3-day festival in Sydney, Australia, from May 2-15 he will be in Hawaii, and on May 16 he will be in LA. Because of his recent operation in India, in Penang he was mainly resting and recuperating. Of course the pure devotee does not really rest, as we do, for he is engaged 24 hours daily in service to their lordships Sri Sri Radha-Krsna and always engaged in delivering the suffering souls of the world by his pure love of God; and in his human-like pastimes (naravata-lila), part of that procedure is giving fortunate souls an opportunity to serve him in a very personal way. The following is a short account of his rest on Penang, written by Vijaya-krsna dasa:]

April 21, 2004

Srila Gurudeva left Kuala Lumpur at 6 am for Penang Island. He spent most of the time in the car chanting, and occasionally asked me questions about the country, the green mountains, the caves and so on. At about 8 am we stopped at a quiet spot for some breakfast, and this was so nice. We all sat on a wooden platform, the mountains surrounding us, and we disciples cut and prepared Srila Gurudeva's breakfast. We arrived in Penang at 9:30 am. Dr. Param (Paramesvari dasa) and family, Vrnda dasi and Bala dasa were there to greet Srila Gurudeva. We performed a foot bathing ceremony and small guru-puja.

Two rooms were prepared for him – one downstairs and one upstairs. We told him the options and he took the one upstairs. At 2 pm he took bath in the sea. He said this was favorable for him, as the sea was calm and warm.

April 22:

On the next morning, after chanting, he went for a walk on the ocean shore to the sea. He liked it there, as the soil in the beach was very firm and good for the legs. I told him the other corner of the ocean is Jagannatha Puri, and then he looked towards the direction of the other side of the ocean and offered prayers. We sat around him and he told us Penang Island is a good place and that he likes the bungalow.

Tomorrow some devotees from Malaysia will visit him, and on the 28th he will inaugurate the new temple in Kuala Lumpur. Now he has gone upstairs to rest, and a couple of us were fortunate enough to have been allowed to carry him up the stairs to his room.

April 23:

Today he seems to be much stronger. On the first day he looked tired, and now he looks much better. At 6:45 am he went for his morning walk, at 8 am he took breakfast, and after that he rested. At 12 pm he took his massage, at 12.30 pm he swam in the sea, at 1:30 pm he took lunch and then he rested again. At 4:30 he sat outside on the balcony overlooking sea, chanting, and at 6 pm he informally met with the Penang devotees.

One of the guests asked him why it is that so many devotees have left the mission of Srila Prabhupada Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja. He answered that they did not have enough spiritual sukrti (spiritual pious credits accumulated by prior devotional activities performed in this or previous lives) to understand the real value of the message brought by Srila Prabhupada, and that is why the bhakti-lata (seed of the creeper of devotion) of so many of his followers could not develop properly. More sadhu-sanga, association with pure devotees, and vaisnava-seva, service to those devotees, will automatically increase the transcendental sukrti and one will become qualified to realize the unprecedented gift of pure devotion to Lord Krsna that was brought to the Western world by Srila Prabhupada and now again by himself.

The guests wanted to make so many pictures of themselves sitting with him, and they all became very happy when he arranged for that. Four or five of them at once requested to be initiated.

Always aspiring to serve Sri Guru and the Vaisnavas, Vijaya Krsna dasa