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A Tribhuvanath Anecdote
by Adi Guru das

Dublin, Hare Krsna Cultural Centre, 1994-5– We all live in a basement on a busy road in downtown Dublin, around six brahmacaris. Upstairs is the shop front and simple Temple room with a huge picture of Panca-Tattva on the altar.

Tribhuvanath prabhu spends 5 or 6 days with us at a time; then he's back on the road, driving 400-500 miles, visiting temples in Ireland and UK and raising money to keep the Dublin centre open as well as fund the Inis Rath Temple. While he is with us he lifts our reluctant hearts into carefree bliss with every kirtan.

There is a tambura here he likes to play for mangala-arati and Jaya-Radha-Madhava. We gather in the cold for the first arati with chadars and jumpers and hats. By the time we have reached yasya prasada bhagava..., we are tearing our upper garments and dancing in bliss and being careful not to be hit by the tambura that is now flailing wildly in Tribhuvanath's hands. Very soon he changes to the mrdanga..., no mangala-aratis in the world like this.

His class is very philosophical and yet very charming, enticing us with his devotional preaching bhavas. His love and complete surrender to Srila Prabhupada is stunning. When he talks intimately about Srila Prabhupada, you can see love. After he showed us a Prabhupada slide show once, I said to him, "Wow! Prabhupada brought the whole spiritual world with Him."

"Prabhupada was the spiritual world," he replied.

I couldn't say anything more.

He hardly ever slept horizontally, always falling asleep during late-night japa. He used to chant 20 rounds every day but was always so busy he usually finished them in the evening.

I am fortunate to have many more memories of Tribhuvanath. His sadhana was kirtan, and his life was preaching kirtan — to as many souls as he could reach, through festival after festival after festival.

Hare Krsna,
Adi-Guru das

© CHAKRA 22 October 2001