At a time like this we can’t help but recognize the extremely exalted spiritual position of our very dear god brother, His Holiness Jayapataka Maharaja. When the whole world was in total anxiety about the outcome of the very critical operation to transplant his lever and kidney, he seemed to be totally unperturbed and confident.
He was waiting in Chennai for months for those organs to be available from a suitable living source. Therefore when they became available he seemed to be excited, rather than becoming worried, and when he was being taken to the operation theatre, his mood was of total confidence as if he knew without a shadow of doubt that the operation would be successful.
First operation, the liver transplant, was successful. We felt somewhat hopeful, then we started to get one after another good news: His kidney transplant also was successful, and after about 10 hours of surgery he was taken to the ICU. He was supposed to be under total sedation for two days. However, the next day they took him out of it and we got the good news that
the transplanted organs were functioning effectively and the ventilator had been taken out and he was breathing on his own. We felt thankful to Krishna for listening to our prayers and became confident about his situation.
When he came out of his sedation and regained his consciousness, the first
words that came from his mouth were “Jai Jagannath”.
The doctors began to wonder whether this was a miracle. Yes it was indeed a most wonderful miracle – an inconceivable display of Krishna’s mercy upon
His very dear devotee.
The latest news is that the transplanted kidney has been functioning so well that he passed 1.2 liters of urine. Whereas before the operation he was having dialysis thrice a week. The operation had been totally
successful. Today, he came out of his bed and sat down on a chair for 20 minutes in the morning and one hour in the afternoon. These are all a very sure sign of remarkable recovery.
When you look back , we can see that Jayapataka Maharaja always had been an amazingly outstanding devotee. When Srila Prabhupada decided to take our
movement to Mayapur, Jayapataka Maharaja fully committed himself to that
project recognizing that it was the most important mission of our movement. He not only committed to that mission but dedicated his whole life to it.
Life was not easy in Mayapur those days. Not only did they not have proper living facility but there was no resources to even take care of their day to day needs. However, that difficult situation did not discourage him, rather inspired him to continue to serve Srila Prabhupada with full
conviction. Since then what he had done in Mayapur is known to everyone.
After Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance, he started to give imitation as one of the first eleven initiating spiritual masters. When most of the devotees who assumed that responsibility became victims of Maya’s allurements and fell down from the spiritual path, he carried on without slightest deviation.
When he had the stroke in Mumbai in 2008, the possibility of his survival was practically nil. That evening Mr. Ashok Hinduja, the owner of the Hinduja hospital where he was being treated, came along with the chief
medical officer of the hospital and the head of the neurosurgery department, to meet us at the Juhu temple and informed us that we should prepare ourselves for Jayapataka Maharaj’s departure from this planet that night. However, we saw how inconceivably his recovered.
His body may have been affected by that stroke but his mind, intelligence and spirt was not at all affected. Rather his memory and intelligence became even sharper and his determination to serve became even more stronger. He started to travel around the world, preaching and making disciples and now through this operation in Chennai we can see how wonderfully Krishna is protecting him. All these wonderful happenings are definite indicators of an extremely exhaled devotee who has dedicated himself completely in the service of Krishna and is being taken care of by Him in the most wonderful way.
Although we long to see Jayapataka Maharaj in his vibrant youthful form – shooting arrows to hit the bull’s eye, stick in his hand marching forward with a group of devotees following him to face the dacoits, swim across the Ganges like a champion swimmer, broadcasting the glories of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in front of thousands of spellbound audience, but still we consider it to be our great good fortune that he is still with us to push Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s mission fulfilling the dreams of Srila Prabhupada. Just his presence gives us so much confidence and brings so much joy to our hearts. We are so thankful to Krishna for listening to our prayers and letting him be with us.