The passing of Sriman Gopinath Acharya Prabhu.
I offer my most humble, prostrated obeisances unto the lotus feet of His Grace Sriman Gopinath Acharya Prabhu, who departed this mortal world on the Bhaima Ekadasi day in the first week of February 2017, at Murwillumbah New South Wales, Australia.
I am sure that he is now in the divine company of The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna and the cowherd boys, fully engaged in The Lords eternal loving pastimes (as he was when he was with us) with the exception of the trials and sufferings the material world inflicts upon us all.
Sriman Gopinath Acharya Prabhu was like a diamond and his light was too bright for this world. Like a diamond his strong realization and purity was ‘tempered’ by austerity (tapasya) and the uncompromising belief in the instructions (vani) of His Divine Grace AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.
A strict brahmacari since the age of 16 years, Gopinath Acharya was the best example of renunciation without any hint of misogyny or false pride and his sweet, softly spoken manner was hypnotic and engaging, leaving a strong impression (samskara) on all those who were fortunate enough to appreciate his association.
It hit me hard when I heard of his passing and was strongly compelled to say a few words. Amid the ”circus parade” of fools and rascals posing as vaisnava ”leaders” it is, I feel, certainly a great offense to overlook the passing of such a genuine advanced soul who never sought any ‘limelight’.
May those fools and reprobates who kicked this great, surrendered soul off the ISKCON Farm (for simply being uncompromising in his devotion to the instructions of Srila Prabhupada) and also made life very difficult for him , hang their heads in shame! The vengeance and anger of The Lord will be upon you!
I pray for the dust of the lotus feet of my dear friend Sriman Gopinath Acharya Prabhu.
Daso Smi
Sudarsana Das Vanacari
DO YOU KNOW THAT THERE MUST BE PRASADAM DISTRIBUTED? AFTER THREE DAYS AFTER THE DEMISE OF A VAISNAVA A FUNCTION SHOULD BE HELD FOR OFFERING THE DEPARTED SOUL AND ALL OTHERS PRASADAM. THIS IS THE SYSTEM.
73-11-14 Letter: Revatinandana
Regarding the auto accident, just hold a condolence meeting for Raghava dasa brahmacari and pray for his soul to Krsna for giving him a good chance for advancement in Krsna consciousness. Certainly Krsna will give him a good place to take birth where he can again begin in Krsna consciousness activities. That is sure. BUT, WE OFFER OUR CONDOLENCES TO A DEPARTED SOUL SEPARATED FROM A VAISNAVA. DO YOU KNOW THAT THERE MUST BE PRASADAM DISTRIBUTED? AFTER THREE DAYS AFTER THE DEMISE OF A VAISNAVA A FUNCTION SHOULD BE HELD FOR OFFERING THE DEPARTED SOUL AND ALL OTHERS PRASADAM. THIS IS THE SYSTEM.
Dear Sudarsana prabhu, thank you for this article.
Gopinathacarya das prabhu was a very special devotee. He was born into a Seventh Day Adventist family and was therefore a strict vegetarian from birth with no sexual contact with women. He received initiation from Srila Prabhupada in mid-1973 and was one of the leading book distributors on the TSKP party in Australia. I was fortunate to have his association distributing Srila Prabhupada’s books from 1973-75 and a more dedicated brahmacari & Vaisnava devotee would be hard to find. Madhudvisa (ex GBC-swami) asked Gopinath & me to go to Brisbane to open up the big book distribution there in ’73, so we packed the Kombi with cases until the tyres couldn’t take any more load and set off for about a month. We based out of the small temple that was there, only a dozen or so devotees, but it had become heavily influenced by Siddhaswarup’s ‘haribol’ crew and there was no strict program, so there was much conflict. We returned to Sydney after distributing the books to continue our TSKP service. Gopinathacarya prabhu was just that.. a true acarya who taught and showed by his personal example.
Yfs, Balaram das.
Tributes from his Godbrothers>>
Gaura Mandala Bhumi prabhu..Indonesia.
Gopinath Acarya was a very good devotee and a humble and loyal servant of Srila Prabhupada. He memorized all 700 verses of Bhagavad gita and used to chant every day in his mind. I used to distribute sets of Bhagavatams with him in the suburbs of Sydney at night many years ago. And I remember he won the kirtana dance competition at NG at Govardhana Puja in 1977, a few days before Srila Prabhuada passed away. I was playing the mrdanga that time. Later on he took to serving the cows at NG, along with Lagudi das. He researched about cows quite a lot. Do you know that Swanson Street, the main street of Melbourne, is named after a bull who worked on the making of that road? Gopinath was one of the first to expose the corruption among the Australian leadership. His passing is a great loss to us all. He was our dear friend and godbrother. We pray that he has gone Back to Godhead, to continue his serve to Srila Prabhupada.
YS> GMBd
Gopikanta das
All Glories to the assembled devotees.
This is an account of what went down, and up, at Gopinath Acharya’s memorial gathering.
Proceedings had begun so I quietly took a back seat outside and looked around. No one knew me and I knew no one I could recognise.
Then I spotted Lagudi prabhu (he hasn’t changed his appearance in 50 years and is now 77 years young) waved him over next to me and we embraced.
He told me that Gopinath was found by a visiting devotee in the paddock off the farm near where he resided, in his Bhajan Kutir, in Dandavats position on the ground. The devotee approached and asked Gopinath to rise but no response. He had left his body on Ekadasi.
Lagudi also told me that Gopinath’s last birthday fell on Janmastami.
During the memorial many astounding facts were revealed about this Great Soul.
He was born in a Seventh Day Adventist family and was a vegetarian from day one.
He was a naistiki brahmacari.
Since the day of his initiation he never broke his vows to Srila Prabhupada, not once.
His service record says it all.
Book distributor extraordinaire.
Humble servant of the servants always.
Truly learned scholar and expert practitioner of the teachings in Srimad Bhagavatam and Chaitanya Charitamrita and all Vaisnava literatures given by Srila Prabhupada.
Lord, Lover and Protector of the cows, as his name suggests.
He was also an acharya who set the standard by his example not just his words and obviously Srila Prabhupada knew this from their first meeting.
He tolerated abuse and disrespect like a strong but humble tree. He remained immovable from his righteous position through storm and tempest both gross and subtle.
He had no enemies as he saw everyone as a friend, all creatures great and small down to the cockroaches and ants he lived with in his later years, up to the high and mighty self appointed “leaders” of society who banished him ruthlessly from their association.
Perhaps, to me at least, the most poignant speaker at the memorial was the farmer who gave Gopinath shelter in his exile. With genuine tears in his eyes and with broken hearted trembling voice he told of his good fortune to have had Gopinath’s association, guidance and friendship. How he misses this now is obvious as do we all. Lagudi whispered to me that through Gopinath’s short association as his honoured guest, this beef cattle farmer for generations had given up this practice of growing cows for slaughter. That is the Power and the Glory of a true Vaisnava in action.
GOPINATH ARCHARYA, KI JAYA !!!
Your fallen servant
Balaram das.
All the necessary samskaras were done by sincere souls for Gopinath Acharya.
Many thanks to all the vaisnavas who have spoken such kind words and honored Gopinath’s service to Srila Prabhupada and the devotee community. Such nectarean observations and stories of advanced souls such as Gopinath Acharya Prabhu certainly strengthen our resolve and realization in our own practice of Bhakti and detachment from this temporary material world.
I have a question for the prabhus here, hopefully you will have the answer. Is Gopinath prabhu the same one who, while in exile from iskcon, compiled a three volume set of quotes, lectures etc of Srila Pabhupada with the title of “make Vrndavan”?
Yhs, ofs.
Dear Prabhu. My apologies for the late reply as I was not 100% sure in regards to your question. Gopinatha Acharya Prabhu’s e mail begun with the words ‘makevrindavan’ (as I noticed in my address book the other day) but I am not sure about any ‘compilation of Srila Prabhupada’s quotes’, lectures, letters etc on the subject or whether such a collection of quotes has been completed by him.
It is only a matter of time before there is a catastrophic event with the inclusion of a complete financial collapse on a worldwide scale which may also include war, and also genetically manufactured viruses which has long been the plan of corrupt banking elite*. Given that such a compilation on Varnashrama has been undertaken by Gopinath Acharya Prabhu presents an opportunity for the devotional community to publish such a valuable work which would leave a lasting legacy to future generations and a lasting tribute to a wonderful advanced soul such as Gopinath Acharya Prabhu.
The establishment or the Varnashrama system was the second part of Srila Prabhupada’s goal so such information in this regard would be of the utmost value. If any devotees have such a copy of Gopinath Acharyas (compilations of Srila Prabhupada’s words) I would be very interested in hearing from you.
* The World Order. A Study in the Hegemony of Parasitism. by Eustace Mullins. (can be read online!)
Daso Smi
Sudarsana
Hare Krsna OFS Prabhu,
When I googled “Make Vrndavan.. Compilations”, the only thing that came up was the following>>>
“Make Vrndavan Villages Highlights of the issue:
https://ebooks.iskcondesiretree.com/pdf/The_Eight_Pet… Proxy Highlight
Make Vrndavan Villages. Hrikesha Mas. Volume: 03 …… It is a lovely compilation of different pastimes involving gomata, picked up from different Puranas and ….”
I’m fairly sure that Gopinathacarya Prabhu didn’t have any involvement with work.
Hope that helps.
Yfs, Balaram das.
http://www.prabhupadanugas.eu/news/?p=8468
http://www.makevrndavan.org/
Dear Webmaster. Thanks for that . I will download it in the next few days and have a read!
Dandavats. All Glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Hare Krsna Webmaster,
Thanks for clearing that up. I hadn’t been with Gopinathacarya prabhu since SKP in the 1970s and was unaware of this service/project that he undertook for Srila Prabhupada. Unfortunately I also read the comments on the post you quoted… enough said on that!
Yfs, Bal.