Thursday, May 8, 2008

Gopilila's time in this body has ended...

Dear devotees and friends,
As you may know Gopilila left this world Tuesday, may 6, 2008 at about8.15 pm. By Sri Krishna's arrangement there were several devotees chanting for her and we built it to a crescendo with a nice kirtan. We chanted for her till about midnight, when the funeral home came and picked her up Before they took her body away, a few of the devotees bathed her and dressed her in a nice sari, decorated her body with tilak and we had a kirtan till the body was taken away.
Her cremation is on Friday, May 9th at 10 am. Please try and remember her at this hour wherever you are...
thank you for all the prayers and support.

3 comments:

Michael said...

My heart is with you old friend.

Michael Hobson (aka Bhakta Mike from our temple days)

kalkidd said...

Gopi was and still is a special spirit soul who we will miss very much. Surely Krsna knew her pain and the pain her loved ones were going thru with her, and He took her to Him.
My heart goes out to you Hari, and especially the children Vrnda and Gopala and to the parents. All who knew her were touched by her simplicity and sweetness.

Devadeva Mirel said...

Hari Bhakta Prabhu--my husband and I were so happy to see you at New Vrindavan this past weekend. We are so, so sorry we missed Gopi's memorial. We were really looking forward to it but then heard that the ceremony was pushed back a few hours. We are so sorry to have missed it.

I just have this one little memory of Gopi that I would like to share. As you know, I only lived at New V a few months, but Gopi was really sweet to me. We were next door neighbors.

Like I said, she was sweet but she was always Gopi. What I mean was, she was always very real and kind and feminine but not sappy and overly sweet. I was having difficulties with my situation and confided in her about it. Her response was very warm and caring. And then she looked at me and said, "Well, maybe you should stop drinking so much hot chocolate."

It was winter and I was in the habit of returning to my room after the morning program and fixing myself a cup of hot chocolate. I could tell from her statement at that time that she didn't approve of my habit. I thought it was funny that she never said anything to me before about it and that she chose this specific time to say something.

I definitely cut back after that.
When I talked to her on the phone a couple of months ago I brought this up. She didn't remember. It was one of those small details of someone's life that goes unnoticed amongst all the other details. But for me, whenever I have a cup of hot chocolate, I always hear Gopi's loving chastisement.

Also, I remember what a good cook she was. She didn't cook so much when I was at New V because you were working and she was alone with Gopal, who was crazy for mo-mo's. But I do remember one evening she made potato fennel soup that was out of this world. Everyone said it reminded them of Mother Kunti's soup.

I remember how dedicated she was to taking shelter of the Holy Name as well as what a great mom she was to Gopal. And I remember how happy she would get when you were about to visit from Ohio.

My husband and I really were happy to see you, Prabhu, and hope that we get some more opportunities to see you in the future.