{"id":2568,"date":"2016-06-15T22:05:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T16:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/?p=2568"},"modified":"2016-06-15T22:05:51","modified_gmt":"2016-06-15T16:35:51","slug":"the-rebirth-of-ranganath-dasa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/the-rebirth-of-ranganath-dasa-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rebirth of Ranganath Dasa"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Acarya Dasa<\/p>\n

Some four years ago our padayatra <\/em>party was travelling in Punjab. One day we did a program at the home of Mr. Vinod Sindi, a high ranking officer in the military. The program went well and was attended by many soldiers who danced with us in kirtana<\/em> and took prasadam<\/em>. After the program, on our way from Amristsar to Batala, one of our padayatris, <\/em>Ranganath Dasa who was from Tirupati, was walking at the back of the ratha<\/em>\/ bullock cart when suddenly a vehicle crashed into him. The car had hit him very badly; his skull was broken and the wheels had gone over his leg. There was blood everywhere. We were afraid that we had lost him. Our party sprung into action and holding onto hope we rushed him to a nearby hospital. His condition was critical.\u00a0 He remained unconscious and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The doctors were doing their best and we decided not to inform his family at that time.<\/p>\n

Soon after the incident we called Mr Vinod Sindi to tell him what had happened. He recommended that we move Ranganath Dasa to the military hospital. He arranged a military ambulance and transported him to the military hospital where he was quickly operated on. We were all praying intensely for his recovery and when we informed Lokanath Swami of what had happened \u2013he said to take good care of Raganath Dasa and to get him the best doctors. \u201cThe Lord will take care of him\u201d, he said and \u201cwe will all pray for him.\u201d Thanks to the mercy of Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar the operation was successful. The hospital expenses were paid for by both our padayatra <\/em>funds and by Mr.Sindi. Ranganath Dasa\u2019s family was then informed and as soon as he regained consciousness Lokanath Swami advised that he should go back to his home to rest.\u00a0 At this point he had spent about a month in ICU.<\/p>\n

It was six months later when our padayatra <\/em>party travelled to Allahabad for the Kumbha Mela<\/em> \u2013and to our surprise Ranganath Dasa came to see us there.\u00a0 He was walking in spite of the fracture in four places.\u00a0 The doctors had to put four rods in his leg because of the extent of the damage, yet here he was walking again. It was indeed a miracle. When he saw us he began to cry and asked to see Nitai Gaurasundar, \u201cThey saved me\u201d he said. \u201cI am punar janma <\/em>(reborn). It\u2019s all because of Them that I am walking. I want to take darsana<\/em> of the Lord. I want to walk with padayatra<\/em>\u201d he said. We consoled him and told him that soon padayatra <\/em>will come to his town and he will have the Lord\u2019s darsana<\/em> there. When we saw Ranganath Dasa walking it reminded us of this sloka<\/em>:<\/p>\n

pa\u1e45gu\u1e41 la\u1e45ghayate girim
\nyat-k\u1e5bp\u0101 tam aha\u1e41 vande[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

By the Lord\u2019s mercy even the lame can cross mountains. Ranganath Dasa recovered quickly in order to fulfill the mission of his Guru and to return to the seva <\/em>of Nitai Gaurasundar. He is a great soul who never thought, \u201cI have done so much seva <\/em>for the Lord, why did this accident happen?\u201d Instead he thought, \u201cI was saved by the Lord.\u201d After he recovered all he wanted to do was see Nitai Gaurasundar.<\/p>\n

Sometime later our party travelled to Tirupati where Ranganath Dasa finally received the darsana <\/em>of Nitai Gaurasundar. He paid obeisances and wept with love at the sight of the Lord. Without any hesitation, he said to us, \u201cI will come with you!\u201d When we told Lokanath Swami about Ranganath Dasa\u2019s desire to join us once again Maharaj said that he should take rest, become fit and fine and then rejoin the padayatra<\/em>. Lokanath Swami, our Gurudev and spiritual father understood Ranganath Dasa\u2019s condition and gave him instructions to take care of his health and recover completely before rejoining.<\/p>\n

\u015bar\u012bram\u0101dya\u1e43 khalu dharmas\u0101dhanam<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThis body is an instrument for doing good deeds.\u201d This phrase from Kalidasa\u2019s Kumarasambhavan tells us that our first duty is to care for the body \u2013because this body is the means with which we can pursue spiritual life. It is a gift from the Lord which we can use to serve Him. It is also by guru-krpa<\/em> (the mercy of Guru) and Bhagavan-krpa <\/em>(the mercy of God) that even the most impossible things become possible. Ranganath Dasa is an example of this.\u00a0 He had recovered so quickly that even the doctors that treated him were astonished. \u201cWe have never seen a man recover so fast.\u00a0 Whenever we treated him, we could tell how eager he was to walk again\u201d, they said. We told them that it was Nitai Gaurasundar who had given him the power to recover \u2013because they wanted Their child to come back to padayatra<\/em>, to walk with Them and serve Them.<\/p>\n

A year and half later Ranganath Dasa rejoined our padayatra <\/em>party. He surprises us all when we see him walking 15 kilometers a day. We cannot believe that not too long ago he was involved in a terrible accident and had to undergo a big operation, and yet here he is today distributing Bhagavad-gitas<\/em> on the street. Whenever he meets someone he preaches to them and his special practice is to get them to write the mahamantra<\/em> 108 times on paper. He then asks them to offer the paper to the lotus feet of Nitai Gaurasundar, after which he then gives them japa mala<\/em> for chanting. Ranganath Dasa has intensified his book distribution and is very eager to preach. He says, \u201cNitai Gaurasundar saved me, now I will devote this life to Their service.\u201d<\/p>\n

We must remember that in all calamities the Lord and our spiritual master are always with us.<\/p>\n

Nitai Gaurasundar ki!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> The Caitanya-caritamrta Madhya 17.80:\u00a0 The Supreme Personality of Godhead has the form of sac-cid-\u0101nanda-vigraha \u2014 transcendental bliss, knowledge and eternity. I offer my respectful obeisances unto Him, who turns the dumb into eloquent speakers and enables the lame to cross mountains. Such is the mercy of the Lord.<\/p>\n

\"Ranganath
Ranganath Dasa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Acarya Dasa Some four years ago our padayatra party was travelling in Punjab. One day we did a program at the home of Mr. Vinod Sindi, a high ranking officer in the military. The program went well and was attended by many soldiers who danced with us in kirtana and took prasadam. After the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padayatra.com\/padayatra-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}