Gopaljiu News and Parikramas

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Location: Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India

Hare Krishna! Welcome to the Gopal Jiu Publications blog. This will give you some information about Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami, show you some of the ancient tirthas and places we have been researching and visiting here in India, and give you some news and updates on our festivals, seminars and publishing works. You may also be interested in these other links:


Main blog site for Gopal Jiu Publications: http://gopaljiupublications.blogspot.com

Official site for Gopal Jiu Publications:
http://www.gopaliu.org

Now static blog sites with some old news:
http://sggsm.blogspot.com/

http://gopaljiunews.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Departure of Srimati Sundaramani Giri

We are sorry to inform you of the departure of Srimati Sundaramani Giri, the beloved wife of Sri Damodar Giri.

For those of you who may not know, Damodar Giri is the maternal cousin of Srila Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja.

Damodar Giri Prabhu came to visit us this morning with the news. He also provided us with the following information: Sundaramani Giri was born in the village of Hajipur in Orissa. Her marriage was arranged by her father. She was 14 and Damodar Giri was 19 at the time of their wedding. They were married for 63 years. Sundaramani was very fond of nama kirtana. She departed this world in her home in Gadeigiri at the time of Gopal's evening arotika (about 6:30 PM) on the 2nd of April on the auspicious day of Papamocani Ekadasi.

Damodar said that about 6 months before she had some kind of stroke after which she was paralyzed from her legs down. During the last 6 months she was mostly sleeping, as she was when she left her body. Seeing that she was going to leave soon the Gadeigiri devotees were doing asta-pahari kirtana in front of the house when she left.

We asked Damodar what his realization was after losing his wife of so many years. He said that he no longer wanted to live at home and had moved into the ashram at the Gadeigiri Temple where he is now absorbing himself in bhajan and worship of Gopal.

Sundaramani leaves behind her husband Damodar Giri age 82, two daughters: Savitri age 50, Revati 45, and two sons: Ramakanta 42 and Umakanta 39.

There will be a festival of kirtana and prasadam in honor of Sundaramani on the 15th of April 2008 in Gadeigiri village around 12 Noon. That same evening the annual Vasanta Rasa Lila Festival will be observed for Sri Sri Radha Gopaljiu.

Although apparently a simple village lady, Sundaramani lived a very glorious life with a wonderfully auspicious departure. We pray for her blessings.

We hope to get a photo of her soon. When we do we will post it here on our blogsite.

Vaishnava kripa prarthi,
Madhavananda Das