Hare Krishna dear Guru Maharaja !
Please accept my humble obeisances...
All glories to Srila Prabhupada !
I'm writing to you by the instruction of your disciple Arjuna Das. He asked to me that I write this letter to you about our dear friend and brother, your servant, Rodrigo. Arjuna Das wants to let you know the details we have recopilated from Rodrigo's family about his departure from this world. So, I will make a chronological relate about the events. First at all, I want to ask apologizes to Rodrigo, Arjuna and to you, for my delay in writing this letter; please, you all, please forgive me.
ASA - AGTSP paoho Nothing to forgive from us.
Wednesday, February 13, first Rodrigo's fainting around 4 pm (same day Arjuna and me had a meeting about NIOS, ASA, etc., I had to travel to Santiago specially for the meeting Arjuna asked me. We finished this meeting around 1 pm. and very near to Rodrigo's home, but we didn't knew anything).
The first Rodrigo's fainting was in his home (parents home). The ambulance delayed in arriving. Even cops came and give it to him first aids, Rodrigo looked purple colour. Before the ambulance came, Catalina (Rodrigo's favourite cousin, a young woman, and a very importan person into his departure process) and her mother they came to stay with him and accompany him. This aunt was like another mother to Rodrigo, because she helped into his upbringing and growing. When ambulance came, they had to wait, cause at the time they wanted to pick up Rodrigo to get him upon the ambulance, he suffered several heart attacks, so they had to wait. Once into the hospital, they connected him to machines, cables, oxygen, etc.
Thursday, February 14, around 9 am. the pulse machine stopped dialing, Doctors said "he died". Since this moment, Catalina, Rodrigo's favourite cousin, she took the japa, started to chant the Maha Mantra and, also, reading Bhagavad Gita aloud. She did this at least by 2 hours, since Rodrigo was pronounced dead by doctors, during the journey to his parents' house, while they dressed him and until they finished. Catalina told me later (when she shared all these details with me), after doing this (Maha Mantra and BG) Rodrigo's face changed expression and he looked relaxed. Catalina put his japa in his right hand, and his Bhagavad Gita in the left one, as well a Goura Nitay´s garland before they closed the coffin.
Around noon. My sister, Gita Vali DD, called me by phone and told me, crying: Rodrigo left the body. I cried a lot, I was in shock because I thought was a kind of suicide, according to what some devotees had told to my sister... but now, I know that this did not happen this way. I tried to calm down and I went out to make my daily tasks... I called Arjuna... I visited some customers, as quickly as I could, and later went to the church where they made the wake: "Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus", a convent of nuns, just in the back of Rodrigo's parents home. Once there, with Arjuna and ohter devotees we chanted Maha Mantra around the coffin and sharing the afternoon talking about Rodrigo and remembering him. Catalina caught my attention from the moment I saw her, because she was the person who cries the most and suffer for Rodrigo; later I knew she is the favourite cousin of Rodrigo, like a little and loved sister, so by the end of the day I got close to talk to her and she told me about her close relationship with Rodrigo since she were a little girl and, also, details about his departure. This day it was supposed that I had to come back to the beach I were working, but Krishna helped me with some arrangement and I could stay for the next day ceremony from the church to the cemetery.
Friday, February 15. I arrived to the church at 9 am. (time they open the doors to the public), Rodrigo's family was arriving at the same time. Later, your disciples and aspirants came: Arjuna Das, Jagad Guru Das, Ananda Vardhana Das, Sripati Das, Danhista Devi Dasi, Piero, Miguel, Juan Elgueda... and also a lot of devotees and a lot of Rodrigo's friends from his different areas of work. So, once inside the church and next to the coffin, Catalina told me about her close relationship with Rodrigo and also the details I've shared with you in the first paragraphs of this letter. Listening to her, I realized that Rodrigo was training her all this time in Krishna Consciousness and he left the body in company of one devotee, the same devotee he trained. AGTSP! And suddenly she told me "Last night, I had a dream with Rodrigo: I appears in a very beutiful place, an open field, big trees, flowers everywhere, mountains, a river, and everything was shining: the grass, the flowers, the sky, everything... and Rodrigo very very effulgent in the middle of this sitting in the lotus position with his japa in the right hand. I ran towards to him and he said -Catalina, please, tell my parents they don't have to suffer for me, I am very well, because I am in the place where I always wanted to be, and tell to my friends that I have accomplished it-." Waw! Was amazing to me heard this! I said to Catalina "that not was a dream", and we start chanting together a Maha Mantra round dedicated to Rodrigo. She has got her own japa, a Rodrigo's gift. Since this talking, I feel no more pain about Rodrigo, even I started to feel some joy because I know he is very very well right now. Catalina started to eat only vegetarian food since Rodrigo departure, it is an offering and sacrifice in honor of her beloved cousin/brother, and she said this is forever.
She and the family told us that on Monday of that same week, Rodrigo received some results of medical tests, and he had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, so he should have injected insulin every day, and also they found a heart disease.
11 am. starts the mass. A few minutes before, the priest came and heard the Srila Prabhupada's voice chanting the Maha Mantra through a mobile phone upon the coffin, and he said to us "you must to turn off that", so Arjuna grabbed his phone and kept it. After the mass, I was one of the men who took the coffin to get it into the funeral car, also Arjuna. Once outside the church, all devotees chanting Maha Mantra with instruments. Before leaving the church, I wanted to say goodbye to a nun who always looked at us with beautiful eyes, without fear or anything like that, and I told her a story as if it were mine, but it's a story I've heard from older devotees here in Chile. .. so I went to her and said "Thank you very much, you all are so nice... Many years ago a nun came to our congregation and finally get initiated without abandoning his Christian faith and when she meditated on the Maha Mantra she does it this way "Hare Kristo, Hare Kristo, Kristo, Kristo , Hare, Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Hare Hare"... and her eyes started to shine! And she said to me, looking deep into my eyes and quietly, "these days, I've been chanting the mantra..." and her smile was shining! I felt she was talking trully! AGTSP!
A long caravan of cars, leading by the hearse. Arjuna, Piero, Juan and Carlos Rold in the second car. The cemetery its called "Parque del Recuerdo" (memory park or park of remembering), very big and greeny. Another priest, another mass, brief this time. Later, family and friends give their final words, also I had to talk and the first I said was "Rodrigo is a Vaishnava, this means a person who follows the teachings of Lord Krishna..." I read some poetry of his last book and some verses of Bhagavad Gita (2.12, 2.13, 4.24, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.13, 9.27, 9.28), only the verses, and I tried to highlight the pure heart and giving attitude that Rodrigo teached us always through his example. Later, some of your disciples gave other words. Finally, the coffin get inside a big door opened from into the ground while Maha Mantra sounded beautiful from devotee's hearts and lips.
A few days later they turned the body into ashes and the family divided the ashes into 2 parts, 1 for them and another to take to India.
Since one week later, ASA Chile, Dharma Comunicaciones (Rodrigo's enterprise) and Derrame (surrealist group founded by Rodrigo) are working toghether producing the launch event of the book "Dreams, Visions and Mantras". I read it twice. His book is amazing. Rodrigo was a genius. I recieved his book the same day he left the body, February 14th, Catalina gave it to me, and Rodrigo put my name into the thanksfull area... I recieved it in Saint Valentine's day, I never care for this comercial dates, anyway my heart was broken. I haven't got the book with me right now (I had to gave it to some person cause the launch event), but I send to you some graphics of the event this march 26, it is the same art.
I feel sorry for myself for not having had enough intelligence and heart to have appreciated Rodrigo while he was still among us. I was not a good friend with him. I am not a good friend with my friends. I have realized that I do not know what love is, I do not know how to love.
Mister Raul Zurita was advised about Rodrigo's departure, I personally communicated with him, but he will not participate in the event because he is not in Chile. He has a copy of the book in his hands.
Tuesday, March 26, 7 pm., will be the launch of the book and the tribute to Rodrigo. I will not participate because that day I will be in Lima, Perú, I'm going this wednesday March 20 to make some bussines, I've got to buy Pima Cotton to create some clothes. I will travel with my fiancee and we will stay in María and Abhirama's home. With Abhirama will talk to join forces for this year events "Education and the Sacred". We want to get the slide show that your disciple (Samaresh Prabhu?) exposed a few days ago through Gotomeeting from Boise. I'm just waiting another oportunity to serve you again, please, Gurudeva, let me serve you just one more time.
Your aspiring disciple and servant,
Carlos Rold.
HpS - Thank you very, very much. It is nice if there is formal initiation, like a boy and girl getting formally married, but if there are complications, such as a crazy body, then Krsna makes adjustments, no? Like you say, Rodrigo has gone up. Maybe we can work to translate, rewrite, his book into English, some of the poems, publish here and in NIOS. We hope the book launch is a great success. Thank you to everyone. Did you have a Sraddha ceremony? Like 10 days afte he left his body? At the Sunday festival you have a picture of him, devotees talk about him and offer him plate of Maha-prasadam.
