 Tribhuvanatha
Dasa
"The light that burns twice as bright..."
Tribhuvanatha Prabhu left his body early on Tuesday 16th October 2001.
Earlier in the year, he had been diagnosed with stomach cancer while on
a preaching tour of Africa, and had made several trips to Brazil for treatment
from a Christian healer.
Tribhuvanatha was in Brazil with his close friend and associate Giridhari,
who was chanting Hare Krishna at his moment of his leaving.
Tribhuvanatha had arranged to sponsor a feast at Bhaktivedanta Manor
on the day of his dearture in memory of a devotee friend in Africa. By
an ironic arrangement of Krishna, this turned out to be his own departure
feast also.
Devotees everywhere have been very moved to hear of his passing, and
have been glorifying him as a great and special soul with a very bright
future.
Tribhuvanath's funeral was held at Bhaktivedanta Manor and Hendon
Cematorium on Saturday 27th October. Around 700 devotees, friends
and family participated in his last rites, glorifying, honouring and remembering
this most energetic, friendly and austere devotee of Krishna. The next
morning, there was a festival of rememberance, with many anecdotes told
of Tribhuvanatha's extraordinary life.
Tribhuvanatha is an early disciple of Srila Prabhupada from Bury Place
days, and is famed for his exhuberant kirtana. A past president of
the Govindadwipa and Birmingham
temples, he was a very active preacher in this world, and lead a festival
party travelling throughout the UK, Ireland and Africa.
We hope Krishna will be kind upon this special soul so he may long continue
the glorification of the Lord in his uniquely special and individual way.
Riddha remembers Tribhuvanatha
Riddha Dasa is one of Tribuvanatha's close godbrothers. In an interview
he spoke of Tribhuvanatha's less-well-known preaching.
"Tribhuvanatha was a pioneer of preaching in the Middle East. He
told me just a few weeks before he left of how Srila Prabhupada explained
Krishna's special mercy received by one who preaches in Arab countries.
In the 1970s, Tribhuvanatha and some of his godbrothers such as Mahakratu
and Padmapani risked their lives preaching in numerous Arab countries
such as Lebanon and Syria. They survived heavy bombardment during the
Yom Kippur war. Then, due to the mercy of Tribhuvanatha, the first arabic
Bhagavad-Gita was produced in Palestine.
At that time, because the devotees were so successful in their daily
activities, they came under the watchful eyes of the PLO, who mistook
them for Israeli spies. Tribhuvanatha was wrongly arrested in Damascus
and imprisoned in a terrorist cell, with only enough room to lie down.
He was tortured and interrogated for one month, finally being released
without charge.
Back in the UK, Tribhuvanatha quietly recovered from his ordeal, being
less outwardly active in temple life. Several years later, in 1984, I
met Tribhuvanatha on a London street; rekindling our friendship, I took
him straight to the Soho Radha-Krishna temple, where his great devotion
for Krishna began expanding again.
Tribhuvanatha went on to become one of the most dynamic and best-loved
devotees in the UK and Irish yatras, famous for his qualities throughout
the Hare Krishna world."
More remembrances
of Tribhuvanatha
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