Today I’m going to reveal an unpopular, but extraordinary and very special devotee of the Supreme Lord
Childhood
The lord sometimes sends his associates to this world to spread God's consciousness; through that soul, he tries to set an example for people like us. One such great soul was a girl called Lenda. She was born on January 16th, 1949 in Detroit, Michigan. Her father was a doctor and her mother was a simple-hearted and loving lady. She had a sweet disposition and was always smiling and cheerful.
Since childhood, she had a kind, loving & caring heart full of compassion. Once she had a dog called “Pepperdoodle”. One day the dog was struck and killed by a car. Due to this incident, she was so hearted that she was lost in the separation of his best friend “Pepperdoodle” for days. Another such incident was when in her school everybody was given a rat in the laboratory for an experiment. After completing the experiment, all rats were supposed to be killed. She took her rat in a cage and kept it inside her jacket, where she looked like a pregnant girl. By hiding from the school authorities she brought that rat into her home and took care of it.
She was not much interested in the “American Dream” like lifestyle or in those days Hippies where who wanted to explore life by taking alcohol, drugs, illicit sex, and gambling were all normal for them. But she chooses to marry and settle down, so at the age of nineteen, she marries Michael.
Linda’s words “When I was a child I had all money, all opulence, all facility, but I always knew there has to be something more than this”
A Search for Inner Peace
Michael also was the same as Linda. They both always used to be in search of real spirituality. In that search, they used to read lots of books on Zen, Taoism, and Hinduism. But nothing could satisfy them. Once Michael and Linda went to downtown Detroit to work for Monkey Boutique where they made leather sandals at the street fair. Suddenly, so it seemed, he heard the name of Krishna being sung by a young couple as they paraded the streets. This sound went straight to his heart and immediately aroused his sentiments.
New Journey of Spirituality
The next day the couple visited the temple; the devotee gave them prasadam and also gave the book “Bhagavad Gita As It Is”. They both read the book cover to cover and the philosophy touched their heart some much so that they decided to shift to live in the temple. On the way to the temple, the newlywed couple packed all their belongings. Unfortunately, the back door opened during the drive, causing their things to fall on the road. They realized it was pointless to go back and retrieve them. When they reached the temple they almost didn’t have anything with them.
She & her husband started serving the temple. Both found everything in the temple very pleasing to them. They did every service (seva) in the temple which was allocated by the temple authorities. On 26th March 1970, Linda expressed her desire to get initiation from Srila Prabhupada (Founder & Acharya of ISKCON). On 29th March 1970, Srila Prabhupada initiated her and gave her the name ‘Hladini devi dasi’ (hladini is Shrimati Radharani).
When the first time she saw Lord Jagannatha’s deity, she was a stunt and just kept watching that deity for four hours standing and chanting. She loved the words of Srila Prabhupada “People are simply looking for two things; someone to love, and something to do”. She accepted Lord Jagannatha's love and wanted to just serve him. The innermost desire of Hladini was accepted by the lord and gave her the opportunity to serve him as pujari in the temple. But to learn the service to the lord in the temple she needed training. And so she took detailed training from Silavali Dasi of Jagannatha pujari. The most important instruction Silavali Dasi gave and she cherished in her heart for her whole life is to “Approach the Lord’s service in a mood of personal relationship.”
In late 1970 the couple went to Chicago to assist Rudra Dasa & his wife Radhika, who were opening the first temple of ISKCON there. As their pujari, she would bathe and dress the deities, cook, and clean the temple. She maintained the highest quality in deity worship. In the letter to Srila Prabhupada, she wrote, that "we try our best to please the deity by our sincere service so that the temple will flourish."
As a new temple money was the biggest problem, as to maintain the temple. One day they desperately needed to collect their monthly rent of $400, by selling sweets and magazines. So after deity worship, Hladini would also go for book distribution and would do kirtan on the streets. But today they needed money to save the temple. As they approached passersby one very tall gentleman with blonde hair approached Hladini. He leaned over and handed her an envelope saying “Do not tell anyone I gave this to you.” She was amazed and happy to look inside and find $400, the exact amount for the rent. She turned back to thank him and he was gone, out of sight. She saw that man as an agent of the Lord.
First Visit to New Vrindavan
In early 1970 Hladini & Mahananda (her husband) visited New Vrindhavan (West Virginia). She was given the service to wash pots, which she gladly accepted, except there was no water, no heat, and no soap! Later in the night, there was a huge storm. There was no bathroom facility, so devotees used stool holes halfway up the hillside. She was just a guest and didn’t know where it was or how to get there. That was her first trip to New Vrindhavan, and later in just remove place with almost no facility, she stayed for eighteen years.
By 1972 the couple chose to stay in New Vrindavan, but later due to some misunderstanding between her husband and temple authorities, her husband wanted to leave the temple. But this time Hladini chooses to stay in New Vrindavan, despite her attachment to her husband she chooses to stay. And Mahananda left Hladini forever. In New Vrindavan, in 1972 there was a place Madhuvana where Lord Jagannath was officially installed and Hladini was appointed as pujari (priest), to take care of the lord.
Second Marriage
Once a rich man called Mr. Richkin, arrived at the temple and made a deal with the temple president “You make my son a good person and I’ll give you the money that you need to build the temple.” His son was an extreme drug addict. The temple president found Hladini a good fit for ‘Vahna Das’. But she was not interested in marrying again, because she just devoted herself to the service of Lord Jagannatha, and only wanted to stay with the deities. But as her Spiritual Master Prabhupada instructed her to follow the order of the temple president, she accepted the proposal. She just said, “So I surrendered, I’ve married Vahna and now Krishna is giving me everything.”
Now while they remained together she treated him very nicely and was affectionate towards him. He demanded a lot of time and energy and she gave it, despite having the special responsibility of serving Lord Jagannatha. He had a ‘dark’ side that, when influenced by drinking, would cause him enraged with anger. Yet, she tried to bring out his ‘light’ side. One day when she delivered his lunch to him, in a rage, he threw a big cup of hot dal right on her face. He was developing relations with other women as well. There was no point anymore in trying to help him. Eventually, the marriage ended.
Hladini’s daily schedule
New Vrindavan was almost situated in a jungle & Madhuvana was on a hill. The devotees could daily see wild animals moving around and an extremely cold climate. In this situation, Hladini would wake up at 2.30 am, and on cold nights she would go to the bathroom; which was just four sticks on four sides rapt with plastic paper with no door. All you need to do is go scrolling from below, do the bath, and come out scrolling. It snows regularly in West Virginia. And in that situation, daily she would bathe in cold water! Hladini had just two sarees for 18 years. One she would wear and another was washed and kept for drying.
After completing the morning staff, she would prepare ‘Prasadam’ (food) for the Lord. She had to do six Aratika during the day and cooking and offering. Hladini would cut the wood of the tree with an axe, then collect the firewood and make a fire for preparing the offerings and for hot water for bathing the Deities. She would walk down the mountain to the main temple twice a week with a red wagon and collect fruits, vegetables, and paraphernalia for Their ‘Lordships’ worship. After that chanting 16 rounds & read scriptures. She lived up there by herself with no association except the devotees who would trek up to see her occasionally. Whatever weather, she would happily trek up and down the windy roads, smiling, satisfied and surrendered in her service, for the Lord’s pleasure. She was very strict in her Krishna consciousness sadhana. She used to fast in Ekadashi with food and water.
In such a busy schedule, she read Prabhupada Lilamrita 3 times, Shrimad Bhagavatam 7 times & Chaitanya Charitamrita 5 times.
Even though everyone was inspired by her spotless example of dedication and steadiness, Hladini always considered her service to be insufficient, and not of the standard.
Third Marriage
Bhavisyat dasa was also living in New Vrindavan. He used to come to the Madhuvana, to cut firewood. Sometimes he would give her the woods and they both would chat for a long time about Lord Jagannatha. One day Bhavisyat Das proposed to Hladini to marry him, but at first she rejected his proposal, saying “That wasn’t a good idea”. She didn’t like the idea at all, because of the experience she had with her previous marriage. But Bhavisyat Das continued to chat with her and would bring wood to her place. But later she finally agreed, and they both got married in the temple. Despite married life, both of them lived a very regulated lifestyle as instructed by their Spiritual Master Srila Prabhupada.
Hladini would daily sleep keeping the shoes of Lord Balarama under her pillow.
With an urgent need in her heart, Hladini read thoughtfully through all of Srila Prabhupada’s books and was always ready for more. Regularly on Ekadashi, she would read all the verses of Bhagavad Gita, as a special celebration of the holy day.
“I have never seen a devotee read and read and read as much as she could…tor eight hours long, with rapt attention” … H.H.Bhakti Tirtha Swami Maharaj
“Usually, austerity for her meant to read more, eat less and more simply.” ….Rupa Rameshwari Devi Dasi
After a long fifteen years of austerity and penance, she had now tasted the eternal love (Divya prema) for the Supreme Lord Krishna, and she now wanted to share this eternal happiness with the world. Lord Nityananda & Lord Balaram were regularly used to come in her dreams. But this time they played with her, Lord Balaram forced her to stay in Madhuvana and serve him, whereas Lord Nityananda forced her to go out of New Vrindavan and preach the words of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's message to the world. This happened for several days, and finally, Lord Nityananda ordered her to leave the New Vrindavan and preach to the entire world.
Taking the order of the Lord and his shoes with her, she decided to leave the New Vrindhavan, and after several requests to Bhakti Tirtha Swami, he received permission. Before going to preach, she visited India and visited real Vrindavan. She was just mesmerized by the simplicity & austerity of the vrajawasis (residents of Vrindavan). She got more encouragement to preach by closely observing the great senior disciples of Srila Prabhupada.
Finally, in 1989 she started her preaching in Nigeria, with Bhakti Tirtha Swami. She visited many places in Nigeria. Many devotees where not know Deity worship’s standard procedures. She instructed many devotes to the real procedures and the mood of serving the Deities. She could never have children, but she was very fond of them. In Nigeria, she would particularly preach to children by telling wonderful pastimes of the Lord.
In late 1989, she went to Liberia, where seven rival parties, whose warlords were fighting for power, seized Liberia. They were looting and plundering the country, displaying unprecedented cruelty. As a result, the whole country except the military was starving. In such an adverse situation, Hladini was preaching in every village. The temple was in the capital city, Monrovia in an area that was controlled by troops with guns.
Later the situation became worse, and Bhakti Tirtha Swami ordered Hladini to return to the United States till the war ended. But because of intense austerity and penance for years, Lord Krishna gave her a power of fearlessness. She was dependent on Krishna and had no fear at all.
She took a bold step; she invited the chief of the INPFL, Prince Yormei Johnson to the temple. Prince is the king of Nigeria and a very cruel person. He used to kill several people daily those who were opposing him. One day he came to the temple, and Hladini explained to him how ISKCON was helping people and not in anybody’s favor in the war. She explained that if you would give the temple the food grains, then the temple would distribute the prasadam to people by his name. This way people of Nigeria will appreciate you. The king accepted the offer and used to send a lot of food grains to the temple. Then Hladini daily distributed food to the poor people.
One day, one devotee from the temple without knowing Hladini, wrote a letter to the Prince. Where he mentioned that killing such innocent people is not good for you and you’ll face very severe punishment in hell (naraka). This made him very angry, he finally ordered his men to bring all people from the temple. Now everybody knew there was no chance to escape. Hladini and other devotes were brought near the riverside in a jeep.
Prince told Hladini to go from there, he would not kill any female lady, and especially he respected Hladini. After several times ordering Hladini to leave, she refuses to do so. Ultimately Prince raised his weapon to shoot one devotee, and Hladini shouted and ran towards Prince holding his gun, and saying “How dare you kill the devotees of Krishna? Better you kill me than kill them!” She was the first to be shot by the Prince. It was her final and ultimate service to the devotees. She was Forty-one.
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