I can not claim to have known her, but that will not stop me from posting what a wonderful devotee she was! I wish I had known her. She joined the Hare Krishna Movement at the age of 16. How rare is that?! Prabhupada asked mother Malati to adopt her. :) And she did.
Saradiya devi dasi dancing before Srila Prabhupada in 1968:
Saradiya was also an artist. Here is the link to her art page.
Now something very interesting happened. A young, new devotee, barely a year older than Saradiya when she herself became a devotee, took pictures of the full moon that night. She knew Saradiya, got her first BhagavadGita from her. She got more than a full moon when taking those pics.
What would that be?
In her own words: "This was the full moon on Saradiya RasaYatra. After and before I took this picture, I saw this orb. I was talking to Saradiya and telling her how much I miss her already. I believe this orb could be her energy. If not, it could be the Lords energy. Either one makes me happy."
[Click pics open to get the 'real' effect!]
Notice how it moved a bit too [click open]
Next, I wish to thank PrabhupadaConnect / PC for giving me permisison to use anything from the site, which I have. :) Therefore I'd like to add this link to theirs; an article written by Saradiya called: "Bonds Of Love."
The temple was a small storefront that the previous tenants had made into a gift store with the sign: "Matchless Gifts." The sign certainly alluded to the real matchless gifts of Srila Prabhupada’s teachings generously given to all who entered the transformed storefront.
How interesting she left her body at this exact point in time. Prabhupada knew what he was doing when he named her. :) Plus, a very auspicious time to go:
Sri Kavi Karnapura describes the autumn of Vraja in his Ananda Vrindavana Campu:
THE AUTUMN SEASON OF VRAJA
Brimming with water, these lakes are as clean and pure as the sinless heart of a devotee aspiring for prema.
As Narayana is beautified by the presence of the joy-ful Goddess of Fortune, similarly, the autumn lakes are beautified by the presence of cakravaka birds and blossoming lotuses.
Groups of lazy swans sport freely in the lakes. Gliding along the water, they resemble liberated souls (paramahamsas) swimming in the ocean of spiritual bliss.
The cooing herons appear to be echoing the tales of Rama and Laksmana.
Blue lotuses please everyone with their splendid fragrance, spreading through the land like the fame of the all-attractive Lord.
The white lotuses (pundarika) ornamenting the lakes are like the elephant Pundarika who decorates the Southeast direction.
The bees ravage the honey of the kumuda lotuses growing in the lake, just as they enjoy the liquid oozing from the body of Kumuda, the elephant of the Southwest direction.
Red lotuses cast their colors across the autumn lakes like the setting sun coloring the evening sky with it pastel pinks.
Like an impassioned lady, the autumn season holds these lakes, the reservoirs of all beauty, to her chest in love.
The autumn moon shines brilliantly like a glinting sword unsheathed before battle.
As dharma fully manifests in Satya-yuga, the bulls, as representatives of religion, manifest a type of madness during this season as they turn every field into a play-ground.
The large lakes of this season are very beautiful with warm water on their surfaces and cool water within. They resemble a peaceful man who keeps cool within, even when harassed by the words of a fool.
The rows of brilliant wispy clouds adorning the autumn sky look like sandal-wood paste on the limbs of the directions personified as women.
These cloud wisps appear like the white scarf of a young woman waving in the breeze, or cotton fluff carried by the winds personified as young girls.
When the groups of pure white clouds reflect in the Yamuna, it appears like a brilliant white sandbar in the middle of the river, or that the Ganga (which is greenish-white in color) has taken shelter of the Yamuna to gain the fortune of bathing Krsna.
Three wonderful features fill the autumn season with bliss, namely the fragrant pollen from blooming lotuses, the directions becoming darkened from swarms of bees maddened by the in-toxicating fragrance of the chatina tree, and the wind driven clouds mov-ing like freely roaming elephants.
The autumn season can be seen as a beautiful woman whose waist-belt is the cooing herons, whose ankle-bells are the sonorous quacking of the ducks, whose breasts are the cakravaka birds, whose moon-like face is the half-blooming lotuses, whose eyes are the blue lotuses, whose eyebrows are the fickle bees, and whose attractive garments are the pollen from various flowers.
When the mud (kardama) dries up this season becomes blissful with the sight of the faces of many brown calves (kapilas). Similarly, when Kardama Muni renounced his home, Devahuti took pleasure in seeing the face of her son Kapiladeva.
This season is like a king who has a flower bed in the middle of a forest of land lotuses. Its canopy is the sky overhead sparkling with the constellations. Its camara whisks are the swaying of the tall kasa flowers.
In the monsoon season, the elephants of the directions jump on the clouds and push them down so that the sky appears to touch the treetops.
On the other hand, when the tree branches become free of these clouds, it seems the elephants of the directions have departed. In their absence the space above the trees increases.
On the other hand, when the tree branches become free of these clouds, it seems the elephants of the directions have departed. In their absence the space above the trees increases.
~~*~~
