A BEAUTIFUL SEND OFF

Thursday, August 6th, 2026

Ajax, Ontario

Today I attended the last rites, funeral, of a very good soul. Perhaps I did more than attend. I read to the supporters, family and friends of Gajendra (his name) from the Gita, Chapter Two, which addresses the natural concept of reincarnation, dualities and how to adjust when nature imposes change.

I was happy to see Gajendra’s wife, Chaitanya, and how she wanted to conduct these last two hours of viewing the body as a Celebration of Life. I read the poem (submitted on this blog on Aug 4) expressing my thoughts of this event on Gajendra’s farewell. But the item that really did the trick and to set the tone was kirtan. We heard, expressed by the daughter, Sharda, a eulogy and it was so inspiring, hearing a daughter’s love for her dad. Those feelings of pure emotion invoked heart-felt outpourings of mantra power. It was the first time doing so, but we encouraged devotees from the crowd to come up individually to lead on the mic a bar of the maha mantra. This brought people near to the casket and to Gajendra.

It was touching souls. Connecting!

The final farewell that followed (during the kirtan) was each person presenting a flower and tossing it into the casket before it was closed up and rolled to the crematorium device. It became the moment of heightened sound of the name.

It was beautiful!

Chaitanya, the life-partner was very gratified. Gajendra’s prolonged pain before passing had ended and a restart of joy began as he took to soul travel, making his way toward the lord. Hare Krishna!

MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU

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