Devotees Appear In All Shapes, Sizes, and Species

I'm sure most of you have heard by now, but I feel compelled to say that Gulab Kali, Sri Dham Mayapur's famous devotee elephant, left her body recently. She was suffering from a foot infection that she was ultimately unable to recover from. Read about the details in this series of posts on Vaishnava Blog Feeds: post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4. There are lots of pictures included, courtesy of Her Grace Vindavan Lila Devi Dasi.

Also, check out the sweet reminiscences of His Grace Vipramukhya Dasa, who had a very special relationship with Gulab. There are some nice pictures of the elephant procession on the Sri Dham Mayapur website as well.

The last time I was in Mayapur I brought Gulab a healthy bunch of bananas, thinking it would be a respectable offering. When I held them out to her, she immediately snatched them from my hands with her trunk and popped the entire bunch into her mouth, seeming to swallow it whole. Perhaps if I had thought about it a little longer I would have realized that offering eight or ten bananas to an elephant is a little like giving someone a single grape and expecting them to be satisfied. As soon as she had devoured my meager offering, Gulab swung her trunk behind me sniffing at my backpack in hopes of something more substantial.

While reading the updates on Gulab's passing I found myself quite moved. It is remarkable that devotees can show so much compassion for living entities of all shapes and sizes - after all, we are all spirit souls, regardless of the material bodies in which we happen to reside. However, the devotees glorifications and sincere service to Gulab Kali goes well beyond "panditah sama-darsinah". Gulab was clearly a very special soul. Not only was she a Dhamavasi - a resident of the transcendental abode of Lord Caitanya - she performed direct and intimate service to Sri Sri Radha-Madhava by personally carrying Their Lordships on her back during Sri Dhama Mayapur's weekly elephant procession.

Gulab Kali ki jaya!