George Harrison Is My Arch Angel

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George Harrison Is My Arch Angel

 

BY KRISHNA MOHAN DAS

 

EDITORIAL, Jul 25 (VNN) — His Divine Grace Srila Prabhupa felt such

a strong connection to George Harrison that he designated him

his "Arch Angel" and gave him the name Sri Hari Georgeson. Such was

His Divine Grace's deep affection for this extremely important and

wonderful soul,George Harrison. It is also known amongst inner

circles that before Srila Prabhupada passed away he took off his

hand made blue sapphire ring and told the Sanyasis there to "give

this to George Harrison". This was some time after Srila Prabhupada

had recieved little or no contact from Sri Hari Georgeson, yet His

Divine Grace still retained a powerful recongition of him and humble

gratefulness for his transcendental service as his Arch Angel.

 

Certainly no other Sanyasi or other devotee has recieved this

designation or extraordinarily special gift from Srila Prabhupada.

 

Indeed it may be considered by ALL devotees that perhaps, just

perhaps, we may have never even heard about Krishna or seen the

movement spread to reach our town or village if it had not been for

George Harrison's incredible sacrafice. Maybe certain Sanyasis, so

proud of their knowledge of the sastras, may have never had such an

opportunity or interest to persue spiritial life if George Harrison

had not made this sacrafice. This is something very important to

consider.

 

Certainly the proper end result of studying any religious scripture

would be the presence of extreme gratefulness to those who were the

pioneers and brave soldiers who fought to propagate our religious

conception within the mundane plane.

 

Considering especially the huge scale that George Harrison

propagated the Lords name and which continues to this day anytime

someone mentions George's name we must recognize Krishna's special

mercy and kindness in this manfestation. In the public eye you

cannot separate the name George Harrison from Krishna or Hare

Krishna. This is his profound legacy and sacrafice that he left.

 

George Harrison had a lot to sacrafice in dedicating his image, name

and ideas in his songs towards Krishna. Not only his extreme fame as

an ex-beatle was sacraficed, but even more importantly than that,

his entire future career as a solo artist was risked by associating

his name very profoundly with the name of Krishna or Hare Krishna.

He risked millions and millions of dollars of personal wealth to

associate himself with Krishna in numerous records, interviews, live

concerts etc.

 

He constantly promoted the causes of self realization, yoga,

Bhagavad Gita, Indian culture, political harmony and gave millions

in chartity.

 

I personally sat in the front row of one of his concerts in Los

Angeles at the Forum in the mid 1970's. At the conclusion of the

concert he did "My Sweet Lord" and got the audience of over 25,000

people chanting an amazing form of Japa saying, "Krishna, Krishna,

Krishna" all together. He encouraged everyone saying " If we all

chant together we can blow the roof of this place". Such was the

great enthusiasm and power of this Arch Angel of Srila Prabhupada.

After the concert he was recieving prasadam from the hands of His

Holiness Mukunda Goswami and outside thousands of devotional

literatures were being distributed which he announced during the

concert that everyone should read.

 

Fairly recently at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame awards George

Harrison was inauguated permanently. Tom Petty was the master of

ceremony for that inaguration and in talking out into the audience

as if he were talking to George personally he said, "So with a big

Hare Krishna we now inaguate you George, into the Rock and Roll hall

of fame". There was a loud response from the audience who

repeated "Hare Krishna" after Tom Petty's lead.

 

In the fairly recent concert in London honoring George Harrison'

passing away, Ravi Shankar composed a hauntingly beautiful Raga

about George Harrison which translated meant..."He who loved Lord

Hari" while an audience packed with famous and well known people

held back the tears . This tribue concert is available at most music

stores.

 

As devotees of Lord Krishna and specifically anyone associated with

Srila Prabhupada by his books, vani, personal association or through

a Sanyasi connected with Srila Prabhupada we need to remember to be

very careful in mentioning the name of this great, great soul. To

refer to George Harrison as a "dabbler" in anything he did in life

is a very tacky and offensive thing to say.

 

To write or say anything about Sri Hari Georgeson other than with

total gratefulness, honor, respect and deep devotion is a sign that

the writer, inspite of their scriptual knowledge, may need to review

the fact that they might not even be thinking about Krishna today if

it wasn't for this great Arch Angel of Srila Prabhupada.

 

Krishna Mohan Das 30 year practitioner of Krishna Bhakti

http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET0507/ET25-8815.html

lotus.108

George Harrison - "More Than My Disciple!"

 

BY KULASEKHARA DAS

 

EDITORIAL, Jul 27 (VNN) — Regarding the comments about George

Harrison by Tripurari Maharaj that "Srila Prabhupada did not think

George was ready, and history demonstrates that he was correct." I

beg to differ, and would like to quote Srila Prabhupada on this

subject:

 

"I think George does not require to become my formal disciple

because he is already more than my disciple. He has sympathy for my

movement and I have all blessings for him." [s.P. Letter to:

Syamasundara, Los Angeles, 12 April, 1970]

 

Nanda Kumar relates that as Srila Prabhupad's servant he got to

witness this direct exchange between Srila Prabhupad and George at

Bhaktivedanta Manor:

 

"He went into the room and closed the door. I could not stay

outside, I had to go in and see the exchange. I opened the door, and

George was doing full dandavats and offering both prayers to

Prabhupad, with perfect pronunciation. Prabhupad had an ear-to-ear

smile. George got up and sat back by the door.

 

Prabhupad said "Come in, come in" and George edged forward towards

Prabhupad's desk, very shy and respectful. Prabhupad said "No, here,

here" and patted the asana he was sitting on. George came around his

desk to the edge of his asana, and Prabhupad reached out and pulled

him into his chest, hugging him, laughing, messing up his hair, and

saying, "It is so good to see you. How is Patty?"

 

They had a wonderful conversation, where at one point George asked

him if he should move into the temple and shave his head. I believe

he would have if Prabhupad had said yes. But Prabhupad said

emphatically "No! You have a great gift for the world in your music.

Just continue your music and Krishna will be greatly pleased and He

will bless you." Then he said "I will give you some ideas for your

songs" and he got out Srila Bhaktivinode's Songbook and went over a

number of the songs, reciting the translations for George.

 

It was soon after this that he wrote "My Sweet Lord." George came

daily for a week, along with Ravi Shankar, to have Prabhupad's

darsan in the afternoon. Ravi Shankar is a Bengali, so he and

Prabhupad talked and laughed together as Bengalis."

 

The fact is that we are all such fallen souls with no qualification,

that it is only by the mercy of the Guru that we can have any hope

of going back to Godhead. "Gurudeva! Krpa-Bindu Diya,Your mercy

is all that I am made of." So we can understand that our only

qualification for ever becoming actual servants of 'Our Sweet Lord',

is to please the pure devotee. If one can achieve that then -

initiated or not - one's future is blessed.

 

I talked to Shyamsundar recently, he and Mukunda Goswami were at

George's bedside when he passed away. Shyamasundar said that George

was very happy and looked like a young prince as he left his body.

 

To see a web site I have created to honor George Harrison, go to:

http://strategemedia.com/GeorgeH

 

Kulasekhara das (ACBS '69, SNGM '02)

http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET0507/ET27-8818.html