Hemagaura and his wife, Ortrun
generously drove five hours
from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania
to Stuyvesant Falls, New York
to fix the broken hand on
the Lord Caitanya murti.
He didn’t want to trust
sending Them in the mail.
We thought he was going to
pick Him up and work on Him
in his studio at home. But
he surprised us by bringing
Super Glue and paints and
other paraphernalia with
the intention to fix
Lord Caitanya right here at
Viraha Bhavan. He said
when He saw Lord Caitanya
and His separate broken hand,
he knew that it would be
“a piece of cake” to fix Him properly.
First we had a lively lunch
of sandwich wraps and the
first local corn-on-the cob
of the season.
Then Hemagaura retired to
the other room and expertly
did his repair.
His wife Otrun hadn’t met all the
devotee guests who are staying with us,
but she was very sociable and talkative
with them.
I sat with Hemagaura in the workroom
and he overheard his wife talking
to the devotees. He said,
“Oh she’s telling again the story
of how we came to Krishna consciousness.”
She was really talking their ears off,
even though they were strangers to her.
This is every devotee’s favorite story,
“How I came to Krishna consciousness.”
They never tire of telling it
to a fresh audience,
and the audience never tires
of hearing it.
Baladeva put a thick layer of
Stickums adhesive on the base
of Lord Caitanya, and now
we are happy to have Him safely
back on the altar with Radha-Govinda.
Lord Caitanya is Radha and Krishna
combined, and our altar
is now complete again with
Gaura and Radha-Krishna
all in place.