On the morning of Sunday August 8th, 2010, Chandaneswar prabhu and I were doing our daily Deity puja together. He was busying himself bathing and decorating Their Lordships with sweet scented sandalwood paste, carefully drawing designs on Their bodies when he noticed a strange mark upon the body of Lord Nitai. He called out for me, "Madri, quickly bring a tissue or napkin, hurry!" I ran to him with a paper napkin in hand, thinking that maybe a poisonous spider was spotted somewhere but when I arrived Chandaneswar prabhu declared it was too late, "Oh, Krishna!" he gasped. "Too late for what? What happened? Prabhu, what's going on, tell me what happened!" "I don't know, Madri. I don't know what I put in that chandan or what..." he trailed off and quietly said, "It was the strangest thing." Chandaneswar prabhu quickly explained away what happened. My heart began to race because I knew nothing to startle him the way this did.
A fly, a regular old fly, landed on Sri Sri Pancha Tattva's photo, specifically on Sri Nitai. He gazed at the body of Lord Nitai for some time before my husband realised it was a fly and called for a napkin, in the commotion the fly remained still and wouldn't move from that spot. Chandaneswar prabhu was infuriated because the fly then began to devour the freshly painted sandalwood paste from Lord Nitai's body as I was arriving. Prabhu, in his anger, attempted to kill him but the fly fell down unconscious from the photo right into the napkin in the palm of his hand, dead! My husband repeatedly declared his innocence, "I didn't touch him! I just barely, barely grazed him with the tissue and he fell right in! Look, Madri, just look!" Then, realizing his mistake, Chandaneswar prabhu corrected himself, "I don't know what happened. Oh Krishna! I thought this fly was committing an aparadha so I tried to kill him but he was just trying to go back to Godhead, he was preparing to leave his body. He must be a devotee of the Lord, otherwise, how is it possible? He came and sat there staring at Sri Nitai for a long time, not moving at all, then, he left his body after honoring all of the Lord's maha-prasad. He just ate all the chandan and died before I could lay a hand on him. His body is intact, bring your camera and take a photo! Quickly, you should tell this story in your blogs. Look, how is the devotee of the Lord! We never know who is a devotee of Krishna. "
If you look closely, you will notice that the tissue has no wrinkles in it, his body remains intact, unharmed or damaged in any way. He simply collapsed, fell unconscious into the palm of prabhu's hand, his limbs drawn close into his body!
As the details of Sriman Bhakta fly's passing came into light, I became bewildered by his steadfastness. He must've known he was in danger of being killed but he remained still and took a long darshan, carefully honored the sandalwood paste from the Lord's own body and fell unconscious. I began to pray that I would also be able to remain steadfast, show no fear or concern for external circumstances, and remain fixed on Hari to the very end of my life. Chandaneswar prabhu asked me to bury the fly somewhere close to Srimati Tulasi Maharani. I buried him under a tree in the front yard, where he would be able to take darshan of Srimati Tulasi devi easily.
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