Dying in Vrindavan:
Be Fully Informed

From Dhanajaya das, Ganapati das,
Devamrita das

Posted July 10, 2005

Dear Devotees,

Please accept our humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

It has come to our attention that some temples are sending devotees to Vrindavan with terminal diseases so they can their bodies in the holy dham, expecting support, facility, and cooperation.

We are sorry to inform everyone that at this time ISKCON Vrindavan has no hospice facility or funds for this, nor is there any medical personnel or support group to assist terminally ill persons. We have encountered serious difficulties while attempting to accommodate dying devotees without the proper arrangements, and therefore we have decided not to accept any more terminally ill persons on our ISKCON properties until proper arrangements are secured.

If a person wishes to come to Vrindavan to die, he or she will have to take full responsibility and do so on private property. For your information, please keep in mind the following:

1. Any visitor to India who enters the country with a reportable contagious disease such as HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, or sexually transmitted disease is liable to be deported by the government of India. At our ISKCON Vrindavan properties we are legally obligated to report such persons to the local authorities, as are all public guest facilities in Vrindavan.

2. Medical facilities and doctors in Vrindavan are not at all up to Western standards and are often insufficient for handling the problems that terminally ill persons have. The nearest adequate hospitals are three hours away.

3. Staying in Vrindavan during a terminal illness may not be as expensive as in the West, but everyone who has come here in the past with dying devotees has faced stress or difficulties meeting the expenses. Our temple cannot assist dying devotees financially. The care of the dying person—food, water, accommodations, maintenance of support persons, doctor visits, transportation, communications, needed supplies, and all the legalities and procedures—must be paid for by those persons accompanying the dying person.

4. There are multifarious legal complications that must be dealt with before and after the death. The individual or temple sponsoring the devotee must be prepared to pay for these and should bring or send a person whose sole job it will be to process these formalities. Our temple is not able to process the legalities or provide persons to arrange for them or the posthumous formalities such as embassy and police notification, death certificates, do-it-yourself cremation, etc.

5. Persons who arrive in Vrindavan without their legal documents, medical reports, doctor's prognosis/orders, living wills, property wills, and power of attorney and who have not already notified the next of kin or closest relatives and have not filed with their embassy will not receive permission for a cremation in Vrindavan and will encounter difficulties with the embassy and police.

6. Dying persons who are not accompanied by a licensed caregiver or trained relative to administer the appropriate care are risking possible legal difficulties here and at home.

7. Persons who decide to come to Vrindavan to die must fully understand that they are coming into a third-world situation where Western facilities are practically not available and anything could happen and that they may have to endure the very same sufferings as all the dying sadhus here.

8. No terminally ill person should arrive here unprepared and expect help from ISKCON. This kind of irresponsibility in the past has created many difficulties for us with local and international officials and damaged our public image.

Persons coming to Vrindavan to die should do so responsibly, not whimsically or illegally. Further information on requirements is available from ISKCON Vrindavan Community Services, email iskconvrncs@yahoo.co.in.

Your servants,
Dhanajaya das, MVT
Ganapati das, KB Guesthouse,
Devamrita das, KBM TP

© dipika.org July 10, 2005