Excerpts from the realization of Nandarani's
Spiritual Master, H.H. Gopala Krishna Gosvami

Nandarani was not an ordinary devotee. I have no doubt that she was a great devotee in her previous life and her birth in this life was just to finish her devotional service. She was very attached to the spiritual master, Srila Prabhupada and Krishna. If one reads the Vyasa-puja offering that she composed last year, one will see that this can never be the work of an ordinary child - a thirteen year old girl. She had a very deep realization of the philosophy, she understood Srila Prabhupada’s unique position and at the same time she had faith and devotion towards the spiritual master and Srila Prabhupada. Her Vyasa-puja offering is a masterpiece. She talks about everything relevant for going back to Godhead. The offering that she composed was in my opinion, one of the best Vyasa-puja offerings any disciple could compose. Her sentiments were very genuine and in a mood of humility, she glorifies the spiritual master, the process of devotional service and the Holy Name. She was also very concerned about her parents. In her Vyasa-puja offering, she requested me to give her parents brahminical initiation. In other words, she wanted her parents to be in a position to worship the Deities. Though she was Krishna conscious from birth, she actually started practising Krishna consciousness from the age of four and she was practising it till her last breath at the age of thirteen.

Excerpts from the realization of H.H. Maha Vishnu Gosvami

It is very pleasant to remember the bouncing kid, Nandarani. Her face was always blooming. It was pleasing to see her and she was the charm of everyone. She was one of my pets. I used to tease her not to grow and ultimately she obeyed me.

Nandarani was always accompanying Ananda Mohana Däsa and Vrndavanesvari Devi Dasi. We thought Nandarani had a great future but Krishna had His own plans. Bhishma says in the Srimad-Bhagavatam (1.9.16) that no one can know the plan of Lord Sri Krishna. We should always remember that Krishna’s plan works, our plans may not work. Hence she came for thirteen years and after being completely under the care of her parents she has gone back never to come back again. When we see Krishna in such incidents, however unpleasant they may be, when we see His hand, then the tinge of sorrow goes away because we realize everything is done by Krishna. We draw comfort from the fact that Krishna liked it that way.

It is so pleasing to see Nandarani’s picture now—it appears as if she will speak out from the picture. So how much more pleasing it would have been to see her personally? Even now I envisage the moments when I used to see her. Never was she morose. She was always smiling. One of the qualities of a devotee is that he is always laughing or smiling. Unless we are a devotee, we will never really smile or laugh—smile is impossible what to speak of laughing. But Nandarani was always laughing and smiling. That was her devotion. It should have come from the previous life, otherwise this life was nothing for her but only kid years. Krishna knows more than us.

Nandarani was very intelligent. She was really brilliant for her age. She has written a very nice offering to her spiritual master and the scriptures fit into it. If one reads her offering, one will find that it is a mature one - not one written by a thirteen year old kid. Each sentence is beautiful. There are many nice things mentioned in the offering. I feel like reading again and again and that is what the scriptures mean. We may have read the Srimad-Bhagavatam many times but we still like to read it again and again. So her offering is non-different from the scriptures. It is a scripture by itself.

It is so nice to remember that pure soul, Nandarani.