Veteran second generation devotee Raghunath Giuffre, who is one of the youngest disciples of Srila Prabhupada and has been active in helping many fellow gurukulis, is in a stable condition in hospital after receiving multiple stab wounds in a knife attack.

Funds are being raised at youcaring.com for Raghunath and his mother Jagaddhatri Dasi, who was unhurt, after the attack at their home in Hilo, Hawaii.

Raghunath, 49, supported and cared for his elderly mother in the house. He rented the downstairs apartment to Varaha Mims, 28, who is also the son of devotee parents.

Sometime after midnight on the morning of Friday May 23^rd, Mims broke into Raghunath’s home and attacked him with a knife while he was sleeping.

Police and news reports state that this was minutes after Mims had stabbed two strangers, a man and woman in their twenties, outside the Hilo Town Tavern at 12:02am.

When the attack came, Raghunath stood in the doorway of his mother’s room to block Mims from entering. As the attacker slashed his legs repeatedly, Raghu wouldn’t move but chanted the Hare Krishna mantra constantly.

According to his mother Jagaddhatri, Raghu told her that he didn’t care about the attack, but just wanted her to keep chanting too.

Finally Raghunath, now chanting the Nrsimhadeva prayers, managed to lead his attacker out into the driveway, where neighbor Cody Hughes and her friend intervened.

“Craig leaped over the fence and I ran around the fence,” Hughes said in a quote from West Hawaii Today. “John (Raghunath) was down. By the time we got to him (the assailant) was still stabbing him, so Craig tried to push the guy off. And when he did, the guy took off.”

The attacker was placed in custody and charged with first-degree attempted murder, two counts of second-degree attempted murder, two counts of assault, criminal property damage, burglary and promoting a detrimental drug. The first-degree attempted-murder charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without possibility of parole.

The woman Mims first stabbed was treated for her injuries and released from hospital, while the man is in a stable condition according to news reports.

Raghunath, meanwhile, was brought to Hilo Medical Center to be treated for his injuries. He sustained 27 stab wounds to his head, neck, shoulders and body. His lung was punctured, and tendons in his fingers were severed.

Later that same Friday, Honolulu devotee Daiva Das reported, “Jagadhattri has said that Raghu has amazed the doctors! They have said that by all accounts he should’ve died from the multiple stab wounds to his head and body! They have said that it will be a long recovery process and that two of the tendons in his left-hand fingers have received the most damage.”

Doctors were also reportedly amazed that Raghu was recently able to stand. “His doctor said he may leave the hospital in a couple weeks,” says Nipuna Dasi. “But after that he’ll still need a hospital bed, and will have trouble moving around. It’s going to be months of recovery.”

While in hospital, Raghu has received a huge flood of messages from devotees all around the world. Although it is difficult for him to respond to all of them, he has expressed through his mother Jagaddhatri that he is overwhelmed and grateful.

At the Sadhu Sanga Retreat in North Carolina, USA, BB Govinda Swami dedicated a kirtan to Raghu, and 1,400 devotees called out to Krishna for his wellbeing. And at New Navadvipa Dhama in Honolulu, the Sunday Feast and Nrsimha prayers were dedicated to him.

Meanwhile Nipuna Dasi started a collection on youcaring.com to facilitate Raghu’s many friends all over the world in donating towards his healthcare costs and repairing damage done to his home. Currently his mother has no home to return to as the outside doors won’t close, many of the windows are smashed and the front porch is in danger of collapsing.

As of the time this article was written, just five days after the attack, friends and supporters from all over have donated nearly $10,000 to help.

This is no surprise, as Raghunath is well-known for always being kind and caring to others himself. Initiated by Srila Prabhupada in 1977 as a boy, he attended Dallas and Vrindaban gurukulas, ISKCON’s boarding schools, from the early 1970s to the early 1980s.

In the late 1980s he started the ISKCON Youth Veterans newsletter, and was involved in organizing the first two Los Angeles Gurukuli Reunions in 1988 and 1989, which helped bring together a group that had dispersed after the collapse of ISKCON’s gurukula system. He was also an early advocate in getting ISKCON’s GBC and temple presidents to address the abuse going on in the gurukula system up to that time.  

Today, he works as a massage therapist, is much loved as a kirtan leader, gives seminars on Vedic culture, and has attempted to run for Congress on his platform of “Raghu-nomics.”

With his unwavering sense of humor, Raghu continues to joke around in his hospital room, and according to Nipuna, enjoys introducing all his hospital guests and making sure they are fed.

“Who doesn’t like Raghu?” she says. “Everybody loves him.”

There are only five days left in the campaign to collect the funds Raghu and Jagaddhatri need. To help, please visit http://www.youcaring.com/help-a-neighbor/help-our-dear-brother-raghu-and-mother-jagaddhatri/182599.

You can also support Raghu by purchasing his organic vegan health products here: http://www.phporder.com/LOVEOverview.aspx?ID=raghu