HH Sridhar Swami'sTirobhava Tithi (23rd of March)

[Guest guest]

courtesy of BTG Magazine

 

from an article written by Adbhuta Hari prabhu and Kalakantha Prabhu

 

"When His Holiness Sridhar Swami left this world on March 14, 2004, it was

on his terms--in holy Mayapur, surrounded by loving Vaisnavas, and just

after he`d helped install Sri Panca-tattva with his dearest Godbrothers and

friends. He had been terminally ill for years with Hepatitis C, so his

departure surprised no one. The memory of his spiritual

strength--conspicuous in his endless good humor and unfazed by his deterio-

rating body--continues to inspire and fascinate those of us who knew him as

we await our appointment with the pyre. The Bhagavad-gita describes a

fully God-conscious death as the highest human achieve- ment. How did this

robust, ebullient, sociable Western-born world traveler achieve a state of

enlightenment more commonly associated with thin, reclusive yogis meditating

in a remote Himalayan cave? In Sridhar Swami`s life, Srila Prabhupada`s

sparked a thirty-five-year spiritual journey that began far from its ending

point in holy India. Sridhar Swami described himself as a shy person before

coming to Krsna consciousness. Born John Colcleugh in 1948 in Vancouver,

Canada, his quest for spiritual understanding led him, in 1969, from

engineering school to a Sunday feast at the Frederick Street San Francisco

Krsna temple. The first person he met at the door was a kind and energetic

devotee named Jayananda Dasa. Since it was early in the day, Jayananda

invited his young guest to vacuum the rug and help in the kitchen. By the

end of the evening, John was ready for more. He moved in to the San

Francisco ashram to begin his study of Srila Prabhupada`s Bhagavad-gita As

It Is. Later, he transferred to the fledgling Krsna center in his native

Vancouver. In 1970 he returned to San Francisco for the Rathayatra festival

and met Srila Prabhupada for the first time. John was deeply impressed and,

having completed the required training, was initiated by Srila Prabhupada as

Sridhar Das Brahmacari. He received more training in cooking, deity worship,

and book sales. At one point he led a large group of devotees distributing

Back to Godhead magazines to people leaving the popular musical "Hair." It

was hard for the early-rising devotees to be out so late, but they were

happy to find that people were receptive to their message, having just

seen Hare Krsna chanted onstage. Later, Sridhar Swami remembered, "We

devotees were very close to each other in certain ways, maybe not maturely,

but in the sincerity of desperation. We were trying to rush out of the

material world. We had no idea of lifelong devotional service." Sridhar

found he had a strong taste for distributing books, so he joined one of

ISKCON`s first traveling parties. In Reno, Nevada, he set a record by

selling four hundred BTGs in a day. Later he helped open ISKCON`s first

center in the conservative town of Salt Lake City."

 

"Sridhar das and Buddhimanta das, another successful young distributor at

that time, were sent to Londonto train others. After some time Sridhar,

reasoning he was already halfway there, took an opportunity to visit India.

On arriving in Delhi, he found the atmosphere strikingly familiar. "It was

déja vu," he said. "I felt at home." He first served in the nascent

ISKCON centers in the holy places of Mayapur and Vrndavana before again

joining a traveling party. He and his comrades, headed by Tamal Krsna

Goswami, conducted Vaisnava revival programs throughout the country,

performing devotional bhajanas and speaking to thousands in colorful

pandal tents. By this time, Sridhar Das Brahmacari knew what he wanted

to do with his life: serve Srila Prabhupada and, specifically, teach Krsna

consciousness all over the world. However, in those early days before

ISKCON grew widely popular in India, the two goals were not always

compatible. When his traveling party reached Bombay, the young temple was

in a critical situation. Srila Prabhupada had bought a large tract of

land near Juhu Beach, but now the seller, having taken ISKCON`s

deposit, was trying to renege on the contract. The devotees had built a

temporary temple on the mostly undeveloped land, but the seller,

well-connected politically, had influenced municipal authorities to

demolish the structure. Conservative Hindus were outraged. Srila

Prabhupada needed capable devotees to stay on the land, rebuild the

temporary temple, and battle the deceptive seller in the media and

courts.He askedTamal Krsna Goswami, ISKCON`s governing body representative

for India, to ask the traveling party to redirect their efforts to

Bombay. They agreed, leaving the excitement of the road to share a hut on

the raw Juhu land with a tribe of rats,each "big enough to scare any

cat." Poverty, mosquitoes, and snakes were constant obstacles. In the

emergency, Srila Prabhupada put the preacher Sridhar in charge of

construction material. Sridhar, taking inspiration from young Giriraja Dasa,

the temple president, faithfully and obediently carried out Srila

Prabhupada`s instructions. Through the austerity of his daily life, he

worked hard to please Srila Prabhupada, for that was his only ambition.

Later, Sridhar Swami said that Bombay taught him discipline and service

as the means to attain happiness and to progress in devotional service.

"Disciple," he would often say, "means discipline." Sridhar Swami was in

Germany buying a van for the Hyderabad temple when he heard of Srila

Prabhupada`s departure. He felt, he said, "like a bird flying in the sky who

is stunned by the sound of Krsna`s flute and just falls to the ground." He

was crushed at the thought of living without the company of his beloved

spiritual master, whom he had seen regularly through his years of service

in India. Meanwhile, in Bombay, Giriraja Das (now Giriraja Swami), under

Srila Prabhupada`s direction, had led a successful fight to secure ISKCON`s

Juhu land and build a breath- taking temple. Srila Prabhupada departed just

two months before the grand opening. Again, help was needed, so Sridhar

Swami was asked to return to help lead and develop the new

Radha-Rasabihari Temple in Juhu. He worked diligently there over the next

twenty-six years, serving twice as temple president, and helping ISKCON

Juhu become one of India`s most famous and successful temples. During

his years in Juhu, Sridhar Swami enrolled and cultivated long-term

relation- ships with ISKCON life members. The members loved him and

were impressed with his knowledge of Vaisnavism, especially when he spoke

in Hindi. Out of deep affection for him and appreciating his friendly,

outgoing nature, two members, M. P. Maheswari and Brijratan Mohatta,

nicknamed him "the jolly Swami." While enrolling members, Sridhar Swami

met many aristocratic industrialists who had little interest in

spiritual life. As a renunciant his needs were few, but he was

enthusiastic to engage others in giving money for Krsna`s service. Such

giving helps implant spiritual life in the donors and bring them towards

Krsna. Sridhar Swami compared himself to one of Lord Rama`s monkeys who

helped bring Sita (who is Laksmi, the goddess of wealth) back from the

demoniac Ravana. He liked Canakya Pandita`s assertion that "one should not

be shy about money or prasadam."

 

"At Juhu in the late seventies a thief was caught stealing and, in the

altercation that followed, struck dead by a hired temple guard. The police

arrested six temple leaders, including Sridhar Swami, and held them in the

hellish Bombay municipal jail for two weeks. During the ordeal Sridhar

Swami was a source of strength for all. He spoke enthusiastically about

Krsna consciousness to the other inmates and helped the devotees pass the

days by holding an imaginary Rathayatra festival, passing around an

imaginary ghee lamp, and preparing massive imaginary feasts. The inmates

were charmed. By the time the devotees were released, one inmate, a taxi

driver, enrolled with Sridhar Swami as an ISKCON life member.

During his decades of service in Juhu, Sridhar Swami developed a deep love

for the deities Radha-Rasabihari. Recalling that Srila Prabhupada carried

Their photo wherever he went, he did the same. Paraphrasing a statement

of Prabhupada`s, in his jovial way he would reflect, "Bombay was Srila

Prabhupada`s office, Mayapur his place of worship, and Vrndavana his home.

For me, Bombay is everything."

 

"In February of 2004 he was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer.

After the failure of a last-ditch effort to obtain a liver transplant,

he flew, in great pain, from Canada to Mayapur. His elderly mother

admonished him that he seemed "too cheerful for someone who is about

to die." His two brothers accompanied him and some close disciples and

Godbrothers on his final journey. Sridhar Swami prayed intently to live

long enough to attend the historic installation of the Panca-tattva

deities in Mayapur in February. The trip to Mayapur was arduous and his

pain intense, but he survived with help from his friend Indradyumna

Swami. As Sridhar Swami finally approached Mayapur, lying in the back

of a van, he heard a thunderous kirtana. Hundreds of devotees had

gathered to welcome him. As it turned out, the jolly Swami survived those

last few days. On the day of the Panca-tattva installation, he again

pulled himself from his sickbed and climbed the scaffolding behind the

huge deities. With five thousand devotees chanting and chee- ring

uproariously, Sridhar Swami poured the ceremonial liquids over the

sacred form of Lord Nityananda. Days later, on the auspicious day of

Srivasa Pandita`s appearance, Sridhar Swami peacefully passed away. He

left this world as he had lived in it, "fixed in devotion to his Spiritual

Master and Krsna, who says in the Bhagavad-gita, "One who is thus

transcendentally situated at once realizes the supreme Brahman and becomes

fully joyful. He never laments or desires to have anything. He is equally

disposed to every living entity. In that state he attains pure devotional

service unto Me."