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Sridhar was fearless and straightforward -- by Radhanath Swami

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Sridhar was fearless and straightforward

by Radhanath Swami

Radha Gopinath Mandir, ISKCON Chowpatty

 

 

 

Today (14/03/2004), Sridhar Swami Maharaja departed this mortal world to

enter into the eternal pastimes of Srila Prabhupada. Actually he is always

involved in those eternal pastimes, but we can know that Srila Prabhupada

has called him to assist on another level. Sridhar Maharaja is noted by all

as one of the most faithful, dedicated associates of Prabhupada. He came to

our movement in the 1960s and from that time without break or hesitation he

was immersed in service of Guru and Krishna.

 

At Radha Kunda, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur told Prabhupada to

print books and distribute them. Prabhupada took that order as his life and

soul. Sridhar Maharaja, because of his love and great enthusiasm to serve

and please his Guru Maharaja, was on the first travelling book distribution

party in the history of ISKCON.

 

Srila Prabhupada in the late1960s had already established Krishna

consciousness in many countries of the world but wanted to remind the people

of India of the essence of their lost culture. Sridhar Maharaja, wanting to

do what Prabhupada wanted most, volunteered to come. There was the nectar of

being close to Prabhupada, but there was a very heavy, difficult price to

pay -- poverty, disease and opposition. Along with Giriraj Maharaja and

others, he performed tremendous austerities undeviatingly.

 

In the mid-70s Prabhupada awarded him sannyasa; he was then only in his

twenties, and he has maintained his vows in a wonderful way until the day he

departed from this world. He not only preached dynamically and fearlessly

all over India but also travelled around the world.

 

May I share with you the first meeting I had with Sridhar Maharaja? I was a

brahmachari serving as a pujari at New Vrindavan. It was up a 3- or

4-kilometer road of mud through a jungle. I would dress the Deities seven

days a week and there were sliding wooden doors, without carvings; it was

very old wood. By the time of greeting the Deities, everyone had already

finished Bhagavatam class, Guru puja, japa and breakfast, and were already

walking down the road to do their service.

 

I never got to see the class; there was no microphone; I would just hear it

through the doors. It was very difficult to hear through those doors, but

one day I heard this powerful voice with such volume. He really wanted to

teach what brahmacharya is and he was roaring like a lion; I was wondering

who is that, and I remember looking at Radharani and Vrindavan-nath and my

hands were trembling as I was trying to dress Them while listening. It was

humorous and powerful; I came out to serve him prasadam and he was just so

enthusiastic to preach, so enthusiastic to give everything of himself to

inspire devotees. It was a very deep impression that I will not forget. He

became, later on, president of Juhu, Radhara-vihari temple, a very dynamic

and fearless preacher.

 

Sridhar Maharaja was thinking globally because that is how Prabhupada

trained him. He understood there were many talented, confident preachers

within our movement, but the progress of our society was stifled for lack of

funds. It was in this spirit of the servant of the servant of his

godbrothers and godsisters that he put his energy and time into

fund-raising. It wasn't that he was concerned with money; he was happy

preaching to prisoners, he was happy living in the swamp of Juhu with

mosquitoes, snakes and rats, but he understood that, if there were more

resources, everyone would be more empowered to preach.

 

Sridhar Maharaja had a very deep affection for the devotees of Radha

Gopinath temple. He was very proud of this temple, and of Bhaktivedanta

Hospital; when he would travel around the world, he would talk about what

you are doing at the temple and at the hospital. He really saw something

very special in the devotees here and was very eager to come and enthuse us,

chastise us and give us ultimatums; he did not do that everywhere. He did

that because he really loved and trusted the devotees here.

 

At one time Sridhar Maharaja convinced me that I must learn Hindi to

increase my preaching. I had never learnt a second language other than

English. And when you are old, learning a second language is not easy. "No,

no, you come, just give me your association." He took me up the Himalayas, a

place called Musoorie. There Sridhar Maharaja, Mahanidhi Maharaja and myself

were Hindi students. We would practice on each other. The only difference

was he remembered everything, and I forgot. We spent a month together living

in a little shack. Anything he did was exclusively with the aim of pleasing

Srila Prabhupada and assisting the Vaishnavas in their preaching. Right

after I learned and actually was speaking a little Hindi, I had to go back

to America, to deal with five months of serious problems. They told me that

if you don't speak immediately after you leave, every day, you will forget,

and what they said was very true.

 

Sridhar Maharaja told me, "You should come to London with me." I said, "I

have no business in London; I have my service in America." He said, "No, no,

you come to spend two, three days with me," so we went together and he told

all the devotees to set up all kinds of preaching programs for me. I spend

almost a month a year in London helping with preaching and it was Sridhar

Maharaja who pushed me into that situation and connected me.

 

Sridhar Maharaja, when he contracted his disease, actually established a

wonderful example. He fought to maintain his body and health by whatever

means possible because he yearned to be an instrument of Prabhupada's

compassion to preach. Simultaneously, he was utterly detached as to whether

he lived or died. He had no fear of death, but he wanted to serve as long as

Krishna allowed him. He was going for treatment but, wherever he went, he

would leave a trail of people who are Krishna conscious. He went for

Prabhupada's mission, so enthusiastic, so convinced of the conclusion of the

Bhagavad-gita, so convinced of the mercy of Srila Prabhupada that, any

situation he was in, he was always preaching. One day he told me about how

he was diagnosed with liver cancer, and he said, "I pray to Krishna to live

long enough to see the installation of Panca Tattva in Mayapur," because he

knew what a monumental historical event this would be.

 

Prabhupada's one unfulfilled personal project was the building of the

Mayapura temple. Prabhupada explained there should be Radha-Madhava with

eight sakhis, he gave their sizes and said how Nrsimhadeva and Panca Tattva

should be made. Lord Chaitanya, Prabhupada said, should be made out of eight

metals, seven feet tall. Jananivas prabhu, Pankajanghri prabhu, Bhakti

Purshottama Maharaja and Jayapataka Maharaja struggled so much to make those

Deities.

 

Sridhar Maharaja had faith that, when these Deities were installed, it would

really be the beginning of building the Temple of Understanding in Mayapura,

and he wanted to be there. It was a struggle because he was advised by

doctors to go to Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada, where he could

possibly get treated for liver cancer. He called me during the Pune yatra.

He was grateful to Krishna Chandra's paying for his ticket. But, he said, he

had mixed feelings of going. "Although I am going, I want to see Panca

tattva installation." Krishna fulfilled that desire. He was the honoured

Vaishnava in the festival. He bathed the Deities; he offered the first maha

arati to Lord Chaitanya in an honorary role. He was there during the prana

pratistha festival.

 

Sridhar Maharaja really loved his godbrothers and godsisters; he loved their

association. He always asked them to talk of Krishna. He always told them to

sing kirtans and bhajans. He genuinely lived as a servant of servant. His

sense of humor was incredible, although he could die any moment. He had this

service attitude; he wanted to make everybody happy. The devotees couldn't

believe it.

 

One of the most difficult things was that everyone had to go back to their

preaching. No one knew how long he would live. For his dear friends and

well-wishers, it was very difficult. Some devotees told me with tears in

their eyes, "I have to leave tomorrow. How can I say goodbye to him for the

last time? How could I say goodbye?" Some of them decided not to go because

it was too painful. Maharaj knew it, though nobody told him. I spent an hour

with him. He was so happy. He said, "Don't say goodbye to me. Just say we

will meet again. I am not going anywhere. We will always be together."

 

Actually, that's the way he dealt with all of us. That last parting was a

blissful, happy experience. He didn't want people to lament. Sridhar

Maharaja really was a personification of 100 percent wholesale, exclusive

dedication to ISKCON, which Prabhupada said was his body. Maharaja was

completely surrendered to serving ISKCON. How many times in our many

intimate talks, whether he was travelling all over or in good or bad health,

he always said, "I am Prabhupada's man. I am an ISKCON man and I will live

for ISKCON and die for ISKCON. Nothing will ever change it." He earnestly

gave his life for Prabhupada, cent per cent and never in 35 years, did he

ever consider any alternative. We can know for sure that Srila Prabhupada

has called his beloved, intimate and dear associate to wherever he is

performing his lila. There is no doubt.

 

Every devotee has his personality, nature. And Sridhar Maharaj really had a

personality. He was boisterous, jolly and straightforward. Srila Sridhar

Maharaja taught us the essence of what is a disciple by his life, by his

passing away from this world. In our last meeting, with tears in his eyes,

he said to me, "There is no one in this entire planet that I love more than

Giriraj Swami Maharaja because, when I first came to India, I saw his

complete surrender to Prabhupada. I wanted to be like him; I wanted to learn

from him how to be a disciple." At that time, the phone rang and when he

picked up, it was Giriraj Maharaja from California. They spoke for some

time, and Sridhar Maharaja gave the phone to me. I told Giriraj what Sridhar

Maharaj had said. There was complete silence. I could hear Giriraj

Maharaja's voice choking. That was the love the two of them shared.

 

In the last few years, the stalwart disciple of Srila Prabhupada, Gaur

Govinda Swami Maharaj departed from this world in Sri Mayapura dham on the

appearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati amidst kirtan. Two years

ago, Tamal Krishna Maharaj left in Nadia, in Phuliya-gram on the

disappearance day of Jagannath das Babaji. This morning that great loving

associate, who was bold and fearless but with a loving heart, soft, humble

and caring, that surrendered, dedicated mahatma, His Holiness Sridhar Swami

Maharaja, left in Mayapur dham, on the holy appearance day of Srivas

Pandita, surrounded by devotees chanting the holy names. Gazing at the form

of Prabhupada and Radha Shyamsundar, Prabhupada took him. It is a day of

rejoicing, the life and departure of a true saint, a true Vaishnava, and it

is a day of great sorrow. Although he is enjoying a higher lila with guru

and Gauranga, we must suffer the absence of his personal association. "He

reasons ill who says Vaishnavas die, for thou are living still in sound.

Vaishnavas die to live and, living, try to spread the holy name around."

This beautiful poem by Thakur Bhaktivinoda is perfectly applicable for

Sridhar Maharaja. Let us pray that his inspiration, example, words and mercy

forever live in our hearts and inspire us to follow in his footprints the

path of perfection. Sridhar Swami Maharaja ki jai!

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