The Passing Of Sridhar Maharaja

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

 

BY PATITA PAVANA DAS ADHIKARY

 

Mar 19 — Saturday 13 Mar. 2004: Standing in front of my souvenir shop in San Francisco, I hear my portable phone ring. But this is not some ordinary business call, it is my elder Godbrother Hansadutta Prabhu calling from Shridham Mayapur. "Half an hour back," he begins, "our Godbrother Shridhar Swami left his body here in Mayapur." Giving me a moment to comprehend what he had just told me, he continued, "He was very ill and I have been singing and chanting to him with the other devotees over the past few days. Now he has joined Mahaprabhu."

 

Although I hadn't seen Shridhar Swami in a quarter century, I remembered him well from the early days at Hare Krishna Land in Bombay, around 1973. Long before the completion of Shrila Prabhupada's magnicicient and palacial tribute to Shri Radha-Rasabehari, the Presiding Deities of Hare Krsishna Land, Shridhar Swami had decided to assist the project without any ambition other than the service of his Guru Maharaja. We all lived in a large straw hut together on the property, and Shridhar Swami would spend all day convincing the pious Hindu community to come forward and believe in Shrila Prabhupada's project as he did.

 

Soon after most of the construction had been completed, in1979, a riot broke out just outside the main gate of Hare Krishna Land. It had been started by local thugs harrassing one our chokidharas or gate keepers. In the ensuing melee, the thug lay dead before a seething, angry crowd. The next day the police showed up asking for witnesses.

 

Six of us came forward to tell what we had seen: Shridhar Swami, Amogha Lila, Ruchisevana, Jagat Purush, Mahabuddhi and me. The police asked us to accompany them to the station and give our statements. There they took us in a small room, said "wait here" and left. On the way out we could see them lock the door using a pair of handcuffs through the hasp. Shridhar Swami turned to us with his usual humor-mixed-with-seriousness, and said, "I don't think we'll be leaving here any time soon." We all began chanting our rounds, and in a couple of hours the head cop returned and said, "We now have to frame charges against you.You mean FRAME us, actually." I chimed in, but the comment received only a head-bob in reply as the dark Maharashtrian cop slurped on his red chewing paan.

 

Jail over the next two weeks for "The Bombay Six" was sheer hell. The four-cell "lock-up" containing 120 men had only one toilet and water for only an hour a day. Mosqiitos flew everywhere. But Shridhar Swami didn't mind. He carried on just as though he was in front of the lotus feet of Their Lordships Shri Shri Radha-Rasabehari. He chanted and preached constantly, doing minimally some 64 rounds daily. Miraculously, an earlier prisoner had pasted a small "sign" on the wall reading in Marathi "Kirtan Sagar", ocean of the holy name. We named our jail cell Kirtan Sagar and all drew inspiration from Shridhar Swami's attitude of absolute transcendence in the holy name: Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. When we weren't chanting we preched to the prisoners, who were all warm and receptive to us. Needless to say, Shridhar Swami's absolute reliance upon the Lord's Divine Wish only deepened as we were forced to stand trial over the next year, culminating in a Not Guilty verdict for the six devotees.

 

Throughout every moment of his life, each nimesha, His Holiness (108) Shridhar Swami retained that same absolute faithfulness in Shrila Prabhupada, never wavering, always staunch. He was a lotus in the mud of this material world whose never-ending duty was (and is) the service of our Guru Maharaja, Om Vishnupada Paramhamsa Parivrajacacarya (108) Shrila Abhay Charan Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. If we here on Earth can ever have a glimmer of hope that our lives can attain some real meaning, then following the example of Shridhar Swami, an embodiment of Prabhupada's divine orders, should be our first priority. There is no death for the Vaishnava like our Godbrother Shridhar Swami Prabhuji, only a change in venue for his service to his Guru Maharaja.