In2-MeC

ISKCON Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
14 March 2004

Remembering His Holiness Sridhara Swami Maharaja

 

I'm reeling from the news that my dear Godbrother Sridhara Maharaja passed from this world. After lunch today I walked from ISKCON Salem to a nearby shopping center to go online in the Dishnet internet access facility. My plan was routine: to check my several email mail inboxes and upload today's In2-MeC entry. Something told me to check my Pamho. net mailbox first (normally I check Pamho at the end of my online business, as I get the least email there). And so I came to know that Maharaja left his body in the holy Sridhama Mayapur at 6:00 AM today. Stunned, I signed off and numbly walked back to the temple to inform the devotees, particularly his one disciple here, Gaura Hari Prabhu (formerly Panchamukha of Denmark whom I've known for over twenty years). Then I sat down in front of my computer to write this.

When I was in Mayapur I didn't visit with Maharaja, though we did greet one another during the Pancha Tattva installation ceremonies. But as I reported in In2-MeC of April last year, I had a long heart-to-heart talk with him in Mumbai. At that time he didn't know he had liver cancer. But as his body had been host to Hepatitis-C for years, he had, in firm Krsna consciousness, been facing the possibility of departure. He gave me several valuable instructions that I see now I must really become serious about. One of them was that I should write. Well, that's why there is this In2-MeC. With today's entry I dedicate this website to Sridhara Maharaja's memory and his undying mood of jolly and spirited devotion to the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada.

Sridhara Maharaja, the vision of your infectious smile
dries my tears of grief; in fact I could even laugh
(though I won't out of fear of offending you)
because I know you are laughing yourself.
Eternal boy that you are,
you walk happily at the side of our beloved "boy"
Srila Prabhupada.
(Trikrama Maharaja, massaging Srila Prabhupada in London,
was moved by ecstacy to exclaim, "Srila Prabhupada, you're such a nice boy!")
Tomara milane bhai, abar se sukha pai, gocarane ghur din bhor.
Koto bane chutachuti, bane khai lutaputi, sei din kabe habe mor.
What we spoke of together
at the site of your many years of devotional sacrifice--
the glorious abode of Sri-Sri Radha-Rasabihari--
shall remain ever enshrined in my heart.
Those are your instructions, so be it; but Maharaja
I pray that from your place at Prabhupada's side
Your lotus hand will continue to guide
This small and lame brother of yours,
this lowly and fallen Suhotra Swami.

Harinama Sankirtana in Salem

 

 

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