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"To
show them special mercy, I, dwelling in
their hearts, destroy |
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"To
show them special mercy, I, dwelling in
their hearts, destroy |
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Sridhara Swami Posted April 2, 2004 I remember first meeting Sridhara Swami in the mid-seventies in Mumbai, India. We were working together under Gargamuni, enrolling life members. In those days we were a bit tough. We had to be because of the circumstances of living on a construction site (the temple) and having very little money or resources but faithfully going out every day to visit Mumbai businessmen and persuade them to give us some rupees and become members of the then fledgling ISKCON. When I first started working with Sridhara Swami, he was quite used to the hot climate and the culture, whereas I wasn't, so sometimes, after a long morning program, when we would head out in our car for an appointment, I would be overcome by sleepiness. Then I would feel a sudden bump or nip on the back. It was Sridhara Swami waking me up. He would have a big smile and pretend nothing had happened. Sometimes we got into good-cop, bad-cop routines, where one of us would be the nice preacher saint and the other the tough salesman ready to close the deal. We made quite a few life members and then parted company for a while. The next close contact I had with Maharaj was in 1977, when we went overland to India. He had bought a bright orange Mercedes car for Srila Prabhupad in Germany, and I was with Hamsaduta's men on a bus heading for India. The bus and car teamed up as a convoy. Sometimes Maharaja wanted some company so I would sit in the car and take turns driving. We would sing, chant, and chat about our experiences and Srila Prabhupada.
I had been in America collecting for the Vrindavan temple, so I had a sizable amount of cash on me, which I hadn't informed him or anyone else about. I was adamant that this was for Vrindavan and no one or nothing else would touch it. Anyway it turned out that Sridhara Maharaja's car seriously broke down in Istanbul, so he came to the bus looking for money to get it fixed. One of the other guys had found out about my cash, and he put Maharaja on to me. Wow! He was persuasive, but I held my own for stubbornness and refused to give him Vrindavan's money. In the end I agreed to lend him $1,000 to get him out of trouble. I don't remember what happened as an outcome. We all went our separate ways to get back to India because we knew Srila Prabhupada wasn't in good health. From time to time, I met Sridhara Swami in India, but we never ever mentioned this incident again. The last period I spent with Maharaja was in 1999 in Mumbai, where we would often sit in his room or the restaurant and talk about different subjects. We often talked about his health and how it was affecting him. Generally, he was fairly offhand about it and usually laughed it off, saying that his past had finally caught up with him. I was a little horrified at that and would ask him to at least make an effort to do something about it. In all fairness, I have to say that he did make attempts to contact healers and follow special diets, and he ended up being attended by the staff of the Bhaktivedanta Hospital in Mumbai. So many people loved and respected him that he was never alone. I would like to offer my last prayers for and respects to this humble person, a dedicated no-strings servant of Srila Prabhupada. I'd also like to thank all those devotees who looked after him these last few years. Hare Krishna. Mahakratu Das © dipika.org April 2, 2004 |
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