Hold on Tight With All Your Might!

The deep realisations of Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Gosvāmī Mahārāja are something that are not normally found among the general group of devotees. Quantity and quality – Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja was a person of quality who spent his time deeply absorbed in meditating on the words of his Guru Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, and the previous ācāryas, and that was recognised by our hari-nāma and dīkṣā-guru, Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. He noticed the special attributes of Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja from the very beginning. There’s an old saying – “It takes one to know one.” Śrīla Prabhupāda descended from a platform of pure devotion from the very beginning of his life, and that continuity of devotion and dedication to Mahāprabhu, Nitāi, and to his Guru Mahārāja was recognised by Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja. Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja often said that it was our Śrīla Prabhupāda who fulfilled the desire of Sarasvatī Ṭhākura.

It is acknowledged that the words of Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja have cleared the hearts of many, many personalities. They have invigorated them in their spiritual life and in their desire to progress along the line of our predecessor ācāryas – namely Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, Śrīla Gaura Kiśora Dāsa Bābājī Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī, and Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

When Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja spoke, he spoke in such a compassionate and anxious tone in order to deliver and inspire the fallen souls to come back home, back to Godhead, as Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say. Such words were spoken at a time when the necessity was at its peak, when there was so much disruption after the disappearance of Śrīla Prabhupāda. These words came to relieve the confusion and the loss of hope of so many souls who had become disturbed by the activities of their contemporaries. Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja was like a rising sun that dissipated all the fog of misconception, and it became very clear that this was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire.

It was in 1978 that I first heard of Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, and it was elucidated by one of our godbrothers who said, “We are following the orders of our spiritual master, A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda, by going to Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja and hearing his explanations of the siddhānta and how to behave with one another according to Vaiṣṇava etiquette.” These two points are actually the foundation of our Gauḍīya culture – how to deal with one another, and what is the proper philosophy: what is dhāma-tattva, nāma-tattva, guru-tattva, arcana-tattva? So many questions were asked of Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja at that time, specifically from 1978 till 1982 – those particular years were when Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja started to explain many very important siddhāntika points. Personalities like Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja have been able to extract the essence from the śāstra, clarify those particular points, and delineate them to the audience according to time, place, and circumstance.

It behoves everyone to hear from him. Due to the modern world of technology, recordings are available. Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples were very astute in recording every word that Prabhupāda said. Those recordings have given guidance to so many people throughout the world, and the natural progression from those talks of Śrīla Prabhupāda are the talks of Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja. It was Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disciples who began recording the words of Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, which are for the benefit of everyone – for this generation and for generations to come. The words of the spiritual master are not static; they are dynamic. You can hear them over and over again, and as we progress in our spiritual life, new meanings will come, and we will want to share that inspiration with others. That is a natural phenomenon. If you have something nice, you want to share it with others.

Therefore, commemorating the appearance of such an exalted personality is just a fraction of what we feel on a moment-to-moment basis due to the necessity of hearing his most compassionate, sweet words – harmonising all the various dualities of the material world and inspiring us to move in that direction. They are life-giving ‘soul-food.’ When we say ‘soul-food,’ it means that it is nourishing, and it enters through the receptive ear into the eager heart to imbibe that direction and faith encapsulated in that sound vibration, encouraging us to go on, in spite of so much opposition which appears like so many highway robbers trying to distract us from our ultimate goal. On this journey back home, we should guard ourselves carefully.

Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja was a personality who was able to catch the deep meaning of what Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, and Śrīla Bhakti Pramoda Puri Mahārāja were saying. All these personalities are our guardians, and we must tie ourselves tightly to their lotus feet and pray to be dragged by them, even though we may resist in so many ways. The environment may come to offer so many delusions of temporary happiness, but hold on tight! Hold on tight with all your might! Success is guaranteed by them – by their example and by their words. They are there! They are conscious! The Lord is conscious! He’s within our heart. He’s conscious of what we need, and He will give us what we need to come back to Him, without a doubt.

This process is the blessing of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and Nitāi especially is very, very compassionate and completely indiscriminate. In other words, He doesn’t discriminate who is fit or unfit. He is not like us – He is not caught in the cage of this body, mind, or intellect. He is not identifying Himself as, “I am from this country, I am from this race, I am from this caste, I have this type of education.” Nitāi doesn’t discriminate. He freely distributed love. And what does love mean? It means dedication. Dedication to what? Utility. Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja uses the word ‘utility’ – we are to be utilised by the higher agents, not that we want to use them. We want to be used by them because that is our very nature – kṛṣṇa-dāsa. We are eternal servants of the Supreme. And the moment we go against that with an exploitative nature, there is contradiction, disharmony, and dissatisfaction. There is no happiness.

Please take the Name of Nitāi-Gaura and chant the mahā-mantra with a full heart! As Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja would say, “With heart within and God overhead – march on!” Heart within – the intellect will only take you so far. What is that intelligence? It is nothing. But divine intelligence is given by Kṛṣṇa – and to whom does He give it? To those who have surrendered to Him, who are on the path of progressive spiritual development. He gives them the intelligence by which He can be known.

So, on this most glorious day, I just wanted to share a few words from our experience, seeing so many Vaiṣṇavas inspired by the association of His Divine Grace, and so many sincere souls glorifying Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja, Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrīla Bhakti Pramoda Purī Mahārāja, and Śrīla Narasiṅgha Mahārāja.

• The True Spirit of Separation by Śrīla Bhakti Pramoda Purī Gosvāmī
• Śrīla Swami Mahārāja Attains the Dust of Vraja by Śrīla Bhakti Pramoda Purī Gosvāmī
• The Disappearance of Śrīla Śrīdhara Mahārāja by Śrīla Bhakti Pramoda Purī Gosvāmī
• Who is Qualified to Succeed the Ācārya? by Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Gosvāmī
• Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s Disappearance Day by Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Deva Gosvāmī
• His Last Instructions by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja
• The Prākṛta and Aprākṛta-līlā of Śrī Guru by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja
• Śrīla Prabhupāda’s Antya-līlā by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja
• Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura’s Disappearance Day by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja
• Śrī Jagannātha Deva Shook the Heaven and the Earth by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja
• After the Disappearance of Śrī Guru by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja
• Our Most Humble Koṭi Koṭi Koṭi Daṇḍavat Praṇāms by Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja
• A Nourishing and Compassionate Nature by Śrīla Bhakti Kiśora Araṇya Mahārāja
• The Compassionate Nature of Śrī Guru by Śrīla Bhakti Kiśora Araṇya Mahārāja
• Hope For The Hopeless by Śrīla Bhakti Kiśora Araṇya Mahārāja
• With My Head at His Feet by Śrīla Bhakti Kiśora Araṇya Mahārāja
• The Disappearance of Śrīla Bhakti Gaurava Narasiṅgha Mahārāja by Swami B.V. Giri

• Śrī Acyutānanda’s Departure by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura
• Sādhu Śikṣā (Holy Teachings) by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura
• Recognising a Pure Vaiṣṇava by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura
• The Natural and Marginal Characteristics of a Vaiṣṇava by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura
• The Nature of a Vaiṣṇava by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura
• Following in the footsteps of the previous ācāryas by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura
• Deliberation on the Methodology of Sādhu-saṅga by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura
• The Association of Sādhus by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura