All
Glories To Sri Guru And Gauranga
shri-svarupa-raya-rupa-jiva-bhava-sambharam
varna-dharma-nirvishesa-sarvaloka-nistaram
shri-sarasvati-priyan ca
bhakti-sundarashrayam
shridharam namami bhakti-rakshakam
jagad-gurum
Dear
devotees and
friends,
I offer my humble dandavat
pranams to you all in remembrance of my Divine Master. In August
of 1981 His Divine Grace Srila Sridhar Maharaja spoke the following:
"...to take tapes from
me
and to preach, to supply it to the preachers, of course the idea is
good."
"I did not go to the West but in my last days Prabhupada
[Srila Saraswati Thakura] is wresting something what he deposited with
me, to
take it for the West. I can't deny, as much as I can do, I shall do."
Now
more than 27
years have passed since Srila Sirdhar Maharaja expressed his desire
that the
preachers have access to his recorded discourses.
Previously
we have
offered from our website those recordings that were already available
in some
form to the public. But there are many more recordings that, until now
were not
available even to the disciples and grand disciples of His Divine Grace.
With
each passing
year, the devotees' desire to gain access to the full spiritual wealth
of Srila
Sridhar Maharaja's discourses increases. The current generation of
preachers,
disciples of Srila Govinda Maharaja, seem especially eager not only to
hear the
words of their parama Guru but to acquire a deep appreciation for their
meaning
which they in turn enthusiastically impart to others.
It
is our desire to
promote such eagerness and enthusiasm by offering access to a large
collection
of Srila Sridhar Maharaja's recordings. Of course in so doing all those
of a
similar mind will delight in hearing these recordings regardless of
their
generational placement.
In
the interest of
propriety, some portions of the original recordings have been omitted
from this
public offering. I had not intended to do any editing but one of my
Godbrothers
strongly advised me to do so. I therefore went through each of the
recordings
applying my own judgment as to what should be omitted. Practically the
only
parts removed were those Srila Sridhar Maharaja himself indicated
should not be
made public.
As to what should be made available, I relied primarily on what I could understand of Srila Sridhar Maharaja's own desire to make his opinions known. He exhorted us to follow a progressive path to truth, "Thesis, antithesis and synthesis. In this method the whole thing is progressing." He encouraged us to push our beliefs into the marketplace of ideas to either be accepted or challenged in the light of day. And, he provided the example for us to follow:
Srila
Sridhara Maharaja- Within these last
days I insulted them [the GBC] permanently and the talk has been
recorded? Uh?
You caught me?"
Dhira
Krishna Swami- "I won't distribute this recording. I will not
distribute..."
Srila
Sridhara Maharaja- "Yes, you may distribute"
Dhira
Krishna Swami- "Then I will."
Srila
Sridhara Maharaja- "What I am within me, the people will know, and they
will abuse me. But what I am, if I need to be abused, it will be well
and good.
Any offenses will be purged out.
Srila Govinda Maharaja also expressed his opinion that Srila Sridhar Maharaja wanted to reveal the inner wealth he collected from Srila Saraswati Thakur for the benefit of all, even though some objected to his doing so:
"Then,
Guru Maharaja clarified many slokas. yena
mam upayanti
te, [Guru] Maharaja told there, upa[pati], this word, showing paramour
love, it
is very much a thinking conception, deeply thinking conception. What was given by Guru Maharaja, everybody will not
understand
that. But, by the mercy of Guru Maharaja, if they will try to
understand, they
can understand something. And Guru Maharaja told Sripad Sagar Maharaja,
"You can add it [meaning of upayanti] in the English edition of Srimad
Bhagavad Gita." I did not give it in the Bengali edition. I was a
little
afraid to give it. And, at that time, Sripad Jajavar Maharaja
influenced me too
much, "You give what is there, [the direct meaning] that way. But, you
don't try to expose inside matter."
I
was also thinking, "I am publishing for the general public. Then, it
will
be good not to give too much. Who wants to know, he will come to Guru
Maharaja,
or to me. What I know, what I got from Guru Maharaja, I shall explain
it."
But
later, Guru Maharaja was very merciful. That is, He gave
gayatry-artha-viniryasam, gita-gudhartha-gauravam [Pranati-dasakam:
5] [1] .
What was not given by other acharyas before, that explanation of
gayatri mantram, that was also given by
Guru Maharaja.
I
was always giving some objection. That is, I was afraid. It is a hidden
matter.
But Guru Maharaja is trying to expose it, and nobody will understand.
They will
take it some other way and use it for their own mundane benefit.
Then,
one day, I told Guru Maharaja, "You are giving gayatri explanation in
front of the Western devotees. They do not know anything, actually, and
you are
explaining it." But, Guru Maharaja's mood was, "I do not know Western
or Eastern. I want to explain something and they have come to me for
hearing. I
am thinking they are sincere seekers and they are trying to know
something from
me. If I do not explain the gayatri mantram, who
will explain
it? Nobody can do it, actually. And it will stay in a hidden
position.
From the time of Veda Vyasa, up to today, nobody has explained it. But
many
know it. Veda Vyasa knows, Rupa-Sanatan know, Jiva Goswami knows,
everybody
knows, but nobody has given it. That is, I want to give it. What
offense will
come, that will come. And, if you want to hide it, you can try to hide
it, but
I shall give." That was his mood, in his last days. Guru Maharaja was
not
very, not very cautious. If anybody asked anything, he is giving
answer. That
was his way". –Morning lecture, Miami, Florida, 7/17/93
[1] Pranati-dasakam Verse 5, found in
Sermons of the Guardian
of Devotion Vol 1
Some
may think we
have gone too far, revealed too much or proceeded recklessly. I am
prepared to defend
my editing decisions except where I may have overlooked some particular
section. I welcome the reader/listener to contact me in the event you disagree or
believe I including
something that should not have been. Before doing so, please read my
article Editing the Acharya where
I explain my
rationale in more detail.
We
cannot estimate
the extent of the contribution of His Holiness Sripada Bhakti Sudhira
Goswami
Maharaja who has devoted himself for many years to collecting,
maintaining and
preserving these recordings. Without his unswerving dedication to this
project
we can hardly imagine how it would otherwise have come about. The recordings themselves were made by several persons
present at
the Math including Sriman Swarupananda Prabhu and others
Sriman
Gokulananda
Prabhu provided much of the inspiration to me to make these recordings
available through our website. In addition, he has logged countless
hours doing
behind the scenes work needed to provide all the links and code for
downloading
and streaming the files which number over 900. I could not have
proceeded
without his dedicated help
These
recordings are
presented here for the serious student of Srila Sridhar Maharaja. They
are an
archive of original, raw recordings. The audio quality is sometimes
very poor
and requires serious attention to understand his words. At other times
the
quality is good and readily understood. I would advise the serious
student to
start at the beginning and go through each recording in the order they
were
made much as one is advised to go through the Srimad Bhagavatam.
Jumping
immediately to controversial portions may tend to promote
misunderstanding
rather than the desired result.
It
is our hope that
making these recordings available will encourage further exploration of
this
mine of pure spiritual ore. The veins run deep and long and we expect
many
generations will find new veins branching off from the main ones and
running in
directions previously unknown and unexpected.
To
further this
exploration we plan in the near future to construct a forum for
devotees to
share their indexes and transcripts of the tapes. While I have many
quarrels
with modern science, I find one of their methods very useful, the
sharing of
information so that each may benefit from the research of the others.
By
making research
public it invites inspection, correction and improvement. Our hope is
to one day see a complete searchable
database of Srila Sridhar
Maharaja's words. We see this as one of the initial steps in that
process.
"So
I am unwilling and you have come and forced. Extract[ed] from me. If
you find
anything good, what is akin to your master's gift, if you find that
what you
have already got from your Spiritual Master, similar things are to be
found
here, then of course you may come and try to snatch it and distribute
to the world.
You have got that right." -Srila Sridhar Maharaja
Praying
to the lotus
feet of His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Deva-Goswami
Maharaja,
that he accept us as meager assistants in his service to Om Vishnupada
Srila
Bhakti Rakshaka Sridhar Deva-Goswami Maharaja, we present these
recordings for
the satisfaction of the devotees in the line of Sri Chaitanya Saraswati
on the
day of the 524th. celebration of the
auspicious advent
of Sri Gauranga Sundara, Sri Gaura-Purnima, March 11, 2009.
yare dekha, tare kaha 'krishna'-upadesha
amara ajnaya guru
hana tara' ei desha
Swami B.K. Giri