serving Srila Prabhupada with Srila Sridhara Swami

[Paramananda das]

serving Srila Prabhupada with Srila Sridhara Swami
dear Giriraja Swami
Please accept my humble obeisances at your lotus feet
All glories to Srila Prabhupada
I know you loved and served a lot with HH Srila Sridhara Swami so I like to share this with you Holiness and I pray he and you always bless me.
Well I also had some "pastimes" with Srila Sridhara Swami, the first time I really met Srila Sridhara Swami was on Padayatra in 1985 I know I am a latecomer compared to many, I was on Padayatra and ISKCON Bombay (now Mumbai ) was supposed to send some money monthly to help the preaching of Padayatra for Lord Caitanyas centennial, actually, we were surviving of making life members and selling books but you know the Vans needed diesel and feeding 100 plus devotee daily and many expenses were there. So I guess Bhima Prabhu who was the TP at the time "forgot" to send Laxmi to Padayatra, Lokanath Swami was in bit anxious,, so he took me aside and asked me if I would kindly go to ISKCON Mumbai and ask for the Laxmi owed the Padayatra team to help the efforts in preaching ..Which meant I had to travel 48 hours by train third class as we really had no money and I had to spend all Laxmi I brought from the West in my service there on Padayatra .SO Bhima gave me a check I believe it was not cash, but Sridhara Swami wanted to come along I guess ISKCON Mumbai felt guilty they had not done their duty..Maharaja called me as we were on the same train to South India, we were way South that time I believe after Trivendrum, he said I am in a first-class train car you need not travel in the third class, (which was really austere ) I paid only for the third class ticket as not to waste Krsnas money but stayed with Maharaja in his first-class train car no one checked and assumed as a Western I had paid ..This is how I spend 2 days on the train with Maharaja and we had lots of talks,it was just him and me, and we had to offer some idlis and whatnot on the way on the train. Sridhara Maharaja walked with the Padayatra for 4 days I believe, it was an austere lifestyle but blissfully waking 20 to 30 KM a day and doing Kirtatana all day long and distributing books evening time we had Sobha Yatra and village preaching .
I did not really associate much with Maharaja again until I came to the US in 1989 and I guess around 1990 -92 he used to come to ISKCON Boston, he had one disciple there,, So one day I got a call from Sridhara Swami and he told me the Hinduja family was coming to ISKCON Boston, told me who they were and very very wealthy well-wishers and doners of ISKCON ( Billioniairs), The son of Asok Hinduja, Dharam had graduated so they wanted ISKCON Boston to do some Yajna and Sridhara Maharaja was confident I was the right man for it . I said sure Maharaja.I did a fire sacrifice by chanting the Names of Lord Narasimha for the protection and welfare of the Hinduja family and chanted Purusha Sukta and then I gave the whole family Holi waters from Vrindavana, filtered Yamuna water, Radha and Shyama Kunda, sacred water from Pavana Sarovara, and Prema Sarorava and Man Sarovara (the lake of Sri Radha's tears ) they were very happy with my presentation and asked I come to Mumbai and do Yajna there at their house .I said I am at your service anytime,,, they really liked to hear the pastimes of all these sacred Kundas and felt blessed to receive the holy waters on their head, when I say they I mean Dharam his father and mother and I believe a younger sister was there . Dharam really liked me and we became friends ,,, he asked me please be my friend and give me good advice in life if I need it. I am so impressed to see a Western devotee knowing all these things and learning to chant these prayers to beautifully, I said it is all the mercy of our Srila Prabhupada
(I went there the following year but that is not relevant here) but Srila Sridhara Swami was an expert in VIP treatment I could sense that ...The Hinduja family as you might know later became the main doners for the ISKCON Delhi temple .
I want to share one other pastime with Maharaja, in 1994 I was coming from California for Govardhana puja and the temple in New York was happy because I had my Govardhana sila they could worship that day . Sridhara Swami asked me if I would mind please going to JFK to pick up a VIP . Who is that? Maharaja said Madhu Pandit Prabhu from ISKCON Bangalore,I do not know what Sridhara Swami was seeing him for, nor do I know when he left ISKCON, to be independent with the Ritvik movement, but anyway that was my service to take care of Madhu Pandit Prabhu ...I guess around 2002 they left main ISKCON.
I saw Sridhara Swami one more time in 1996 as I do not recall I met him again I might have seen him in Mayapure after that but we did not have any major interaction
Sridhara Maharaja remembered the time I came back from taking care of Madhupandit Prabhu and no prasadam was saved for me when I came back to Brooklyn temple, Srila Sridhara Maharaja said I felt so bad you had no prasadam that evening please come to my sannyasa room and take prasadam, and Maharaja had me served prasadam that was in
Bhaktivedanta Manor in 1996 See the source image
I wish I could have shared my book Sri Narasimha with Sridhara Swami, actually, there is a pastime in Sri Narasimha about Sridhara Swami the famous Bhagavatam commentator, from the Rudra Vaisnava Sampradaya ..and he had defeated all the Mayavadis so they prayed to Lord Siva in Varanasi, and Lord Siva told the Mayavadis that Sridhara Swami is a great Vaisnava and devotee of Lord Narasimha,I may or may not know Srimad Bhagavatam but Srila Sridhara Swami he knows by the grace of Lord Narasimha, you have to read my book to get the full detail of that pastime. Srila Prabhupada named our dear Sridhara Swami after his dear godbrother Sridhara Swami that Srila Prabhupada once said about him I learned everything from Sridhara Swami,he is my Siksa Guru..and Sridhara Swami was of course named after the great Vaisnava Acarya Srila Sridhara Swami who composed two prayers to Lord Narasimha .
vag-isha yasya vadane
laksmir yasya cha vakshasi
yasyate hridaye samvit
tam nrisimham aham bhaje
"Lord Nrisimhadeva is always assisted by Sarasvati, the goddess of learning and He is always embracing to His chest the goddess of fortune. The Lord is always complete in knowledge within Himself. Let us offer obeisances unto Nrisimhadeva." (By Sridhara Swami in his commentary on Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.87.1)
prahlada-hridayahladam
bhaktavidya-vidaram
sharad-indu-ruchim vande
parindra-vandanam harim
"Let me offer my obeisances unto Lord Nrisimhadeva who is always enlightening Prahlada Maharaja within his heart and who always kills the nescience that attacks the devotees. His mercy is distributed like the moonshine, and His face is like that of a lion. Let me offer my obeisances unto Him again and again."
Srila Sridhara Swami worshipped a Narasimha Salagrama sila I believe this is the one below
See the source image
You were both instrumental in Srila Prabhupadas Lila of opening ISKCON Juhu and I offer my humble obeisances to the lotus feet of your both 
your humble servant
Paramananda das
PS I am including a PDF of Sri Narasimha so you can look for the Pastime of Sridhara Swami and Lord Narasimha