Tribute to Bhakti Charu Swami

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. Well, this has been a very moving experience remembering HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja in separation now and recalling his affectionate dealings personally and his inspired service. I first met him in the bathroom, the makeshift bathroom, at the Maha Kumbha Mela in 1977. He was a new person to me, so I asked who he was and what his background was. I won’t reiterate what others have said about his service [and] how Prabhupada recognized him, brought him close, [and] gave him first and second initiation at one time and then six months later sannyasa. I was very touched overall by HH Jayadvaita Swami’s talk, but in particular, his account of how Bhakti Charu Swami entered Srila Prabhupada’s room when Srila Prabhupada was very ill at the end in Vrindavan and spoke in a very loving and soothing way to him in Bengali. That really touched me because that was just so beautiful. In Ananda Kumar Prabhu’s nice talk, he listed a succession of qualities, and at the end, he concluded with the phrase, “the heart of a Vaishnava.” I wrote something about Maharaja called, “The heart of a Vaishnava” and hearing that I felt sort of encouraged to read that little reflection.

READING by Giriraj Swami

One of Sripada Bhakti Charu Swami’s most prominent qualities was his deep love for Srila Prabhupada. Very soon after Maharaja met Srila Prabhupada, he included him in his personal staff and made him his secretary for Bengali and Hindi correspondence. Soon thereafter, Srila Prabhupada gave him first and second initiation and then sannyasa. Then Maharaja personally served Srila Prabhupada throughout Prabhupada’s last days. HH Bhakti Charu Swami was also devoted to ISKCON. He always considered ISKCON to be a unique creation of Srila Prabhupada’s and always wanted to serve ISKCON, both the devotees in ISKCON and ISKCON as an entity, a manifestation of Srila Prabhupada.

COMMENT

He really did consider ISKCON to be an entity to be served, and he always encouraged devotees to be loyal to ISKCON and attached to ISKCON.

READING continued

He was really in the mood of service to the devotees, especially the devotees of ISKCON and to ISKCON itself. Maharaja was a very pure hearted, loving person. His love for Srila Prabhupada was seen in his love for the devotees and for people in general, whom he wanted to bring to Srila Prabhupada, and in how he encouraged devotees to increase their engagement, take on more responsibility, and become more loving, humble servants. The more responsibility one accepts, Maharaja once explained to a devotee in Mauritius, the bigger servant of the devotees one becomes.

COMMENT

That was so much Maharaja’s mood—to be the servant of the servant of the servant.

READING continued

The more responsibility one accepts, Maharaja once explained to a devotee in Mauritius, the bigger servant of the devotees one becomes. This reminded me of something Srila Prabhupada once said. A disciple came into Prabhupada’s room in Mayapur one day and began to complain about the management. Srila Prabhupada said, “If you think you can do better, why don’t you?” Somehow the disciple came out and announced that Srila Prabhupada had made him the temple commander, and he began to boss around the other devotees. Some devotees complained to Srila Prabhupada that the devotee had said that Prabhupada had made him the temple commander and that now he was barking orders of everyone. So, Srila Prabhupada called for the devotee and instructed him, “First, you become the servant of everyone. Then you become the temple commander.” So, Srila Prabhupada expressed the same idea as Bhakti Charu Swami that a bigger position means becoming a bigger servant. If we listen carefully to all of Maharaja’s instructions, we can understand how closely he followed the disciplic succession. Some of his statements were very close to Srila Prabhupada’s words, and some took the basic principles that Srila Prabhupada gave and sweetened them with personal realization.

Another of the many fine qualities exemplified by HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja was his offenselessness. He was very careful not to commit any offense against any devotee or any living entity. If he felt he had committed an offense, he would immediately try to mitigate the effects by approaching the person, apologizing, and asking forgiveness. Somehow or other, he tried to rectify the offense. From our point of view, we wouldn’t think he had committed an offense, but within his pure heart, he may have felt that he had, and immediately he would try to approach and please the person he feared he had offended, to remove the effects of the offense. Maharaja’s heart was pure and very sensitive, full of compassion for other devotees and sensitive to his own faults, which again, from our point of view, wouldn’t even have been considered faults. That is really the heart of a Vaishnava, full of love and appreciation for others, but sensitive to one’s own deficiencies or mistakes. As stated by Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad-gītā Chapter Twelve, Texts Thirteen and Fourteen, I just feel this describes Maharaja.

TRANSLATION

One who is not envious but is a kind friend to all living entities, who does not think himself a proprietor and is free from false ego, who is equal in both happiness and distress, who is tolerant, always satisfied, self-controlled, and engaged in devotional service with determination, his mind and intelligence fixed on Me – such a devotee of Mine is very dear to Me.

COMMENT

Many devotees have commented on what a gentleman Maharaja was, and he was a gentleman. He followed Vaishnava etiquette perfectly, and he helped the movement immeasurably in so many ways. One of the ways in which he helped was to teach devotees Vaishnava etiquette. The idea of him being a perfect gentleman reminded me of an exchange that took place with Srila Prabhupada, in which an interviewer asked Prabhupada, “How would I recognize a true follower of the Krishna consciousness movement by his behavior? What would his traits be? What would his outward expressions be?” And Prabhupada replied, “Yes, his behavior, he is a perfect gentleman. That’s all. You cannot find any faultin him. That is perfect Krishna consciousness.” So HH Bhakti Charu Swami was certainly a perfect gentleman. The conclusion would be based on Srila Prabhupada’s statement that he was perfect in Krishna consciousness.

One small thing, one of his disciples wrote me yesterday, in the aftermath of Maharaja’s departure, he was lamenting that he wouldn’t be able to hear Maharaja call his name. I could relate to that because, in general, when he uttered my name, and I’m sure it’s true of all the other devotees’ names, but in my case, I remember when he uttered my name, it would be so full of love and mercy. There was one incident, the incident is not important, but it’s just to give the context to his statement. Maharaja initiated a very nice disciple in Santa Barbara and gave him the name Giridhari Priya, and Maharaja had another disciple in the Santa Barbara area named Kandarpa Manjari. She said to Maharaja. This is in San Diego [where] the initiation took place. She said to Maharaja, “Now you have a disciple in Santa Barbara, so you’ll have reason to come to Santa Barbara now.” And he looked at me, [and] with so much love and affection he said, “I will come to Santa Barbara not to be with my disciple. I will come to Santa Barbara to be with Giriraj Maharaja.” The way he said, “Giriraj Maharaja” was really just full of love and mercy. So, we miss him, but as we know from shastra and we know from experience, as Srila Prabhupada wrote in his dedication to his Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, dedicated to a spiritual master, “He lives forever by his divine instructions, and the follower lives with him.” So, in that way we associate with Srila Prabhupada in his absence, and when we associate with Srila Prabhupada, we associate with his dear associates as Srila Prabhupada explained in his purport to the prayer vande ham. That would be a bit of a digression. The spiritual master is not alone; he is with his associates. So, for now as long as possible, I guess you could say I will associate, continue to associate with Srila Prabhupada and now with HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja by vāṇī, by following their instructions and example. Maharaja is such an inspiration to so many devotees and to me as well, and I really pray to him and all of you that I will be able to live up, at least to some little degree, to his expectations, his wishes, as a servant of Srila Prabhupada, of him, of his disciples, of everyone in ISKCON, and everyone in the world.

One of the qualities mentioned in the Nectar of Devotion is to not give pain to any living entity. The Nectar of Devotion has a quotation, in support of that principle, that the devotee acts towards everyone [as] an affectionate mother acts true towards her child [and] does not cause any painful action in the mind of any living entity. I think Srila Bhakti Charu Swami really had that quality and exemplified that quality. That’s one of the many qualities of his that I will try to imbibe [and] try to emulate him in his wonderful qualities and service. Thank you all for coming together for this wonderful opportunity to appreciate and glorify and serve HH Bhakti Charu Swami Maharaja. Hare Krishna.

Speaker: Thank you very much Maharaja for those very profound and comforting words. Really really appreciate it. It definitely cools the heart that’s burning. Thank you so much. So Maharaja, would you now lead the Nṛsiṁhadeva prayer, and then we’ll conclude after that.

Giriraj Swami: Sure.