Memorial Ceremony of Our Beloved Mahaprabhu Dasa (Advocate R.K. Maheshwari)

Devotee: Hare Krishna, Maharaja, please accept my humble obeisances, Maharaja.

His Holiness Giriraj Swami Maharaja ki jaya!

Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari ki jaya!

Sita-Rama Lakshaman Hanuman ki jaya!

Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai ki jaya!

First of all, we would like to welcome HH Giriraj Swami Maharaja to join us in today’s memorial program for His Grace Mahaprabhu Prabhu. In fact, we are very, very grateful to Maharaja because he agreed to join us with a very short notice, really short notice. Yesterday, Prema Manjari Mataji sent an email around noon time here, which is almost midnight for Maharaja, and Maharaja wanted to join in today’s program because he feels that he is so much connected to Mahaprabhu that he wanted to join in today’s program and speak. So, first of all, we are very, very thankful to you, Maharaja, for joining us today.

So, today, we are assembled here to actually remember His Grace Mahaprabhu Prabhu, who has done wonderful service for Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari mandir. In fact, his spiritual journey started with the inauguration of the dream project of Srila Prabhupada, making the marble palace for Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari.

His Grace Mahaprabhu was born in Isagarh, Madhya Pradesh, on the 29th of March, 1937. So, he moved to Mumbai, and he became a lawyer and he was practicing in the Bombay High Court as an advocate. Srila Prabhupada made this wonderful temple so that he can attract people from high segment of the society, well-educated, celebrities, so many of that. And many times, some devotees even wondered whether anybody will come here because those days, Juhu was a far away place. Bombay was like Dadar is. Now we think Virar is lost in Bombay like Dadar used to be those days, and Juhu was far away, who will come? That was what people used to wonder, and Prabhupada definitely was sure that people will come.

On the very first day of inauguration of this temple, he got so many celebrities; Vyjayanthimala Bali, she was a very famous film star, she was performing on that day in Hare Krishna Land, Prabhudas Patwari, governor of Madras, Tamil Nadu, he was here, Raja Naren, very famous at the time, he was here. So many people were attracted. And also, Mahaprabhu Prabhu, at the time known as advocate RK Mahashiri, he saw an advertisement on the newspaper and he wanted to know what is it all happening here.

So, on the very first day of inauguration of the Radha-Rasabihari mandir, the attraction of higher segment of the society started, and Mahaprabhu is one among them. On the very first day, Mahaprabhu came here, and he was very impressed by the temple, marble palace of Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari, and from that day, he was actually forty-one years old at the time, and now, at eighty-four years, he departed from here. So, at the age of forty-one, he came in touch and dedicated more than four decades for service of Krishna consciousness, wonderful, exemplary devotional activity that he has performed.

So, in the beginning years, he was very, very instrumental in dealing in all the legal matters because he was an advocate himself. So, he was serving under HH Tamal Krishna Goswami Maharaja, HH Giriraj Swami Maharaja, he was the temple president, so he was serving under him, HH Śrīdhara Swami Maharaja. In this way, he was very much serving Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari in his capacity as a very famous practicing advocate. And he was also very instrumental in dealing with one of the early days, there was a murder here, the security guard had seen a person who was stealing shoes and suddenly died.

1978, the first year of temple opening, the temple opened in January, and during the year only, Mahaprabhu started. He was not even one year in the movement, still, he was actually very much helpful in dealing with the legal matters. And in 1979, just one year after coming in Krishna consciousness, he started a house program. By the time, he was already practicing, and then he started preaching within one year of his Krishna consciousness. And that program, 1979, for next forty-two years, I hope during the lockdown time it may be on Zoom or something like that, otherwise it was happening regularly even during lockdown, forty-two years continuously having his house used for preaching, what a wonderful series record.

So, he was a very staunch preacher and speaks in English and Hindi very fluently, and when he starts speaking philosophy, he gets so absorbed that sometimes he may not need a microphone, most of the times actually. So, when he starts speaking, he gets into it and he is just involved, absorbed in making people understand Krishna consciousness. Such a wonderful devotional record.

And Prabhupada wanted people from their segment, they wanted to become life members if Prabhupada made big, big industrialist life members. The purpose of him making life members was that first you become a life member, then you give your life, become a devotee, and serve Krishna. And Mahaprabhu Prabhu, in that way, he came. The first day itself he was convinced, and then soon, he became a life member, and he gave his life also. This is actually Prabhupada’s perfect program, and he was an exemplary person who has followed Prabhupada’s expectation of becoming a life member and giving the life itself.

So, he is also one of the founding members and pillars of Sri Sri Radha-Gopinatha mandir in the late eighties. He was instrumental in several projects connected with Radha-Gopinatha temple. And he was also very enthusiastic about making people chant. So, he would actually distribute japa-mālās to people free, of course, making people chant. And he was also instrumental in the Heaven on Earth project, there are so many tenants here. So, he was also instrumental in vacating the tenants, he helped by giving legal advices and helping in several ways, he was also helpful.

So, in this way, Mahaprabhu Prabhu, over more than four decades, not only practiced preaching and made several devotees, some of the devotees are sitting here also, when I ask them to speak, I’ll introduce them. He made his house a mini temple, making devotees and preaching vigorously. So, we are assembled here today to remember His Grace Mahaprabhu Prabhu and his wonderful qualities, so that we can also inspire to be engaged in Krishna consciousness and make progress.

So, with that short introduction, we begin today’s program. So, today’s program, in the beginning, we will have a video played in which HH Giriraj Swami Maharaja will say a few words, and after that, Mahaprabhu Prabhu will speak by reading from the book I Will Build You a Temple—The Juhu Story, in which HH Giriraj Swami Maharaja mentions about Mahaprabhu Prabhu that he will read, and after that, we will have HH Giriraj Maharaja to speak. So, with that, we will start with this program by playing the video in which Mahaprabhu Prabhu and HH Giriraj Swami Maharaja will speak.

VIDEO

His Grace Mahaprabhu dasa’s first association with ISKCON came on January 14, 1978, when the Juhu temple opened. And his life changed completely by Srila Prabhupada’s grace and the association of Srila Prabhupada’s devotees. Mahaprabhu and I were very close. I cannot even begin to count all the times I had prasāda at his home, all the times I spoke at his car satsaṅga center, all the times we went preaching together, all the times we were on legal matters together, all the times we cultivated people together. In his legal work, he was so instrumental in helping ISKCON, the Juhu project, and also throughout Gopinatha temple.

And he had such a big heart, but he expressed his love by preaching. And frankly, I can’t imagine life in Mumbai without him. But we do have his memories, we have his example, we have his legacy, and I feel even greater resolve to live up to his ideals and to pursue the goals that he held so dear to his heart, which include his love and care for his family members and friends, and also his desire to share Krishna consciousness with anyone and everyone.

Devotee: As I already mentioned, HH Giriraj Swami Maharaja is joining us in today’s memorial program of His Grace Mahaprabhu Prabhu with a very short notice, less than twenty-four hour notice, so that itself shows how much Maharaja is always thinking about Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari mandir and things which are happening connected to Sri Sri Radha-Rasabihari mandir. So, we are very, very thankful for HH Giriraj Swami Maharaja to have joined us. I request HH Giriraj Swami Maharaja to speak. Over to you, Maharaja.

Giriraj Swami: Hare Krishna. There is so much to say about Mahaprabhu dasa. He was changed by IKSCON, but he also changed ISKCON and made it better, stronger, and more dynamic. He was a preacher to the core, his life could not be separated from preaching, he was always eager to share Krishna consciousness with others.

And thus, very soon after he associated with devotees, he began the car satsaṅga center. In his garage, he had beautiful deities of Radha Vrindavan Nathdwara, and every Friday, he would have a satsaṅga program there. Very often, I would speak, HH Radhanath Swami would speak, and sometimes if there was no guest speaker, Mahaprabhu dasa himself would speak, and that garage would fill up with people.

And eventually, so many people started to come that they would be accommodated in the driveway, the area between the house and the garage. And for big programs, he set up folding chairs where some people could sit. He just, you could say, had an uncontrollable desire to share Krishna with others, and he was always looking for an opportunity to preach. And he was a good preacher. He would often translate into Hindi for me, he was my favorite translator. And sometimes he would embellish what I said in his translation, which was fine, he added his own mood and explanations in his translation, which was great.

And we worked on many legal cases together. He handled many cases himself, and on occasions when we needed a more specialized lawyer to handle the case, he would accompany us and explain things to the lawyer. And, of course, Mahaprabhu dasa never charged anything for his services, but he would also often convince the other lawyers to do service free or for a very reduced rate. He came to America sometimes, and we would preach together. Of course, he knew the Indian context very well and he could speak very suitably for the people in India, but he was also very well received in America because of his sincerity and the strength of his convictions, and it was really a pleasure to go preaching with him.

He loved his family and he took very good care of them spiritually and materially. I can’t even count the number of times that I did preaching programs at his house, and also the number of times that I just spent time with him and his family and took prasāda.

One night in particular, there were rumors that Matre, who was one of our arch-enemies along with Nair, had arranged some guṇḍās to kill me, and they were just waiting for me to come back to the temple from my day of preaching in the city. So, I was at Mahaprabhu dasa’s home until two in the morning, he stayed up with me. And then at two, I somehow, within my heart, I felt, “It’s okay, nothing’s going to happen.” So, at two o’clock in the morning, he drove me to the temple. And nothing happened, but that incident shows the extent to which he was ready to extend himself for others; for me, and for others. And he just would preach to whoever he could and bring them to the temple.

And maybe it’s a coincidence that just the day before he left this world, I mentioned him in a talk. I was giving a talk on Zoom, and someone raised the question, sort of like what Mukunda Madhava Prabhu said, that you become a life member, and then you give your life.

So, in the talk, someone raised the question that when you surrender to Krishna, Krishna may take everything away from you. And Krishna does say yasyāham anugṛhṇāmi hariṣye tad-dhanaṁ śanaiḥ, that when He is especially mercifully inclined to some devotee, the first installment of His special mercy is He takes everything away from the devotee so that the devotee has no recourse but to surrender to Krishna and His devotees.

So, I mentioned Mahaprabhu in my talk because Mahaprabhu dasa would invite people to the temple very regularly. Of course, the darshan of the deities was beautiful and we had Govinda’s restaurant, which served sumptuous prasāda. And so, he would invite them to the temple for darshan and to have prasāda in the restaurant. But some of them refused his invitation, and the reason was, as he explained, they thought that Krishna consciousness is a one-way street, and once you start going down that road, there is no turning back, and then you have to give up so many things, according to their conception. So, I mentioned that in my talk just the day before he left.

So, he has so many court cases, and I could just go on and on. One relates to the ten-foot strip, the famous ten-foot strip, which has become part of the access road in Juhu at the temple. It was sort of controversial, it was contested, but with Mahaprabhu dasa’s help, we were able to resolve that and get that extra ten feet, which really did belong to us, as part of our access road.

So, we really will miss Mahaprabhu dasa. As I said, Mumbai won’t be the same without him. But again, we do have his memory, we have his example, we have his ideals, we have his ambitions, and we can work for those, try to preach with the same zeal that he had and get people to chant.

And he brought so many people to Krishna consciousness. So many of the people to whom he preached and whom we cultivated became devotees and later took initiation. Many, many, many of them. He was good at asking questions in classes. He would ask questions not because he didn’t know the answer, but he could understand the minds of people in the audience, and he would ask questions for them so that the speaker could address concerns that were on their minds. And in that way, he enriched the satsaṅgas with his questions.

So, he is really special. And of course, his beloved wife who supported him all the way, Pavika devi dasi, she left earlier. But he does have two wonderful children who are devotees; his son Giri Govardhana, and his daughter Shama.

And they themselves are testimony to Mahaprabhu Prabhu’s greatness because they have taken up his legacy of Krishna consciousness. As my dear friend HH Rtadhvaja Swami often says, children may be born in the Hare Krishna movement, but they themselves have to decide whether they want to join the Hare Krishna movement. And Giri Govardhana and Shama dasi with the good graces of their father, Mahaprabhu Prabhu, have committed themselves to Krishna consciousness. In different ways as individuals, their situations are different, but they are engaging in devotional service.

Of course, I meet Giri Govardhana in India, and I’ve met Shama dasi in America. She even came to California and we met here. So, my heart goes out to them in condolence, but at the same time, they can feel proud that they had such an illustrious father, and they along with the rest of us can serve him in separation and try to fulfill his desires that everyone become Krishna conscious and take to the chanting. I remember how, as Mukunda Madhava Prabhu said, he would distribute beads and bead bags. He just wanted everyone to chant Hare Krishna, chant japa, and be happy in Krishna consciousness. So, we miss him, but I’m sure that his blessings are upon us as we endeavor to remember him and glorify him and serve him in separation.

Mahaprabhu dasa Prabhu ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki jaya! Sri Radha-Rasabihari ki jaya! Hare Krishna.

Devotee: Thank you very much, Maharaja, for spending your time with us and making us remember some of the intimate association you both had. Thank you very much in spite of short notice and being late at your time. Once again, we are very, very thankful to you, Maharaja. HH Giriraj Swami Maharaja ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!

So, we have with us several devotees who are very closely associated with Mahaprabhu; his own family members also, his brother, Rohini Nandan Prabhu, Devi Priya Mataji, sister-in-law, all are here. So, I request Sahadeva Prabhu. Sahadeva Prabhu, you will always see him together with Mahaprabhu whenever they used to come for any program in the Radha-Rasabihari temple.