Thursday, December 21, 2006

HH Niranjana Swami remembers HH Sridhar Swami, Part 4


And I also appreciated how much he had love for his godbrothers. I was amazed, actually, when he arrived in Mayapura. It was somewhere around February 11th or 12th. At that time, he had been warned by the doctors in Canada. First he was told in Bombay that they found traces of cancer, because he has been suffering from liver problems for many, many years. So he decided to go to Canada, where he was originally from, in Vancouver, and consult with the doctors to see if it was possible for a liver transplant. After a thorough examination, the doctors had told him after some time that the cancer had spread too far and that he could not qualify for a liver transplant. So he said that, "Well, I'm just going to go to Mayapura so that I can be with my godbrothers and so that I can see the Panca Tattva installation, and I'll just go there to leave my body in the association of all of my godbrothers." I heard about him from several sources shortly after this and heard that everyone was amazed by his spirit.


One day one of the doctors came to him. He was supposed to get his abdomen drained from fluids that day. His abdomen would get very bloated. The doctor placed his hand on his stomach and Sridhar Maharaja turned to a few of us and said, "It's a boy!" His brother was there. In fact, both of his brothers were there. Both of his brothers came from Vancouver to be with him. They were not practicing devotees, but within two weeks, they were both shaved up, with sikhas, chanting in kirtans, and attending programs. In fact, one day, his brother.... I became close with his brothers, and one of his younger brothers, Stuart, we were talking outside of Sridhar Maharaja's room, and he was looking at me and said, "You know we are having an unbelievable experience here. So I said, "Yes, you're probably finding a lot of love here, aren't you?" And he said, "Yes, I've never seen such love like this." And he said, my heart is just melting seeing all of this love that's manifesting around my brother." So I said, "Yes you're very fortunate, because your brother is creating all of this love by his presence right now." That's the first time I spoke to Stuart, actually. And then he just said, "Yeh", and he just threw his arms around me as if we had been close friends for years, he embraced me, and neither of us could let go for a long time. He repeated, "I've never seen such love", and he started to cry.

So his two brothers were there when the doctor was examining him. They stayed by his side quite frequently. And at that time, just nobody knew what to expect. But Sridhar Maharaja was also just simply trying to lighten up the atmosphere. His brother was crying at the sight of his older brother, and when Sridhar Maharaja said, "It's a boy," everybody started laughing. His brother switched from tears to laughter. Sridhar Maharaja was artfully dealing with everybody's emotions. He was always trying to take away any emotion that would cause crying. But of course, although he would joke, he was very Krsna conscious as well.