Offering by HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj
I am very grateful to all of the assembled devotees for coming to share this very sacred occasion when we are sharing our deep love and gratitude to HG Shyam Krishna Prabhu. It gives my heart a sense of fulfillment that Shyam Krishna Prabhu’s family members personally witness how deeply this great soul has affected peoples’ mind, their love for him, their honor for him, and the tremendous historical accomplishments he has achieved. In Srimad Bhagvatam it is explained ‘better one moment of full consciousness than a long life wasted’. Shyam Krishna Prabhu personified total dedication, absolute loyalty, and fearless courageous enthusiasm to do what is right. This was a quality in him. He could not tolerate corruption. He could not tolerate false ego in the name of bhakti. He was dealing with ……. in the Law & Enforcement Agency. But when he came to the path of bhakti and dedicated himself to Krishna Consciousness, and deeply studying Srila Prabhupada’s books he knew what is the standard of pure bhakti and he dedicated himself to that, in his personal life and protecting the sanctity of Srila Prabbupada’s movement. Many people can preach about how nice devotional service is. Many people can say ‘jai Prabhupada’. Even many of my own god-brothers and god-sisters, they may talk how we should put Prabhupada in the center, and the problems that are occurring because the Prabhupada is not in the center, and tell the pastimes with Srila Prabhupada, which is all wonderful. But how many are actually willing to put their life in the line, 24 hours a day, voluntarily accept insurmountable stress, death threats, opposition gladly to defend the sanctity of Srila Prabhupada’s mission. To protect the properties that were so dear to Srila Prabhupada. And most of all, to establish the standards that Prabhupada expected. They are not too many, in any of the generations of devotees that are alive today that can stand up to the example of Shyam Krishna Prabbu. Can any one who knows him can understands him…………….. I say. At the same time he was very humble. We have heard so many extraordinary offerings of realizations about his qualities. He was keenly intelligent. Not just with book knowledge. He had tremendous amount of book knowledge, but he had insight, into vision to apply that book knowledge to particular situations, and the most difficult situations to apply is crises, he was right there. He knew what to do and he knew how to do it. Many people could not understand but he got it done, and he did it right with integrity. Sometimes even the best of brahmanas could not figure out why that he wants it to do this way. He was a Brahman. And as Bhima Prabhu said ‘above being a Brahman, above being a kshatriya, above being a vaisya, he was everything’. He was a vaishnava, he was simply willing to do the needful as Prabhupada asked us ’do the needful’. But most of us will do the needful upto a certain point. For him there was no limits. As we heard, he has a very secure line of business, he was being promoted. He had a tremendous future in the govt. because they saw here is a man who is completely honest, who had total integrity, who is fearless, who knows the law and is willing to do what he is told, and he was a leader. We have heard from a powerful leader of the Indian Govt. that this man is a leader. He gave it all up to perform full time devotional service. In such integrity, so sensitive, for him there was no question of finding loopholes, to get something for himself out of devotional service. “…………………….” The Bhagvatam says we should not expect our own personal benefits from our devotional service. That was the principle of Prahlad as well. We heard, he gave up such a lucrative career. And he invested his money to get interest for his family and himself for his security and for reasons we don’t want to discuss, no fault of his own, but that money was lost. He had hardly anything, still he was working like nobody else could work, for Krishna and Prabhupada. And he would buy his prasada. He did not want to take it for free. He would buy his own ticket to do service for the temple. He did not take a paise. Always giving even when economically his future was at tremendous risk and question. I do not know too many people who have that integrity under such conditions. And how many cases he was handling. Any one of those cases were impossible for any other devotee. Bhima Prabhu knows. He would come to me often and explain to me a lot of things happening. They were so beyond me, I must confess. When I saw how much his heart was into it, I was so emotional about the welfare of the vaisnavas and the welfare of Srila Prabhupada’s good name. I said “Shyam Krishna Prabhu I am forever grateful that you are doing this, but please know that if it is too much for you and your family there are many other services you can render. I am grateful that you are doing it but there is no pressure and will never be any pressure from me to keep you there, because I could not keep anyone in the situation you are in. Then tears will come to his eyes, he said if I will leave than all this pressure will come on Devamrit Prabhu and I must protect him. This is the love of a god-brother. How many god-brothers or god-sisters are willing to do that for eachother. And actually although he was extremely intelligent, fearless, a leader, a person who is aggressive to get things done when it should be done. A person with a fraction of those qualities is usually very proud. Shyam Krishna Prabhu is very humble. Not long ago, I cannot tell you the details, when he was telling me about a particular case that he was building up, and he spent weeks doing research, putting it together, and he was just about to launch it. I said, Shyam Krishna Prabbu I know the person you are dealing with, and I gave him another dimension of who this person was, he is a devotee. I think it could be an aparadh, I don’t think it is right thing to do, although I am not a legal person, it is a total legal thing. Immediately right then and there, he said, I have spent weeks doing to research, building the case, today I was about to launch it, he said, I will spend next few weeks now doing everything different, because I believe what you had said. He was completely humble. He was not at all shy or reserved to admit any mistakes he made. He is a true vaisnava in every way. It was quoted form Srila Prabhupada that a real preacher should have the courage of British General and the heart of a Bengali mother. That was Shyam Krishna Prabhu. When he was thinking about the needs of another devotee, or the problems of another devotee, it was very natural for him to cry. He was so soft, he was so kind. He was actually so gentle. All he wanted is to give people Krishna. When Srila Prabhupada was in his last months, he could not even walk, he was emaciated, he was worn not to travel anywhere. Prabhupada said “take me to London, and then from London I will go to America, to Gitanagari, to New York, to Los Angeles. Every body was so shocked. Even the doctors were saying “he should not travel, he will die”. Prabhupada laying in his death-bed, he said “it will be glorious for me to die in the battle field”. Devotees said either you should stay in Vrindavan, we don’t know, your life is too uncertain, you should stay in Vrindavan. Prabhupada said “let me die in the battle field”. He didn’t just say it. He went to London. It was hard enough for us to take that long distance flight. He had only skin and bones. Jut to touch him, it pained. He meant it. But then when his health declined more and he really saw he really could not do anything else physically, then only he allowed them to take him back to Vrindavan. As long as he could do anything, he was going to be in the battle field. We should understand Shyam Krishna Prabhu’s passing in that spirit. It may appear to the material eyes that he left Vrindavan and went to Delhi. But what is Delhi? Delhi was one of the favorite places for Prabhupada’s preaching. Actually, more than anywhere else, Prabhupada was building Vraindavan through Delhi. It was a battle field for Prabhupada. Prabhupada was living at Radha-Damodar and he was going to Delhi regularly to print ‘Back to God-head’. To distribute ‘Back to God-head’ Prabhupada was right there in the front line, distributing ‘Back to God-head’, fainting on the street with heat stroke. Naturally Prabhupada would be going back and forth to Vrindavan and Delhi and often spending most of his time in Delhi to print the Srimad Bhagvatam. Later on, Srila Prabhupada established ISKCON and he installed Radha Parathasarthy in Delhi. And one very senior vaisnava and others too questioned, this is not proper Radha-Parthasarthy, it should be Radha-Shyamsundar, Radha-Gopinath, Radha-Rasbihari, but Radha-Parthasarthy! Parthasarthy is not Vrindavan Lila. Radha Rani never leaves Vrindavan. Parthasarthy is kurukshetra, warrior. Krishna came from Dwarka to Kurukshetra. He was driving Arjuna’s chariot. People were saying ……………… is not proper. But when we look at the Prabhupada’s conversation, and actually one of Prabhupada’s disciples asked Prabhupada the same question, how can it be Radha-Parthasarthy. In Kurukshetra Radha Rani is not there. And Srila Prabhupada revealed something that only he as a supremely compassionate preacher could understand. He said even when Krishna was driving Arjuna’s chariot in Kurukshetra what do you think He was meditating in the core of His heart. He was meditating on Smt. Radha Rani. Krishna never forgets Smt. Radha Rani in any situation. Parthasarthy, Radha Rani was manifesting within his heart. They were together on the battle field of Kurukshetra. Delhi is the abode of Parthasarthy and Radha Rani. Yes Prabhupada did see Delhi as abode of Sri Radha Rani. And Sri Krishna Caitanya Radha Krishna nahi Anaya. Lord Caitanya is Radha and Krishna. And wherever the Hari naam Sankirtan movement is being spread that is Vrindavan. Shyam Krishna lived and personified Prabhupada’s prayer ‘let me die in the battle field’. One reasons ill if he thinks that vaisnavas die, for vaisnavas die to live, and live to spread the holy name around. Shyam Krishna is definitely in the loving embrace of Srila Prabhupada. He has given up every thing. He risked every thing to such historical degrees to protect Srila Prabhupada’s home in Vrindavan. And yet personify Srila Prabbupada’s teachings . Attachment to the holy, attachment to Srimad Bhagvatam, attachment to the holy dham, attachment to associating with devotees we have heard and he had deep attachment to worship the Deities. The five principal limbs of devotional service, according to Rupa Goswami, he followed those and aspired for those with excellence. While simultaneously fighting wars that no one else had the courage to go near. We don’t need an astrologer or a mystic prophet for us to tell us where Shyam Krishna Prabhu went. We see through the eyes of scripture. He surrendered every thing. Prabhupada has called him into his loving embrace. He is at the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha Shyamsundar. His life is glorious. And personally I am so deeply proud of him, so deeply grateful to Shyam Krishna Prabhu. And before our Guru Maharaj Srila Prabhupada, my heart is full of ……… with joy to see the incredible devotional service that he has offered to our founder Acharya and all the devotees. In our life time there has never been anyone like Shyam Krishna Prabhu and I don’t think we will see it in our life time. As it was said, he was unique, multi-faceted, a completely surrendered soul. So let us all from our heart of hearts pray to Sri Radha Gopinath to shower their infinite blessings and mercy upon the immortal soul of Shyam Krishna Prabhu as well as his family members. And let us also pray that we can take the opulences that he revealed to us as a standard we should strive for and follow in his foot steps. Shyam Krishna Prabhu ki jai.
Thank you very much.
We will now offer pushpanjali and sing prayers of departed vaisnavas and as we are singing each devotee please come forward and offer the flowers of gratitude to Shyam Krishna Prabhu.
– Radhanath Swami
