By Patita Pavana das Adhikary
Meet Shrila Prabhupada ! Hari Sauri’s A Transcendental Diary is a Literary Triumph
As time goes by and ISKCON continues global expansion as the world’s only genuine path to a true conception of religion, it becomes clear just how important was the spotless personal example of our beloved founder-acharya His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Of course, we devotees can easily find ourselves at the lotus feet of Shri Krishna’s dearmost paramhamsa anytime we take a volume of his transcendental literature off the shelf to dive into Prabhupada’s nectar of the Absolute Truth. “Just as sugar is sweet from any side,” Prabhupada told us, “so are my books on any page.” Still, many newer members of ISKCON’s worldwide family will continue to ask, “What was it like to be in Shrila Prabhupada’s presence?” Naturally, this is a hard question to answer, for the pure devotee’s mind and activities cannot be fathomed by us who are conditioned through millions of lifetimes of karma. Indeed, each member of ISKCON has found himself inquiring, like Arjuna, “What are the symptoms of one whose consciousness is thus merged in Transcendence? How does he speak, and what is his language? How does he sit, and how does he walk? (Bhagavad Gita As It Is 2.54)
Although I was fortunate to sit before Shrila Prabhupada on dozens of occasions and all over the world I, too, would be hard pressed to answer such a question. Sometimes Shrila Prabhupada would yell at me furiously–calling me a demon or once telling me to cut my throat– or on another occasion he told me with utmost sincerity that after “delivering every soul in the Universe, finally I had delivered his soul.” ( ! ? )
What remains is that the legacy of Shrila Prabhupada is very difficult to understand; as devotees we will succeed if we can but serve the pure devotee’s mission faithfully. What we do know is that our Guru Maharaja was Krishna’s divinely empowered representative, and that the Supreme Lord directly guided his every thought, word and deed to perfection. And that we are his eternal servants….
Recently I had the great fortune of finally getting a few days to curl up with A Transcendental Diary, volume one. This is the fascinating account of our Godbrother Hari Sauri das Prabhu, who for many years was Shrila Prabhupada’s personal servant. So far, I have only read–make that, devoured– the first volume, and I am looking forward to vol. 2 to 7. Although understanding Prabhupada becomes more daunting the more I learn about him, what I do know is that Hari Sauri’s job could very well have been the most difficult job in the world. Only a rare person could voluntarily take on the intensity of serving he whose appearance on this Earth was nothing less than the most important world wide mission in history since the Divine Advent of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself. Nobody could test, test, test like Shrila Prabhupada, and being in the constant company of His Divine Grace would mean passing some very harsh examinations indeed.
As I read Hari Sauri Prabhu’s account, it became deja vu all over again. Just as Shri Krishna Himself appears in the pages of the Gita or the Bhagavat, when translated by the pure devotee, so our loving master has appeared in our Prabhu’s writing. Here we find Shrila Prabhupada’s direct association through words scribed in a disciple’s utter glorification. Here paper and ink are transformed into a blessed encounter with the founder-acharya himself. Just as from the ajascent building I silently used to watch Prabhupada transcribe his tapes on the roof of his Vrindavana quarters during the early hours of morning, so A Transcendental Diary is a long and loving look via the window of words into sadhu-sangha at the highest level. The devotee who reads A Transcendental Diary finds that the author has succeeded in bringing to our vision the pastimes of Lord Krishna’s holy representative seen through the eyes of a devoted and loving servant. Whether laughing and joking with guests or guiding the GBCs, these descriptions of Guru-lila give us page by page precious moments of personal darshan with the spiritual master in his mission to reshape theworld. Just as Prabhupada revealed Bhagavad Gita As It Is, so Hari Sauri has succeeded by presenting Shrila Prabhupada As He Is. In this scribe’s humble opinion, A Transcendental Diary must be considered as modern classic Vaishnava shastra, and I cannot wait to read the subsequent six volumes for more coveted association with Lord Shri Krishna’s pure devotee.
I wanted to know more about what many of our Prabhus call Hari Sauri’s “transcendental literary triumph.” So I e-mailed him in Mayapur with the simple question, “Why did you write these diaries?” Here’s Hari Sauri Prabhu’s reply:
Dear Patita Pavan Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances _/\ò_. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
I have stated some of the reasons in my Introduction: ________________________________________________________ For a period of sixteen months, from late November, 1975 to the end of March, 1977, I had the great fortune to travel with His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada as his personal servant. Although the initial period of my tenure was to be only two or three days, by the grace of Lord Krsna I immediately recognized the unique opportunity of being able to personally associate with Srila Prabhupada. Thus, on the first night, I purchased a blank notebook in which to keep a diary of my experience. I was thinking that ten or twenty years hence I would be able to read those notes and relish the brief time spent in his association. When my position in his entourage was more firmly fixed, I continued to update the diary on a daily basis.
As Srila Prabhupada himself noted as we traveled on the overnight train from Allahabad to Calcutta in January, 1977, “History will mark this period, how the Krsna consciousness movement changed the world.” He left a great legacy to the world, and this is one very small attempt to make it known. Again, referring to the books written by himself, Srila Prabhupada said that if a person reads “one verse, one line, one word,” his life will be changed. I am confident that the same effect will be had by reading books written about him. And that is the purpose of Srila Prabhupada’s appearance: to change our lives from the dull and mundane to the transcendental realm of spiritual enlightenment and unlimited happiness, where all difficulties and contradictions are automatically resolved in the light of their common relationship to Lord Sri Krsna, the cause of all causes, and the center of all existence. Hari-sauri dasa Completed on the Holy Occasion of Sri Gaura Purnima March 18th, 1992, Vrndavana, India __________________________________________ Apart from the above, I almost always had a sense that a very important chapter was being written by Srila Prabhupada in the annals of human society.
In the beginning months of my tenure as His Divine Grace’s servant, I was keeping my Diary updated for purely selfish reasons. I wanted to have a record of the daily events so that in the future decades of my life I could look back and remember them and thus keep my connection with Srila Prabhupada strong and fresh.
However after a few months I began to deeply sense the importance of the events outside the closed sphere of ISKCON activities. I had a clear idea that one day Srila Prabhupada would be regarded as one of, if not ‘the’ greatest spiritual leaders ever to appear in human society. I was in a unique position to eye-witness it and I felt responsible to see that as much of the events were recorded down as possible for posterity. Thus I put a fair bit of effort into writing or electronically recording what was going on.
When my tenure came to an end on March 12, 1977 in Mayapur, I suddenly realized that if noone keep up the diarist work, events and exchanges of inestimable value would be lost. I went to the new permanent secretary, Tamal Krishna Goswami, and told him, “Maharaja, I have been keeping this daily diary of Srila Prabhupada’s travels. Now I am leaving. Someone has to continue this work, and since you are coming on the party on a permanent basis, it should be you.”
He wasn’t too inclined at first. “No, I shall be very busy looking after Srila Prabhupada.. There won’t be enough time.”
Again I impressed the importance of the work on him. “Think about the years that Sruta Kirti, Purusottama, Nanda Kumara and others were traveling with Srila Prabhupada. What do we know about them? So much stuff has been lost because noone thought to write it down. Maharaja, you MUST do this service.”
He partially conceeded the point. “Well, maybe. I will see what I can do.”
So I had to leave it at that. Fortunately, Tamal Krishna Goswami began to realize the unique responsibility of being an eye-witness, and he started keeping his own diary. You can see that he started about April 17 or thereabouts. So it took him just over a month before it really dawned strongly enough in his consciousness that he should keep personal account.
After Srila Prabhupada’s disappearance, I was in Vrndavana in Feb.
1978 with TKG. We were both heading to Mayapur for the first annual general meetings of the GBC without the personal presence of Srila Prabhupada. We were talking one day and TKG suddenly asked me, “What are you going to do with your diary?” I told him, “I am going to publish it at some point.”
He asked me why. I told him that I felt it was a historical document and that whatever we experienced in the personal presence of Srila Prabhupada should be shared with all his disciples.. We had some extraordinary good fortune to have his personal service, but that did not make us better than any other disciple. They should also have the chance to share his personal association and in this way they will benefit just as we had done.
Then I asked him, “What are you going to do with yours?” I fully expected he would say that he was also going to publish. But instead he replied, “No, I am not going to publish mine.” I was surprised. “Why not Maharaja?” He replied that he felt some of the entries might be too intimate, or might show a negative light on some disciple and that should not be published.
While conceding that there might be one or two incidents of a highly confidential nature, I told him that these could be edited out. But most things were of great interest and benefit to everyone. I argued that whatever Srila Prabhupada’s dealings, either personal or general, they were all instructive so we should definitely allow other devotees access to that.
He conceded the point, at least partially. “Well, OK, maybe. But I am not going to publish my diary until you complete yours!” We both laughed and left it at that. That was in 1978. Fortunately TKG did not wait for me to finish mine. I got four volumes out between 1992-96. Then he published his “TKG’s Diary” I think in about 1998. I got my #5 out in 2005 and I am still working on 6 & 7.
So that’s the background, and I think you will find all the motivations for my publishing in the above.
Your humble servant, Hari-sauri dasa
