By Samba Das
It was cold winter morning of January 1982, Bhavabhuti Prabhu President of ISKCON Guwahati summon me to his room ,he asked me to go to the Airport to pick up H.G.Surabhi Prabhu. The construction of Guwahati temple was in progress and Surabhi prabhu was coming to give his input. I was in touch with ISKCON Mayapur since 1974 but I joined as fulltime only in 1980 and was a new 2 year old Brahmachari at that time. I was quiet enthusiastic that I am going to drive “the Surabhi Prabhu” viswakarma of ISKCON, by this time I had already heard about him from Bhavabhuti prabhu.
I arrived at the Airport on time inspite of the Old Indian Army Janga jeep threatening to stop here and there. Surabhi prabhu’s personality was very neat, impressive tall around 6ft high, fair Skin, Slim and the saffron colour of his Sannyasi robe reflected on his face. On reaching temple I served him special cottage cheese cake which is the speciality of that area. He appreciated. He was a very simple warm & soft hearted person .In his two day short visit he gave very important inputs for the temple and left. He had a made an impression on me.
Shortly after his visit to Guwahati I fell seriously ill having suffering from Asthma from childhood I was allergic to dust and my seva at Guwahati was mainly supervising the construction and making Life members. I approached the President and requested him to relocate me to North India where the climate is dry and not humid. Subsequently I left for Vrindavan. Surabhi Prabhu was the then Regional Secretary for U.P. ,M.P. and Rajasthan. Bhavabhuti Prabhu recommended me to Surabhi Prabhu and consequently I became his Secretary. He was based in Vrindavan those days supervising the Prabhupad Samadhi construction.
Since Surabhi Maharaj (he was Sannyasi at that time) was the Regional Secretary, the Mahaprasadam Plate used to come to his room by 1.00 noon but he used to come late in the afternoon for Lunch after supervising the construction labours at Prabhupad Samadhi. I was just 21 years old and a little raw in ISKCON, thus often got fooled by Mahaprasadam lovers. I used to very carefully keep the Mahaprasadam plate for Maharaj and many devotees used to walk in his room, right between 1 to 2 in the afternoon and ask for him. I would very innocently say” Maharaj is not in yet, is there anything I can do for you” and they would say well, you may give some mahaprasadam and in this way one by one all used to come and take little. By the time Maharaj actually came nothing much would be left in his plate. Kind hearted he was, he never chastised me for this. But one fine day when no Prasadam was left on his plate he very softly told me “ Samy you must fix some time for my Visitors late in the afternoon ,after I take prasadam “.He very affectionately used to call me Samy.
I have many such memories with him which I prize. The most beautiful times was those late night walks with him to Prabhupada Samadhi where he is used to talk at length on the nuances of Construction, how to supervise the labour, how the gap should be, how column comes up ,how to read the construction drawings, rod requirements. He had 67 letters from Prabhupad giving different instruction on the nuances of the construction designs in various ISKCON projects like Mumbai, Vrindavan, Mayapur,Hyderabad. And he treasured those letters. I learned a lot on this from him which is helpful even now as I am supervising the construction of ISKCON Visakhapatnam Temple Project. The day I got the news that he left us, was the day the work on first slab of our temple was on and I was standing on the roof trying to apply what I learnt from him.
One day Baladev Prabhu from USA ,secretary of Satsvarup maharaj called Surabhi Maharaj that one Mr.Khanna wants to donate his house to ISKCON in Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi. And if Maharaj is interested to take it. Then Myself and Maharaj went to Delhi to see the place, it was one Floor Independent house with One Big hall and 3 rooms with attach bath and Kitchen along with a car parking garage. We decided to take it.Shortly after the agreement and other formalities were over myself along with another devotee went to occupy the same.
We cleaned up the whole place and made a neat office for ISKCON Ministry for Architecture. Initially we only had pictures of different deity’s in the hall, had bhajan, kirtan satsang program but no deity as such. After few months Jagatguru Swami gave his Krishna Balaram deity’s for temporary care to us since he was travelling he wanted someone to take care.For around 1.5 years we served them. Once he was back he took his deity’s away. Then one other devotee gave his Jagannath Baladev Subhadra to worship. Our centre was more becoming like deity temporary Crèche facility. By the time you get attached to the diety, they are gone and new deities arrive. So one fine day I spoke to Maharaj “why not we have our own Radha Krishna Deity.” Maharaj was reluctant he said “no it is a big responsibility.”
After a couple of days I was once sitting in the Reception of Hotel Janpath waiting to see the Owner to make him Life member. Along with me sitting in the waiting area was one Punjabi Gentlemen called Mr.Dutt from Sweden. Seeing my saffron robe he started asking me many questions. I invited him to our centre for prasadam. He said he would be glad to donate for a Mata (Durga devi )diety. I instantly said” yes yes why not. you please come to the temple tomorrow”. The next day I arranged for a nice feast and his meeting with Surabhi Maharaj. After honouring Prasadam and associating with devotees when we started explaining to him that actually we are looking for someone to sponsor Radha Krishna deity’s he said” no problem you can buy whatever deity you want” and gave Rs.12000/- in Cash.
Maharaj gave me a side way glance, winked his eyes and smiled.
After the guest left Maharaj once again asked me” “samy, are you sure you can take care”. I promised him I will .and this time he had no excuse to say no & finally we placed order with Pandey Murtikala Kendra in Jaipur. I started going to and fro to Jaipur to see the Diety, Radharani deity was not made so gracefully, so I asked him to redo and carried only Krishna to Delhi and then subsequently came back for Radharani deity. I remember carrying her all the way in my lap from Jaipur to New Delhi in the June of 1986 in an Ambassador car.
And one late evening Myself, Surabhi Prabhu ,Tatvavit Prabhu had a brainstorming on the name for the divine couple and we finally sealed the session with the name of Sri Sri Radha Radhika Raman finalised. Now the deitys were there, so we also wanted a nice temple for them. So I asked Maharaj if we can make temple room in the Big Hall, he said no, then I suggested Car Garage and finally with the expertise of Surabhi maharaj a small and beautiful temple room fully Air-conditioned came up with Radha Radhika Raman sitting on a beautiful teak Altar with silver and pearl finish.
Though the temple was very small but since it was in a posh Residential Colony many people started coming in regularly and slowly we had built up good congregation. We used to organise 3 days Janmashtami festivals which hosted more than 50000 people at a time. We used to invite famous Singers like Nitin mukesh, Purshottam Jalota, Hari Om Sharan, Anup Jalota, we had once the Ram (Arun govil) of Ramananda sagar’s Ramayana Serial fame and once we invited Krishna (Nitish Bharadwaj) and Pandavas of BR Chopra‘s Mahabharata Serial. Maharaj used to enjoy being part of this festivals and always gave me freedom to do whatever Spiritual program I wanted and encouraged me a lot to preach.
Our Punjabi bagh centre was a small one but strategically situated and over the time it became a transit point for all American and European leaders and GBC coming in to India or flying from Delhi or waiting for visa and thus I was blessed with regular association of many Sannyasi ‘s and senior devotees. Bhagavan Maharaj, Harikesh Maharaj, Tamal Krishna Maharaj and Gour Govind Maharaj were among the frequent visitors. Surabhi Maharaj was running painting and paraphernalia export business which used to keep him busy and he had frequent travel schedules abroad. I did accompany him sometimes to his European tours. He was my mentor, he taught me lot of things about office management, he encouraged me to study further, joined some diploma courses etc. I was maintaining the centre by Life membership and Maharaj used to contribute Rs.5000 every month from his business profits.
I was with him from 1983 to 1992.In 1992 he changed ashram and moved, I also left and relocated myself and lost contact with him. I headed ISKCON Hyderabad for 1 year then travelled to west I was in Atlanta and Miami ISKCON for some time. In 1999 I moved back to India and started preaching centre in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. In 2005 when I procured from the Government a beautiful sea facing 3 acre Land surrounded by hills on all sides. I was reminded of Surabhi prabhu, how I wish if he designed our temple.
I started enquiring where he was. I came to know he was in Honkong. In 2009 along with my wife I went to ISKCON Hongkong. Devotees were out for some other program with only some mataji pujari around. I asked her about Surabhi prabhu but she had no information.2 days passed I had no clue how to get to him. On the 3rd day a Guest devotee walked in the temple and in a general talk he said he knows Surabhi prabhu and he does sometime come for Sunday feast program, and he gave me his number. I called him. When I said Hare Krishna there was no response on the other side of the phone, I repeated, eagerly waiting for a response. And then I heard him saying very sweetly” is it you samy…I don’t believe it. You are in hongkong now. Stay where you are I am coming right away to meet you “I couldn’t believe myself after so many years he could still recognise my voice over the phone. We did have a special bonding.
He reached the temple in just 15 minutes. We hugged each other for long. Had prasadam together. We spoke for long time cached up on all that happened in these years. I showed him my project plan he did give his inputs but denied to take it up for designing as a whole.
I came back to India a little disappointed that he did not accept to do the project but happy that I could see him after so long. He was looking so healthy hearty and so active at his age.
When I heard that he left his body in Vrindavan I was thinking that Krishna never forgets the service of devotees. Last 25 years he has been away from ISKCON but Krishna never forgets service of his devotees by some or the other excuse he brought him back to India and he left his body very gloriously in Sri Vrindavan dham. I remember him telling me may times that Prabhupad said to him that you build my temples and I will make sure you will go back to Godhead. Well, he made a house for Prabhupad to live in Vrindavan and Prabhupad made house for him to live in Goloka Vrindavan.
Whatever association I got from him I will relish for the rest of my Life. Hare Krishna.
Samba Das
President
ISKCON
Visakhapatnam
Hare Krishna Land
Sagarnagar
Visakhapatnam-45
Andhra Pradesh
iskconvizag.org
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