A Stone from the Samadhi of Shrila Suhotra Maharaja

Samadhi of His Holiness Shripada Suhotra Swami Maharaja, Shridham Mayapur

Patita Pavana dasa Adhikary

21 April 2017: Recently a nice devotee from Beirut, Lebanon named Premadhama dasa Adhikary (Philip Najjar) paid a visit to Shridham Mayapur. On my request he brought back a pebble from the Samadhi of Shrila Suhotra Maharaja. We received it in the mail by special post a couple of days back.

The following is Premadhana Prabhu’s description of his obtaining the shila:

Hare Krishna, All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Acquiring the stone was a very mystical experience. It was on my mind during the trip, and suddenly I thought : I should go and get it now”. At that time, I was not far from the gate that leads to the Gurukul path and as soon as I entered the gate and started walking on the path a Bengali devotee on a scooter just appeared out of nowhere and asked me if I needed a lift! Being a bit taken aback I said: “Sure Prabhu, thank you.” and within moments we were zooming through a very narrow path at high speed. So I held on tight and a few seconds later he stopped me at the intersection of the Gurukul entry gate. Got down, said “Hare Krishna” with pranams and he zoomed away.

Less than a second later, a well built, strong and very confident Gurukuli in his 20’s drove out of the Gurukul gate on a powerful motorbike and stopped right in front of me and said: “Where are you going Prabhu? Why are you here?” in a humble but firm way. Right away I understood that entry to Gurukul to external guests was prohibited. So with Suhotra Maharaja’s samadhi in mind I said: “I’m …here to see Suhotra Maharaja’s samadhi…” Things softened right away and I received his consent. He then roared away. I kept walking towards the gate and was greeted by about 7-8 Bengali guards, not dressed as security, more like all of them were in gamshas, but eyeing everyone that passed. Since they saw me having the conversation with the senior gurukuli they allowed me passage and told me where the samadhi was.

As I walked to the Samadhi, it felt a bit surreal how all the sequence of events were so precisely coordinated as to have granted me access to the Gurukul. If the Bengali on the scooter would not have picked me up I would have missed the senior gurukuli responsible that granted me access and would probably not have been able to negotiate with the Bengali guards to enter. As I reached the samadhi, I felt a connection with Suhotra Maharaja although I did not know who he was. I had seen the samadhi years earlier when I would attend Bhakti Vidya Purna Maharaja’s classes and always wondered who he was. Krishna had kindly now arranged for me to serve him.

I offered my obeisances, made a small prayer and was in transcendental anxiety about gathering a stone from the samadhi. Again by some mystical arrangement, no one was there, as it was a blazing hot afternoon, so I leaned over a crevasse grabbed a stone from the bottom of the stairs and with a wave of gratitude for the service that I was given, offered my obeisances again and made my way back to the temple.

I also ended up buying Maharaja’s book “Dimensions of Good And Evil”, that I have yet to read.

I’m now very eager to dive deeper into Maharaja’s teachings and get to know him more. The whole event gave me such a strong realization that with the instruction come the empowerment and arrangements to do it.

HH Suhotra Maharaja ki jay!