Sri Haridas Shastri Maharaj ji was an eminent Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava scholar and practitioner, honoured by the scholarly community of Vṛndāvana. A master of Sanskrit, he wrote around eighty books, many of them translations of Gauḍīya texts with his own commentaries.
Arguably the most prolific and well-educated Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava “insider” scholar of the twentieth century.
Jonathan Edelmann, University of Florida
Early life and initiation
He was born in 1918 in Ropa, West Bengal, to Śrīmatī Suśīlā Devī and Śrī Abhayacaraṇa Caṭṭopādhyāya, and was named Phaṇīndra Nāth. In 1933, aged fifteen, he travelled to Mathurā and came under the care of Paṇḍita Bābā Śrī Rāma Kṛṣṇadāsa.
Paṇḍita Bābā chose his only veṣa disciple, Śrī Vinoda Vihārī Gosvāmī, as the boy’s teacher. From him Phaṇīndra received mantra-dīkṣā and the name Haridāsa, and a year later bābājī-veṣa. He lived with his guru in devoted service and also studied with other great scholars of Vṛndāvana, including Paṇḍita Amolakarāma Śāstrī and Dhanañjaya Dāsa.
On his guru’s instruction he then spent twelve years in Benares studying Indian philosophy. He earned nine graduate and three post-graduate degrees, covering all six systems of Indian philosophy and theology, under teachers such as Vāmācaraṇa Śāstrī and Harerāma Śāstrī.
Vedānta-darśanam
The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam presents itself as a commentary on the Vedānta-sūtras by the same author, Vyāsa. Until Maharaj ji, no one had shown the connection between the two texts verse by verse. His Vedānta-darśanam bhāgavata-bhāṣyopetam did exactly this, and it was honoured by the Nāgarī Pracāriṇī Sabhā of Benares.
Sri Haridas Niwas and the press
In 1965 he founded Sri Haridas Niwas at Purana Kalidah, Vṛndāvana, with the first temple in Vṛndāvana of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu together with Śrī Gadādhara Paṇḍita.
Belonging to the Gadādhara parivāra, he founded the Gadādhara-Gaurahari Press to make the works of the Gauḍīya ācāryas, especially Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, available to all. He was the first to translate the Ṣaṭ Sandarbhas into Hindi with commentary. The Śrī Gaura-Gadādhara Granthāgāram library he built is now one of the largest in Vṛndāvana.
His love for cows
From two cows to two hundred and fifty
In 1981 Maharaj ji began the cowshed at his āśrama with just two cows and a bull. He cared for each one personally. By the time he left this world it sheltered 250 cows and bulls, and under his disciples it has continued to grow. To keep this service going for ever, he founded the Shri Haridas Shastri Go Seva Sansthan, governed by a board of trustees.
Selected books
- Vedānta-darśanam bhāgavata-bhāṣyopetam
- Śrī-sādhanāmṛta-candrikā
- Śrī-gaura-govindārcana-paddhati
- Śrī-rādhā-kṛṣṇārcana-dīpikā
- Śrī-govinda-līlāmṛtam (3 volumes)
- Aiśvarya-kādambinī
- Śrī-saṅkalpa-kalpa-druma
- Catuḥślokī-bhāṣyam and Śrī-kṛṣṇa-bhajanāmṛta
- Prema-sampuṭa
- Śrī-bhagavad-bhakti-sāra-samuccaya
- Braja-rīti-cintāmaṇi
- Dharma-saṅgraha and Śrī-caitanya-sūkti-sudhākara