Happy Birthday

Yudhamanyu Prabhu Seva Vikram

Today is the auspicious appearance day of Sripad Yudhamanyu Prabhu Seva Vikram. I first met Yudhamanyu Prabhu and his wife, Jivana Devi Dasi, when I joined the International Society for Krishna Consciousness temple in Houghton, Johannesburg, with my seven-year-old daughter, Lucille, in December, 1981.

A month later, in January, the temple president went to India to attend a GBC meeting, and Yudhamanyu Prabhu became the de facto president. Suddenly a new picture appeared with the guru parampara on the alter, and Yudhamanyu Prabhu began playing tapes by and giving classes about someone called Srila Sridhar Maharaj.

After reading Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupad's Bhagavad Gita As It Is I could understand the absolute necessity of accepting a guru. I joined the temple only to find that Srila Prabhupad had passed on. Who could I turn to now?

Yudhamanyu Prabhu gave me a copy of Sripad Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj's now famous "seventeen-page pamphlet" on the relationship between Srila Sridhar Maharaj and Srila Prabhupad — and I had my answer.

Shortly afterwards, Yudhamanyu Prabhu and Jivana Devi Dasi had to return to the U.S.A., and I returned to Durban to "wait for a favorable wave of life."

Within a year, Yudhamanyu Prabhu returned to South Africa to establish the first center for the Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in South Africa and to distribute Srila Sridhar Maharaj's first book, Search For Sri Krishna — Reality The Beautiful.

Under the guidance of Yudhamanyu Prabhu, my faith solidified, and I requested, and he recommended me for, harinam ritvik initiation in 1983. Later that year, I traveled to Nabadwip dham with Yudhamanyu Prabhu to attend Srila Sridhar Maharaj's vyasa puja and I took the opportunity to request and receive diksha initiation from Srila Guru Maharaj.

While in Nabadwip, Yudhamanyu Prabhu introduced me to Sripad Bhakti Sudhir Goswami Maharaj, who invited me to come to San Jose, California, to help him with Srila Sridhar Maharaj's new book, The Golden Volcano of Divine Love. This was the beginning of another extremely beneficial relationship for me.

My life has become so auspicious through the auspices of my friend, mentor, guardian, and protector — happy birthday Yudhamanyu Prabhu Seva Vikram!