A Life-sketch of Honorable Śrī Śrīmad Haridāsa Śāstrījī Mahārāja

Abstract

This article presents a biographical sketch of Śrī Śrīmad Haridāsa Śāstrījī Mahārāja (1918–2013), a revered Indian Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava scholar and practitioner. It details his early life, including his spiritual inclination despite an affluent background, and his decisive move to Vrindavan at age fifteen to pursue a life of devotion. The abstract highlights his rigorous academic pursuits in Benares, where he earned multiple graduate and postgraduate degrees in all six schools of Hindu philosophy, making him a rare and profound scholar. The article emphasizes his deep commitment to guru-sevā (service to guru), his period of silence and absorption in japa and deity worship, and his subsequent return to teaching, driven by a desire to preserve and propagate Gosvāmī literature. It also underscores his significant contributions as a writer and publisher, particularly his pioneering translations and commentaries on Jīva Gosvāmī's Ṣaṭ Sandarbhas in Hindi, and his establishment of the Śrī Gadādhara-Gaura Hari Press. A unique aspect of his life was his profound devotion to cow service (gosevā), which he treated as a direct worship of Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. The article portrays him as an exemplary devotee whose life embodied humility, adherence to scripture, and a complete absorption in service, leaving a lasting legacy in the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition.