namah om visnupadaya krsna-presthaya bhutale
swami sri bhaktivedanta prabupadaya te namah
gurvajnam sirasi-dhrtva saktyavesa sva-rupine
hare-krsneti mantrena pascatya-pracya-tarine
visvacarya prabaryaya divya karunya murtaye
sri bhagavata-madhurya-gita-jnana pradayine
gaura-sri-rupa-siddhanta-saraswati nisevine
radha-krsna-padambhoja-bhrngaya gurave namah

"I offer my humble obeisances unto His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, who is Krishna's beloved associate and who came down to this plane from Goloka. Taking the order of his guru on his head, he is the saktyavesa [empowered] avatar of Nityananda Prabhu personified. He distributed the Hare Krishna mantra all over the Eastern and Western world, delivering and uplifting all fallen souls.

He is the best of millions of jagat-gurus, because he is the personification of divine mercy. He has distributed the sweet nectar of Srimad-Bhagavatam and the transcendental knowledge of Bhagavad Gita all over the world. He is constantly engaged in exclusive devotional service to Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Prabhupad, Srila Rupa Goswami, and Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu. I offer my humble obeisances unto Srila Prabhupad, who is like a bumble-bee always tasting the nectar of the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha and Govinda."
 [Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Maharaj]

The intimate past history of the trio of holy personalities pictured on the right -- Srila Sridhar Maharaj at left, Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj at right, and Srila Govinda Maharaj in the middle -- is most valuable and interesting to all true devotees. They resided together at Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj's Sita Kanta Banerjee Lane house in Calcutta for about eight years. This was prior to Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj's sannyasa. It was during that time that Srila Govinda Maharaj, on the order of Srila Sridhar Maharaj, studied Sri Bhagavad Gita under Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj. Later Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj accepted sannyasa from Srila Bhakti Prajnan Kesav Maharaj, the sannyasa disciple of Srila Sridhar Maharaj.

After travelling to the West in 1965 and spreading Krishna consciousness in a miraculous way previously unseen in the history of the world, whenever he returned to India, Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, who had become known by his disciples and many admirers worldwide as "Prabhupad," would stay with Srila Sridhar Maharaj at Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math in Nabadwip.

On those visits some special points that he spoke about Srila Sridhar Maharaj to his disciples follow: "By both age and experience he is senior to me. I was fortunate to have his association since about 1930.... Krishna and Prabhupad [referring to Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Prabhupad, the diksa-guru of both Srila Sridhar Maharaj and Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj] liked him to prepare me.... Srila Sridhar Maharaj lived in my house for many years, so naturally we had very intimate talks, and he was my good advisor. I took his advices and instructions very seriously, because from the very beginning I knew him to be a pure Vaishnava, a pure devotee.... our relationship is very intimate."

Prior to his departure from the world in 1977, Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj instructed his followers to take spiritual consultation and guidance from Srila Sridhar Maharaj. After the departure of Srila Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj, Srila Sridhar Maharaj declared: "I consider him to be Saktyavesa Avatara.... Krishna came down to help him .... Divine Power came down to help him, otherwise it is impossible. It is not a thing of the ordinary level that anyone will do, but the highest thing has been taken down to the lowest position [distributed] so extensively by him. It cannot but be the Divine Power embodied, and in a great intensity and magnitude; so Saktyavesa Avatara I cannot but take him to be so."