After Srila Prabhupada’s departure Maharaja began this great undertaking, alongside his widespread preaching and leadership services. Srila Prabhupada wrote over 80 volumes of the Vedas’ important bhakti texts. The most prominent include, Bhagavad-gita As It Is, the 30-volume Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the 17-volume Sri Caitanya-caritamrita.
Srila Prabhupada entrusted the Bengali rendering of his works to Maharaja and for almost 20 years this important service was his primary focus. The translation work was completed in 1995 and in 1996 Maharaja presented his service to Srila Prabhupada on his Centennial anniversary.
“After some initial exchanges, Srila Prabhupada gave me a direct instruction: ‘You translate my books into Bengali.’ My heart was jumping with joy, but I was uncertain. ‘Srila Prabhupada,’ I said, ‘I do not really have experience in translating from English to Bengali. Will I be able to do it?’ ‘Just do it,’ he assured me, ‘Practice makes a man perfect.’ When I left the room, I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I couldn’t believe my good fortune! At our very first meeting Srila Prabhupada had given me this incredible service. I knew that he considered publication and distribution of his books to be of the utmost importance and I had heard that because many of them had also been presented in Bengali by our previous acaryas, he was especially particular about their Bengali translations. I just kept on praying to Krishna that I could fulfil my responsibility and execute his instruction properly.”
(c) copyright by Bhakti Charu Swami
