Why do the local devotees in Vrindavan refer to Srila Prabhupada as “Swami Maharaja”?

Transcript

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Question. Why do many of the local or traditional devotees in Vrindavan refer to Srila Prabhupada as Swami Maharaj instead of by his specific name? Answer. Swami was the title that Srila Prabhupada got after sannyas.
Traditionally, in the Indian cultural context, there were 108 titles that sannyasis could get when they adopted sannyas. So out of those, Shankaracharya selected 10 of them, and therefore his followers are often known as Dasanami sannyasis. So now, Bhaktisiddhanta Sri Thakur selected many of the titles which were there originally in the 108 corpus.
And so, for example, we have Bhakti Pragyan Keshav Maharaj or Puri Maharaj. So here, Puri is the title. And similarly, Keshav is the title.
So these, when actually they are being referred to, they will not be referred to as Puri Swami Maharaj. No. So when Srila Prabhupada got sannyas, at that time, Keshav Maharaj, a sannyas guru, gave him the title Swami.
So Srila Prabhupada, within ISKCON, standardized the title for all sannyasis as Swami. So just as Shankaracharya had shortlisted 10 out of the 108 titles, Srila Prabhupada focused on only one title, that is Swami. So that’s why all ISKCON sannyasis will have the title Swami.
But that is not necessary for everyone. And that was not what was traditionally necessary. So Srila Prabhupada kept many things simple.
Srila Prabhupada also avoided titles, like say, Bhakti Sansthitakar would give titles, Bhakti Bhushana, Vidya Bhushana, these sort of titles. Prabhupada avoided all those things. So he kept things simple.
And he has focused on one title for all sannyasis in ISKCON, that is Swami. But from the point of view of the local Brajwasis, the devotees of the traditional devotees in Vrindavan or Mayapur, the name Srila Prabhupada was given to him by his disciples. But for many of Gaudiya Madhya devotees, Prabhupada refers to Bhakti Siddhanta Swayamseva Thakur.
That’s why they don’t refer to him as Srila Prabhupada. So Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada is our Prabhupada. Whereas for most Gaudiya Madhya devotees, Bhakti Siddhanta Swayamseva Thakur is their Prabhupada.
Now Bhaktivedanta Swami is the part of the prefix of the title. So in general the tradition was that whenever a sannyasi would get a name, it would be Bhakti followed by a particular further describer, then followed by the specific sannyas title. So for example, I said Bhakti Vilas Tirtha Maharaj.
So Bhakti is a common prefix. Vilas is an additional prefix. And Tirtha is the primary title.
So that’s why he would be referred to as Tirtha Maharaj. Now he would not be referred to as Tirtha Swami Maharaj, just Tirtha Maharaj. And while more formal designation, Bibi Tirtha or Bhakti Vilas Tirtha Maharaj.
So Srila Prabhupada’s title was, his sannyas name was Bhaktivedanta Swami. So it could be Bibi Swami, or just as the Vajivasis call him, Swami Maharaj. So because Swami was the specific title that Srila Prabhupada got, after sannyas, that’s why he is referred to as Swami Maharaj.
Thank you.