I had the good fortune to have the association of Srila Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Maharaja. His spiritual master, His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja was kind enough to allow me to stay in his ashram in Kolkata. He personally put me in the care of His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Maharaja while I was there. Later, His Divine Grace Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja was made a trustee of AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Charity Trust. After his departure to the spiritual world, His Divine Grace Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaja was kind enough to continue the role of being a trustee of the AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Trust. It was customary that he would speak some Harikatha on the occasion of our meeting of those meetings He would speak so that we would all be reminded of our primary purpose of Krishna Consciousness to serve the Pancha Tattva with words, thoughts, and deeds. From then on, year after year, I met with him to work out strategies on how to preserve the holy ...
I offer my humble obeisances to my dīkṣā guru Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Prabhupāda, my Śikṣā-gurus, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhakti Vijñāna Bhāratī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, and especially Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja on the 100th anniversary of his very glorious divine appearance day. Actually, in the face of you all who had so much association with Śrīla Mahārāja, I feel quite a nobody. I begin remembering Śrīla Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s kīrtana , being ready to jump into the fire or bang his head against a stone because he missed out on the association of Mahāprabhu and His associates. One of the most glorious associates of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is your Guru Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja. By my misfortune, I only was able to have physical association of him in his last couple of years, and in that, he was very merciful to me in the last couple of years in his Kolkata Sree Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭha. At that time, he wa...
Gurudeva would spend time writing lectures of Param Gurudeva and keep himself busy with that service all day. Sometime around nine in the morning, he would take some rest. On one particular occasion, Param Gurudeva called for one brahmacārī at that time, but the brahmacārī was sleeping. Later when asked for an explanation he said, "Tirtha Mahārāj also sleeps at that time." Param Gurudeva did not say a thing to him, but later in hari-kathā , he said, "A surrendered devotee's any activity is sevā , even sleeping also is sevā . But our following should not be an imitation." He had so much love for Gurudeva and that day in the whole hari-kathā he spoke on his beloved disciple—our Gurudeva. When doing kirtans , our Gurudeva goes to a different plane altogether, he would be so engrossed in the kirtan that he would not have any awareness of his clothes or anything else around him. He is avadhūta —completely unbound by this world. Once in kirtan , hi...
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