His Eyes of Devotion

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I will speak about Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj's humility. After Vraj-mandal parikrama in 1990,  we came to Delhi. At that time, there was not this big maṭh, it was in a small building. My name was Godhari Das Brahmachari then. Maharaj told me that there were no sevāks there then, so if I could stay there it would be good.  Maharaj is senior to me, so he could have given me direct orders to stay, but he said this very humbly. In Kolkata maṭh, I was Maharaj's sevāk.

At that time, Maharaj spoke evening katha daily.  Sometimes when he was busy in writing, he would tell me to ask Sri Keshava Prabhu or sometimes Srila Bharati Maharaj if they would offer bhagavat-katha that evening. He would not give anyone orders; he had such a humble mood always—no pride at all.  

Abhaya Prabhu of Medhnipur had given me a tape recorder with cassettes of Guru Maharaj's [Sri Srimad Bhakti Dayita Maharaj] hari-katha.  Our god-brothers and god-sisters In Kolkata expressed their desire to hear Guru Maharaj's katha. Before speaking, Tirtha Maharaj would ask me to give him some Horlicks (nutritious drink) and deśī biscuit; (deśī biscuit is a code word for puffed rice (murmura/muri.) He would take a small bowl of puffed rice and a glass of Horlicks and come down for katha. At that time I informed him of the desire of our god-brothers and god-sisters to hear hari-katha [of Sri Srimad Bhakti Dayita Madhava Goswami Maharaj] and he did not say anything. 

He came down with his danda, sat on the wooden stage, and spoke hari-katha for a while.  Then he told me, "Now you may continue to play the tape recorder." I had been sitting with the tape recorder on my lap.  I gave it an asan and pressed play. Instantly Maharaj got down from his seat with his danda and sat down along with us and started listening.  He gave utmost respect, honor to guru-vāṇī as if Guru Maharaj was present there in person. 

mahā-bhāgavata dekhe sthāvara-jaṅgama

tāhāṅ tāhāṅ haya tāṅra śrī-kṛṣṇa-sphuraṇa 

(CC Madhya 8.273)

We have two sets of eyes, one set is material eyes and another set are eyes of devotion;  they are our two ears. By material eyes and ears, we are attracted to the material world (maya) and engage in sense-gratification. But by taking shelter of Sri Guru and Vaishnavas, hearing bhagavat-kathā from their lotus lips, remaining in sadhu-sanga, our devotional eyes manifest and we can have real darshan of the deities. Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur wrote:  

jugala-mūrti, dekhiyā mora

parama-ānanda hoya 

prasāda-sebā korite hoya,

sakala prapañca jaya

[translation: whenever I see the transcendental sri-vigrahas of Radha-Krsna I am in bliss, for by taking the Lord's prasad, we can conquer over the material elements.]

By this pastime of the tape recorder, he showed that only through Guru one can have darśan the Lord.  Such was his devotion and faith in Guru Maharaj.

Another instance of his humility is after offering vandanā and beginning katha he suddenly saw Sri Krishna Keshav Brahmachari (Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur's disciple, his guru-varga,) sitting in the audience, and he immediately stopped katha and got down the stage. We hear and say the words tṛṇād api sunīcena, taror api sahiṣṇunā, amāninā māna-dena, kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ but do not follow it. Maharaj practiced it, followed it literally. Remembering this conduct that he taught us, can we find such a person now? 

—Sripad Bhakti Prapanna Tapasvi Maharaj

Excerpt from a transcription-translation from Hindi to English (translation by Rasbihari Das)

Listen to original audio on Youtube: GOKUL INDIA

Spoken on 14.4.2020



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