He Attracts All Jīvas

By
I had read somewhere that the Lord is a magnet and attracts jīvas towards Him, but if there is rust on the iron, the magnet will not attract that iron. But Gurujī is so powerful that he attracts even a rusted iron like me. I could not associate with Gurudev much. Sometimes I feel I am very unfortunate that I took hāriṇam dīkṣā very late and lacked physical association with Gurujī. Still, Gurujī is attracting me, drawing me, and has given me the chance to associate with so many devotees and hear them speak his glories.

I am a dentist by profession. In 2017 my dentistry final exams were commencing and it was a very crucial period for me. Kuldeep Prabhu took all my god-brothers and went for Sri Rāmanavamī and Gurudev's appearance day festival. I was quite depressed that I was not able to go. Later when Gurujī's final illness pastimes were going on, all my god-brothers booked tickets to go with Kuldeep Prabhu by flight, some by train. Even some five high school students readily booked tickets and went by general class without berth. They all ran to Gurujī; by Gurujī's mercy, they got his divine darśan. And I was stuck due to my exams and worldly engagements and was feeling bad. I was checking in daily with Kuldeep Prabhu asking how Gurujī's health is and asking what was happening there. I was feeling so restless. I wanted to give up on exams and go. Even in Chandigarh Maṭh, devotees were sitting in front of Gurujī's bhajan-kuṭir and doing kirtans, always looking at Gurujī's health updates on their mobiles every few seconds.

I slept late one night worrying so much about my misfortune in not being able to go to Gurujī, and early in the morning in our college sent an official message that due to some administrative reasons, the final exams had been rescheduled. As per the revised schedule, I got two days off. I instantly felt this is Gurudev's direct mercy on me. My parents also agreed to my going and I got my flight tickets ready. Chandigarh Maṭh's pūjārī and one mātājī were going with me in the same fight. Our taxi driver got stuck in Delhi traffic. I found both the pūjārī and mātājī were very upset, anxious, and moved to tears and some of their feelings entered into me. It made me feel what a divine personality our Gurujī is. Though late for check-in at the airport, somehow we got into the flight and reached Gurujī. I do not know about other devotees, but Gurujī had made arrangements for most of Chandigarh Maṭh devotees to reach him whether they had physical or financial strength in them or not and received his divine darśan. I felt his real grace on me when I got his darśan.

And now we novice are given such mercy by Gurujī that we may hear more about Gurujī and his divine pastimes from devotees. I was very sad I did have the occasion to receive prasād from Gurujī's hands. This morning Gurujī fulfilled that desire by giving me prasād through Kuldeep Prabhu which he received from Gurujī's hands and preserved. Still, my heart craves for prasād from Gurudev's hands, to receive his blessings, to hear his kirtans and kathās. My eyes desire to see him and everything is getting fulfilled through these Zoom programs. We feel and say this lockdown is enforced to especially give us mercy by giving us time, opportunity, and eagerness to hear this guru-kathā.

—Asīm Krishna Das (Dr. Akshay Thakur), Chandigarh 


GOKUL Zoom guru-kathā, 17.4.2020

Spoken in Hindi, English translation by Rasbihari Prabhu



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"She Has Gone to Goloka-dhāma "

By
Image
Guru Mahārāja is not an ordinary person; he is sent by the Supreme Lord to rescue all of us. In the office, if we are working in one place, we may be deputed to another place to do some work. Similarly, Gurudeva has been deputed from Goloka-dhāma to help us. Guru Mahārāja has come here to fulfill the desire of Hari-Guru-Vaishnavas. In 1997, I received harināma in Gokula-Mahāvana along with my  dharmapatnī , my wife. Guru Mahārāja asked my wife, "If something bad has happened to you, how do you take this? As if Gurudeva is at fault, or as if other persons are at fault?” My wife replied, “Whatever happens, I think it is good for me, by your arrangement.” In 2013, my wife was detected with breast cancer, and later left this world. Some devotees came to the maṭha and gave the news to Gurudeva. Gurudeva replied, "She has gone to Goloka-dhāma." In the hospital, I remember when my wife was in the ICU, and the doctor came and told me, "Your wife is in the fina
Read more

He Accepts Every Circumstance With Utmost Humility

By
Image
I heard something very deep and nice from a devotee that I met in Switzerland. He told me about how he had been staying at a temple there while Guru Mahārāja was visiting.  He said that the maṭha-in-charge expressed his desire that Gurudeva speak about Bhāgavatam. But then an order came that he was not allowed to speak there. In the room where the Bhāgavatam reading was, there was a young boy,. He was maybe only three months in the maṭha and recently came out of a completely material life, eating meat, smoking, etc. Anyway, he was the only one who had permission to speak about Bhāgavatam. And what did Guru Mahārāja do? He entered the room, bowed down to this boy and he sat in front of this boy and listened to his Bhāgavatam reading. This is his humbleness. This is always the way; they teach by example, not by punishing or whatever. When this maṭha-in-charge saw this whole situation, he decided in one moment to leave this institution forever. Although he left that organization, he did
Read more

The Greatness of His Simplicity

By
Image
When Guru Mahārāja visited Ukraine his programs were in a public place such as a camp near the Black Sea, like a tourist camp. So he had his own room there and after harikathā or before harikathā devotees could visit him and speak with him. Generally, it was very free, everyone could come and ask some questions and he was very happy to answer them.  My personal experience was that when I met Guru Mahārāja in his room, he was very open. I was shocked because after association with ISKCON devotees for a long time it was very difficult to meet some Guru or talk with him. It was like an audience with some Prime Minister or President, very difficult to get. But still, when we first entered Guru Mahārāja’s room I was surprised that such a great person was at the same time very humble and he asked us, "How can I serve you?" It was very very sincere, in a very simple way.  He replied to all the questions that we asked and we just talked. It was like a conversation with a family membe
Read more