He Hears Us When We Sincerely Call Out to Him

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Guru Mahārāj often said, “Wherever your mind is, you are there. If your body is in Bhatinda and your mind is in Vṛndāvan, then it can be accepted that you are in Vṛndāvan and vice versa. The main object of śravaṇa-kīrtana is to engross the mind in our object of worship.” So, as much our mind is engrossed in śravaṇa-kīrtana of Gurudev's glories, so much our śravaṇa-kīrtana is successful.  

After we previously began remembering Goalpara-dhām, devotees were calling to inform us that it is as though we are there, the trees, the banks of the Brahmaputra River came before our eyes.  This is good news because this is our objective. Yena tena prakārena manaḥ kṛṣṇe niveśayet: to engage our mind in Gurudeva and his dhām.  

Those days the Shiva temple in Goalpara was in a thick forest, it was like an old dilapidated temple outside a village.  There was no place to sit, a few steps were there near the stream. The greatness of this stream is that it supplied water for the whole construction of the temple at the janmasthān. They split the long bamboo in the middle and joining them made a canal-like supply of water from the stream.  

Guru Mahārāj sat there and as we sat down he started jaya-dvani, then some vandanā, then chanted pañcatattva and mahāmantra. All through these years, I have observed that Guru Mahārāj would never give jais in a hurried manner. He would give jais in dhīra-sthira bhāva (with a grave and a steady, sober, mood).  He used to say by giving jais everything is complete.  Though we are provided with a list of jais to be given and practiced in the Sādhan Sanket booklet, there was worship of the Lord and the vaiṣṇavas in the utterance of Gurudev's jais.  

Once in Dehradun Gurudev gave me lessons on jais. He said, "Every morning, I take the names of all the deities of all the temples our Gurudev established because my Gurudeva gave the responsibility of all these maṭhs and the service of the deities and as I am not able to sufficiently take care of them, I give jais to all the maṭhs and the presiding deities there and offer jais to them seeking their forgiveness for not being able to serve them well." He expressed his humility like this.


And we have heard from our Gurudev and guru-varga, the meaning of  Jai Gurudeva is: Hey Gurudev, conquer me, make me your own property (ātmasāt). It is our prayer to Gurudev or to vaiṣṇava, to accept us at their lotus feet.  We also heard that in our maṭh when Guru Mahārāj or Param Gurudev give jais, one has to give jais following them. If some devotee at the back begins talking with others during jais it is not proper etiquette. One of Srila Prabhupad's disciples who was residing in our maṭh would catch ahold of anyone’s arm who did this and take him out of the sankīrtan hall.  Gurudev taught through his conduct that giving jais to Guru, Vaiṣṇav, and the Lord is a very important limb of bhakti.

In 2013 in Kolkata when Gurudev's appearance day festival celebrations were happening, when offering vandanā when Gurudev chanted the names of Param Gurudev he joyfully shouted, “Jai ho, Jai ho, Jai ho!" thrice and everyone in the audience was thrilled by those cheers. We saw Gurudev giving jais like this whole-heartedly (dil se).

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī has also expressed this mood of the jais to Gurudev: “May the glories of your name sound and resound in the whole world (danka baje - drum beats),  may the auspicious sounds of your names reverberate the whole atmosphere,  and may the sounds of the drums of your holy name play and echo. He composed the following verse in his Śrī Nāma-aṣṭakam:


aya namadheya! muni-vrnda-geya!

jana-ranjanaya param aksarakrte!

tvam anadarad api manag-udiritam


Oh, Hāriṇam, oh name sung by the sages, oh transcendental syllables that bring bliss to the people, even if You are spoken only once, and even if You are spoken disrespectfully, You at once remove the many harsh sufferings of everyone.


By such jais all obstacles on the path of devotion are destroyed. We have heard Gurudeva say that by giving jais everything is attained.  


Once Ashok Prabhuji invited Guru Mahārāj to come to Delhi and place his holy footprints in a small newly built extension on the rooftop of his old house and Gurudev went climbing up the steps wearing his wooden sandals (khaḍāūṃ). The time was at about eight in the evening.  In his usual grave sober mood, he gave jais first and chanted Narasiṁha-mantra, then pañcatattva, and mahāmantra.  Later Prabhuji asked if this was a time that is suitable for the inauguration, which is usually done in the early morning or the forenoon, without referring to panchang (almanac) for auspicious tithi and time. Then Guru Mahārāj said, "Do not think like this. When Guru, Vaiṣṇavas come and give jai-ghosh, everything is perfectly done and all faults set right where Guru, Vaiṣṇavas, and Lord's nāmakīrtana is performed.  He also gave a pramāṇa from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:


mantratas tantrataś chidraṁ

deśa-kālārha-vastutaḥ

sarvaṁ karoti niśchidram

anusaṅkīrtanaṁ tava

 

(ŚB 8.23.16)

 

All deficiencies, faults in our performance of worship are nullified and set right by anukīrtana of Lord's names; all auspiciousness comes there. Pranam makes our faith in Gurudev's words strong.  

During Śrīla Prabhupad's disappearance festival in Māyāpur, his disciple Bhakti Vicar Bharati Mahārāj told us that one old woman in a village called out at the time of her death saying,  "Ha Prabhupad, Ha Prabhupad" instead of Lord's name and how Prabhupad answered her humble prayers. And in Śrīla Bhakti Prakash Aranya Mahārāj's appearance day celebration, I got a chance to hear that when he was facing danger while traveling in a boat over a river, he came out in the open area of the boat with his daṇḍa and called out to Prabhupad to rescue him, "Jai Prabhupad, Prabhupad rākṣamān, Prabhupad pahimam!” At about three in the afternoon, the Bagbazar temple doors were closed and Śrīla Prabhupad called the sevāks and told them to ask the pūjāri to open the temple door. He sat and sang kirtan before the deities. When they asked him why at this odd time, he said, “Aranya Mahārāj is in great difficulty.”  When the kirtan began, the cyclone stopped and Aranya Mahārāj returned to the maṭh safely. This is the power in giving jais to Gurudev, calling to Gurudev.  

When Param Gurudev's disciple, Sudhir Krsna Prabhu from Bolpur, West Bengal would come to attend any festival he would very enthusiastically give such long elaborate jai-ghosh to Gurudev in loud voice in Bangla. I try to remember which goes like this: “Jai prasche (east direction) paschyata dēśā Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya-vani pracāraka vartaman gauḍīya gaganēra baiśākhī dupāharē ujvala bhāskara nikhila bhāratīya Śrī Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭher Āchārya, adhyakṣa Parama Pūjyapād Parivrājaka-ācārya tridaṇḍi svāmī Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Gosvāmī Gurudev Mahārāj ki jai!"  When I asked for some clarification from him, he said, "Your Gurudev is like the Summer sun in the afternoon—so bright and strong; not covered by any clouds.  


—Śri Krishnananda Das (Kuldeep Prabhu)


Transcript of Gurukathā on Gokul India, 23.4.2020 

Spoken in Hindi, translated to English by Rasavihari Das






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