Seeing His Grace Flowing in Different Ways

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By the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, my parents and I got the shelter of our Guru Mahārāj on January 13, 1999.  I was in school then. Previously we had been visiting ISKCON and probably were not aware of taking shelter of guru. Our god-brother Devakīnandan Prabhu came to Mumbai on pracār and took the lead to get us initiation. We saw Guru Mahārāj for the very first time on our initiation day. We never knew about Guru Mahārāj before that, nor had we heard about Sree Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭh. Since that day we have been seeing the mercy of Guru Mahārāj flowing in different ways; the unfortunate part is that we do not realize it immediately.  I have seen and experienced the affection, love, and care of Guru Mahārāj in a parental mood.  

When we visited Jagannāth Puri for Rathayātrā in 2012, Devotees would stand in a queue for darśan of Guru Mahārāj. That year I had met with an accident and hence had to miss the Gaura-pūrṇimā festival.  We had not spoken about this to anyone in the math and practically no one knew about it.  But when I went to offer my praṇāms to Guru Mahārāj he inquired about my injury and health status while he was moving his hand over his right knee. His kind inquiry brought tears to my eyes; he is all-knowing.  

Wherever I met Guru Mahārāj whether, in Puri, Māyāpur, Kolkata, or Chandigarh, he would recognize me by my face if not by name, and would ask, “Oh, you are coming from Mumbai. Have you got a place to stay, have you got prasād to eat? He was so caring and he would inquire like this to all the devotees, giving his personal care and attention always.  

We often used to hear Guru Mahārāj focus on Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's kirtans time and again.  He used to always say Gauḍīya Maṭh is equal to Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura; if there is no Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, then Gauḍīya Maṭh is zero.

Also, he always emphasized the mood of surrender to guru and vaiṣṇavas— to beg them for mercy and then you will get progress in kṛṣṇa-bhakti. I had heard from Śrī Bhakti Kuśala Padmanābha Mahārāj that when he wrote a letter to Guru Mahārāj expressing the difficulties he is facing in his bhajan due to his unsteady mind, Guru Mahārāj immediately wrote him back asking him to daily recite one particular Śaraṇāgati-kirtan by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura that starts:

hari he!
prapañche paḍiyā, agati ha-iyā,
nā dekhi upāya āra
agatira gati, charaṇe śaraṇa,
tomāya karinu sāra 

The teaching for us is to always recite and study Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura's kirtans and other vaiṣṇava- kirtans so that we can steady our minds and progress in kṛṣṇa-bhakti.  

—Vṛṣbhānu Das

Part 1. Spoken in English, excerpted from Vaishnav sabha for the glorification of Śrīla Gurudev in honor of His disappearance day-08 May 2021 




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