He Is an Ocean of Mercy

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Today on the disappearance day festival of Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja, we are directly getting his blessings;  his mercy magnifies so much that it becomes thousands of times more beneficial participating in this tithi than in any other. Vaiṣṇavas are kṛpā-sindhu bhyaeva ca; kṛpā-sindu means ocean of mercy. This ocean is full of water, and we can continuously withdraw as much water as possible and it is inexhaustible. Vaisnavas remain magnanimous, always ready to grace the devotees.

The character and qualities of a vaiṣṇava are always great, greater, and greatest. The first quality we can find in the life and precepts of Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja is his example of how to render perfect devotional service to his spiritual master as linked with devotional service to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Vaiṣṇavas come to the world for the benefit of others; as incense burns itself out but distributes fragrance, Vaiṣṇavas do hard work and want to give us their blessings in the form of words, their devotional service, etc. They are like a kalpa-taru (wish-yielding tree), whatever you wish from them they are ready to give us. So that is the kind of personality our Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Mahārāja is.

Long ago, he used to send letters to me when I was in Chennai. He was so humble in his writing, his way of talking, and his behavior that I truly consider him the actual presiding deity of the third śloka of Śrī Śikṣāṣṭakam: tṛṇād api sunīcena, he is humbler than a blade of grass. We are all lucky that we belong to this Brahma-madhva-gauḍīya-brahma-sampradāya because within this sampradāya, Tirtha Mahārāja was a great, most prominent Ācārya—there is no doubt about it. 

In this regard, I want to say a few things. There are two classes of men: atheist and theistic. Disregarding atheists, there are three categories within theism. So, to which category do we belong? One sampradāya group believes in God only without believing in guru, vedās or vaiṣṇavas. They say that if God is all-in-all, why don't we directly worship Him and directly go to Him? But they are also considered to be nāstika atheists because as stated in Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya, 6.168), veda nā māniyā bauddha haya ta' nāstika. Because they do not believe in vedās, they do not believe in sadhus and guru, then how can they directly go to the Lord?

Another sampradāya believes in guru and not God, and not in vedās and others. They say: guru brahma gurur viṣṇur guruḥ sākṣād maheśvaraḥ. In our vaiṣṇava terminology, they are called kartabaja. Altogether thirteen apasampradāyas exist including aul, baul, etc., and this group belongs to one of them. But the third sampradāya is our sampradāya, our Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Mahārāja, our Guru Mahārāja, and all vaiṣṇavas belong to this sampradāya. 

yasya prasādād bhagavat-prasādo
yasyāprasādān na gatiḥ kuto ’pi
dhyāyan stuvaṁs tasya yaśas tri-sandhyaṁ
vande guroḥ śrī-caraṇāravindam

-Śrīla Viśvanātha Cakravartī Ṭhākura

“By satisfaction of the spiritual master, the Supreme Personality of Godhead becomes satisfied. And by not satisfying the spiritual master, there is no chance of being promoted to the plane of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. I should, therefore, meditate and pray for his mercy three times a day, and offer my respectful obeisances unto him, my spiritual master.”

Our sampradāya believes in Guru as well as the Lord. Because without a guru, you can not go to the Lord. They say guru and the Lord are not one and the same, they are different. With the blessings of guru, they are supposed to go to the Lord. First, we need guru's blessings and then we may know Lord by the blessings of the Guru— this is our sampradāya, the sampradāya of Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja in whose disappearance festival we participate today.

He was a great Ācārya. On his disappearance day, I offer my humble lakhs of obeisances at his lotus feet and pray for his blessings so that I can progress in my devotional service in the future.

—Śrī Bhakti Vimalā Madhusūdana Mahārāja, disciple of Śrīla Bhakti Vilas Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja

spoken in English, April 25, 2022







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