His Extraordinary Vaiṣṇava Etiquette

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A group of us went by car to Goalpara for the opening ceremony of the Goalpara Maṭha. When we reached Goalpara, I got down quickly and tried to make the path clear so that Gurujī would have no obstructions while he walked up the hill. There were a lot of shoes around and I tried to clear them with my feet.

Guru Mahārāja touched me on my shoulder and said, “These are vaiṣṇavas’ shoes. Never use your feet to push away their shoes.” 

I did not know what to do. I was naive, I did not know anything about it those days. And I said, “Sorry, Mahārāja.” Then I tried to push them away with my hand.

Then Mahārāja said, “No, you have got kāntimālā on your neck, so you can’t do that either.”

Again, I told Mahārāja I was sorry.

Guru Mahārāja was going up the hill and everybody was surrounding him. When he reached the top, he entered a room where he sat down and spoke with Gupta Prabhu. He explained that this is the mountain (pahad) where there used to be leopards and many Hanuman monkeys around.  He recalled that there was water that used to come down from the hilltop very gently and it flowed into the little well at the bottom near the Shiva temple.

This nice experience just came to my mind automatically and I thought just to share. I am overwhelmed whenever I remember this and my eyes fill with tears as I remember Guru Mahārāja.

—Premachanda Prabhu

spoken via Zoom on 13.8.23








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