He Exemplifies Pure Devotion

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you very much for including me in this beautiful presentation. I am amazed by these devotional feelings.

I had the first opportunity to meet Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja in Mayapur and I was very impressed by his transparency. He had no double face and was very loyal. He was the personification of living devotion. I had the good fortune to follow the devotees on Mayapur parikramā during the 80s. I can share a few memories. For example, in one location, we stopped for prasād and all the devotees were waiting for Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja to begin honoring prasād. He turned to us and asked, "Why should I take prasād?" Everybody was waiting for the answer and we said, "Yes Mahārāja, of course you should take prasād." But he said, "Why? Why should I take prasād? Then we said, "Mahārāja, if you take prasād, all the devotees around will be satisfied." Then he smiled and said, "Okay, this is a proper answer. This is good. This is a good reason for me to accept prasād."

I was always completely charmed by his simplicity. He was extremely humble. We traveled with him in the South of France because my friend Bindu Mādhava Prabhu (who left his body a few years ago)[invited us]. We went to see him in Mayapur and we heard that Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Mahārāja received the instructions to go to preach in the West. So we coaxed him by saying, "Mahārāja, we can help, we can help with lakṣmī [monetary donation] and with plane tickets and we can also arrange some location for you in the South of France. We know some beautiful places in Central Paris and we can rent one for you to arrange preaching programs in. He agreed and so we traveled with him to France and he gave beautiful programs. And then we also went to San Francisco, California and Eugene, Oregon. 

I can remember that one day while driving one devotee said to Mahārāja, "You know this big preacher is publishing a lot of books about Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Meera bhajan and he said, "I can bring you to Kṛṣṇa, but Tirtha Mahārāja cannot." So, can you imagine the silence in the car. Everybody was shocked, but Tirtha Mahārāja was looking outside and saying nothing for maybe ten or fifteen minutes. It was very heavy. And all of a sudden, he turned to us and very softly said, "Yes, he is right. I cannot bring you to Kṛṣṇa." Some of us started to laugh [because we thought he was kidding] and the Bengali devotees in the back seats were crying out of devotional sentiments. We realized that we are in the presence of a very, very, special devotee. 

He was the perfect personification of the Amāninā mānadena verse—very humble, very simple, not a devotional show off; he just had pure devotion. My only hope is one day I may receive a particle of dust by Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s grace and then I will be saved.

—Prahlāda Dāsa, Canada

Excerpted from worldwide glorifications of Śrīla Gurudeva via Zoom April 27th and 28th, 2024