Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

Guru Maharaj made everything so easy. Everything was beginning from the heart; it was all about the heart. Within the first two years during almost every darshan that I had of Guru Maharaj, He said the same thing to me: "It's so easy to please Krishna. It is so easy. Why? Because He is the nearest and dearest. Nobody is nearer to us than Krishna." My background made me so complicated but Guru Maharaj made it so easy. With so much love he would say to me: "It's so easy to please Krishna." So I was thinking even when I feel very close to someone, that is nothing compared to how close the Lord is. Naturally, it's easy. If you try to please the Lord from the heart, he is pleased. It's so easy. He kept telling me this again and again, probably because I have a complicated mind. Many times I heard Srila Gurumaharaj say, "The panacea for all problems is sharanagati. If we surrender, things will fall into place."  That was the impression I got from...

Guru Maharaj flew from Delhi to London. I joined them in London airport and waited along with them to catch a flight to New York. I was seated next to Guru Maharaj on the plane and I noticed with interest that he was reading the book "Perfect Questions Perfect Answers" by Srila Swami Maharaj, a very well-known book for beginners in Krishna consciousness. I saw Guru Maharaj reading that book with a lot of concentration. I wondered why he was reading that book because he knows everything. Even though I didn’t ask him, I found the answer myself: because he has perfect attitude of following Guruvarga, he wanted to follow the scripture of Srila Swami Maharaj as he was an authorized disciple and had been given the order by Srila Prabhupada to go and preach outside. Guru Maharaj was very cautious to never go beyond what Swami Maharaj had given. His attitude was never like he knows more or can give more in the West than what Swami Maharaj had. So he was reading the book to see what...

Gurudeva would spend time writing lectures of Param Gurudeva and keep himself busy with that service all day. Sometime around nine in the morning, he would take some rest. On one particular occasion, Param Gurudeva called for one brahmacārī at that time, but the brahmacārī was sleeping. Later when asked for an explanation he said, "Tirtha Mahārāj also sleeps at that time." Param Gurudeva did not say a thing to him, but later in hari-kathā , he said, "A surrendered devotee's any activity is sevā , even sleeping also is sevā . But our following should not be an imitation." He had so much love for Gurudeva and that day in the whole  hari-kathā  he spoke on his beloved disciple—our Gurudeva. When doing kirtans , our Gurudeva goes to a different plane altogether, he would be so engrossed in the kirtan that he would not have any awareness of his clothes or anything else around him. He is  avadhūta —completely unbound by this world. Once in kirtan , hi...

One time the deities of Gokul Mahavan math were damaged by miscreants who were later caught.   Those people were waiting to be given punishment. Tridandi Swami Sadhu Maharaj was an eye-witness to the incident.    I observed all senior sadhus pressurizing Sadhu Maharaj to give witness in the court to make sure the miscreants were punished.   I myself was also favoring this stance strongly.    It was during that time that I saw Sadhu Maharaj’s saintly quality and his faith in Acharya Deva (Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj) and was very much surprised.   Sadhu Maharaj took his bag and went straight to Acharya Deva at Rajapura to take his advice.   When he met Srila Acharya Deva in Rajapura, coincidentally I was also present in Srila Maharaj’s room.    In reply to Sadhu Maharaj’s question about whether we have to proceed with the punishment, Srila Acharya Deva was referring to verses from Sri Chaitanya Charitamrta ...

One sunny day I took Guru Maharaj and his sevak team for a morning walk on the beach. Singapore beach is usually sunny. On that walk, there was some discussion about Raganuga-bhakti. There was another great Vaishnav there who was particularly speaking to Russian devotees while emphasizing that topic. It was Hrishikesh Maharaj, an American disciple, who introduced this topic with a question related to how all of us should go to Raganuga-bhakti. The discussion went on for a while and Guru Maharaj was very patient while listening. At the end of the conversation, I told him directly that I do not have a good background and I don't come from a favorable part of the world. I continued to explain that my Guru Maharaj, [Srila Bhaktivedanta] Swami Maharaj instructed me to do sadhana bhakti and I am not qualified to do Raganuga-bhakti because of my background. Guru Maharaj replied while simply folding his hands in pranam and said, "This Maharaj who is speaking is a great Vaishnava, I a...

I remember I spoke with one lady who was Buddhist since her childhood but she had started going to ISKCON. She felt this was another practice for liberation, but more colorful. She became friends with devotees that invited her to that same program [previously mentioned.] She liked Gurudev’s Harikatha and recorded an interview with him for radio. She had many questions for Gurudev and he was replying. I don't know the details of the interview, but after it, she asked Gurudev for a blessing and Gurudev told me that she should take Harinam and she agreed. At that time, she told me that she was also attracted to Gurudev because he was checking the almanac for travel dates. This was because she was an astrologer so this was like a bonus for her to see that Gurudev was checking that. She agreed that yes, she would take Harinam. She told my mother (Srimati Tungavidya Devi Dasi), as they were friends, that Gurudev told her to take Harinam and she will take it the next day and she wanted my...

All Glories to Sree Sree Guru and Gauranga! I consider myself fortunate beyond doubt that  I got to see and have the association of Gurudev very early in my life. I was in school when I first had his darshan at Gita Bhawan (Jammu), of course my elder brother Rasaviharidas being the catalyst. It soon became an annual affair as I used to attend his discourses, attend nagar sankirtan processions, and honor prasadam with my family and others when he used to visit us during the month of September every year. That time I did not have the guts to ask him questions but slowly as I grew up I started to ask some as he had plenty of time for all of us. When after marriage I came to Kolkata far away from my parents Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math Kolkata was my second home or 'mayeka' as we call it.  I took Diksha after marriage as my in-laws were very supportive. I remember after the birth of my daughter I asked Gurudev that I could not chant much due to 'her'. Gurudev smilin...