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The Glories of His Books

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Most merciful Gurudeva attracted me to his transcendental personality through his books. The first of his books that I read was Harikathā and Vaiṣṇava Aparādha, and such was the impact of his words on my heart that I decided to take shelter of his lotus feet without even personally meeting him. Later I came to know that Guru Mahārāja had withdrawn from the external world and was no longer communicating through spoken words. I only had the first darśana of Gurudeva at his bhajana kuṭīra in Kolkata during my harināma initiation. Even though I never had personal communication with Gurudeva, he continues to instruct me through his vāṇī . After his departure from the manifest pastimes, I could sustain and relish my relationship with Gurudeva through connection with his vāṇī . So I always nurture my relationship with Gurudeva through his vāṇī . I always had the impetus to distribute his books primarily as a means to water the seed of bhakti sown by Gurudeva in my heart. We have many of
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"There Was So Much Deep Bhajana With Him That You Forgot the World Outside"

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I bow down to Śrīla Guru Mahārāja’s lotus feet and I am so happy that I can be with all of you today and I bow down to every one of you here. I have a wish in my heart because sādhu-sanga is such an amazing thing, and is such a nice thing to reunite and see each other also. It is always so nice to speak about Gurudeva. I could do this only, all my life, speaking about Guru Mahārāja. My heart is always thumping when I think about him and talk about him. I was thinking what shall I speak today? But I have prepared nothing because I just wanted to tell in the moment now to see what to speak about. There are different things; one thing is we have a little group where we unite once a week and we speak about Guru Mahārāja and everybody remembers about the pastimes of Guru Mahārāja, what teachings each person had, or what one saw, or what experience one had, and it is so amazing because we do this since many months now and it is never boring and it is always beautiful even if we hear it agai
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His Deep Appreciation for Devotional Service in Any Form It Comes, For Whoever Carries It

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I am sincerely grateful and honored for this great blessing to be a part of this historic, auspicious occasion where we have come together to celebrate the life and teachings of His Divine Grace Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Mahārāja and to offer our gratitude for the mercy that we all received from him.  Within this material existence, the physical life that a person is given is likened to a spark. Reality is eternity. Any amount of life we have in this age of Kali is just a small fraction. Yet, in this human life, we have the rarest of all fortunes— durlabha mānava-janma labhiyā saḿsāre.  We have the opportunity to realize the eternity of our soul and our eternal relationship with Śrī Śrī Rādhā Govinda Deva in the spiritual world of Goloka. Of all rare things of this human life, there is nothing rarer than to be in the association of those Vaiṣṇavas who lived to love Kṛṣṇa and lived to share their love with others.  The physical presence ( vapu ) of such a great soul is to live in this wor
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He Gives Us Transcendental Light and Vision

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I was asked to speak today although I actually have no qualifications and I am very fallen and immersed in māyā . For my own purification, by the mercy of Mahārāja, Param Pūjyapāda Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja, I remember the glories of this Uttama Mahābhāgavata. I first met Mahārāja in 1977 when I was in Paharganj [Delhi]. I was living in Vṛndāvana for many years and when I was going to Paharganj (even though I didn't even know who he was) he had this power that  could attract you to go to him. I did not know where the maṭha was or anything but I was able to go and had my first association with him. We have learned that gu means darkness; everything we can see with these eyes is actually māyā . This darkness is gu and ru is light. He who can give you that light, remove that māyā (ignorance) and give you that transcendental light and vision is guru . So guru is not always coming in our lives with the formalities of giving dīkṣā or externally teaching us Śāstra, but
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He Dared Not Walk Ahead of Guru-varga

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I offer my humble obeisances at the divine lotus feet of my Guru Mahārāja, Nityalīlā Om Viṣṇupada Aṣṭottara Śata Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Pramoda Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja and equal daṇḍavat-praṇams to my śikṣā Gurudevas, Nityalīlā Om Viṣṇupada Aṣṭottara Śata Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja and Nityalīlā Om Viṣṇupada Bhakti Vijñāna Bhāratī Gosvāmī Mahārāja.  My millions and millions of daṇḍavat-praṇams to the most revered embodiment of simplicity and humility whose hundredth appearance (centennial celebration) is being observed this year beginning from Rāmanavamī by devotees all over the world. They worship Pūjyapāda Nityalīlā Praviṣṭa Śrīla Om Viṣṇupada Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja by remembering his contributions, his pastimes, and his great interactions with devotees worldwide. I pay my humble obeisances at his divine lotus feet, and to Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda and all his prominent disciples, and Śrī Saccidānanda Gaurahari and all His
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“If You Want Kṛṣṇa-bhakti From the Core of Your Heart, In That Same Moment, You Will Get It”

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I am feeling very blessed and happy to be invited to this online program. The reason I am sitting here is also by the hundred percent mercy of Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Without him, I could not speak one word here about Kṛṣṇa, Vaiṣṇavas, and of course about him also. Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura says in his song darśane pavitra koro-ei tomāra guṇ —just seeing a Vaiṣṇava, one becomes immediately purified in the heart. All Śāstras glorify sādhu-sanga , but in the case of Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja, this is so true and I have personally experienced that.  When I met the devotees in 1999 here in Vienna, there was a small āśrama opened by our Muni Mahārāja who had just came from India. He wanted to leave everything and never return from India. But our Guru Mahārāja Viṣṇupad Śrī Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Gosvāmī met him and he inspired him to come back and do some preaching. So Pūjyapāda Muni Mahārāja opened this temple and at that time, I came there completely
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Just by Remembering Him, One Becomes Free From Millions of Births

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I offer my humble obeisances to my dīkṣā guru Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Prabhupāda, my Śikṣā-gurus, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhakti Vijñāna Bhāratī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, and especially Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja on the 100th anniversary of his very glorious divine appearance day. Actually, in the face of you all who had so much association with Śrīla Mahārāja, I feel quite a nobody. I begin remembering Śrīla Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s kīrtana , being ready to jump into the fire or bang his head against a stone because he missed out on the association of Mahāprabhu and His associates. One of the most glorious associates of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is your Guru Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja. By my misfortune, I only was able to have physical association of him in his last couple of years, and in that, he was very merciful to me in the last couple of years in his Kolkata Sree Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭha.  At that time, he was wa
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