Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

One year near Christmas and New Year's Day, I observed everyone exchanging cards and gifts, so I thought I would make a card for Guru Mahārāja and decorate it with birds. He opened the card, and I had written something inside. In a mood of shyness, I told him, "You don't have to read what I have written." I felt happy that he spent time looking at the birds that I drew, and he was touching them with his sweet hand and then kept that card on his table. After three or four months, I got an opportunity to serve him inside his room, and to my great surprise, I saw that this card was still there! This reminded me of how I had once heard a devotee describing one incident in which a Matajī had been standing quietly next to Gurudeva while clenching onto a one-rupee coin. There were many wealthy devotees around that were offering big stacks of rupee notes and opulent gifts. She felt shy to offer such a small thing to Gurudeva, but He saw inside her heart and extend...

Once some persons spoke ill about Guru Mahārāja, and at that time Parama-gurujī was sitting in his room and he could hear the ill words some persons were addressing to Gurudeva. Parama-gurudeva saw from a distance that our Gurudeva was standing there. He thought, " why are they speaking ill about him ?"  He called Gurudev's name, but Gurudev was doing some service and he didn't hear him. Then Parama-gurudeva sent one brahmachārī to get Gurudeva. He asked, "Why are those persons shouting at you?" Gurudeva said, "Who is shouting at me?" Parama-gurudeva said, "Those persons who were fetching water, were they not shouting at you?" Gurudeva said, "I did not hear." Parama-gurudeva said, "They were shouting so loudly, I could hear from my room, and you did not hear?” Parama-gurudeva said, "He is so absorbed that they were shouting at him and he did not even hear. I am not worried about Kṛṣṇa Ballabha Bra...

After our Guru Mahārāja disappeared, Śrīla Tirtha Mahārāja served the maṭha untiringly and did not let the mission deviate an iota from pure devotional principles.  We had seen Mahārāja doing kirtan at a stretch for 2 to 3 hours while performing nagara- saṅkīrtana . Whenever we traveled even for a short distance, we needed a car, but Tirtha Mahārāja would go barefoot.  On the way to Narasiṃhapali, just after the area inhabited by the Muslims, there lies a banyan tree where it is nearly impossible to place one's  foot on the street due to the burning heat. Others got blisters under their feet, but Mahārāja came there barefoot.  We started wondering where his kharam (wooden slippers) were. I asked Mahārāja to wear his pair of kharam , but he would not.  One would want to go by car in that scorching heat, but Śrīla Tirtha Mahārāja arrived there barefoot. In such a state, he was performing such an amazing  kīrt...