He Made The House Transcendental

By
When I first heard of Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj, it was in 1997 or 98. We were waiting at the university in Hilo (Hawaii) for him to arrive. When his car arrived, I could see that there was a bright glow from within the car. When the door opened and he emerged from the car, he was so bright and effulgent, and in my mind I thought, Oh My God, this is a pure devotee! We dropped to the cement to pay our obeisances. He was strict and didn't let ladies touch his feet, though.

The first time he came to Big Island Hawaii, we did Rathayatra in downtown Hilo that year, and he danced the whole way! Unlike all the devotees, he did not wear shoes, out of respect for Lord Jagannath, even though the ground was hot pavement.

Later on, Guruji came to our house which was partially built. He said the house reminded him of Kolkata. He sat down in our temple room and he corrected our altar arrangement and made us arrange the Deities and Guru Parampara properly. All the devotees were sitting together nicely for this house program, then one enthusiastic devotee requested that Guru Maharaj lead his Nrsimhadev kirtans. but he said “No.” He motioned to the devotee who plays drum and started to sing, "Jaya Jaya Radharamana Hari bol!" We are all so overjoyed.

He stayed in our house one time for 3 days. He made the house transcendental. This house is truly blessed.

—Suchandra Dasi, Hawaii



"One can immediately purify his entire house simply by remembering exalted personalities, to say nothing of directly seeing them, touching their lotus feet, washing their feet or offering them places to sit."
(Caitanya-caritāmṛta Antya 7.10)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"She Has Gone to Goloka-dhāma "

By
Image
Guru Mahārāja is not an ordinary person; he is sent by the Supreme Lord to rescue all of us. In the office, if we are working in one place, we may be deputed to another place to do some work. Similarly, Gurudeva has been deputed from Goloka-dhāma to help us. Guru Mahārāja has come here to fulfill the desire of Hari-Guru-Vaishnavas. In 1997, I received harināma in Gokula-Mahāvana along with my  dharmapatnī , my wife. Guru Mahārāja asked my wife, "If something bad has happened to you, how do you take this? As if Gurudeva is at fault, or as if other persons are at fault?” My wife replied, “Whatever happens, I think it is good for me, by your arrangement.” In 2013, my wife was detected with breast cancer, and later left this world. Some devotees came to the maṭha and gave the news to Gurudeva. Gurudeva replied, "She has gone to Goloka-dhāma." In the hospital, I remember when my wife was in the ICU, and the doctor came and told me, "Your wife is in the fina
Read more

He Accepts Every Circumstance With Utmost Humility

By
Image
I heard something very deep and nice from a devotee that I met in Switzerland. He told me about how he had been staying at a temple there while Guru Mahārāja was visiting.  He said that the maṭha-in-charge expressed his desire that Gurudeva speak about Bhāgavatam. But then an order came that he was not allowed to speak there. In the room where the Bhāgavatam reading was, there was a young boy,. He was maybe only three months in the maṭha and recently came out of a completely material life, eating meat, smoking, etc. Anyway, he was the only one who had permission to speak about Bhāgavatam. And what did Guru Mahārāja do? He entered the room, bowed down to this boy and he sat in front of this boy and listened to his Bhāgavatam reading. This is his humbleness. This is always the way; they teach by example, not by punishing or whatever. When this maṭha-in-charge saw this whole situation, he decided in one moment to leave this institution forever. Although he left that organization, he did
Read more

Capture It in Your Heart

By
Image
In 2005, I decided to visit Jagannāth Puri for Ratha-yātrā. It was my first visit to any maṭha after harināma . The first thing I did was to equip myself with a film SLR camera anticipating interesting moments and visuals. Every year from then on, the camera always accompanied me, so much so that most of the time, I used to take snapshots more than actually participating. In 2010 or maybe 2011, I was staying in Mumbai. A few devotees wanted to purchase a camera for the maṭha-sevā , and, supposing I knew a bit about cameras, I accompanied them along for the purchase. Some research was done, and we picked up a Canon SLR and a couple of lenses. Soon after that, we went off to Jagannāth Puri. We were excited about the visit. It was during Ratha-yātrā, and Śrī Gurudeva was there for some days. A special darśan was organized for the Mumbai devotees. We walked in and offered praṇāms . As usual, I was holding the camera and shooting from many angles. At some point, I went closer to join the
Read more