His Guruvarga Sings the Glories of His Association

By
Today is the appearance day of Lord Śrī Rāmachandra and Śrīpad Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Mahārāj, Ācārya of All India Sree Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭh. Appearance Day of both the Lord and His devotee has arisen together today. Singing the glories of Vaiṣṇavas is most beneficial for us.  It liberates the jīvas.

Śrīpad Mahārāj did not take initiative to become Ācārya.  He accepted the position of Ācārya to fulfill the desire of his Gurudev.  A long time ago when I was at Goalpara Maṭha in Assam along with Pūjyapāda Mādhava Mahārāj, one of our godsisters asked Pūjyapāda Mādhava Mahārāj, “You are not keeping well. After you, who will perform the duties of Ācārya?  Have you made any arrangements for this?”

Pūjyapāda Mādhava Mahārāj smiled and told her, “Yes, I know. I will make perfect arrangements before I go. She asked, "Who will you appoint?" Mahārāj replied, “I will not mention his name now, but the one whom I nominate will be even better than me.”

I was also hearing this conversation. Taken by surprise, our godsister asked Pūjyapāda Mādhava Mahārāj, "Is there anyone better than you?"

For this Pūjyapāda Mādhava Mahārāj smilingly said, "Yes, there is!"

So I am not just simply singing the glories of Śrīpad Tirtha Mahārāj on my own. I have personally heard his glories from my sannyās-guru and śikṣā-guru Pūjyapāda Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāj.

I will tell you one more instance. In the initial days of my initiation into sannyās, Pūjyapāda Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāj took me with him to Assam’s Tejpur maṭha. One day he was sitting on my left side and Keśava Prabhu was on the other. In the midst of the conversation, Pūjyapāda Mādhava Mahārāj  said, “You may not be aware of this, so let me tell you that I have nominated Tirtha Mahārāj  to perform all of my duties.”

I have grown old now. I joined maṭh in my very childhood. I do not know what fruits of pious activities have got me the association of such great Vaiṣṇava. You are having darśan of Sripad Tirtha Mahārāj and also have his association; this is your great fortune. Today is the appearance day of Pūjyapāda Tirtha Mahārāj. We are all very fortunate that we have got this good opportunity to celebrate the appearance day of a Vaishnava.

I do not have any qualifications to speak the glories of Mahārāj. I am disqualified in all respects.  Even so, Mahārāj mercifully keeps me in his association. A Vaishnav like Tirtha Mahārāj is presently very difficult to find in this world. In spite of having attained such high scholarship, Mahārāj is very simple. He has never-ending blessings of Parāma Pūjyapāda Mādhava Mahārāj upon him.

Only on the strength of Gurudev's mercy, he completed the difficult task of such wonderful propagation of Mahāprabhu's teachings. Without the mercy of guru, it is impossible to make progress on the spiritual path. What is possible by the mercy of sadguru is not possible in spite of lakhs of lives of spiritual practice. Sripad Tirtha Mahārāj is not an ordinary man. A Vaiṣṇava appears in the world to bring its auspiciousness.

On the occasion of Mahārāj’s appearance day, I am with him, sitting next to him; this also is his causeless mercy upon me.  I have no practice in giving lectures and also I do not know the Hindi language.  On the orders of Vaiṣṇava, I have spoken a little in the language I know.

- Parāmapūjyapāda Tridaṇḍī Svāmī Śrīmad Bhakti Sharan Trivikrāma Mahārāj, Disciple of His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura

Source: Chaitanya Sandesh July-Oct, 1997 (Year 17, Issue No.4, Page 6)

translated from Bangla


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 Could Not Allow His Disciples to Bathe His Feet

By
Image
Once when we came to Kolkata, we saw Gurujī performing ecstatic kirtana while jumping high in the air. Śrīla Gurudeva was 66 years old at that time.  Param-pūjyapāda Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja said, “Tirtha Mahārāja is not an ordinary human being. He is the direct associate ( nija-jana ) of the Supreme Lord.” One time I asked Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja, "You tell one should do sevā of Gurujī, and one should drink the water that washes the lotus feet of Gurujī, but as soon as we go near to him, he gets angry. Once Gurujī went to our guru-bhai Sudhir Kantjī’s house in Bhatinda, He wanted to wash Gurujī’s lotus feet, but Gurujī became very angry." “You will not wash my feet! You should wash my Gurujī’s feet," Gurujī said. So, I asked Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja what we should do in such situations.  He replied, “You must wash your Gurujī’s feet. When your Gurujī comes and sits in a room then close and lock the door, then take the water utensil in your hand and tell him that Puri Gosvāmī M
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