Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

I met Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaja many times around the world when he was traveling in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Some of the places I met him were San Francisco, Russia, Singapore, and UK. I consider His Divine Grace to be one of the most exalted sanyassis of the modern era who distributed the vani of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu throughout the world. He is also one of the most profound kirtaniyas of Gaura kirtan. When he led kirtan with hundreds of devotees, He was like a volcano of divine energy. His lectures were always full of perfect siddhantic authority and profound realization, utterly heart captivating. I feel so blessed to have had his divine association and I consider him to be one of my prominent siksa gurus. All glories to His effulgent Lotus Feet. —Sripad Bhaktivedanta Padmanabha Maharaj, USA (disciple of Srila AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad, siksa disciple of Srila Bhakti Rakshak Shridar Goswami Maharaj and sanyass disciple of Srila B

This incident dates back to the time when Gurudev Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhav Goswami Maharaj was present in person. We had gone to a far off village some distance away from Calcutta, accompanying Srila Gurudev. After the spiritual assembly was over, Gurudev and the other Vaishnavas came back to the place where they were staying. Everybody saw that suddenly an insane person, whose body was covered with dirt and who was wearing only two pieces of clothes which were badly torn. His poor body appeared like a skeleton. He was about to enter the gate and the security guard of the dharamsala pushed him out.  This mentally disordered person was unable to speak, started to weep and later on went away. Sometime in the evening that person again entered the dharamsala through a small gate and straight away went inside Gurudeva's room. When we saw that, we all rushed in there to bring him out. But when reaching the room, we saw that the mad person in an extremely humble tone was weeping

This is a very old incident. I was with Guruji at a preaching engagement in Saharanpur. One day, Guru Maharaj unexpectedly entered my room and said, “What are you doing sitting idle here? We have taken some land in Vrindavan. Shouldn’t there be some construction there?” “What should I do?” I asked. “Go out and collect some donations for that purpose. I have heard that there is a rich lady living nearby who is very charitable. Go and meet her,” said Guruji. I was not a person who would wander about. Hence I did not know who lived where. “Who is the lady that Guru Maharaj mentioned and where does she live?” Then I remembered that Vijay Krishna Prabhu, who was with us, was interested in moving about. He would surely have found out some information about the city. I approached Vijay Krishna Prabhu and conveyed to him what Guruji had told me earlier. I asked if he knew the lady that Guruji was talking about. “Yes. Yes. Why not? I know her house also,” Vijay Krishna Prabhu said.