His Extremely Elevated Worship of the Revered Scriptures

By the special mercy of our Most Revered Srila Gurudeva, we are getting this opportunity to listen to the holy biography of our Most Revered Srila Param Gurudev. He sees that we are very much in need of this, and to enable us to walk on the right path Srila Gurudeva gives us directions and instructions sometimes through the deities, sometimes through the Vaishnavas, and sometimes from mahatmas.

Yesterday we remembered an instance of how Srila Param Gurudev gave darshan of the holy scriptures in the library to a visiting Minister.  I happened to remember some instances in regard to the holy scriptures which give us important lessons. Though we have not seen Param Gurudev, by seeing the photograph of him with the minister in the library, we can understand how much significance  Param Gurudev is giving to the holy scriptures and Vaishnava literature that was found neatly arranged in the glass cupboards.

In Guru Maharaj's bhajan kutir we have also seen a rack next to his study table filled with scriptures. We observed that whenever Guru Maharaj would go on prachar he would invariably take a trunk full of scriptures with him. We have heard this was the practice of our Param Gurudev too. And the trunk used to be quite heavy, so much so that one person could not carry; it was filled with almost all the scriptures. Wherever Gurudev stayed he would sleep on the floor— it was very late in life that he finally accepted a cot. He would place the trunk near his pillow side,  spread a cloth over it, and arrange all the scriptures on top of it. He had such great reverential regard for the scriptures. We did not understand it then. Whenever the circumstances warranted he would refer to those scriptures. 

Once we were on our way to Chil-ki-dani, a remote village in Rajasthan. It was cut off from the rest of the world, and this was during a time when no mobiles were invented yet. To make a phone call once, I had to walk about 28 kilometers to the highway where there was an STD booth. There was no tar road to the village. We went with Gurudev by bus. Some two and a half kilometers away from the village was a place called Panchudala— further from this place the bus could not go and we had to walk to the village. When the bus stopped, Gurudev got down and sat on a flat stone under a tree by the roadside. All of us got down with our baggage and it took some time. Some village people had come to welcome Gurudev. Gurudev’s trunk full of books was inside the dicky of the bus, and Gurudev told us to bring out the trunk.  

Our Madhusudan Maharaj, then called Bhagavan Das Brahmachari told Gurudev to please proceed, we will bring the trunk with us, but Gurudev told him to take it out and it will go with us. When they tried to open the dicky, it did not open because due to the bad condition of the road it had automatically become locked. The driver, conductor, and brahmacharis all tried very much, but it did not budge. Also, there was no chair or bench and the weather was cold; Guruji was sitting on a stone on the roadside, so how can we go? 

Madhusudan Maharaj informed Gurudev about the situation and assured him that we 3-4 persons will go back in the bus to the highway some 28 kilometers away, and with a mechanics help, we will get it unlocked and come back with the trunk. They told Gurudev that he can proceed to the village, but Gurudev told us that he will also go on the bus with us. Gurudev valued and respected the books so much that he did not trust anyone else to look after them properly, so he said I will also go with you all. He was firm and had made up his mind that he will go on the bus to the highway. Meanwhile, when the driver was trying to turn the bus to the side of the road, luckily the dicky lock released automatically. And when the trunk finally came out, Gurudev got ready to go to the village of Aniruddha Prabhu. This incidence shows how much regard he has for the Scriptures.

In Jaipur in one Dharam Sabha, Guruji came on the stage to give Harikatha. He had danda in his hand and a small scripture the size of Bhajan-giti. He sat on the mat arranged on the stage with other mahatmas but was looking around uncomfortably with danda and book in his hands. He wanted to place the Scripture down but did not find an elevated place to put it. By his grace, I could see and realize the source of his unease while sitting in the audience. I folded my upper cloth and placed it near Gurudev's knee and he immediately placed the book on it and then sat comfortably.

Also, we saw in Bathinda that our Guru Maharaj would not allow anyone to offer pranams with Scriptures in their hands. His instruction is to place the Scripture in a proper place and then offer pranam.

Our Vrndavan Math's Mathura Prasad Das Babaji Maharaj also had so much regard for Scriptures. He was some 80-85 years old then. I saw him slowly climb up the two floors of the math with a walker, as he had met with an accident then. When he reached the terrace to pluck some kadamba flowers from the branches, he then climbed down to place them on the Scriptures such as Sri Caitanya Caritamrta and others in the cupboard just outside his room and then offered pranams. Even in such a condition, he did not ask anyone to get him the flowers, he himself did it. Such was his regard for Scriptures.

I also saw Sri Bhakti Prasad Puri Maharaj offer pranams to the 2-3 closed almirahs in front of his writing-table. Seeing my puzzled look, he said, there are Scriptures in them and without their grace what can I write?

Here in Bathinda Sri Bhuta Bhavan Prabhu was inspired to get a strong new trunk for Gurudev’s books and Gurudev shifted all his books to the new trunk. The old trunk is now with me as Gurudev's prasadi and remembrance.

This is the ideal our Gurudev and Guruvarga have shown. But sometimes we find some devotees leave Bhajan-giti on a side table, on the bed, on the fridge top, on the kitchen shelf, like this. This is not correct. The Scriptures, Harinam mala have to be given a special seat and respected. Then the glories of the Scriptures will manifest to us. We have to give due respects to the Scriptures. Gurudev will not approve of such careless handling of Scriptures.

Also, we heard that when Gurudev is abroad on prachar would read Scriptures in the evening and also look certain words up in the dictionary. Why did he not use any other equivalent word that comes to mind? We have heard that devotion is propagated through devotion only and not by language. Gurudev’s answer is that what we speak Harikatha in devotees assemblies; that is the Lord's seva. It is a remembrance of the Lord, and so why not use the best, most appropriate words and serve the Lord? To give the best service to the Lord, we can use the dictionary. Nama kirtan and Harikatha are the topmost services of the Lord, so those who distribute it are called most munificent in this world. Gurudev has distributed such pure, divine Harikatha in this world.

—Krishnanand Das (Sri Kuldeep Chopra, Punjab)

Transcribed from a portion of a talk on 1.8.2020 at Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math, Bathinda during a series of readings on the topic of  Srila Param Gurudev's Holy Biography written by Srila Gurudev.

Originally spoken in Hindi. Translated by Vishakha Dasi, Bangalore