Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

An extremely beautiful aspect of Śrīla Gurudev's nature is that he is very loving towards every entity. Other guru-varga have indicated that if a mosquito bites them they will beat him, but Gurudev never even beat a small mosquito ever—I have personally seen this many times in his life. If any mosquito will sit on my hand, I will strike it and finish his life. This is my nature.  But what is Gurudev's nature is jiveshu koti matravatseshu : Gurudev gives the love of crores of mothers to jīvas . There was one occasion in Chandigarh that I saw that there were so many mosquitos in Śrīla Gurudev's room. Even while Gurudev was distributing prasādam , so many mosquitoes were buzzing around and disturbing him. Our god-brother Śrī Kuldeep Prabhu brought a mosquito coil, the type that burns, making smoke to drive mosquitos away, although some of them may die also. Kuldeep Prabhu showed it to Gurudev and said this is very effective.  When he lit the coil, Gurudev asked what it was an...

During his antya-līlā Guru Mahārāj engaged all of us in the kirtan sevā . Even in Guwahati while in the ICU, Guru Mahārāj engaged all the devotees in kirtans . By the causeless mercy of Guru Mahārāj, maybe we have developed a small measure of love for Guru Mahārāj. But in the hospital, the nurses, ward boys, doctors, and other persons who were serving there were attracted to Guru Mahārāj. It was practically impossible for even a family's closest person to visit a patient in ICU, but Guru Mahārāj was so merciful that he had a separate room in ICU and there was a long queue to have darśan of Guru Mahārāj and all would get his darśan .   We heard from Gurudev's sevāks that the doctors and the attendant staff of the hospital would first offer praṇāms to Guru Mahārāj before proceeding to check his health status. Even though he was not speaking, he was a true Ācārya because he showed through his perfect conduct ( ācaraṇa ) how the life of a devotee is. Everything that he preache...

By the mercy of Kṛṣṇa, my parents and I got the shelter of our Guru Mahārāj on January 13, 1999.  I was in school then. Previously we had been visiting ISKCON and probably were not aware of taking shelter of guru . Our god-brother Devakīnandan Prabhu came to Mumbai on pracār and took the lead to get us initiation. We saw Guru Mahārāj for the very first time on our initiation day. We never knew about Guru Mahārāj before that, nor had we heard about Sree Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭh. Since that day we have been seeing the mercy of Guru Mahārāj flowing in different ways; the unfortunate part is that we do not realize it immediately.  I have seen and experienced the affection, love, and care of Guru Mahārāj in a parental mood.   When we visited Jagannāth Puri for Rathayātrā in 2012, Devotees would stand in a queue for darśan of Guru Mahārāj. That year I had met with an accident and hence had to miss the Gaura-pūrṇimā festival.  We had not spoken about this to anyone in the ma...

I will read one letter written by Guru Mahārāja; it is self-explanatory of course.  In this letter, Gurudeva was replying to one person's inquiry about what  Bhagavad-gītā   to read. There are so many printings of  Bhagavad-gītā  available, so which book should we refer to?  Śrīla Gurudeva answered. We can learn so many things from this letter about how to reply, what to reply, and what is the way to reply.  This may highly appeal to everyone, so I will just read it:   --- Suppose there is a person named Ram Babu.  The person who has never seen him, never came in contact with him, cannot speak anything about Ram Babu. The person who has seen Ram Babu externally can speak to some extent about external denominations like his appearance, his dress, and the like. But the person who has come closer to Ram Babu, as they are of master-servant relation will be able to speak about Ram Babu much more than the person who has seen him from a di...

To be honest and frank I never had the opportunity of offering any direct sevā to Gurudev because I didn't visit him so much as I would not get leave from my work. Whenever I went, he used to speak only for a very few moments.  But I will share some experiences and tell you what I have realized. I am not qualified to glorify Gurudev because I am not a person who is situated on a transcendental platform. One cannot glorify by use of the material senses, material mind, and material tongue. I am a conditioned soul, material by nature, so what can I explain about him, how can I glorify him?  Whatever other devotees have done to glorify him have done far better than what I can ever do.   But let me tell you one thing— I am very grateful to Gurudev. In the very first place, I never knew Gurudev, and I never knew what Gauḍīya Maṭha is—I knew nothing.  But he accepted me as a disciple,  he gave me harināma , and he explained the importance of harināma to me; this is th...

āpane ācare keha, nā kare pracāra pracāra karena keha, nā karena ācāra ‘ācāra’, ‘pracāra’, — nāmera karaha ‘dui’ kārya tumi — sarva-guru, tumi jagatera ārya ( Caitanya-caritāmṛta , Antya, 4/102-103) [Some people have good character but do not preach while other preachers have no personal example of their own. One has to execute both of these activities in a proper measure to do the work of an  ācārya .] Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāj is a vital link among those established ācāryas such as Bhakti Vaibhav Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāj, Bhakti Pramod Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāj, Śrī Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākur, and Śrīla Bhakti Dayita Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāj whose ācaraṇa is very powerful. An ācārya can inculcate true siddhānta in the heart of the bonded soul.  In this way, they can deliver and emancipate all bonded souls.  Otherwise, it is not possible; this point is vital.  One must follow all vaiṣṇava etiquette and at the same time have the powe...

In 1947 after completing his MA in Philosophy, Śrīla Gurudev joined the mission and in 2017 he has made his disappearance pastime.  That is for a period of seventy years— if I can stay like that for seventy seconds, then I will feel that I have become a success in my spiritual life.  He has carried on in this manner for seventy years and he has put forth such high standards for all of us so that we become successful in our spiritual life.   He appeared like a small child in the way he would cry out in front of his Gurudev, even as an Ācārya of Sree Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭh, as the one who has founded the Global Organization of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya's Universal Love, and who has been accepted as the President of the World Vaiṣṇava Association. I have personally seen him crying in front of his Gurudev without a thought of Oh, disciples are there, let me limit myself. He was crying like a desperate child who has been lost. He is asking his Gurudev, "Where are you, where ...

His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāj arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport on Wednesday, July 28th, 1999 at ll:00 AM. Immediately upon arriving at the Brooklyn home of Śrīman Ramesh Naudiyal, (Bensonhurst, Brooklyn NY), a warm saṅkīrtana-ārati welcome was accorded to His Divine Grace. His arrival in America marked the auspicious day of Guru-pūrṇimā, the advent day of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Dvaipāyana Vyāsadeva, as well as the disappearance day of Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī. The U.S. tour of His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāj has begun on a very auspicious note. Last night, Mahārāj spoke on the importance of Guru-pūrṇimā and guru-tattva . Though fatigued from a long 28-hour journey from India, Śrīla Mahārāj still insisted on honoring the day and holding an evening program that began at 8:30 PM. Rousing bhajan led by Bhūtabhāvana Das preceded his talk on the importance of guru , guru-tattva and the significance of Guru-pūrṇimā. After he was prompted to f...

Once Guru Mahārāj was in Jagannātha Puri and the whole maṭh was full of devotees. The brahmacārīs had no separate place to sleep and had to adjust somewhere on the balcony or here and there. I came from Mumbai and went to pay praṇām to Guru Mahārāj. He looked at me and asked, "Did you find someplace to stay?"  I said no. He did not tell me to go there or here and sleep. He said one thing: " Brahmacārī means the whole maṭh belongs to them only. It is your own house.  You can sleep anywhere; I think no problem." It was only a small word but that word gave such a kind of inspiration for my whole life.  Anytime when some idea comes to mind the first thing that comes to mind is maṭh is my home because Gurudev says, "maṭh is your home, maṭh is your place." If some place belongs to me, how can I think of something which is separate from maṭh ?  That is simply not possible.  Simply by one word he drilled in the heart of the disciple that you should always rem...

I've been given this opportunity to glorify his Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Mahārāja who I consider my foremost śikṣā-guru . There are so many things to glorify. I remember some glories connected from his visits to Singapore and Malaysia. My remembrances may seem like very small and trivial things, but behind the small things are opportunities to understand the deeper meanings.  When Gurudeva was in Singapore on one or two occasions, I was given the service of being a chauffeur (driver). I had a white Mercedes Benz and I took him wherever he wanted to go— That was my duty. So in going from point A to point B, sometimes to temples or to devotees' houses, some words would be exchanged between Śrīla Gurudeva while I was driving.  Rasabihari Prabhu from Jammu was there; I believe he was the secretary while traveling. Viṣṇu Mahārāja was there too before he took sannyās , and another American sannyāsi named Hṛṣīkeśa Mahārāja. Hṛṣīkeśa Mahārāja was the one who introduc...

The following is a remembrance of when Guru Mahārāj observed Rathayātrā in the US in August of 2002. This is an edited excerpt from a report by Hemant Agrawal (Hariprasād Das) that was originally published on Vaiṣṇava News Network. --- Śrīla Gurudev Bhakti Ballabh Tīrtha Gosvami Mahārāj has just finished his Bay Area preaching tour. All of us who were fortunate enough to have gotten the opportunity to associate with Śrīla Guru Mahārāj are still floating in bliss. On Saturday, August 10th, there was an ecstatic program in San Rafael. Śrīla Guru Mahārāj was invited by Śrīpād Svāmī B.V. Tripurāri to Audārya, his beautiful monastery in the California Redwoods. Other invitees included members of several Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava branches, including ISKCON's Jayadwaita Svāmī, Rādhānātha Svāmī , Mālati Devī, Nārasiṃha Caitanya Math's B.B.Visnu Mahārāja, and B.V. Damodar Mahārāj, a sannyās disciple of Svāmī Tripurāri Mahārāj. Around eighty devotees attended the program, which culminated in ISK...

By the mercy of Gurudeva and Vaiṣṇavas I am engaged in sevā  here in Goalpara-dhām. Today I want to speak on the point Śrī Tapasvi Mahārāj said in his kathā  that Gurujī is omnipotent. He repeated that Prabhupad said that he is still present in Sarbhog on every Vyāsa - pūjā. We have heard that in spite of his physical absence, his presence was still felt by Param Gurudev there because of his faith in Prabhupad's words. Like this, Gurujī also has blessed Mumbai devotees.  By taking Gurudev's permission we had begun Jagannāth Rathayātrā festival in Mumbai in 2002. Every year we would send an invitation to Gurudev to come for Rathayātrā festival. In 2009 the invitation reached the maṭh and Sannyāsī Mahārāj came and read it to Guru Mahārāj in his room in the early afternoon. At that time Guru Mahārāj was speaking kathā to a few devotees and sevāks in his kuṭir,  among them was Śrī Rasbihāri Prabhu.  Gurujī took the invitation in his hands and sai...