He is Surrender Personified
I first came to our Mayapur Maṭha in 1979. Śrī Keśava Prabhu, a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda, asked me to introduce myself. I told him the name of the city I come from and then he told me not to stay there but to go to Kolkata. He suggested that since I was a little educated, it is better if I go to Kolkata because in Mayapur only farming can be done. He sent me to Kolkata then with a letter he had written.
Gurudev had recently taken the position of Ācārya. He was not present at that time as he had gone out preaching. After some time Gurudev returned. I got his darśana for the first time after he returned. When I heard Gurudev offering jayadhvani with so much devotion, it attracted my heart. It was as if he was feeling and seeing internally; there was actual life in his jayadhvani. While we are also giving jayadhvani, we are not remembering as he did at the same time.
After that Gurudev performed vandanā (invocation prayers) in such a way that I had never previously heard. I have heard from Guru-varga that Gurudev was also offering invocation prayers in the time of Param Gurudev, so he also used to hear that. These experiences attracted my heart more than anything else had. Before coming to Gauḍīya Maṭha, I had gone to Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Mission, lived in Bharat Sevāshram, and at stayed many other ashrams and hermitages. Finally, I came to Gauḍīya Maṭha. Whatever I had been searching for in those places and did not find, I easily found in Gurudev and never desired to go anywhere else.
Most of the time I did not follow the difficult terminology of Gauḍīya Maṭha like antaraṅgā, bahiraṅgā, and aprākṛta, but I was attracted by the conduct of Gurudev. Gradually I started following the hari-kathā also. In 1979 I got my first initiation and in 1980 I got my second initiation, dīkṣā. In those days Gurudev used to speak every day for a month or two before he would proceed on pracār and I would sit in front of him daily during those times. I would get doubts when hearing hari-kathā and many times I went to Gurudev when he finished speaking to ask my question but without even opening my mouth, Gurudev would automatically start speaking on the same topic. I was surprised how he knew what was in my heart. My feeling is that Gurudev is omniscient; I do not know how, but I have seen that Gurudev is omniscient.
I have heard that Param Gurudev had inquired from many of his god-brothers like Śrīla Śrīdhar Dev Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrīla Sant Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrīla Yayavar Gosvāmī Mahārāja, etc. regarding whom he shall make the next ācārya. Śrīla Śrīdhar Dev Gosvāmī Mahārāja said you already have a ready-made Ācārya in your maṭha, he is an Ācārya from childhood, you need not look for any other ācārya. These are the words of Śrīla Śrīdhar Dev Gosvāmī Mahārāja who is the senior-most disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda.
Ācārya means one who lives what he preaches and Gurudev has been doing this since his childhood. I have not seen such conduct in anybody else all my life. When Śrīla Sant Gosvāmī Mahārāja asked Param Gurudev who will take care of the many big institutions he established in the future, Param Gurudev said he had the thought of making Tirtha Mahārāja the next Ācārya and Sant Gosvāmī Mahārāja became very jubilant, saying, “You have taken the right decision. Within Supreme Lord’s pastimes, there are so many gopis, among which only eight are prominent, but even among them, Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī is supreme. In the same way, you have so many senior disciples and among them Tirtha Mahārāja is supreme.”
And Pūjyapāda (Bhakti Pramod) Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja was telling his disciples, “Whom you see as Tirtha Mahārāja, I see him as Mādhava Mahārāja.” In the same way, I heard from Śrī Keśava Prabhu (another disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda) that your Gurudev is the tape-recorder of Mādhava Mahārāja which means there is no difference between Gurudev and Param Gurudev. Though we see discrimination among gurus, this is not a good thing to have. We should feel all Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Ācāryas are my guru; it is best not to differentiate between them as my guru and your guru—this is what Gurudev taught us.
Śrīla Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja said, “When Tirtha Mahārāja performs nrtya-kirtan (singing and dancing), then Lord Nityānanda and Lord Gauranga Themselves come and dance in his kirtan.”
Some persons may think that Param Gurudev has made Gurudev Ācārya because he is a very educated person, but that is not the truth. It is because he attracted the heart of his Guru through his service and surrender. I have never seen anyone surrender to their guru to such a degree that our Gurudev has. Our Gurudev would sometimes faint when remembering his Guru. Śaraṇāgati is the way to attract the heart of Gurudev.
Gurudev once asked me to perform a kirtan. He underlined this kirtan:
prapañce poḍiyā, agati hoiyā,
nā dekhi upāya ār
agatira gati, caraṇe śaraṇa,
tomāya korinu sār
"O Lord Hari, having fallen helplessly into the illusion of this world, I see no other means of deliverance but You. You are the only recourse for the helpless. I accept the shelter of Your lotus feet as essential."
sādhana bhajana nāi
tumi kṛpā-moya, āmi to’ kāńgāla,
ahaitukī kṛpā cāi
"I have no knowledge, no background of pious activities, nor any history of strict devotional practice. But You are full of compassion and kindness. Therefore, although I am certainly destitute, I solicit Your causeless mercy."
miliyā e saba, saḿsāre bhāsā’ye,
diteche paramodvega
"The powerful urges of speech, mind, anger, tongue, belly, and genital have banded together to cast me adrift on the sea of this material world, thus causing me great anxiety and trouble."
chāḍiyāchi āśā āmi
anāthera nātha! ḍāki tava nāma,
ekhona bharasā tumi
This kirtan is about surrender. Gurudev personally told me to do this kirtan when I had once shared my personal problem with him. He emphasized to me, “Do not try to solve your own problems; instead, you can completely surrender to Gurudev and your problems will be solved.
I heard about a pastime of Gurudev when he was a brahmacārī. when Param Gurudev heard the voice of his godbrother Maṅgala Mahārāja trying to argue with Gurudev, he came out of his room and said, “Oh Maṅgala, you are a learned person, but Kṛṣṇa Ballabh is a devotee, he is a Vaiṣṇava. So, do not argue with him.”
This next instance goes way back. In Tezpur maṭha. The water tap was outside the maṭha premises and on the roadside. When our Gurudev took two buckets to fetch water at the tap, after he lifted them, some of the water from his bucket spilled into the pot of a lady waiting next in the queue and she started abusing him. Param Gurudev was watching and hearing this from his room and was wondering why this lady was speaking so badly to Kṛṣṇa Ballabh Brahmacārī. Gurudev did not protest or say anything and he simply came back with the buckets. When Param Gurudev asked Gurudev why that lady was abusing him, Gurudev said, “Oh, is it so? I never heard anyone abusing me.” Param Gurudev was surprised that everyone could hear and Gurudev never heard such a thing. So actually where is his mind, what is he remembering? Param Gurudev said at that time that this boy is a saint, why has that lady abused him so much? Shortly thereafter that lady died. So by committing an offense at the lotus feet of a pure devotee, there is such a severe reaction.
When one of Gurudev’s godbrothers said that, “Tirtha Mahārāja is not a brahmin", that godbrother also saw very bad days after that. I have seen in front of my eyes the effect of vaiṣṇava-aparadh. While Gurudev never protested and put up with everything, the Supreme Lord will never forgive.
We remember how much respect Gurudev gave to his godbrothers. Once I wrote Gurudev a letter to inquire about how I should honor different devotees. Gurudev replied that you should not violate the honor of the elderly, someone who is from a better lineage, or someone who is wealthier than you; you should always respect those of a higher status. And Gurudev himself has shown this in his conduct. He always respected elderly people. There was one person who took initiation from Gurudev who was elder than him. Gurudev sent a letter to him regarding a service he was offering (construction) and when Gurudev replied, he addressed him by saying, "Please accept my obeisances." Just because he was elder than Gurudev, Gurudev is giving him respect even though he was his disciple
An example of how he honored superior family lineages was that he would go to Śrīla Bhāratī Mahārāja's room and pay him prostrated obeisances. Śrīla Bhāratī Mahārāja came to the maṭha later and took sannyās later than him, but because he is a brahmin, Gurudev would himself go to him and pay him daṇḍavat.
He would also respect someone who had superior knowledge. Even when chief guests would come who did not really know about devotion, Gurudev would still respect them because they were highly educated. An example of how he honored wealthy persons is Mr. Singhania who constructed our temple in Chakdah. He was a very wealthy person and when he used to come to our maṭha, Gurudev himself took care of him personally, he would take prasādam to him.
As Supreme Lord Śrī Rāmachandra portrays an ideal character, our Gurudev also had such a character. When Gurudev would go with Pūjyapāda Trivikram Mahārāja, (a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda) on preaching tours, Gurudev would always offer the asan (seat) meant for him to Śrīla Trivikram Mahārāja. So our Gurudev is also Maryādā Puruṣottama. So that is the reason why our Gurudev was made an Ācārya because of his conduct and his surrender. Gurudev is the surrender personified. He would never speak about himself, he would always quote his Guru. Surrender is essential for getting kṛṣṇa-prema. Surrender at the lotus feet of Gurudev is higher than the surrender at the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord and so it suddha-śaraṇāgati, pure surrender. And our Gurudev is this pure surrender.
—Śrīla Bhakti Kuśala Padmanābha Mahārāja
Translated from Hindi
Source: Śrīla Gurudev's 93rd Vyāsa Puja, streamed live on Youtube, April 5, 2017
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