Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

I am sincerely grateful and honored for this great blessing to be a part of this historic, auspicious occasion where we have come together to celebrate the life and teachings of His Divine Grace Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Mahārāja and to offer our gratitude for the mercy that we all received from him.  Within this material existence, the physical life that a person is given is likened to a spark. Reality is eternity. Any amount of life we have in this age of Kali is just a small fraction. Yet, in this human life, we have the rarest of all fortunes— durlabha mānava-janma labhiyā saḿsāre.  We have the opportunity to realize the eternity of our soul and our eternal relationship with Śrī Śrī Rādhā Govinda Deva in the spiritual world of Goloka. Of all rare things of this human life, there is nothing rarer than to be in the association of those Vaiṣṇavas who lived to love Kṛṣṇa and lived to share their love with others.  The physical presence ( vapu ) of such a great soul is to li...

I was asked to speak today although I actually have no qualifications and I am very fallen and immersed in māyā . For my own purification, by the mercy of Mahārāja, Param Pūjyapāda Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja, I remember the glories of this Uttama Mahābhāgavata. I first met Mahārāja in 1977 when I was in Paharganj [Delhi]. I was living in Vṛndāvana for many years and when I was going to Paharganj (even though I didn't even know who he was) he had this power that  could attract you to go to him. I did not know where the maṭha was or anything but I was able to go and had my first association with him. We have learned that gu means darkness; everything we can see with these eyes is actually māyā . This darkness is gu and ru is light. He who can give you that light, remove that māyā (ignorance) and give you that transcendental light and vision is guru . So guru is not always coming in our lives with the formalities of giving dīkṣā or externally teaching us Śāstra, but...

I offer my humble obeisances at the divine lotus feet of my Guru Mahārāja, Nityalīlā Om Viṣṇupada Aṣṭottara Śata Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Pramoda Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja and equal daṇḍavat-praṇams to my śikṣā Gurudevas, Nityalīlā Om Viṣṇupada Aṣṭottara Śata Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja and Nityalīlā Om Viṣṇupada Bhakti Vijñāna Bhāratī Gosvāmī Mahārāja.  My millions and millions of daṇḍavat-praṇams to the most revered embodiment of simplicity and humility whose hundredth appearance (centennial celebration) is being observed this year beginning from Rāmanavamī by devotees all over the world. They worship Pūjyapāda Nityalīlā Praviṣṭa Śrīla Om Viṣṇupada Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja by remembering his contributions, his pastimes, and his great interactions with devotees worldwide. I pay my humble obeisances at his divine lotus feet, and to Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda and all his prominent disciples, and Śrī Saccidānanda Gaurahari and all ...

I am feeling very blessed and happy to be invited to this online program. The reason I am sitting here is also by the hundred percent mercy of Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Without him, I could not speak one word here about Kṛṣṇa, Vaiṣṇavas, and of course about him also. Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura says in his song darśane pavitra koro-ei tomāra guṇ —just seeing a Vaiṣṇava, one becomes immediately purified in the heart. All Śāstras glorify sādhu-sanga , but in the case of Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja, this is so true and I have personally experienced that.  When I met the devotees in 1999 here in Vienna, there was a small āśrama opened by our Muni Mahārāja who had just came from India. He wanted to leave everything and never return from India. But our Guru Mahārāja Viṣṇupad Śrī Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Gosvāmī met him and he inspired him to come back and do some preaching. So Pūjyapāda Muni Mahārāja opened this temple and at that time, I came there comple...

I offer my humble obeisances to my dīkṣā guru Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Prabhupāda, my Śikṣā-gurus, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhakti Vijñāna Bhāratī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, and especially Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja on the 100th anniversary of his very glorious divine appearance day. Actually, in the face of you all who had so much association with Śrīla Mahārāja, I feel quite a nobody. I begin remembering Śrīla Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura’s kīrtana , being ready to jump into the fire or bang his head against a stone because he missed out on the association of Mahāprabhu and His associates. One of the most glorious associates of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is your Guru Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja. By my misfortune, I only was able to have physical association of him in his last couple of years, and in that, he was very merciful to me in the last couple of years in his Kolkata Sree Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭha.  At that time, he wa...

Hare Kṛṣṇa. Thank you very much for including me in this beautiful presentation. I am amazed by these devotional feelings. I had the first opportunity to meet Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja in Mayapur and I was very impressed by his transparency. He had no double face and was very loyal. He was the personification of living devotion. I had the good fortune to follow the devotees on Mayapur parikramā during the 80s. I can share a few memories. For example, in one location, we stopped for prasād and all the devotees were waiting for Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja to begin honoring prasād. He turned to us and asked, "Why should I take prasād ?" Everybody was waiting for the answer and we said, "Yes Mahārāja, of course you should take prasād ." But he said, "Why? Why should I take prasād ? Then we said, "Mahārāja, if you take prasād , all the devotees around will be satisfied." Then he smiled and said, "Okay, this is a proper...

I first came to know about Guru Mahārāja when I was in ISKCON for about seven years as I had been searching for a guru . At that time, the prominent Vaiṣṇava was Śrīla Bhakti Pramoda Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja, the oldest living disciple of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura. I had heard of him along with Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja and Śrīla Bhakti Sundara Govinda Mahārāja. One disciple of Śrīla Puri Mahārāja told us that he associated with our Guru Mahārāja and the characteristics he gave to Guru Mahārāja were like all qualities of Vaiṣṇavas that are described in the Śāstras. It is evident that he is a perfect Vaiṣṇava devotee; we can see it with our own eyes. Although [hearing that] was really amazing, I was not intending [to meet him] because [I didn't have] much information about him.  When I was visiting India for the first time, I came from Moscow and went to Kolkata on the way to Māyāpura to meet Śrīla Bhakti Pramoda Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja. I went t...