Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

In Gokul Mahavan in 1993 the deities were damaged. This news reached Srila Gurudeva at Pathankot where he was stationed then.   After hearing the news, without showing any external instability and keeping his pain suppressed within his heart, he consulted some Vaishnavas and sent them to Gokul.    Later after sometime when He came to Gokul Mahavan from Jammu, He saw all the damaged deities and remained completely silent. After that, he came to the assembly hall and began to sing Sri Narasimha prayers. He could not contain his pain and cried out so loudly that it seemed like the whole universe would break. Hearing the sound of those cries, the hearts of all present there were stirred.    No one would cry so much, even in separation grief from loved ones or relatives as much as Srila Guru Maharaj cried in separation grief from the Supreme Lord, and went on telling that due to my offenses Supreme Lord has deprived me of His service.   —Swarup Damodar ...

After exchanging letters several times, my beloved spiritual master, Srila A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, gave me the instruction to preach in Singapore. For decades since then, one question was burning in my heart: How can I preach nicely? What should be our motivation when we preach? What is real preaching? When I went to meet Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj in Punjab, the only thing I had in my mind was how I wanted to ask him those questions. Devotees were discussing the latest events in the math. A sevak of Srila Gurudev had left his service, and some devotees were commenting about how that was good because they thought he had done some wrong things. When I entered his bhajan kutir, another devotee was asking Srila Gurudev why that sevak had left. He replied with genuine humility: "It is not his fault. I have done some wrong, that's why he left." At that very moment, before I could even ask, my question evaporated. It was answered by this one act of...

Astonishingly, it so happens that His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Goswami Maharaj’s appearance day and disappearance day both occurred on the same Navami Tithi, namely the ninth day of lunar cycle. Srila Maharaj appeared exactly on Ram-Navami and the day of his disappearance occurred on Navami day, 6th of Vaishakh 1424 Bangavda (Thursday, April 20, 2017 at 10.15pm). Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita (SCC) is considered the most valuable scripture of the Gaudiya Vaishnava community and was written bySrila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, who is Kasturi Manjari in Goloka Vrindavan, serving Sri Sri Radha-Krishna, the Divine couple in their divine esoteric pastimes. In Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita, Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami alludes to the auspiciousness and importance of the appearance and disappearance of the Lord and the Vaishnavas in the following verse: iswarerjanma-tithiye henapavitra vaisnaverajanma-tithirseimatacharitra The divinity and purity attributed to the appear...