Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

Firstly, I offer flowers at his lotus feet and humbly pray to him to please show mercy and accept the flowers offered to him by this fallen one. Just as the appearance day of the Lord himself is extremely holy, his devotee’s appearance day is equally as holy. Today is the appearance day of the Supreme Human Lord Śrī Rāmachandra, and today is also the appearance day of our revered Mahārāj—it definitely bears some kind of significance.  The Lord appears on the face of this earth in order to save the living world, in this respect our most revered Vaiṣṇava, crown-jeweled Mahārāj appeared on the face of this earth for the welfare of the living being of this world as per the wishes of the Bhāgavatam .  God himself has said that more than my worship the worship of my devotee is great. Hence all of us will assemble together and offer our worship unto his lotus feet. With that, he will be extremely satisfied and happy with us and will shower us with merciful blessings.  Our most r...

During the 1979 Vraja-mandala parikramā, we went to Brahmand Ghat and the breakfast prasādam was prepared and brought from our Gokul maṭha. Although Śrīla Mahārāja was the Secretary of the maṭha , he had no dedicated personal servant; I used to serve him a little. That day I forgot to carry Mahārāja’s bowl. I was wondering how to serve prasādam to him. I looked for a leaf plate; it was also not available, but I had carried my bowl. Mahārāja accepted prasādam in that bowl. I was a brahmacārī at that time, but he had no ego of being a sannyāsī or being the Secretary of the organization. The more one is humble, the more Mahāprabhu showers His mercy on him. And also, the more one is advanced the more humble he is. —Śrīmad Bhakti Saudha Jitendriya Mahārāja

I was there in the 1979 Vraja-mandala parikramā that was led by our Most Revered Gurudeva. While we were in Govardhan and my health was not well. Gurudev sent me to the Vṛndāvan maṭh for rest. After resting for a couple days, I rejoined them in Varṣāṇā. I had missed a few darśans and I contacted a paṇḍitjī who told me that he can show all of them in one day. I asked Pūjyapāda Tirtha Goswami Mahārāj, “Mahārāj! Due to my bad health, I missed a few darśans and paṇḍitjī will help me visit those places in a day. Shall I go?” Then Mahārāj told me the importance of sādhu-saṅga. “You see! The benefit of listening and singing the glories of the Lord in the association of devotees is more. There are many saints here, there is hari-kathā and kīrtan, leaving all these you want to go alone to visit those places? Which one is better?”  Mahārāj spoke the supremacy of sādhu-saṅga: sādhu-saṅga’, ‘sādhu-saṅga’-sarva-śāstre kaya lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya —nothing is as powerful as chan...

When I first came in late 2008, darśanas were in the evening. I would come every day and stand in the doorway, seeing how Śrīla Gurudeva would sweetly distribute prasād to everyone. I would go last in the queue. One day Śrīla Gurudeva looked at me smilingly and asked, “Did you take prasād?” I said, “No, I will take it after everyone else has taken it.” Then he called me inside and gave me prasād. That was so sweet; sweeter than the sweetest. In the afternoon, Śrīla Gurudeva would come out to worship Tulasī Devi after most devotees had taken prasād. All the devotees present there were paying their obeisances to him before he would go inside his room. I also went to pay obeisances and after that, he asked me, "Prasād pawa hoeche?" Did you take prasād? I would reply, “No, Gurudeva, I will take it now,” and immediately he would get worried and would say, “If you do not go now, you will not get anything; everything will be finished.” It would captivate my heart to see Gurudeva...

One time Guru Mahārāja (Śrīla Bhakti Dayita Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāja), Gaurāṅga Prabhu, and Tīrtha Mahārāja visited the appearance place of Śrīla Prabhupāda in Puri-dhāma to pay obeisances. Suresh Prabhu and I were also present then. All of us took darśana, paid obeisances, and were about to leave. 
There was a tenant named Nārāyaṇa Sahu who occupied 3-4 rooms upstairs. He used to sell pakoras (a type of fried food) that contained onion. In order to insult Guru Mahārāja, he began to plead with him in Oriya language to accept pakoras from a poor man like him. 
Guru Mahārāja smiled and said, “Nārāyaṇa Sahu knows very well that we don’t eat onions so we can’t accept it.” 
But Nārāyaṇa Sahu continued to plead. When he repeated the third time, Śrīla Tīrtha Mahārāja got very angry and his eyes became wide and turned fiery. He shrieked and chided that person. Whosoever was present got scared on seeing his fearful form and foam was coming out from his mouth on both sides. His entire form becam...

Guru Mahārāja [Śrīla Bhakti Dayita Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāja] did not leave us with his intentions written only in his heart. Already during his manifest pastimes, even two years before his disappearance, he declared and broadcast everywhere:  “If I die, or if for some reason any other difficulty occurs, Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Mahārāja shall sit in my position. I am seating him as my successor. No one can have any objection to this.” As Guru Mahārāja is antaryāmī (inward-knower), having received Prabhupāda's mercy, he also foresaw that in his absence, Śrīla Tirtha Mahārāja would have no difficulty running the maṭha. For this reason, Guru Mahārāja declared Śrīla Tirtha Mahārāja as the next Ācārya before his own departure. When our Gurudeva disappeared, dark clouds in the form of adversities or misunderstanding were cast over the maṭha, but the way that Śrīla Tirtha Mahārāja has preserved Śrīla Guru Mahārāja’s vani (instructions) is beyond words. We have been with him and witnessed t...

I heard this from Sri Bhakti Bhushan Bhagavat Maharaj, in-charge of Tezpur math. When Srila Tirtha Maharaj used to sit for taking prasad, he used to say while crying: "I am so fortunate that I got an opportunity to honor prasad." He used to be so immersed in prema that while having prasad, he used to eat the banana leaf plate as well on which prasadam was served. When Guruji came to know about this, he thought Tirtha Maharaj is "bhola nath" (naive) and thus he appointed a brahmachari to be with Srila Tirtha Maharaj while eating prasad to check that he does not eat banana leaf or else he may fall sick. —B P Mahavir Maharaj (Gurudeva's godbrother and sannyas disciple)

After our Guru Mahārāja disappeared, Śrīla Tirtha Mahārāja served the maṭha untiringly and did not let the mission deviate an iota from pure devotional principles.  We had seen Mahārāja doing kirtan at a stretch for 2 to 3 hours while performing nagara- saṅkīrtana . Whenever we traveled even for a short distance, we needed a car, but Tirtha Mahārāja would go barefoot.  On the way to Narasiṃhapali, just after the area inhabited by the Muslims, there lies a banyan tree where it is nearly impossible to place one's  foot on the street due to the burning heat. Others got blisters under their feet, but Mahārāja came there barefoot.  We started wondering where his kharam (wooden slippers) were. I asked Mahārāja to wear his pair of kharam , but he would not.  One would want to go by car in that scorching heat, but Śrīla Tirtha Mahārāja arrived there barefoot. In such a state, he was performing such an amazing  kīrt...