Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

I had the mercy of Śrīla A.C. Bhaktiedānta Prabhupāda to connect with a civic group here in Hilo called the Japanese Cultural Association. Every year they put on a big parade through the streets of Hilo. So I thought, “Hey, we should do a ratha-yātrā !  The devotees made a miniature version of the raths in Puri. The carts were about fifteen feet long, ten feet wide, and twenty feet high including the canopy. By Kṛṣṇa's arrangement, Mahārāja just happened to be in Hawaii and when I found out I invited him to take part.  He stayed at my house for two or three nights. He had his servant with him who prepared his meals, and my overriding memory is of him sitting on the floor in the living room, looking up at a beautiful painting that my artist friend Khandita didi had painted of the Ṣaḍbhuja form of the Lord. He was looking so intently at it and I could feel he was there with Ṣaḍbhuja.   He has such a kind heart. When he first arrived, I brought him into my simple temple roo...

By Kṛṣṇa's arrangement during the time of Guru Mahārāja's stay in New York, 1997, Lord Jagannātha decided to go on His annual sojourn through the streets of downtown Manhattan. Mahārāja's party accompanied the procession in a limousine driven by a nice gentleman named Ramesh Patel, who just happened to be a limo driver. At one point, Mahārāja asked from the back seat, "Where is Rasabihari?" "He is up ahead, pilling Lord Jagannātha's cart," Akincana Prabhu said. Mahārāja then asked, "Is it correct to say 'pulling' or 'drawing' in the English language?" "Probably 'pulling' is more appropriate," he answered. Mahārāja chuckled and said, "How can we either pull or draw Lord Jagannātha? Lord Jagannātha acts only according to His own initiative. We have no potency in and of ourselves to do anything, what to speak of compelling God to move. The cart moves by His inconceivable potency, when Lord Jagannātha dec...

Once during the month of Kārtik, we were at Śyāma-kuṇḍa of Sree Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭha in Māyāpur sitting at the lotus feet of most dear Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāj. All devotees were in ānanda by taking the darśan of his sweet and smiling lotus face and by receiving his merciful glances. While kirtan was going on, I was sitting just next to his lotus feet. Then I start to pray to him internally, looking at him: 
Guru Mahārāj, what will I do? I see that Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura made this Gauḍīya Maṭhas only to give shelter to male devotees. They can live in the maṭha peacefully engaged in their sevā and bhajan . They don’t need to worry anymore about their own maintenance since the maṭha will provide them with anything they need. In this way, they have your shelter, but what about someone like me, a woman devotee? There is no shelter for me in the Gauḍīya Maṭha. I also want to just engage my life in hari-bhajan and service to vaiṣṇavas . 
In this wa...

So many devotees came to attend the 2012 appearance anniversary of Gurudev.  First, we came to Kolkata and Guru Mahārāj was here.  We offered prostrated obeisances to him. Guru Mahārāj asked, “Why are you going today? I told, "My tickets are booked, I have to go back." So, then we took a taxi and went to the station.  After that, we heard an announcement  that the train is delayed by one day and we would have to go the next day.  We came back to the maṭh. Guru Mahārāj said, “You lost so much money, you had to go to the station and come back.  Shall I give you some money?” We told, "Guru Maharaj, “Everything is yours.” So many devotees came, and to each and every devotee, he told, "You take some money, you take some money."  He showed so much affection to each and everyone and knows everything before it even happens. -Sharmaji, Delhi

In the summer of 1991, when I was still a young girl, I made my first memorable trip to India with my older sister Rukmini Devi dasi, and my late mother, Smt. Devamayi Devi dasi. We almost immediately went to Jagannath Puri with our mother's Pishi, the late Smt. Aruna Didi, a dear and loving disciple of Srila Gurudev, Sri Srimad Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj, and her friend LakkhiDi. It was on Jagannath Puri Ratha Yatra Parikrama that I first got real darshan of both Srila Gurudev Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj and Srila Guru Maharaj Sri Srimad Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami. (I try to respectfully refer to Srimad Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami as “Srila Guru Maharaj” and Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj as “Srila Gurudev”.) I still remember Srila Gurudev, Srila Guru Maharaj, and Sri Srimad Bhakti Kumud Santa Maharaj all sitting together, very affectionately, doing very enthusiastic kirtan in Gundicha Mandir’s courtyard. It almost seems like a dream now. My father, Ras...

I reflect on how the devotees and disciples of HDG Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Gosvami Maharaj were united in Sankirtana of the holy names of the Lord and recitations of Lord's pastimes with His devotees from scriptures like Srimad Bhagavata Purana and Chaitanya Bhagavata etc. With intense devotion, crying out from their hearts and with intense love of their Gurudev, they are calling out to Lord Hari and the previous Acaryas through Kirtan and prayers. 
 Shri Chaitanya Gaudiya Math in Kolkata presided over by their Lordships Shri Shri Radha Nayana Nath jiu is verily non different from Shri Shrivas Angan wherein Shri Shri Gadadhara Gauranga preside over the late night's Sankirtana! 
 With pain in my heart, I am remembering those sweet moments I had with Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Gosvami Maharaj and those divine darshans with him, his beautiful and timely instructions for me. Those darshans were kindly arranged by his disciples over the years. 
 Just as Shri Rupa Gosvami...

I never had any chance to interact directly with His Divine Grace because of His illness pastimes. But even then I consider myself a most fortunate disciple because of the firm faith I have that one of the reasons for his physical presence amongst us is to bestow his unparalleled mercy upon as many of the fallen souls as possible. I am writing this to express my heartfelt realizations since I have come in contact with His Divine Grace. I came in touch with Krishna consciousness through ISKCON around the year 2000 and I was also chanting 16 rounds on beads since 2008. But for one reason or the other, I did not get formally initiated. The prime reason for this was that I simply could not decide who had the qualification to become guru as this person was going to be responsible for taking me back to Godhead. Even though I had taken shelter of a sanyasi in ISKCON, but I could not make a decision to get initiated because of this dilemma. Then in 2013, my fortune arose when I was employed ...

To most sacred, most beloved, most adored His Divine Self Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaja : 
 Oh Vaishnava Thakur, please do accept my repeated most humble loving obeisances unto Your lotus feet. Today I was asked by one of Your most worshipable disciples to honor You, to glorify You, but because I have no qualifications to do so, I will try my best to remember You through the times I have had the immense blessing of meeting You. This great privilege of being in Your presence was given to me as I recall, 7 times. What is most outstanding to me from those meetings is the joy, the bliss which would arise in our hearts simply by being in Your presence; the softness and gentleness that would arise in our hearts simply by Your presence. The sacredness that the places would immediately be imbibed with as they were blessed by Your footsteps—Your presence made that place become beautiful and a holy land. Flowers in quantity would appear, everything, all the arrangements w...

On the morning of Monday, June 26, 2002, Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja had a meeting with Father Alfred Agius, a Catholic (Jesuit) priest, who served as head of the Westminster Interfaith group which encompassed greater London. This meeting was intimate, with only Mahārāja, Father Agius, and a few other devotees present. After exchanging introductions, Father Agius showed the devotees a number of nice publications he had assembled for the Westminster Interfaith group, demonstrating his sincere dedication to presenting religious perspectives from various faiths. After perusing these materials for some time, Mahārāja engaged in conversation with Father Agius.  He explained the vital difference between the idea of the modern caste system, which is based on birth, and the varṇāśrama system, which is based upon the character of a person. He showed how the varṇāśrama system is a natural thing.  He said, "If someone has the tendency to worship and study scripture, he ...

One day Guru Mahārāja suddenly got very restless and started saying, "I have to go to Goalpara, I have to go to Goalpara!" So Prasād Prabhu asked me to please explain to Gurudeva that I think it's not right for him to travel at this point in time. "Why don't you wait?" I asked. Very sweetly Guru Mahārāja agreed, but when I went out, he started saying the same thing again; "I have to go to Goalpara, I have to go to Goalpara!" That night, I had a dream of Guru Mahārāja in which I saw my childhood school where I studied until standard six. I saw the assembly area of that school and Guru Mahārāja was lying there so very still. I went there and put his head on my lap and asked, "What is happening? Why are you lying here?" He told me, “I am going. I will go, but I will not go.” It didn't make any sense at that time to me. The next day, I came to know that he forced everybody to go to Goalpara. Prahlāda Prabhu informed me after some days t...

During those days when Guru Mahārāja was becoming restless, he decided he will go to Goalpara. At that time, he would stay awake all night and wouldn't sleep most of the time. He wasn’t particularly well from a doctor’s point of view, so we decided to take him for a one-day check-up. I was standing at the entrance to the hospital and Guru Mahārāja came with 4-5 people in his vehicle. He got down with a big smile on his face and didn’t look at all like he was sick. Later he went into a ward where he could sit and wait until the rest of the things for the tests were arranged. I learned later that he was told he was being taken to my house as my guest–the big, big hospital, otherwise, he would not have agreed to go. When they started injections and drawing blood, he immediately said, "I will go back, I will go back!" It was also difficult to get him into the MRI. He came out and said, let’s go back to the maṭha. From then on, when he felt a little unwell, we tried to see and...

I met Śrīla Gurudeva in 2010 through a long, circuitous network of phone calls and recommendations. When I first came to see Guru Mahārāja, he was in his room downstairs in Kolkata. When I saw him for the first time, the main thing that struck me was what a childlike and innocent face he had, not that of a grumpy sādhu. We usually get a feeling when we meet sādhus that they are very serious people, and we maintain distance. But he was very soft-spoken, smiling, and spoke very slowly.  On that first visit, I gave him some medication and then left. Some months passed before I was to return. I was unfamiliar with that part of Kolkata and got lost on the way. After I became familiar with how to reach it, I came more often whenever Gurujī called.  On one of those visits, Guru Mahārāja told his personal attendant to give me the book called Affectionately Yours. Previously I had absolutely no idea of Vaiṣṇava Philosophy. My family was associated with the Rāmakṛṣṇa Mission and worship...

Words cannot begin to describe the immense good fortune I had to host a kīrtan event for Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja at an āśrama I was staying at in Hawaii. It was a kīrtan to end all kīrtans!  The divine atmosphere in his presence was full of sweetness. My heart was experiencing a dawning of nectar in his more than divine association. Adding to this surcharged atmosphere was the chanting of Bhūtabhāvana Prabhu, his kindhearted disciple whose voice emulated a purity that was more than delightful, and a soulful resonance that was deeply soul-stirring. As the evening went on, I felt like we were literally transported into a transcendental realm of incredible bliss, a sweetness beyond human conception—as if we were swimming in a vast ocean of pure honey-like bliss, an immersion that was manifesting due to his inconceivable holy presence; literally opening up the flood gates of the transcendental world of Goloka Vṛndāvana that was manifesting in this dimension. To sa...

Someone may have looked at Gurudeva and thought he was an old and sick man. No! If you can see him, then you can see he is not an old and sick man; he looks very beautiful. In the whole world, you cannot find anyone like this. Each interaction with him I felt was the best and entirely fulfilling; I felt that it could not be better than that. All these things such as his realized logical explanations, his kīrtans, his hari-kathā, his care for us, his beauty—every time I'd meet him I felt that it could not get better than that, but still, it would be better next time and again better next time—beyond all our expectations.  By Guru Mahārāja’s mercy, I could understand, I could directly see that his qualities are unlimited; you can never finish that. Not that you can think, "Now I know Guru Mahārāja." The next time I would meet him, it would be a new higher experience, ever increasing. For our benefit and to teach us by example, most of the time Guru Mahārāja would express hi...

I am a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda Svāmī Mahārāja. I have a wonderful story to tell about my meeting with Śrīla Gurudeva in 1997, if I remember correctly. I was living in Hawaii, and we were experiencing a difficult time after the troubles with some of the so-called spiritual leaders in our organization. Many fall downs were causing confusion and resulting in a lack of direction for the ordinary devotees.  A very good devotee friend of mine who was from Indonesia and of South Indian ancestry suggested that a wonderful devotee from India by the name of Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Gosvāmī could be persuaded to come to Hawaii. We were in the middle of a deep discussion of what could be done to help the struggling devotees find proper direction again.  When Mahārāja’s name came up we both exclaimed, “Here is a real vaiṣṇava,” and we should invite him to come to Hawaii. Now remember, I had never met Mahārāja but just by hearing my friend's description of Mahārāja I was immediately inspi...

Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Mahārāja was visiting the Lakṣmī Nārāyaṇa temple in Kuala Lumpur. Some devotees organized a program for him. He was elderly and we didn't see anything special. He gave hari-kathā that was very soft. However, when he did kīrtan, it was very loud. None of us could dance like him in front of the deity. In 2010, my Gurudeva left for his eternal abode at the end of December. The following Gaura Purnima, I was going to Navadvīpa.  One of my godbrothers had come to Malaysia for his visa and said, "When you go for parikramā, you must go to see Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Mahārāja." He emphasized the word “must."  When I was in Māyāpur, I visited the maṭha one day and asked if I could have darśana of Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja. The devotee refused and said I could get darśana at 8pm. I could not come back again, so I was disappointed. Then, one of Śrīla Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Mahārāja's disciples, Rādhāmādhava Dāsa, came to...

When Mahārāji came to Hawaii, his narasiṃhadeva-kirtanas had become popular and well-known. One time the devotees took him down to a beautiful place called Waipio Valley on the Big Island of Hawaii. To reach there, you have to go by a 4-wheel drive across streams pouring down from waterfalls and through thick tropical plants and trees. There is also a nice black sand beach in the valley. The devotees took Gurujī there.  The scene was perfect, but then some local residents came nearby and started cooking a barbecue. Gurujī started a rip-roaring (full of vigor) kirtana and shortly after that, a big raincloud came and completely poured down, extinguishing the fire of the persons who were cooking meat. After that, they simply went away.  —Suchandra Dāsī Srila Gurudeva in Hawaii with one very fortunate kitten

Śrīla Gurudeva always liked to be very prepared and often planned his lectures ahead of time and requested the name of the institution we are going to. He and I went to some strange places in Phoenix (Arizona, USA.) We went wherever we could since not so many devotees lived there.  Once we went to some place called "Center for Expanding Consciousness." As he spoke on some verse of Bhagavad-gītā, one lady held up her hand while he was giving commentary.  He stopped and said, "Yes, you have a question?"  She replied, "Well, I have Bhagavad-gītā. I heard this verse many times, but it doesn't seem to me what you are telling me it means. What you are saying seems to have a different meaning." He just said, "I am so happy that you are reading Bhagavad-gītā," and smiled. She sat down. There was no conflict, no room for it at all. People have different interpretations, but there is no argument. He has no sense of conflict, free of animosity, condesce...

After the disappearance of Most Revered Bhakti Dayita Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Tīrtha Mahārāja had tolerated immense suffering. Ignoring so many favorable and unfavorable circumstances, he kept on serving his Gurudeva. He is one of the bright stars of Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Maṭha.  Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja is a shining example of how one should serve guru, how one should dedicate oneself to the services of the maṭha, and how one should serve Guru-Vaiṣṇava-Bhagavan amidst all difficulties, adversities, reproaches, and insults of the world. The tolerance he has exhibited is extremely rare to be seen in human beings.  After the disappearance of my Gurudeva, I often would go to the maṭha of my Sannyās-guru, Nityālīlā Praviṣṭa Om Viṣṇupada Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Kumuda Santa Gosvāmī Mahārāja. I have seen many times the way in which he offers his obeisances to Śrīla Santa Gosvāmī Mahārāja. He would sit on the floor in front of him and never on an elevated seat. We s...