Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

I would like to remember a few direct and personal teachings of Gurudeva to me. The first time I was in Jagannātha Purī temple the pāṇḍās  told me to embrace Jagannāthadeva and Baladeva Prabhu and I felt great happiness and joy doing so. I had a god-brother from Jalandhar with me also. I came and narrated the incident to Gurudeva excitedly and he told me very mildly and convincingly, that it is alright that pāṇḍās  invite us, but we should never touch śri-vigraha.  Later on, I got more chances to visit the temple but never did such a thing again. This is Gurudev's teaching to me. We accompanied Gurudev to many temples during Vraja maṇḍala-parikramā and observed that Gurudeva never entered the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and touched śri-vigraha . The pūjārīs there would invite Gurudev to go inside, but Gurujī would not go. At Gopeśvara Mahādeva  mandira , the pāṇḍās  called Gurudeva inside but Gurudev did not enter the sanctum sanctorum ( garbha-gṛha ) and...

Every year, Śrīla Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja would go to Puri during Śrī Jagannātha ratha-yatra along with many devotees. Once I was also present when he arrived and we went to welcome him. But one of his younger sannyāsī godbrothers did not go to welcome him Mahārāja noticed his godbrother's absence and personally went to see him, offered him obeisances, and inquired about his well-being. This incident shows Mahārāja's humility. Mahāprabhu says,  tṛṇād api sunīcena taror api sahiṣṇunā amāninā mānadena kīrtanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ .   And these qualities are present in Mahārāja. Only such persons are eligible for kṛṣṇa-kirtana . 
—Tridaṇḍī Svāmī Śrīmad Bhakti Saudha Jitendriya Mahārāja

In 1996 during Ratha-yatra time, Śrīla Gurudeva was advised by the doctors not to bend much and to avoid movements (including dancing and kirtanas ) due to a back injury.  At t hat time in Agartala, I personally saw Śrīla Guru Mahārāja bending down to offer full  dandavat pranamas (prostrated obeisance) to the Supreme Lord with great difficulty.    When we objected to his doing this he would say if pranamas were not done before the Supreme Lord then a feeling of pride will remain in the mind.   Morning and evening after arāti-parikramā he would offer pranamas to all v aiṣṇavas along with others.   Also, He could not stop himself from performing dance and kirtana before the ratha . —Śrī Dāmodara Das (Satish Agrawal, New Delhi) Translated from Sri Krishna Chaitanya Sandesh July-Oct, 1997 (Year 17, Issue No.4, Page 42-46)

[In the early 90's] we had the good fortune of going for Jagannātha Puri ratha-yātrā . Our train was late by many hours and reached at about 1 o'clock in the afternoon on the day of r atha-yātrā . We had darśana of Guru Mahārāja and that afternoon at about 4 pm ratha-yātrā would begin.   Guru Mahārāja told us that they were going to Kolkata by train that night and from there to Agartala in the morning by flight.  He continued, “All of you spent so much money and came from so far for Jagannāthjī’s darśana,  but today Jagannāthajī has no wish to go to Guṇḍicā Devī's temple. Jagannāthajī may not go today, so you take darśana of Jagannāthajī following the footsteps of Param Pūjyapāda Bhakti Pramod Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja tomorrow morning after we leave.”   That afternoon Guru Mahārāja did kirtanas and played mṛdaṅga himself.  I felt as though Mahāprabhu Himself was playing mṛdaṅga . After playing for ten minutes, Amarendra Prabhu started playing  mṛdaṅga ....

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 we were in Chakdah Maṭha for Jagannāthajī’s Snāna-Yatra when the climate was very hot. Gurujī was doing saṅkīrtana loudly during the snāna of Jagannāthadeva. After that, he went on parikramā and then back to his room to honor prasādam . It was noontime and very hot. There was also no electric supply. Gurujī came out of his room with a hand fan.  When we said it is very hot, he replied, "Yes, but now dark clouds will gather in the sky, the wind will blow, and it will rain. Then the climate will become cool." As soon as he went into his room after saying this it started raining and everything became cool. —Śrī Bhakti Vilās Tridaṇḍī Mahārāja 

It was cold when we reached Kolkata from Hyderabad on 23rd of December 2011. The sun had shown up around noon time the next day. The information from Chakdah was that it was frigid there, much more than Kolkata. With this news, Srila Gurudev's plan to go to Chakdah was uncertain. Srila Gurudev was totally unwilling to stay in Kolkata while such a grand festival was being observed in Chakdah, but we were worried about the cold. On the morning of December 25th, the sun was bright in Kolkata, marginally warmer than the day before. Srila Gurudev was the first to note the difference in climate and said, "Lord Jagannathdev is very merciful; nothing is impossible for him. He made the climate suitable. It is not good to say that it is cold and we cannot go. I am certain that Lord Jagannath will do something. We can go to Chakdah tomorrow.” But the news from Chakdah was not encouraging—our concern increased, but his determination has not decreased. So on December 26th at 11:0...

Excerpted from a report dated July 19, 2010: Our Most Revered Srila Gurudev Om Vishnupad 108 Sri Srimad Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj attended the Annual Ratha Yatra Festival of Lord Baladev, Subhadra and Jagannath in Sri Kshetra Puri Dham for the first time in 5 years. While in Puri Dham, Srila Gurudev initiated 46 devotees in to Harinam and 12 devotees took diksha on the day of Rath Yatra. Later in the afternoon, he had seen devotees pulling the carts of Baladev, Subhadra and Jagannath with devotion. We observed tears rolling down His cheeks on a few occasions. The next day, His Divine Grace went to Gundicha Mandir to have darsan of the Deities on the carts. One Brahmin named Sri Ram Panda took Srila Gurudev close to the Rath and cleared the crowd in front of Sri Jagannath. Devotees shouted "Hari Bol, Jai Jagannath" after getting His Darsan. A day after that, Srila Gurudev went to the seashore to take darsan. He offered His respects to the ocean, sprinkled some wa...

Once when a court case was going on for our Puri Math (we subsequently won,) Param Gurudev and Guruji were in Guwahati. Param Gurudev told Guruji to go immediately to Jagannath Puri. He bought the ticket and was about to leave, he had a water bottle whose handle was broken. Guruji took a rope made of coir, tied it to the bottle and hung it on his shoulder. When Param Gurudev saw this he exclaimed, “You are traveling by air like this!” He is such a renounced person that he never paid heed to the mundane world.  Among all qualities of Guruji his biggest quality is surrender towards Paramgurudev. Our Guruji was made acharya not because he is educated but because he is totally surrendered. Our Guruji never said anything other than his Gurudev’s words. He always says, “I heard from my Gurudev like this” or “my Gurudev said such and such words.” He is always singing his glories. He says, “My Gurudev has instructed me to only repeat the words of your Guru, Vaishnav, and Scriptures w...

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...