Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

Around 2012 when Kārtik month was being celebrated in Mayapur, I was attending the festival with my whole family by the mercy of Gurudev. My son Krishna’s tithi birthday was there on the appearance day of Śrila Bhakti Śrīrūpā Siddhāntī Mahārāj. The day before his birthday, I asked one of the sevāks of Gurudev whether he could get darśan of Gurudev on his birthday and they agreed. That same evening when I was sitting with my kids in the temple hall and listening to hari-kathā , one stranger came and sat with my son. That man had some toys and he was talking with my son. I did not know him and felt that he was not really staying in the maṭh for any good reason. When we were moving for  prasādam , I asked my son, "Why were you talking with that man?" He replied to me, "Mother, that man was telling me to take these toys into your room and bring all the money from your bags. He told me, I will give you some more toys and if you will not bring anything, then tomorrow I will ...

It is very clear by observing Guru Mahārāj's activities that he has a great longing to help deliver lost souls. He demonstrates this in all his actions including his responsibilities related to the management of the maṭha, his careful and timely replies to all the devotee's letters, and writing articles for the Bangla Monthly magazine Śrī Caitanya Vani. In addition to that, he accepted great austerities while preaching in Punjab and other places where he was speaking hari-kathā up to seven times a day. We cannot see this kind of tolerance and dedication elsewhere, in anyone else. Once Śrīla Guru Mahārāj took his pracāra party to Assam and we were returning by Kamarupa Express to Kolkata. While nearing the Bangla-Assam border, I listened astonishingly to Śrī Ananta Prabhu narrate an instance from the previous year. He said that this Assam-Bangla border is very dangerous; a deserted area where if a train does not arrive at the scheduled time, dacoits come inside the trains and ro...