Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

One must surrender to a person who is the most generous, magnanimous, merciful, and affectionate – closer than any mother or father you could think of. We got Harinām from such a guru who is both spiritually and materially very well-conducted throughout his life. For this reason, he has got tons of mercy from so many associates of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. It wasn't just that they gave mercy, but they were so happy to be in his company. He had so much service mood, he was always ready to carry out any order. He never thought, "Yes, I have done enough." At any time, even in the middle of the night, he was always ready. Śrīla Gurudev would not only consistently perform activities slowly, but he would also always say all the names of the āchāryas of our line. He would say all the names with so much feeling, very carefully. He was standing before me but I could see that he was in a completely different realm. Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev Goswāmī Mahārā...

If I would have to name five teachings of Srila Guru-Maharaj I value the most, then one of them would be his teaching of akhanda-guru-tattva, especially in relation to Srila Rupa Goswami. Akhanda-guru-tattva means that Sri Guru is always unlimited and comes to us not only in one, but in unlimited forms. Guru is not limited to our diksa Guru. Our most important Guru may not be our diksa Guru, but a siksa Guru. In one lecture, Srila Gurudev explained, that although Srila Narottam Das Thakura’s Guru was Lokanath Goswami, in his “Sri Rupa Manjari Pada”, he reveals that his eternal Guru is Srila Rupa Goswami, who is Sri Rupa Manjari in Krishna-lila. The way Srila Guru-Maharaj was relating this topic felt as if he was indicating his disciples to follow in the footsteps of Narottam Das Thakur. This teaching entered deep into my heart and I was thirsting to at least hear more about realization of such akhanda-guru-tattva. Then, in 2011, I planned to shortly go to Malaysia to get a new v...

Our biggest misfortune is we do not see Gurudeva as Guru, we see him mortal, human. This is the greatest obstacle in the path of bhajan. If we do not see him Guru, how we will serve him? Despite serving Gurudeva, in spite of being very near to him, one may fall down. Why? We see him as a mortal, by this, we go to hell. So first we need to know who is Guru, (Guru tattva). The way we worship Supreme Lord, in the same way, we have to worship Gurudeva. We are fortunate to have Guru non-different from Supreme Lord, we have to follow his instructions, imbibe his teachings. Srimad Bhakti Pramod Puri Goswami Maharaj had said when Tirtha Maharaj does kirtan, I feel as though Gaur Nitai dance in that kirtan. Also had said whom you see as Tirtha Maharaj I see him as Madhav Goswami Maharaj. He also said that our Gurudeva is tape recorder of Param Gurudeva. Why a tape recorder? Because he would note down and repeat the very words of his Gurudeva, even examples, illustrations and would not...