Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

Suvarna Vihar in Navadvip is a remote, uninhabited place with no villages nearby. If anyone needs to collect alms, they need to go far. Param Gurudeva instructed Gurudeva to stay there when he was a brahmacārī . He was all alone. That place was full of snakes, so no other brahmacārī was willing to stay there. This showed his titikṣava (tolerance). I have personally heard our Śrīla Gurudeva narrate these incidents. At this time our Param Guru Mahārāja was in Śrī Caitanya Maṭh. Suvarna Vihar was, at that time, an almost deserted forest. Gurujī would walk several miles to fetch some rice as alms. In his absence, thieves would come and steal vessels, etc. There was also no availability of firewood for cooking. Gurujī would burn dry banana leaves and somehow prepare kitchari for offering. It is not an easy job to burn banana leaves and Gurujī did not have any prior experience. Whenever he would blow air to burn the fire, all the ash would fly on to his face. When he would sit ...

Śrīla Guru Mahārāj’s tolerance was seen as being many times more than the tolerance of a tree during Śrī Navadvip dhāma-parikramā.  Although the road was severely hot from the sun, Śrīla Guru Mahārāj walked with his soft lotus feet on that heated surface as though it was not hot at all while we were lifting our feet up quickly from the pavement and experiencing great difficulty while walking. I was astonished to see Gurujī’s tolerance. Even at an advanced age, he would walk barefoot taking darśana of various holy places and narrating the glories of the pastime places starting from 4 o’clock in the morning until 7 in the evening, often continuing until late in the night. Even after such a long day, he remained in a very peaceful mood. There was no sign of tiredness on the face or any complaints that could be observed. In spite of the devotees' prayers that there could be a vehicle arranged for him, Gurujī always expressed his unwillingness. Similarly,  while wa...

Mahābhāgavats come to encourage us and show us the path that is our only goal. We belonged here from before a time we can remember. Guru Mahārāj joined the Mission in 1947 and up to the time our maṭh was established by Śrīla Param Gurudeva, Guru Mahārāj was staying at Caitanya Maṭh with Param Gurudeva. Guru Mahārāj said we are also originally belonging to Caitanya Maṭh. Our saṅkīrtana party used to sit and take prasād in the open under so many trees. From there we used to go to Śrīvas Angan and then Kazi Samādhi.  Guru Mahārāj was worried about when it was going to become dark as many people could be lost along the way. I remember from Kazi Samādhi that everyone was tired. After prostrating, many were feeling like catching a rickshaw since we had been going on foot the whole day. Then I remember Guru Mahārāj getting up with his tridaṇḍa in hand. He started singing, "Haribol, bolo bhai" and he started running to the maṭh using the fastest stretch from Kazi Samādhi to our ...

During the annual Navadvip dhāma-parikramā festival in 2012, many devotees from different corners of the globe came to Māyāpur to take part. It was apparently impossible for Śrīla Gurudev, who was approaching 90 years old to physically participate in the daily circumambulation. However, he showed an enthusiasm unknown to anyone of his age by leading kīrtana in the early hours on the opening day of the parikramā . He also spoke about the glories of the holy dhāma to all the pilgrims. Every day he would come out of his bhajana-kuṭīra to see off the devotees going on parikramā and to welcome the devotees when they returned late in the evening. One day when all the devotees left for circumambulation leaving behind only a few servants and Śrīla Gurudev in the Maṭha, a few devotees from China had come to visit Śrīla Gurudev. They sat in front of Śrīla Gurudev’s  bhajan kuṭīra and started to sing Mahāmantra in a loud voice. For a long time, Śrīla Gurudev was sitting inside his...

Guru Mahārāj performs  kīrtanas in such a unique manner. Śrīla Bhakti Pramod Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāj noted the way he performed kīrtana by saying, “When Tirtha Mahārāj sings, Gaur Nityānanda personally come to dance in his kīrtanas .” Once during  parikramā , Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāj was proceeding in his car and saw ahead to the procession led by our Most Revered Śrīla Gurudev where he is singing “Kahan Nityānanda? Kahan Gaurahari? Kahan Nityānanda! Kahan Gaurahari!" It means, where is that Nityānanda? Where is that Gaurahari? Where can I get Him? In that extreme separation, with his red swollen eyes fixed in the sky, he is calling out the names of Gaura Nityānanda.  When the driver of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāj’s car is using the horn to try to make the sankīrtan party move to the side, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāj stops him by saying, “Don't honk! Consider it your great fortune to be following the kīrtanas of Śrīla Bhakti...

Our first parikrama of Sri Navadvip dham was beyond our imagination in essence and magnitude. Even without knowing the glories of Sri Dham, we had been blessed with the chance to be part of such great fortune only by the grace of our beloved Gurudeva! That year was also the occasion commemorating the Golden 50th Sannyas year of our beloved Gurudeva, and thousands of devotees performed aratika of our Gurudeva during that great event that took place on the 14th of March, 2011. 
On that blessed evening, I was one among many volunteers and we readied ghee lamps for all devotees to perform aratika of our Gurudev. We were instructed to stand at different places in the huge pandal with water-filled buckets so that after arotika, devotees could douse the lamps in the water so as to avoid any untoward accidental fire. 
Gurudeva had adorned the stage with acharyas from various maths, and keeping some hundreds of sannyasi disciples of Gurudeva in the front, thousands of devotees were on thei...

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...