Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

I remember the Vraja-maṇḍala parikramā  that was performed in 1987. During the last days of the parikramā in Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math, Gokul-Mahavan, our Most Revered Śrīla Guru Mahārāja, His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Mahārāja, raised a question to himself in order to instruct us: “As we increase our endeavor for devotion, our attachment to this world increases rather than our attachment to the Supreme Lord. Why is this so?”   While Śrīla Guru Mahārāja was delivering a transcendental discourse from his lotus mouth, I recorded the divine and sublime words of Guru Mahārāja. To purify my heart and to please the devotees who have affection for Śrī Guru, I am making a small attempt to present the same transcendental words as they are: "Here I have done my self-examination. So many days have been spent doing parikramā , following vaiṣṇavas, and chanting the Lord’s name loudly. You might be thinking that I am doing a lot of kīrtana, and dancing. But what is the ...

These days, after his daily Tulasi-parikrama, Srila Gurudeva often tells visiting devotees that this human birth is very rare - it is not sure that we will again get it. Therefore we should worship the Supreme Lord NOW without delay and attain the Lord's full mercy.  I can still hear it ring in my ears, his powerful "Now, now, now!" Guru Maharaja sometimes recounted the following incident that shows that the soul does not die at death and that if the soul does not attain the spiritual realm, he or she reincarnates according to past deeds, even in other species. The people mentioned are known to him, and the story was published in the local press. “More than thirty years ago, in Goalpara, a town in Assam, India, a poor man was in need of a large sum of money for the marriage of his daughter. As he saw no other way, he went to a rich landlord and asked him for financial help. The landlord was happy to receive him and at once gave him the big sum of money that he required. T...

Guru Maharaj made everything so easy. Everything was beginning from the heart; it was all about the heart. Within the first two years during almost every darshan that I had of Guru Maharaj, He said the same thing to me: "It's so easy to please Krishna. It is so easy. Why? Because He is the nearest and dearest. Nobody is nearer to us than Krishna." My background made me so complicated but Guru Maharaj made it so easy. With so much love he would say to me: "It's so easy to please Krishna." So I was thinking even when I feel very close to someone, that is nothing compared to how close the Lord is. Naturally, it's easy. If you try to please the Lord from the heart, he is pleased. It's so easy. He kept telling me this again and again, probably because I have a complicated mind. Many times I heard Srila Gurumaharaj say, "The panacea for all problems is sharanagati. If we surrender, things will fall into place."  That was the impression I got from...

Sometimes Guruji would call me and make me sit in front of him. He would tell many stories about his childhood, or sometimes he used to speak about Param Gurudev. One day I asked Guru Maharaj, how do I know if Gurudev, Bhagavan, or Vaisnavas are pleased with my activities? Bhagavan never comes and says, I am pleased with your services, and Vaisnavas also do not. Guru Maharaj gave a very very simple answer to that. He said, there is only a very simple formula: if the object of our worship is pleased with our service, then he will award more and more service. If you are getting more service, and if you are also feeling blissful by getting that service, then you will know that Guru, Vaisnav, and Bhagavan are pleased with your service. How much inclination you are getting to perform chanting, to perform circumambulation of the temple--the more you are getting an inclination to perform these activities, the more you can understand that Guru, Vaiṣṇav, and Bhagavan are pleased with t...

Before receiving the shelter of Srila Gurudeva, I had often heard in other sanghas that at the time of initiation the spiritual master takes the karma of the disciple. I was confused about this so I asked Srila Gurudeva about it when we were in Mumbai in 2004. Guru Maharaj replied, "In a few rare occasions the spiritual master might do so, like in the case of Jagai and Madai. But normally he does not do it. But what you can get from Sri Guru is faith. And then if you chant with faith, all your karma will go." I felt happy to know that I can get faith from Guru Maharaj. He was also instructing me that deep from within by one's own endeavour, this will go. It needs my sincere endeavour, to keep trying. I prayed to Guru Maharaj to give me faith in the holy name. If I chant with faith, all karma will go. —Urmila Dasi  

Whatever prayers generally were taken to Srila Gurudev, by the power of his omniscience, he would take care of those prayers. Externally he may not have promised as much, but he took care. Gurudev said when flower blossoms, it's fragrance spreads all around. No need to advertise.  Many devotees would approach Gurudev to say, Gurudev bless me to go on preaching (prachar). Yet, Gurudev said never have this mood of preaching. Perform kirtan bhakti. If you take up a mood of superiority to someone—that you can rescue them, help them, it may lead to your own fall. Repeat what you have heard from Guru varga for your own benefit, not with the mood to rescue anyone. Prachar is to be done in this mood.  We know that Srila Gurudev always imbibes and practices this. Example is better than precept. He never stopped practicing this, very unique. Until the end, he considered himself like this. Srila Gurudev presents himself and actually believes he's a conditioned soul. Therefore you ca...

Guru Maharaj would always instruct me in a very gentle way. He knew I couldn't handle much criticism. I'm quite a fragile person, so Guru Maharaj was always very gentle communicating things I could have done better. Sometimes it was so subtle, He would just look at me for 2 seconds and I could understand what I did wrong. So gentle. Bindu Madhava Prabhu would often say, "Guru Maharaj gives exactly the right medicine in the right dosage for each person. Whatever they could take, he would give just the right amount." One time, however, Srila Guru Maharaj directly corrected me in front of everybody. It was during Tulsi worship when he used to come out into the library in Kolkata math. This happened because at that time I was cooking my own prasadam. Because of health problems, I needed to control my diet and wouldn't take the math prasad. He would always ask everyone, "Have you taken prasadam?" And when he asked me directly one day, I said, "No, Guru M...

granthera ārambhe kari ‘maṅgalācaraṇa’ guru, vaiṣṇava, bhagavān, — tinera smaraṇa When you remember Gurudev, Vaishnavas and the Lord all the obstacles in the path of devotional practice will be removed and your spiritual desire will be fulfilled. When Guru Vaishnav Bhagavan are pleased with you, your spiritual desires will be fulfilled. First, we have to understand who is guru, what is guru tattva—ontological aspect of guru. Gurudev is Lord’s own person, his associate. Acharya mam vijaniyan —Lord says know Gurudev as Me, I am in the form of Gurudev. So do not see Gurudev from outside (externally) as bones and flesh. One is external appearance—we are seeing with these eyes, and the other is internal, seeing him from the atma. That is the real darshan. You see Gurudev from outside and actually see Gurudev from inside. You follow Gurudev by ears, you hear his Harikatha, his instructions from ears and it enters into the heart and you hold those instructions in your heart....

For the last two days, I was thinking with regret to Gurudev that I'm too much attached to my mind (thinking about this or that, speculation, imagination ... even imagination about Krishna etc.) and instead my mind should go to Krishna and what should I do? Today after He watered Tulsi He all-knowingly and smilingly looked at me and said : "How are you? Any difficulty?" I also smiled and only indicated by gesturing with my fingers that I had some little difficulty. Gurudev smiled and said, "You should always think of Supreme Lord. He will rescue us, isn't it? jalaja nava laksani sthavara laksa vimsati krmayo rudra-sankhyakah paksinam dasa laksanam trimsal laksani pasavah catur laksani manusah (There are 900,000 kinds of aquatics, 2,000,000 kinds of trees and plants, 1,100,000 kinds of insects and reptiles, 1,000,000 kinds of birds, 3,000,000 kinds of four-legged beasts, and 400,000 kinds of human species) Human birth is small in number and we can wor...

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...

Afternoons here are very hot these days, and Srila Gurudev will speak the glories of Sun almost everyday. One day in the afternoon after watering Sri Tulsi tree, touching Her leaves and twigs with His soft hands, and offering obeisances to Her, Srila Gurudev glanced mercifully over the balcony upon the passersby. While proceeding towards His room with a smile on His face, He said, "Sun loves all. He is giving light everywhere without charging us." A few days previously He had said, "Don't become angry by seeing Sun. Pay your respects." —Sripad Bhakti Suhrid Paramadavati Maharaj (extracted from archives on SCGM mailing list)

By God’s grace, I was born in a family of devotees. My father was associated with Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya math in the 70's. After his marriage to my mother, she also came in the association of the devotees. I was exposed to Gaudiya Math from my birth time. It gives me immense pleasure to recall the memories of a program in Bathinda (Punjab) held in 1990’s at Thermal Colony. My father always told me: you just surrender yourself at the holy feet of Gurudeva and never ask or pray for materialistic things from Him. I tried to follow that, but as time passed, I got more attracted towards the materialistic world which is not good for Hari-bhajan. I would like to tell our godbrothers and sisters (especially the young age ones) that whenever we have a question in our mind, we should discuss this with the pure devotee rather than getting carried away in other directions. Guruji will always give an answer to our questions, in any form. Even today he is giving answers by different ways. I...

I came to Śrīla Gurudeva Bhakti Ballabha Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja after becoming his first non-endian full-time disciple. I was initiated in 1995 at Śrīdhāma Vṛndāvana on Baladeva Pūrṇimā at the end of the Rādhā-Govinda Jhulan-yātrā festival of Sree Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭha. On my second trip to India in 1996, I approached him with the idea to study Sanskrit. Gurudeva replied, "You did not come to me, you came to learn something." It meant I came with the desire not to serve the Guru but to learn something for myself. I clearly understood that Gurudeva gave me a choice to become an independent scholar in Sanskrit or to be his fully dedicated disciple.  I still insisted on my studies anyway. Gurudeva agreed with my desire and allowed me to live in Kolkata maṭha while I was attending Kolkata Sanskrit College, the same college where Śrīla Prabhupāda Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura studied one hundred years before. A professor of Sanskrit there asked me, “What do you want to learn...

The Founder Ācārya of Gopīnātha Gauḍīya Maṭha, Śrīla Bhakti Pramode Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāja, who is considered an outstanding personality of this world once commented, “All the Gauḍīya-vaiṣṇavas, sannyāsīs, and saints are parts of my body, but Śrīmad Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Mahārāja is the core of my heart.” We are compelled to think about how he has won the heart of this ideal personality. It is due to his dedicated service attitude since his early life.  Gurujī gives emphasis to practice the instructions of the scriptures before preaching to others. He says, "Don’t follow me, follow my lecture only" is only applicable in the field of politics. Regarding preaching of dharma, he would say that our words will become impactful only to the extent that we follow them in our own lives. Preaching without conduct is lifeless. It will only be entertainment and no one will be benefitted from it. —Śrī Bhakti Vibudha Muni Mahārāja (2015) Srila Gurudeva receiving blessings of Srila ...

This incident happened during those days when our Dehradun maṭha was not yet fully constructed. Gurujī did the morning hari-kathā recitation and kīrtan and then he then stood up. He was smiling and was in a very pleasant mood. At that time, a teenager came and offered obeisance to Gurudeva. Gurudeva asked him whether he did praṇam to his father in the morning, for which he moved his head indicating “No." Gurujī got very angry and his face became suddenly red. Gurujī told him, “Why did you come here without offering praṇams to your father? You have come here to do Kṛṣṇa bhajan? Without respecting your father, you'll not be able to do any bhajan.”  Then Gurujī spoke to him about the life of Prahlāda Mahārāja, his respect towards his father, and how he prayed for the well-being of his father in spite of being tortured by him earlier. After this, the teenager left from there. I did not know who that person was and why Gurudeva suddenly became angry with him. When I inquired from o...

I was once in Mumbai to attend Śrīla Guru Mahārāja's program. During one of His lectures, He summarized the jīvā 's defects in their practice of surrender and spoke: "Can we say with all our heart, Oh Gurudeva! I only want your service and nothing else? Oh Kṛṣṇa! I only desire your loving service and nothing else! If we say this from the core of our hearts, then we will immediately get the transcendental loving service of Śrīla Gurudeva and Kṛṣṇa." The reality is that we do not aspire to attain Lord Kṛṣṇa and His loving services from the core of our heart. Śrīla Guru Mahārāja explained that if someone only says by mouth that they love the Supreme Lord, it is not worth anything. Loving the Supreme Lord truly means not desiring anything with a materialist mentality. Śrīla Guru Mahārāja said that we must analyze our heart and see if it is truly not desiring anything of this material world. —Sundarānanda Dāsa