Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

Like a real ācārya , Śrīla Gurudev walked barefoot throughout the dhām-parikramā in any condition, whether it be flooding, mud, or dust. He would say that by the association of devotees, devotion will come. He spoke of himself as ordinary. He walked from village to village and sat down in poor people's huts and would take prasādam there; he would not even use a chair.  He did not go to preach or make devotees; he went everywhere so that he may become a devotee. With that thought, he went. Gurudeva is a pilgrimage place, the dhām himself.   bhavad-vidhā bhāgavatās tīrtha-bhūtāḥ svayaṁ vibho tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni svāntaḥ-sthena gadābhṛtā ( Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam , 1.3.10) [My Lord, devotees like your good self are verily holy places personified. Because you carry the Personality of Godhead within your heart, you turn all places into places of pilgrimage.] Tīrthī-kurvanti tīrthāni — he is an embodiment of tīrtha . All pilgrimage places are in his heart and he converts all th...

There are a few points to give attention to Gurudev's Dhruva-charitra kathā . The essence of Guru Mahārāj's teachings is that we should not have any malice or hostility towards anyone; only then we can perform our hari-bhajan . He would give great emphasis on this. He would also repeat Sunīti Mātā's words to convince Dhruva: “Whatever your stepmother has said, she has said it in your best interest— her words are correct. If you are hurt by her words you have to learn to tolerate it.” Hearing her words, Dhruva became firm and resolute and went to the forest in search of the Lord.   One of the godsisters from Bathinda went to meet Gurudev in Kolkata and entered his room and offered praṇams to him.  Those were the times when there were not many restrictions and a devotee could visit Gurudev easily. Seeing her, Gurudev went on speaking about Dhruva-charitra for the next two hours.  While speaking Gurudev was shedding tears and she also was crying hearing it.   ...

During Vraja-mandala parikramā , Gurujī was staying in room seven of the guest house at Vṛndāvan maṭh . The incident happened many years ago. All rooms in the maṭh were jam-packed with pilgrims. Two dharmasalas (booked by the maṭh ) were also full. When Prahlad Prabhu (Delhi) arrived along with his wife, Guru Mahārāj wanted to put them up in the maṭh itself. He started gathering his things to vacate his room for their stay. I remember Gurujī saying, “Prahlad Prabhu has done lot of service to our Guru Mahārāj. If we do not give him space to stay in the maṭh it will amount to aparādha . I can move to the room of (Śri Bhakti Prasād) Puri Mahārāj.” Gurujī’s conduct astonished me. He is an Āchārya Deva of such a big maṭh and has so much humbleness and high regard for his god-brothers! Finally some of Gurujī’s disciples on pilgrimage immediately vacated a room and brought Prahlad Prabhu’s luggage there. After seeing the arrangements for Prahlad Prabhu’s stay, Gurujī was rest assured. On...

I have always seen Gurudev perform his parikramās , Navadvip parikramā , Vraja-mandala parikramā  by foot, walking. So many other devotees and sannyāsīs who participate will return taking some vehicle to end their parikramā , but Gurudev would return along with the kirtan party only, even if it is late at night. When the kirtans slowed down, Gurudev would go to the front and would infuse such energy into those kirtans and take them further.  I have even heard Śrīkānta Prabhu say he would get tired, but Guru Mahārāj would never feel tired.  Another thing is even after so much endeavor, Gurudev would come and after speaking harikathā, he would announce the next day's parikramā details at the end of the session. Again in the morning during maṅgaḷāratī , we also got darśan of Gurudev.   When he would take rest, nobody knows. Prabhupāda says who can understand Bhajan-rahasya (mysteries of devotion) is a very intimate servant; one who is totally surrendered to a...

During Vraja-parikramā of 1996, we received golden opportunities through Śrīla Gurudev's most coveted, causeless mercy. The mood is so devotional during Kārtik that divine blessings shower effortlessly. Śrīla Gurudev never allowed us to physically serve Him. Whenever I felt that Gurudev seems to be exhausted, I attempted to massage His lotus feet, only to be stopped by Him. If I insisted, I got an angry glance which weakened my resolve. I used to pray for this service opportunity, but it was beyond Gurudev’s mood of acceptance. He never expected any sevā , any kind of service, from the disciples. Maṭhura was the first camp of our Vraja-parikramā.  During the mangala-arati at 4.30 a.m, Gurudev would stand near the door of the makeshift temple. Within a few days, all of us doing parikramā felt a family-like bond. Taking care of each other became our religious duty. On this front, the devotees from Assam were ahead of the others. They sacrificed all their own comforts for serving all...

In 2005, I was serving in the maṭh itself. In the Vraja-maṇḍal parikramā, I was given the service of translating for the Western devotees. When we hear, we may not be attentive, but when we translate, we must be very attentive. That year there were so many Westerners that they filled an entire bus. This was the first year that Śrila Gurudev was not there in Vraja the entire time as he was performing the pastimes of sickness. When he arrived, he explained what he was seeing directly how Śuka and Śārikā competed, and how Kakkhaṭī was given the service. I was finding it difficult to translate, not because of words, but because I was so ecstatic. I could see that Gurudev was speaking not because of the books or something, but because he was actually seeing. —Hariprasād Das

Tridaṇḍī sannyāsīs from various maṭhas who participated in the Vraja-maṇḍala parikramā of 1996 were taken by surprise when they heard Guru Mahārāj’s nāma-saṅkīrtana and hari-kathā. Completely amazed, they even told me, “O Prabhu, we have never seen this kind of Acharya who himself performs nāma-saṅkīrtana repeatedly and at every place and with such ecstatic feelings, performing hari-kathā and singing glories of the divine dhāma.” Seeing Guru Mahārāj’s such rare, transcendental ecstasies sannyāsīs would come to take darśana of his divine lotus feet repeatedly.  Param Pūjyapāda Puri Gosvāmī Mahārāj has said about him, “Even though he is in his advanced age there is no one like him who performs kirtans with such high tone accompanied by dance jumping so high up in the air.” We can see Śrīla Gurudeva's strong faith in Śrī Harināma-saṅkīrtana, which is non-different from the deity form of the Lord. He does every service of the Supreme Lord with Śrī nāma-saṅkīrtana. I have seen him engro...

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 ...

During the 1979 Vraja-mandala parikramā, we went to Brahmand Ghat and the breakfast prasādam was prepared and brought from our Gokul maṭha. Although Śrīla Mahārāja was the Secretary of the maṭha , he had no dedicated personal servant; I used to serve him a little. That day I forgot to carry Mahārāja’s bowl. I was wondering how to serve prasādam to him. I looked for a leaf plate; it was also not available, but I had carried my bowl. Mahārāja accepted prasādam in that bowl. I was a brahmacārī at that time, but he had no ego of being a sannyāsī or being the Secretary of the organization. The more one is humble, the more Mahāprabhu showers His mercy on him. And also, the more one is advanced the more humble he is. —Śrīmad Bhakti Saudha Jitendriya Mahārāja

Regardless of how many people were in hari-kathā , Śrīla Gurudev's enthusiasm to speak did not waver. In typical cases, we see that the number of people listening affects the speaker but we observed that Śrīla Gurudev was always the same, whether it be with a thousand persons, no persons, or only one person who was sleeping.  An example of this was during Vraja-mandala parikramā. Śrīla Gurudev led programs for the entire day daily from 4am to 11pm. Devotees performed kirtans while going from place to place and he would watch for when they would get tired and slow and then he would lead the kirtan and surcharge everyone. His energy is not like ours; it never diminished. He was always observing the highest standard at every moment.   At the end of the day, the final sabh ā  met and kirtans were to be performed. When  the  time came for the last yam kirtans, d evotees were so tired. Sometimes only about four devotees would show; they were ...

Vraja-mandala parikramā of 1984 was my first time in Vṛndāvan. I reached by bus from Delhi. The ride to Mathura was very rough and keekar kareel (acacia karoo) trees were branching down on both sides of the road. Traveling alone, I was excited about my first visit to Vṛndāvan. For years, I had only dreamt of Vṛndāvan but couldn’t get there. Vṛndāvan of my imagination was coming to my real experience. Śrīla Guru Mahārāj was in a small room adjoining the kitchen at Vṛndāvan maṭha . This was the last week of the Kārtik-vrata. The Vraja-mandala-parikramā had reached Vṛndāvan, the last destination of Braj 84 kos. In 1984, our maṭha had very basic arrangements. For me, it was a new world where I knew no one except Gurudev. I spent most of the time staying close to Gurudev. He was very caring. He took us to all temples of Vṛndāvan, explaining in Hindi to me. It was a very hectic schedule of Kārtik for Gurudev with no rest.The administration of everything depended on him.  Suddenly mala...

My wife, Smt. Shanta Gupta and I were feeling the necessity of sad-guru for nearly twenty-four years before we finally took Śri Hāriṇam-mahāmantra and dīkṣā . We used to live in the government quarters at Simla’s Nabha House area which is near the railway station. There is one Śri Rādhā Gopīnātha temple there and saints and speakers of harikathā continually came there. Though many people accepted guru-mantra from them and we also desired to take it, it did not materialize. Time passed by and there was a pain in the heart that we did not take guru-mantra . Sometimes there were arguments between us when one would insist on taking guru-mantra from one saint and the other disagreed. In 1993, by the desire of Śri Hari, we got an opportunity to go for 84 Kos Vraja-mandala parikramā in the Kārtik month. On reaching Sri Mathura dhām , the first thing we did was to have darśan of one saint who was staying in a room of a dharmashala and we offered daṇḍavat pranams after seeing other...

In the 1980s, during Vraja-maṇḍala parikramā in Kāmyavana, Śrīla Guru Mahārāja's stay was arranged on the first floor of Śrī Jagannātha Mandir in a small corner room. It had a low roof with no fan and also no windows or any ventilation for the breeze to enter in.  Early in the morning, I went to his room to offer him praṇām and I found him sitting and using a hand fan. I learned from him that he had been awake the whole night like that, sitting and using the hand fan. He is the highest authority of so many big maṭhs but still, he is enduring this sort of discomfort, yet there was no sign of anxiety on his face. A patient smile adorned his lotus face. There are many such instances where Śrīla Guru Mahārāja patiently bore all the physical and mental discomforts. Whether in Simla on the bed full of bed bugs or in Dehradun in a cot full of mosquitoes, he remained undisturbed.  I have seen him walk barefoot undisturbed even while he had a fever and blisters on his feet. Even when ...

Some years ago, I had got the good fortune of participating in the month-long Vraja-mandala parikramā . With my own eyes, I saw the place where Lord  Śri   Kṛṣṇa  had taken food along with his cowherd friends; imprints of bowls, spoons, and plates are still found there. While speaking harikathā at that place, Guru Mahārāja went into ecstatic feelings and started singing kirtan . yasomati stanya-payi sri-nanda-nandana indra-nila-mani vraja-janera jivana After singing about three stanzas, he could not do further. Overwhelmed by divine feelings, he started crying so much that even after twenty or thirty minutes, he could not control himself. I signaled to Śripād Kuldeep Prabhu to put the tape-recorder in front of Gurujī. Once when he placed it in front, Śrila Gurudev’s hand movements pushed it behind. I did not get the courage to ask him a second time. I somehow managed to push the tape recorder in front of myself and got the cassette recording. I still have ...

I was there in the 1979 Vraja-mandala parikramā that was led by our Most Revered Gurudeva. While we were in Govardhan and my health was not well. Gurudev sent me to the Vṛndāvan maṭh for rest. After resting for a couple days, I rejoined them in Varṣāṇā. I had missed a few darśans and I contacted a paṇḍitjī who told me that he can show all of them in one day. I asked Pūjyapāda Tirtha Goswami Mahārāj, “Mahārāj! Due to my bad health, I missed a few darśans and paṇḍitjī will help me visit those places in a day. Shall I go?” Then Mahārāj told me the importance of sādhu-saṅga. “You see! The benefit of listening and singing the glories of the Lord in the association of devotees is more. There are many saints here, there is hari-kathā and kīrtan, leaving all these you want to go alone to visit those places? Which one is better?”  Mahārāj spoke the supremacy of sādhu-saṅga: sādhu-saṅga’, ‘sādhu-saṅga’-sarva-śāstre kaya lava-mātra sādhu-saṅge sarva-siddhi haya —nothing is as powerful as chan...

It was my greatest fortune that Most Revered Gurudev gave me the golden opportunity of allowing me to associate with him during Kārtik from the year 1983 onwards. In 2002 Vraja-mandala parikramā ,  I noted down a few pastimes which I will remember as follows: His Divine Grace Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Gosvāmī Mahārāj reached Vṛndāvana on 14 October 2002 for the month-long Vraja-mandala parikramā . Speaking on the subject "Who will show us Vraja-dhāma ," Śrīla Guru Mahārāji said, "Only a tāttvika-vāsi like Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākur Prabhupāda can give us the knowledge of Vraja-dhāma." Quoting from Śrīla Prabhupād's discourses of the 1932 parikramā of Vraja-mandala,  Śrīla Guru Mahārāj explained the significance of doing circumambulation ( parikramā ) of Vraja-dhāma: "This world is a perverted reflection of the spiritual world. All act as puruṣa and want to enjoy it and lord over others. If we want Śrī Kṛṣṇa to appear in our hearts, we ...

—edited by Radha Priya Dasi

Several years ago, Guru Mahārāj was traveling to Bhatinda from New Delhi for a religious assembly. The train that was scheduled to reach Bhatinda at 7pm reached at about 1am; it was late by 6 hours. It was double the discomfort due to the delay in the train’s start time in Delhi and later reaching so late in the night. I saw that the whole preaching party was disturbed due to hunger and tiredness and troubles along the way. Yet Gurujī’s face was adorned with that all-familiar smile.  Reaching Kundanlal Dharmashala, all were anxious to unwind and rest in their allotted places. Many did not even have prasād and went straight to rest. Inadvertently we had committed a great mistake as the prasād was oily, spicy, and rich food. The usual vegetables that were prepared for Gurujī such as papaya, raw banana, and cucumber were not available; nor were raw vegetables kept available in stock.  When Gurujī’s sevāk came to fetch prasād to offer to Gurujī, there was nothing available ...

Gurudevsays that to follow the instructions of vaiṣṇavas is also a limb of devotion, so I am just trying to follow their instructions. Gurudev has lifted us from where we were and to where Gurudev has brought us is making us speak today. So whatever I had heard from Gurudev, I will speak the same.  Once during Vraja-mandala parikramā , I saw one pastime of Gurudev in Kāmyavan. There were many thorns along the way to Caraṇa-pahadi and they were pricking devotees' feet. At that time Gurudev remarked that actually, the Supreme Lord is putting the dust of Vraja in our bloodstream through these thorns. Scriptures say that even Mukti Devī - liberation personified - is asking the Supreme Lord when will I get the dust of Vraja? In the same principle when everyone was busy picking thorns from their feet, Gurudev was saying that the dust of Vraja is being injected into our blood. Among the glories of Gurudev we sing is that he is kṛṣṇa kṛpā ki ānanda mūrti dīnana karuṇā nidhana . Guru...

The most difficult part of Vraja-mandala parikramā is Kāmyavana where on every step, sharp thorns would prick us. Gurujī was least disturbed whereas I, walking by his side, was in a very bad condition. Seeing my state, he told, "We do not want to take the holy dust of Vraja, but Lord is very merciful. Through the use of thorns, He is sending the holy dust of Vraj into our bloodstream." This type of vision is an indication of his transcendental quality of tolerance. In any difficult situation, he experiences the Lord’s compassion, which a conditioned soul of this world can never think of. — Śrī Kṛṣṇananda Das  (Bhatinda) Translated from Sri Krishna Chaitanya Sandesh , July-Oct, 1997 (Year 17, Issue No.4, Page 27-39)