Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

In 2005, I decided to visit Jagannāth Puri for Ratha-yātrā. It was my first visit to any maṭha after harināma . The first thing I did was to equip myself with a film SLR camera anticipating interesting moments and visuals. Every year from then on, the camera always accompanied me, so much so that most of the time, I used to take snapshots more than actually participating. In 2010 or maybe 2011, I was staying in Mumbai. A few devotees wanted to purchase a camera for the maṭha-sevā , and, supposing I knew a bit about cameras, I accompanied them along for the purchase. Some research was done, and we picked up a Canon SLR and a couple of lenses. Soon after that, we went off to Jagannāth Puri. We were excited about the visit. It was during Ratha-yātrā, and Śrī Gurudeva was there for some days. A special darśan was organized for the Mumbai devotees. We walked in and offered praṇāms . As usual, I was holding the camera and shooting from many angles. At some point, I went closer to join the ...

When I was serving in the m aṭha , I worked outside of his room on my laptop sometimes. Gurudeva saw me and asked, "Do you know typing? Can you type a letter for me? I told him I could do it, and he dictated what he wanted me to write. It was regarding some land next to the Dehradun maṭha that belonged to one of our god sisters. Gurudeva wanted to purchase that land and our god-sister also wanted to sell it. When he was dictating, I was shocked to discover that he not only knows not only spiritual matters, but also all about legal matters, financial matters, and every other aspect of business— he was a spiritual CEO! Each and every instruction he gave was not only spiritually but materially perfect. He was explaining how the land could be acquired, how to give the funds to that Mātājī—everything. Once I was translating Dasavatar. The Hindi translation is slightly tough and a little cryptic. I translated it with a bit of a whim. Gurudeva told, "You have to understand t...

Image from Gurudeva's Janmastan Temple, Gwalpara Dham Our grandmother was a devotee. She would offer water to Tulsi, worshiping her daily. In the evening, there was Hari-luta where all of us would stand and clap. Sugar candies were distributed after the ceremony.  All the children would gather and sing, 'Harir lute ... vahan....' and later water Tulsi. Chot-da would also attend, but he would be overcome with divine feelings, totally distinct from the others. We could not understand his mood at that time. -Smt. Gita Majumdar - Sister younger of Gurudeva by 12 years, became disciple in 1984.

Guru Maharaj was ten years old in 1934 when my eldest aunt got married. The new groom and bride came for a picnic to Goalpara. There were two sight-seeing places —the mountain and the riverside. All the children in the family joined the newly wedded couple for the pleasure trip and Guru Maharaj also went along.  All of them climbed the mountain, and as they reached the higher spots, they found many forest flowers. Everybody, including Guru Maharaj, picked the flowers. After some more distance, Guru Maharaj told us that he'll go back home. He gave some reason. One person from the group accompanied him up to a distance, and from there he went back home by himself.  When all of them returned home from the pleasure trip, they saw their house surrounded by many local persons. They waded through the crowd and entered the house wondering what had happened. Then they saw Maharaj sitting on the lap of our grandfather, his eyes filled with tears.  When they asked what ...