Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

Gurudev is like a Himalayan mountain and I am like an invisible bacteria sort of thing, how can I sing the glories of Guru Mahārāj?   The other day I was witnessing a video of vaiṣṇavas glorifying Gurudev. One of Śrīla Bhakti Kumud Sant Gosvāmī Mahārāj's disciples was speaking about an incident when they had all gone with our Guru Mahārāj to a village in West Bengal and they were staying at a Vaiṣṇava's house who had arranged for prasād and kirtan . During prasād time. they were all complaining about the prasād saying that it is very ordinary, not so good. Gurudev heard this from his room upstairs and came down and chastised them. He said, "Our host is a devotee; though he is not a wealthy man, he has arranged for prasādam for all of us and has offered to Supreme Lord, and then it becomes mahā-prasād . And you are criticizing mahā-prasād ? This is not right!" Hearing him, everybody was stunned.  I recall an experience related to this topic from 2005 when we atten...

My god-brothers have ordered me to speak some glories of Gurudev. Though I do not know anything much about Gurudev, I am still hoping for Gurudev's blessings and mercy and I will attempt to speak.   This evening I was trying to remember my interactions with Gurudev.  By their mercy, vaiṣṇavas engaged me in Gurudev's sevā in 2010. I'd been staying in Vṛndāvan and then Māyāpur, and after Vraja-maṇḍala parikramā in 2010,  I came to Kolkata and was given a place to stay in the library next to Gurudev's bhajan-kuṭīra . Gurudev would come to water Tulasījī every day and go back to his room via the library where many devotees would gather for his darśan .  One day when no one else was around, I offered obeisances to Gurudev.  Then Gurudev's sevāks told Gurudev that I have come from Māyāpur to serve him, I wanted to become his sevāk . Gurudev did not say anything and returned to his room. It was almost a week and I was not given any sevā ; I was waiting.   One...

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...

Gurudeva and I were going out together for some official work. Gurudeva went to pay obeisances to Thakurjī. I had been carrying a handbag containing some official papers and kept it on the highrise platform on which the deities reside. Then I also bowed down behind Gurudeva. Gurudeva noticed this and later voiced his disapproval of this act. He told me that the entire deity pedestal/platform represents Baladeva-tattva and only things directly related to Bhagavān which are meant for Bhagavān's sevā can be kept there. Anything that touches this surface should be used only those items used by the pūjārī for offering service and worship to Bhagavān. He gave examples of types of personal belongings that should never be placed there such as handbags, mobiles, cameras, eyeglasses, walking sticks, umbrellas, etc. Another grihastha disciple added he had heard Gurudeva say we are not supposed to even lean on or take help the platform to stand up after praṇāms.  It is important that we follo...

Once Param Pūjyapād Śrīmad Bhakti Ballabh Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāj came to our āśram in Haridwar along with about five hundred Punjabi devotees. Starting from Har Ki Pauri, Mahārāj entered our āśram dancing and singing in kīrtan . As I was about to do his ārati , he stopped me and told, “You should do Gurujī's ārati , not mine.” I told him, “You are also Guru. Ontologically Guru is one, and Param Gurudev Bhakti Dayita Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāj has whole-heartedly established you as Ācārya. He has his complete mercy on you and thus coronates you as Guru. So whose ārati  should I do other than yours?” He told, “No. Perform ārati to the portrait of our Gurudev.” He took the lamp from my hand and started doing Gurujī's ārati . I saw then his total dedication to Gurujī. According to me, Paramgurudev Srimad Bhakti Dayita Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāj and Param Pūjyapād Bhakti Ballabh Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāj are non-different. They came together to this world from the spiritual plane. —Śrīl...

I neither have the strength to sing the glories of Śrīla Gurudev nor do I have the required knowledge or intelligence or some humility in my heart to speak about his qualities; this is cent percent true. A lustful mind full of material desires like mine cannot gather the courage to sing the transcendental glories of such a divine personality because I never had such a divine darśan . But still, by Gurudev's mercy, I will try to sing his transcendental glories from my observation and experience which are also described in the scriptures. The scriptures say an acārya or guru is adoṣa-darśī— one   who does not see any faults in anyone. This quality is manifested fully in Gurudev. Whenever anyone approached him and spoke about some faults or some wrong acts of others, Gurudev never accepted those words as such, but he always tried to convince them otherwise by saying such things as maybe you have understood or interpreted their actions wrongly, maybe others have misunderstood yo...

Once I stayed at Kolkata math during a solar eclipse. The devotees closed all the shutters and there was a five-hour kirtan in the temple hall.  Prior to my coming from South India, a good friend of mine, a senior devotee from another saṅgha told me over and over again how inauspicious such an eclipse will be and what negative effects it will bring. I always thought, "My Guru Mahārāj never talks about such things." But since I heard it so many times, I got some doubts and desired Śrila Guru Mahārāj's answer. When I got an opportunity during darśan, I said: "Gurujī, some people say that such an eclipse is inauspicious." Śrila Guru Mahārāj looked at me in utter disbelief about what he had just heard and instantly said, "But it comes from Supreme Lord. How can it be inauspicious?" I was so happy to hear this; inwardly I laughed and thought that's my Guru Mahārāj—always seeing everything in connection to Supreme Lord. —Urmila Dasi