Praṇamāmi Guru Tīrtha Padaṁ

One time the deities of Gokul Mahavan math were damaged by miscreants who were later caught.   Those people were waiting to be given punishment. Tridandi Swami Sadhu Maharaj was an eye-witness to the incident.    I observed all senior sadhus pressurizing Sadhu Maharaj to give witness in the court to make sure the miscreants were punished.   I myself was also favoring this stance strongly.    It was during that time that I saw Sadhu Maharaj’s saintly quality and his faith in Acharya Deva (Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami Maharaj) and was very much surprised.   Sadhu Maharaj took his bag and went straight to Acharya Deva at Rajapura to take his advice.   When he met Srila Acharya Deva in Rajapura, coincidentally I was also present in Srila Maharaj’s room.    In reply to Sadhu Maharaj’s question about whether we have to proceed with the punishment, Srila Acharya Deva was referring to verses from Sri Chaitanya Charitamrta ...

One sunny day I took Guru Maharaj and his sevak team for a morning walk on the beach. Singapore beach is usually sunny. On that walk, there was some discussion about Raganuga-bhakti. There was another great Vaishnav there who was particularly speaking to Russian devotees while emphasizing that topic. It was Hrishikesh Maharaj, an American disciple, who introduced this topic with a question related to how all of us should go to Raganuga-bhakti. The discussion went on for a while and Guru Maharaj was very patient while listening. At the end of the conversation, I told him directly that I do not have a good background and I don't come from a favorable part of the world. I continued to explain that my Guru Maharaj, [Srila Bhaktivedanta] Swami Maharaj instructed me to do sadhana bhakti and I am not qualified to do Raganuga-bhakti because of my background. Guru Maharaj replied while simply folding his hands in pranam and said, "This Maharaj who is speaking is a great Vaishnava, I a...

I remember I spoke with one lady who was Buddhist since her childhood but she had started going to ISKCON. She felt this was another practice for liberation, but more colorful. She became friends with devotees that invited her to that same program [previously mentioned.] She liked Gurudev’s Harikatha and recorded an interview with him for radio. She had many questions for Gurudev and he was replying. I don't know the details of the interview, but after it, she asked Gurudev for a blessing and Gurudev told me that she should take Harinam and she agreed. At that time, she told me that she was also attracted to Gurudev because he was checking the almanac for travel dates. This was because she was an astrologer so this was like a bonus for her to see that Gurudev was checking that. She agreed that yes, she would take Harinam. She told my mother (Srimati Tungavidya Devi Dasi), as they were friends, that Gurudev told her to take Harinam and she will take it the next day and she wanted my...

All Glories to Sree Sree Guru and Gauranga! I consider myself fortunate beyond doubt that  I got to see and have the association of Gurudev very early in my life. I was in school when I first had his darshan at Gita Bhawan (Jammu), of course my elder brother Rasaviharidas being the catalyst. It soon became an annual affair as I used to attend his discourses, attend nagar sankirtan processions, and honor prasadam with my family and others when he used to visit us during the month of September every year. That time I did not have the guts to ask him questions but slowly as I grew up I started to ask some as he had plenty of time for all of us. When after marriage I came to Kolkata far away from my parents Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math Kolkata was my second home or 'mayeka' as we call it.  I took Diksha after marriage as my in-laws were very supportive. I remember after the birth of my daughter I asked Gurudev that I could not chant much due to 'her'. Gurudev smilin...

Śrīla Bhakti Pramod Purī Goswāmī Mahārāj has said that our Gurudev is the embodiment of tṛnād api sunichena . He is an embodiment of this verse of Mahāprabhu. Once Śrīla Bhakti Pramod Purī Goswāmī said, Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tīrtha Mahārāj is coming, so you should chant kīrtans. Some of his disciples said, there is some more time until he comes, we will start later. Purī Mahārāj did not say anything more to them but took the kāṁśā and went himself to the gate to start kīrtans. Though Gurudev was like his disciple, in that generation, Śrīla Purī Mahārāj went himself to welcome him. He told his disciples, you see him as Śrīla Tīrtha Mahārāj, but I see him as my own brother, Śrīla Bhakti Dayita Mādhav Mahārāj. Bhaktivedānta Sāgar Mahārāj of Haridwar told that your Gurudev is a nondifferent manifestation of your Param Gurudev. Therefore there is no doubt that if we want to fulfill the desires of our Param Gurudev, then if we simply follow the instructions of Gurudev and follow i...

By the special mercy of our Most Revered Srila Gurudeva, we are getting this opportunity to listen to the holy biography of our Most Revered Srila Param Gurudev. He sees that we are very much in need of this, and to enable us to walk on the right path Srila Gurudeva gives us directions and instructions sometimes through the deities, sometimes through the Vaishnavas, and sometimes from mahatmas. Yesterday we remembered an instance of how Srila Param Gurudev gave darshan of the holy scriptures in the library to a visiting Minister.  I happened to remember some instances in regard to the holy scriptures which give us important lessons. Though we have not seen Param Gurudev, by seeing the photograph of him with the minister in the library, we can understand how much significance  Param Gurudev is giving to the holy scriptures and Vaishnava literature that was found neatly arranged in the glass cupboards. In Guru Maharaj's bhajan kutir we have also seen a rack next to his stud...

As per Prahlad Das Prabhu's request and to purify my mind remembering Guru, Vaishnav, and Bhagavan, I will try to remember about Srila Gurudev’s Austrian and Slovenian tours. Gurudev visited Austria and Slovenia four times in 1998, 1999, 2000, then in 2002. 2001 was the year of the September 11th attack in America, so as per the request of devotees from India, he returned to India earlier. In 1998, I did not meet Gurudev, but my mother met him and I heard about it from her and some other devotees, so I will start from there. There was no plan for Gurudev to come to Slovenia or Austria as per our limited vision, but it was Mahaprabhu’s plan. Bindu Madhav Prabhu was organizing Gurudev’s program in France but he canceled it just before Gurudev’s arrival there due to chaos surrounding a world championship in football there. Gurudev was already in Europe; I think he was in Germany and he had some gap of time when he came to know that there were some of Srila Paramadvaiti Maharaj'...