Srila Gurudeva:
The symptoms we see in Narada, we can also see in Vyasa, Sukadeva Gosvami, Madhvacarya, then coming down in Madhavendra Puri, Isvara Puri, in Svarupa Damodar, Raya Ramananda, Nityananda Prabhu, Advaita Acarya, and Gadadhara Pandit.
We can see all these symptoms in Rupa and Sanatana, Jiva, Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami, in Narottama Das Thakur, then coming to Visvanatha Chakravati Thakur, then Baladeva Vidyabhusan, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Jagannatha das Babaji Maharaja, Gaura Kishora dasa Babaji Maharaja, Srila Prabhupada, our Gurudeva, Pujyapada Sridhara Maharaja, Svamiji—you can see these transcendental symptoms in all our acaryas.
Svami Maharaja has preached throughout the whole world in very little time. A common person, general person, cannot do this. So we want to glorify our Gurudeva like that.
My Gurudeva gave sannyas to Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja, who honored him like siksha and sannyasa guru… So we are doing pranams today to the lotus feet of all our acaryas.
If the guru has all these qualities, no problem at all, he will never fall. For a disciple, if the guru falls, it is the highest problem. The disciple’s life becomes upset and forever he is repenting and lamenting. So we should try to pray to Krsna and Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu that we can have a guru like this, having all these qualities, so he will never have to repent and will never be worried.
Today is our Gurudeva’s appearance day. You can see that the bona fide gurus, the bona-fide maha-purusa, if they come in this world, there will be some speciality. Like when Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati came in the house of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura at Puri—when he took birth the sacred thread was there. Also there where the signs of tilaka in twelve parts of the body, and there was the sign of neck beads.
From the beginning there were extraordinary qualities. In our Guru Maharaja also. Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja came on the date of Nandotsava, the day after Krsna’s birth. As a child he used to weep if the mrdanga was not given to him and if anyone was not chanting Krsna’s name he would also weep, just like Mahaprabhu. He used to play, not with toys, but with Radha and Krsna Deities and mrdanga and karatals. His father arranged everything for him from boyhood.
Our Guru Maharaja also, he was so beautiful, all good qualities were there. His mother was very strict and he was in a landlord family. His mother was very strict and he became like his mother, not of his father, having her qualities. When he was a student, his mother told that in the evening he should come home in the nick of time, before sunset, not to delay anywhere.
One day he came home late at about nine at night. His mother, having a stick in hand, and standing at the gate, was waiting for him to come. At nine when he came, his mother took the stick and asked why he was late. He was silent and she told him to tell the reason otherwise she would beat him with the stick.
He told her that there was a reason. He said, “We have a community of friends, a committee and in this big village we have a list of very poor persons and ladies who are helpless, and we help them. The money you give me for tiffin, I don’t take anything, I collect it and by begging at others homes, we collect something and give help for the needful persons.
Today, a very helpless old lady was so sick and she was about to die. She had no doctor or medicine, she was helpless. I heard this and at once went there and I called a doctor and I managed some medicine for her and after that it became nine o’clock. She was somewhat better so I gave the duty to my friend there and we agreed that we would later change and spend the whole night there.”
[Hearing this, his mother’s heart broke and she embraced him with affection.]
[Audio break]
So from the beginning he was so merciful, helping all. He was so engaged in helping all the devotees, to take them to Krsna. In this world the biggest problem is that we have been thrown out in the ocean of maya and we are always suffering. So guru is the embodiment of the mercy of Krsna. They are always so worried for us.
He (Param Gurudeva) used to sometimes be awake all night thinking how to help bring the jivas to Krsna. Although he was of a landlord family he used to work so hard for Krsna and Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we cannot imagine. I was serving him, very near to him just like Navin serves me, so I know him.
He had all good qualities. He used to be with his father from boyhood, even though there were four more sons, his father used to take him on his shoulders anywhere there were classes of Gita, Bhagavatam, and so on.
He was the monitor of the class and captain of different sports. How did he join the matha?
One of his aunts was a disciple of Srila Prabhupada, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, who had promised that he would not make any lady disciples. She was so qualified and she went to Srila Prabhupada and told, “Oh you have promised that you will only give initiation to male, not female, why? What offense have these ladies done? Why will you not give? They have not fallen from Krsna? They are not qualified to receive mercy? Why?”
Then Prabhupada told her that, “At this moment i will give you initiation,” and he gave.
[Devotees laughing and clapping.]
Srila Prabhupada was not giving guru mantra to anyone, he used to give only krsna-mantra, gaura-mantra and kama-gayatri, not everything. And for ladies, not Brahma-gayatri, only Gopal-mantra was given. This is initiation. Caitanya Mahaprabhu also had this only, but for our qualification, after Rupa Sanatana, the line came that we are taking initiations.
So when he was not giving guru-mantra, our Guru Maharaja, they met in 1916 and second initiation was done in 1919 at the time of Gaur Purnima in Mayapur. Prabhupada gave all the mantras but not guru mantra, aim gururave namah, and others. He said, “Why Gurudeva, why are you not giving us guru mantra?”
“Oh I don’t give,” he replied.
“Oh, then I will have to go to another guru and be initiated by another for guru-mantra?”
[Gurudeva laughing]
Then Srila Prabhupada became so pleased and he gave guru mantra and from then on he began to give everyone the guru mantra.
Guru Maharaja, before he was initiated, around 1917, went to Gaura Kishora das Babaji Maharaja whom at that time was in Navadvipa Kuliya. He went with four or five disciples of Srila Prabhupada. Gaura Kishora das Babaji Maharaja was sitting in a latrine. In India they are not like here or other countries. There will be one pot, always full of stool and so many insects and worms will be there. So dirty and so much bad smell, but Gaura Kishora das Babaji Maharaja was easily sitting there and chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, with the door closed.
From the government, high classes of district magistrates and all police superintendent would come and say, “Babaji Maharaja, Babaji Maharaja, please open the door, we want to take darsana and we want to make a very good room for you, so please come.”
He would tell them, “Oh I’m sick, I cannot get up, I cannot open the door,” but when they (Param Gurudeva) reached there, he opened the door at once.
They said, “We are servants of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakura, we are his disciples.”
At once he came and opened the door, and they went inside. You see, we want to invite the prime minister or any good officer in our meetings, but they don’t want. Everything will be upset, they will tell mayavada. If the prime minister comes, what he will say? He will speak mayavada and all bogus things because he has never practised and has no guru, but for fame and name we call all and give him patrika, magazine, “Oh the rastrapati has come, the prime minister has come, this officer has come,” but they had nothing to do with them.
He gave his mercy to him and said, “I am taking all your miseries and sufferings on my head, be very bold and preach Krsna consciousness over the whole world.”
So many troubles and problems came but our Guru Maharaja was so bold and powerful, Svamiji also and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, so bold, never caring for anything worldly, I also never cared for anyone, the whole world can be one party (against) but I will preach what our Gurudeva and disciplic succession has told. We don’t want karma, jnana, yoga, tapasya, and all other things. We don’t want money, we don’t want fame, name, anything. We want pure bhakti. And in that pure bhakti, we want that raganuga bhakti for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
So are Guru Maharaj was serving his Gurudeva, I’m telling in short.
[Audio break]
When he was reading in college he used to teach the principles and professors Caitanya Caritamrta. [After some time] He told that, “Why should I lose my time, I should serve my Gurudeva, what can they teach me?”
So he left the college. There was an argument with them, they were following mayavada and our Gurudeva cut their arguments and defeated them. He left that college and went to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and was serving so much.
After three or four years his mother became so sick in her home, very far away, about one thousand miles from Mayapur in East Bengal.
His elder brother had also taken sannyasa and his father was dead, only three or four sons were there, and his mother was weeping and she was getting ready to take her last breath.
She sent a letter to Mayapura, to Srila Prabhupada, telling that she was going to die and that she wants to see her child, her son, Vinoda Bihari brahmachari. She requested that he please send her son home to her.
He called Vinoda brahmachari and told him, “Oh your mother is so ill, she may die at once, at any time, so you should go, I am ordering you, you should go and meet her and then come back.”
He came from there and hid himself in a dark room chanting harinama and weeping. It became night and Srila Prabhupada asked his servant, “I have ordered Vinoda to go to his mother, has he gone or not, you should find out.”
They told Srila Prabhupada that Vinoda brahmachari was still here, they had seen him in a room. Srila Prabhupada called him the next day and said, “I told you to go to your mother, she is dying, why didn’t you go there?”
He told, folding his hands, “Gurudeva, if I go there in the last days and she is dying then I know that she is not a liberated soul and she may tell that, ‘I am dying, you should take care of this home and you should be here and support all these boys and take care of everything.’ Then I would have to carry out her last order and I would lose everything, I would not be able to serve you.
So I decided, thinking this, that by remembering me, it is remembering you and Krsna and so she will be liberated by this and if I am going there, then I will lose your service and also my life because they will engage me in bodily life and she will tell that I should marry and be a householder.”
Then Prabhupada began to weep and told that everything is okay and told him that he was a very bona fide devotee. Understand this?
So all of Prabhupada’s disciple’s were like this, so bona fide. He was so strong. Once there was a person, a devotee, who was always criticizing his godbrothers, always criticizing. In his opinion only Prabhupada was guru and after that there were no bona fide devotees. So he used to do like this and he was made a prominent matha commander there, like the matha president. Srila Prabhupada gave him this service.
So he was doing so, criticizing. When Prabhupada heard this, he told Vinoda Bihari brahmachari, our Gurudeva, “Vinoda Bihari, go at once and take all the luggage of that matha commander, put it on a bullock cart and let him go from here for ever. He shouldn’t be in Mayapur.”
He came away and sat and thought about this. After two hours Prabhupada sent another person to go and see what Vinoda is doing, whether he had expelled that person, the offender, or not. He went and saw that Vinoda brahmachari was sitting alone, chanting, and thinking something. Prabhupada called him, saying, “Oh, he will not send this offender away, I know him, he has a very soft heart.”
He told another person to go ahead and carry out his order and that sevaka went at once and took all his luggage and kicked him out from Mayapura.
The next day Prabhupada called Vinoda brahmachari and asked him why he hadn’t carried out his order. He told that, “Oh Prabhu, I know that you are so merciful, if I will carry out this order then the next moment you will say, ‘Oh Vinoda brahmachari, he is a fallen soul,’ and you will repent. I know that you don’t take anyone’s offense, I know that the next moment you will call me and tell me to bring back that person. So I was seeing this.”
Then he (Srila Prabhupada) became silent and began to think whether this person should be again brought to the matha. However he saw that this person cannot change his mood and he had crossed the boundary of vaisnava aparadha. So he was not called back, but he was always worried for him, that he had expelled him.
So we have heard all these things from the mouth of our Gurudeva.
When Prabhupada left this world, our Guru Maharaja left the Gaudiya Matha mission and he came to Calcutta and established the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti. At that council, Bhaktivedanta Svami was there. He was one of the founders of the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti and this Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti was named after his name. The title of Svamiji was Bhaktivedanta, so Guru Maharaja preferred that this name should be adopted.
That Vedanta is bhakti and to preach this we will have to take this name. So he kept this name of the Gaudiya Vedanta Society. Our names Bhaktivedanta Narayana, Bhaktivedanta Trivikrama, Bhaktivedanta Vamana, and Bhaktivedanta Svamiji also. I think that Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaj was the twenty-fourth sannyasi (with the Bhaktivedanta title).
At that time so many prominent disciples of Prabhupada were with Guru Maharaja, but they had no money, not a single farthing, so how to support everyone? There was more than twenty-five devotees. You don’t know the names but I do. Narahari Prabhu was there. He was not a sannyasi, but all the sannyasis used to respect him and do pranams to him. So many people were there.
One day Guru Maharaja’s godbrother came to Calcutta and he came to see our Gurudeva. At that time, on that day it was Ekadasi and he had not a single paisa, no money at all, nothing. Guru Maharaja wanted to respect his godbrother with so many sweets because he was so fond of sweets, but he had no paisa at all. There were so many Vaisnavas doing annakalpa. Annakalpa is what we take on Ekadasi (simple preparations made of fruits and roots, without grains), but nothing was there.
He was sitting on the bed and chanting Hare Krsna Hare Krsna and thinking what to do. Actually what he was thinking I don’t know, but he told this story to me, to all. So he told the devotees that that day would be nirjala ekadasi, complete fast, and all were satisfied that today would be nirjala ekadasi.
However what to do, his godbrother had come and he must be given something sweet. At once he saw that there was a bird, a very tiny bird, a sparrow. He was doing ‘chee chee chee’ and jumping here and there in the room and it had something wrapped in a torn cloth and it came down from his beak with a sound like ‘chann’ (dropping the bundle) very near to Gurudeva.
Gurudeva took that cloth and saw that there was six anna paisa there. Paisa means fractions of a rupee. An anna is only one fourth of a rupee. He became so glad and sent a person to the market, who then brought so many vegetables, jackfruit, and sweets. At that time it was so cheap in India. The devotee was honored and given sweets and everything and after the cooking was done, Vaisnavas were all given annakalpa.
In the meantime the postman came, calling, “Kesava Maharaja, Kesava Maharaja! You have a money order from Rangoon. Pujyapada Giri Maharaj has sent one hundred rupees.”
At that time one hundred was equal to a hundred dollars. Guru Maharaja began to weep that Krsna has arranged all these things. Those that are sincere Vaisnavas, serving totally by all the body and senses to Krsna, he will not starve and all his problems will be solved by Krsna Himself just like the chakra saved Ambarisa Maharaja, and Pralad Maharaja was saved from the very big demon Hiranyakashipu. So Krsna always saves and protects and nourishes.
So we have seen these things in our Gurudeva. There are so many things but it will take time.
[Srila Gurudeva gives some instructions on when to do the next days program.]
Tomorrow I will tell so many things about Gurudeva, connected with Svamiji, Prabhupada, and Krsna. His glories are the glories of Krsna. His glories are the glories of his holy master. I am so fortunate, being the disciple of our Gurudeva. We are so fortunate that we have a guru like him, a guru like Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.
Also you are so fortunate that you are the disciples of Svamiji, so fortunate to have a guru like him, it is very rare, so we are offering our puspanjali at the lotus feet of our Gurudeva and the lotus feet of Srila Prabhupada Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and my siksa-guru also. I am also offering my heartfelt puspanjali to the lotus feet of Pujyapada Sridhar Maharaja and Pujyapada Puri Maharaja.
By hearing their life history we can gain so much, so try to adopt all these things, how to serve the Divine Master and how to serve Krsna.
There is a very important thing and after that I will conclude. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura wanted to give him sannyasa and three times everything was ready. The danda was ready, red cloth was ready, the name was selected, everything was ready, but the secretary objected that if he was to give him sannyasa, such an energetic and powerful expert in management and everything who was maintaining everything, writing and doing all these services, then the Gaudiya Matha will be spoiled.
So he requested Srila Prabhupada not to give him sannyasa, and that he should be like a manager, secretary, and all these things of all the Mathas. At that time nobody else was expert in all these things, managing and everything. No complaint was ever coming to Srila Prabhupada, all complaints and so on used to come to him and he used to solve all these things, even court cases and so on. So Srila Prabhupada told that, “I want to give, but they are giving some problem,” so he didn’t do. Three times it was thus prepared.
When Prabhupada disappeared, Guru Maharaja had a dream of Srila Prabhupada saying, “Oh Vinoda, still till now you have not taken sannyasa and everything is going to ruin. My parikrama has stopped, giving sannyasa has stopped, my magazines and journals have also stopped, all book publication has stopped, you should take sannyasa at once.” Then Guru Maharaj decided to take sannyasa.
When Prabhupada was here in this world, one year a very big party of a thousand devotees was doing parikrama of Navadwipa and he was establishing who is a brahmana and the real brahmana religion and what is pure devotion and love and affection and bhakti. All the (so-called) learned persons of Navadvipa became upset and opposing.
Srila Prabhupada was telling that it is not automatic that the son of a brahmana is a brahmana. Only if he has the qualities of a brahmana, then he is a brahmana. He gave the evidence from the Gita sloka, catur varnyam maya srstam—anyone can be a brahmana by taking initiation and serving Krsna, so then all became upset and they wanted to kill Srila Prabhupada.
So he came into the Navadvipa town, with so many devotees, and Thakuraji riding on the back of an elephant, and all were doing kirtan with mrdanga, and dancing and singing. When he arrived in the middle of the town, they attacked with soda bottles, hot water, bricks, and stones and tried to kill him. At that time all ran here and there to save their lives, the elephant fled from there and all the disciples were scattered here and there. However our Gurudeva, Vinoda Bihari brahmachari, took Prabhupada and went and hid him in the room of a nearby house of a devotee that he knew from before, and therefore he saved Srila Prabhupada.
He changed his cloth, giving his white dress to Prabhupada and took himself his sannyas cloth and danda and became Srila Prabhupada, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati himself (they looked very similar)! He then sent Srila Prabhupada to Mayapur safely, while he stayed there. Later the police came and then he was also able to go himself to Mayapur.
So if Prabhupada has given his danda himself as well as his own cloth, his sannyasi vesa, then what else remains? So we think that at that time he gave him sannyasa. After that he took sannyasa in Katwa Nagar, where Caitanya Mahaprabhu had taken sannyasa from Kesava Bharti, and he told that Prabhupada has kept my name Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja, and Srila Sridhara Maharaja said that it was a very good name.
[Gaura-premanande Hari Haribol!]
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