On this super excellent auspicious day, our beloved Srila Gurudeva, nitya-lila-pravishta om vishnupada ashtottara-shata Sri Srimad Bhaktidevanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja disappeared from this material world. Today, I want to speak a few words about Srila Gurudeva’s life history and his contributions. I have mentioned previously how Srila Bhakti Prajnana Keshava Gosvami Maharaja established our Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti. In our Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti there are many pillars, however the three main pillars are known as nitya-lila-pravishta om vishnupada ashtottara-shata Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Srila Vamana Gosvami Maharaja, nitya-lila-pravishta om vishnupada ashtottara-shata Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Srila Trivikrama Gosvami and Srila Gurudeva, Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja.
Anyone who even just touched any of these great personalities has received some form of mercy from them. Our scriptures explain that Guru and Vaishnavas are just like a touchstone, sparshamani. When iron touches the touchstone, the iron transforms into gold. And in the same way, Gurudeva was called sparshamani. However, this is not a complete glorification of Srila Gurudeva. Why? Because the touchstone only transforms iron to gold, but the touchstone itself never transforms into gold. This is why Gurudeva is more like chintamani, a wish-fulfilling stone. Meaning that if one who just thinks about Gurudeva, he will give everything to you.
Gurudeva is chintamani. And what is chintamani? A wish-fulfilling stone: whatever desire you have will be fulfilled. If you touch iron to a touchstone, the iron will only transform into gold. But a chintamani stone will automatically fulfil any desire that you are thinking of. In Goloka Vrindavana, all the trees are called kalpa-vriksha, wish-fulfilling trees.
cintāmaṇi-prakara-sadmasu kalpa-vṛkṣa-
lakṣāvṛteṣu surabhīr abhipālayantam
lakṣmī-sahasra-śata-sambhrama-sevyamānaṁ
govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi
Sri Brahma-samhita (5.29)
[I worship Govinda, the primaeval Lord, the first progenitor who is tending the cows, yielding all desire, in abodes built with spiritual gems, surrounded by millions of purpose trees, always served with great reverence and affection by hundreds of thousands of lakshmis or gopis.]
In Goloka Vrindavana there is no need for the sparshamani, touchstone, because everything there is already chintamani. Whatever desire arises can be fulfilled by the trees or cows. Anything there can fulfil all of your desires. Thus, which is the highest, chintamani or sparshamani? Perhaps you do not fully understand, so I will elaborate.
If you bathe in the Ganges, all of your sinful activities will be destroyed from your heart - ‘gańgāra paraśa hoile’. If you just touch the water of the Ganges, all of your sin, papa, will be destroyed. And if you do not bathe in the Ganges, you will not be purified as your sinful activities have not been destroyed. Now, there is also darshana of a bona fide Vaishnava. If you take darshana, meaning if you just see or visit an uttama-vaishnava, automatically all of your sins are destroyed and krishna-prema manifests in your heart.
yāṅhāra darśane mukhe āise kṛṣṇa-nāma
tāṅhāre jāniha tumi 'vaiṣṇava-pradhāna'
Chaitanya-charitamrita (Madhya-lila 16.74)
[Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said, “A first-class Vaishnava is he whose very presence makes others chant the holy name of Krishna.”]
Just by taking the darshana of an uttama-bhagavata, krishna-prema will manifest in your heart. Knowing this, who is higher, ganga-jala, the water of the Ganges or shuddha-vaishnavas? This is why Srila Narottama dasa Thakura sings:
(3)
gańgāra paraśa hoile paścate pāvan
darśane pavitra koro-ei tomāra guṇ
(4)
hari-sthāne aparādhe tāre hari-nām
tomā sthāne aparādhe nāhi paritrāṇ
Ei baro karuna koro
by Narottama dasa Thakura
[After bathing in the waters of the sacred Ganges many times, one becomes purified, but just by the sight of you, the fallen souls are purified. This is your great power. The holy name delivers one who has committed an offence to Lord Hari. But, if one commits an offence to you, there is no means of deliverance.]
If you have committed any offences while chanting the holy names, nama-aparadha, but again and again continue chanting the holy names, these offences to the holy names will slowly, slowly disappear. ‘Yāṅhāra darśane mukhe āise kṛṣṇa-nāma’. However, if you have committed an offence at the lotus feet of shuddha-vaishnava, you will not be able to continue performing your bhajana and sadhana— your life is essentially finished. Why am I saying this? Because Gurudeva is also uttama-bhagavata. Yet, how will you recognise an uttama-bhagavata? Chaitanya-charitamrita has given us evidence:
yāṅhāra darśane mukhe āise kṛṣṇa-nāma
tāṅhāre jāniha tumi 'vaiṣṇava-pradhāna'
Just by taking darshana of the lotus feet of an uttama-bhagavata, then krishna-prema will manifest. Except, how will you know if one is an uttama-bhagavata? You could say he is uttama-bhagavata, but perhaps he is kanishtha-bhagavata. Only when your self-realisation, anubhava, has come can you fully understand.
nāyam ātmā pravacanena labhyo
na medhayā na bahunā śrutena
yam evaiṣa vṛṇute tena labhyas
tasyaiṣa ātmā vivṛṇute tanūṁ svām
Katha Upanishad (1.2.23)
[The Supreme Lord is not attained by expert explanations, by vast intelligence or even by much hearing. He is attained only by one who He Himself chooses. To such a person He manifests Himself.]
This shloka in Upanishad very clearly answers this question. Only when you perform your bhajana and sadhana and you receive His mercy, will you realise certain truths about Him. By relying only on your knowledge of the scriptures, you cannot realise bhagavat-tattva, guru-tattva or vaishnava-tattva. In this regard Chaitanya-charitamrita states:
īśvarera kṛpā-leśa haya ta’ yāhāre
sei ta’ īśvara-tattva jānibāre pāre
Chaitanya-charitamrita (Madhya-lila 6.83)
[If one receives but a tiny bit of the Lord’s favour by dint of devotional service, he can understand the nature of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.]
If you receive this mercy of the Lord, then you will understand krishna-tattva. If you receive mercy of Guru, you will realise guru-tattva, and if you receive this mercy from a Vaishnava, you will realise vaishnava-tattva.
athāpi te deva padāmbuja-dvaya-
prasāda-leśānugṛhīta eva hi
jānāti tattvaṁ bhagavan-mahimno
na cānya eko ’pi ciraṁ vicinvan
Srimad-Bhagavatam (10.14.29)
[My Lord, if one is favoured by even a slight trace of the mercy of Your lotus feet, he can understand the greatness of Your personality. But those who speculate to understand the Supreme Personality of Godhead are unable to know You, even though they continue to study the Vedas for many years.]
Try to realise that without His mercy, you cannot understand. There is much evidence of this. And only by performing your bhajana and sadhana will you realise these things.
There is a similar pastime found between Gopinatha Acharya and Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya when they were discussing Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Gopinatha Acharya said, “Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Bhagavan,” and Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya argued, “How is it possible that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Bhagavan?” In the beginning, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya did not believe Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Bhagavan. He believed, “Perhaps He is just some great personality— called maha-parusha. Or perhaps He is a very learned and scholarly person. So, how is it possible that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Bhagavan? All of you are saying Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Bhagavan, Bhagavan, Bhagavan. Why is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Bhagavan?”
Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya did not initially believe that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Bhagavan because Sarvabhauma was an impersonalist, and he contained a vast wealth of knowledge of shastra and of the Vedas also. Actually, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya is an incarnation of Brihaspati, he is not an ordinary personality.
Despite Gopinatha Acharya offering proof from scriptures and counter-arguing, “No, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is indeed Bhagavan. There is evidence in our shastras,” Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya persisted, “In this Kali-yuga, Bhagavan is not appearing. How can the shastras state that the Lord will appear in this age? In Kali-yuga, the Lord will come, yes this is true, but He will only appear at the end of Kali— called His Kalki avatara. Thus, how is it possible for you to say that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Svayam Bhagavan?”
However, Gopinatha Acharya is a shuddha-bhakta and replied, “There are symptoms of Bhagavan also present in Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Also, Mahabharata and all Puranas have provided direct verses indicating that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Bhagavan. Srimad-Bhagavatam gives evidence that Lord Chaitanya is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Just read the conversation between Nava-Yogendras and Nimi Maharaja in Srimad-Bhagavatam where Nimi Maharaja proposed these questions, “In Kali-yuga, how will we know who is Bhagavan? What are the symptoms of Bhagavan? And with which mantra will we worship the Lord in this Kali-yuga? Also, how will we know He is Bhagavan?” Then, this verse was quoted:
tyaktvā su-dustyaja-surepsita-rājya-lakṣmīṁ
dharmiṣṭha ārya-vacasā yad agād araṇyam
māyā-mṛgaṁ dayitayepsitam anvadhāvad
vande mahā-puruṣa te caraṇāravindam
Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.34)
[O Maha-purusha, I worship Your lotus feet. You gave up the association of the goddess of fortune and all her opulence, which is most difficult to renounce and is hankered after by even the great demigods. Being the most faithful follower of the path of religion, You thus left for the forest in obedience to a brahmana’s curse. Out of sheer mercifulness You chased after the fallen conditioned souls, who are always in pursuit of the false enjoyment of illusion, and at the same time engaged in searching out Your own desired object, Lord Shyamasundara.]
kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ
Srimad-Bhagavatam (11.5.32)
[In the Age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead who constantly sings the names of Krishna. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Krishna Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons and confidential companions.]
This is the evidence given to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, still, he did not believe that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Bhagavan. Then, one time Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya told Mahaprabhu, “You are navina-sannyasi - You’re a young boy and took sannyasa, You are only twenty four years old and You already took sannyasa, but You have no knowledge about sannyasa, You do not know the etiquette of a sannyasi. You should stay in one place and learn vedanta-darshana. I will teach You all vedanta-darshana. You took sannyasa from madhyama, the middle stage of sannyasi, but I will give You uttama-sannyasa— high class sannyasa.”
After hearing his words, Mahaprabhu very humbly replied, “Yes, you are like both mother and father, and now I am taking shelter to your lotus feet. What will you give Me? I will listen to everything from you.” Then for seven days, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya gave vedanta-darshana-katha, ‘athāto brahma jijñāsā’. He gave all Vedanta-sutra very nicely. And Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sat and listened to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, and other disciples of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya who were very enthusiastic, proclaiming, “Gurudeva! What you are speaking is so nice and we understand everything very clearly.”
Then, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya asked the Lord, “O navina-sannyasi, new sannyasi, what is Your opinion? Do You understand these things or not? Are You listening or not?” Then Mahaprabhu answered, “Yes, I am listening to everything. When you spoke all the verses of Vedanta-sutra, I clearly understood ‘athāto brahma jijñāsā’. However, when you gave the explanation of Vedanta-sutra, at that time I was thinking that the sun becomes completely covered by clouds of rain.”
After hearing the Lord’s response, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya became very angry and said, “That means I am giving You the wrong explanation? I am giving sannyasa to everybody. I am Shankaracharya’s best philosopher. How can it be possible that I gave the wrong explanation of vedanta-darshana?” Then, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu replied, “Look, you are saying, ‘Sarvaṃ khalvidaṃ brahma.’ (“All this is Brahman.”) But how is it possible for the jiva to become Brahma?”
In this way, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu continued cutting all the explanations of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya’s vedanta-darshana by providing many more meanings to the verse in question. Now Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya was completely defeated and could not speak a word. There still remained some doubts in Sarvabhauma’s mind, so he thought, “Is Chaitanya Mahaprabhu actually Svayam Bhagavan or not? Perhaps yes or maybe no.” In this way he still mentally contemplated. The Lord knows everything. So Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, “Okay, you still doubt whether I am Bhagavan or not.”
Then Mahaprabhu manifested His six-armed form. With two of His arms, the Lord was playing flute while speaking, “I am the same Krishna who appeared in Dvapara-yuga. In Treta-yuga, I am the same Ramachandra, just see My bow and arrow, and now, I am the same as a sannyasi with a kamandalu.” After witnessing this extraordinary form, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya absolutely surrendered to Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He then recited many stava-stutis and glorifications about Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. ‘Vairāgya-vidyā-nija-bhakti-yoga-śikṣārtham ekaḥ puruṣaḥ purāṇaḥ.’ Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya realised that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Svayam Bhagavan - ‘kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam.’
Why am I saying this? Because in the same way, when you perform your bhajana and sadhana, self-realisation will come and you will realise these tattvas: guru-tattva, vaishnava-tattva, bhagavat-tattva, every tattva, all realisation will come. And then by the causeless mercy of Guru and Krishna, everything will manifest in your heart.
Another thing I will tell you, when that moment of realisation comes, your mind will be one-pointed with only Guru and Krishna. This is the symptom. So is someone speaking from the point of realisation or are they just commenting from memorising a paper?
Gurudeva told one story of a parrot. The parrot can also chant the holy names, “Rama, Rama, Krishna, Krishna.” But does this parrot actually have any realisation? No. You just teach him to repeat the words, “Rama, Rama,” in the same tune as your voice. Similarly, when your self-realisation comes, then you will perfectly and absolutely comprehend this Absolute Truth. This verse again clearly explains:
īśvarera kṛpā-leśa haya ta’ yāhāre
sei ta’ īśvara-tattva jānibāre pāre
One who receives the mercy of the Lord will then realise all ishvara-tattva, bhagavat-tattva. Otherwise, by simply learning, memorising and speaking, it is just not possible to have these realisations. Try to understand that realisation will only come two ways, one is by mercy and the other by your endeavours.
And all of you have received this mercy from Gurudeva, I believe this to be true. However, you have to make endeavours in order to realise certain truths yourself. When it rains, the water falls, in the same way, mercy falls on us from Gurudeva. But it is up to you to realise. And how will you realise? By daily performing your bhajana and sadhana. By chanting the holy names, then slowly, realisation will come.
If you place your hand in the fire, you will get burned, regardless of your knowledge of fire. One does not say, “No, this fire will not burn my hand if it touches it.” Only when you place your hand in the fire, do you realise its heat and burning propensity.
In the same way, how will you know He is Bhagavan? When you do bhajana and sadhana, self-realisation will come. Slowly, everything will manifest in your heart.
However, you also have to read. You have to advance in your spiritual life. Listen to more and more high-class katha, then your samskaras, impressions will come. And you have to follow all the rules and regulations of shastra— vidhi-marga. Without following all the rules and regulations of scriptures, you cannot enter in the raga-marga and gopi-bhava will never come. For this reason Gurudeva quoted this verse:
vidhi-mārga-rata-jane
svādhīnatā-ratna-dāne
rāga-mārge karāna praveśa
Kalyana-kalpataru
[To the person fixed in the regulative principles, the holy name gives the jewel of independence, placing him on the path of spontaneous devotion (raganuga-bhakti).]
One who follows all the rules and regulations, vidhi-marga, and simultaneously listens to the vrajavasis-katha everyday, will have greed to enter into raganuga-bhakti manifest in his heart. Srila Gurudeva preached in this manner, he always placed emphasis on vidhi-marga, rules and regulations of the shastras first:
śruti-smṛti-purāṇādi-pañcarātra-vidhiṃ
vinā aikāntikī harer bhaktir utpātāyaiva kalpate
Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu (1.2.101)
[Devotional service of the Lord that ignores the authorised Vedic literatures like the Upanishads, Puranas and Narada-pancharatra is simply an unnecessary disturbance in society.]
This means that those who are not strictly following all the rules and regulations of our shastra, can mistakenly begin to think, “Oh, I am a gopi, I am now a raganuga-sadhaka,” when actually, this is a disturbance to our bhakti and those of others. For this regard, in the first shloka of Sri Upadeshamrita, Nectar of Instruction, Sri Rupa Gosvami very clearly wrote:
vāco vegaṁ manasaḥ krodha-vegaṁ
jihvā-vegam udaropastha-vegam
etān vegān yo viṣaheta dhīraḥ
sarvām apīmāṁ pṛthivīṁ sa śiṣyāt
Upadeshamrita (1)
[A sober person who can tolerate the urge to speak, the mind’s demands, the actions of anger and the urges of the tongue, belly and genitals is qualified to make disciples all over the world.]
You have to control the six urges of your senses. If you do not follow this process and mentally concoct the idea, “Now I am a gopi,” which gopi form will manifest in your mind? Pakora-gopi will come or perhaps Kachori-gopi or Jalebi-gopi or even Rasagulla-gopi will manifest. And then they will say, “Vaishnava dasa has now become Panira dasa.” Stupid nonsense!
Gurudeva taught us that first everyone has to follow vidhi-marga, the rules and regulations of the scriptures. Then slowly, slowly, after listening to hari-katha from a rasika-sadhu everyday, greed will come to you to enter into vraja-raganuga-bhakti. Gurudeva firmly concluded that if you do not listen to vraja-katha, how will samskara, impressions, possibly arise within your heart? So first, you must all strictly follow vidhi-marga:
vidhi-mārga-rata-jane svādhīnatā-ratna-dāne
rāga-mārge karāna praveśa
What is the main difference between our lineage and that of sahajiyas and sakhi-bhekhis? They do not want to follow any rules or regulations from the shastras. They incorrectly believe, “I am already a gopi, so there is no longer a need for me to follow the rules.”
For this reason, Gurudeva, Srila Narayana Gosvami Maharaja, manifested one very powerful book called Prabandha-panchakam, Five Essential Essays. You all must read this grantha, it has been translated into Bengali, Hindi and English. When Gurudeva manifested this grantha, it was distributed to everyone for free, it was even distributed amongst babaji-sampradayas. And after reading this book, they became very angry. In this grantha, Gurudeva provided all the supporting evidence from our shastras. Still, the babaji-sampradayas were so angry with Gurudeva that they even held meetings where they discussed filing a court case against him.
Try to understand that Gurudeva was a very powerful acharya. And just like Srila Jiva Gosvamipada, he gave the perfect siddhanta which all acharyas accepted. Gurudeva’s tattva-siddhanta was absolutely true. No one can cut his philosophies. In this regard, Gurudeva was appropriately called a rasika-acharya. Simultaneously, he was also very tattva-siddhantic and vedantic, meaning, he knew all tattva-siddhanta. However, his specialty is that simultaneously, he is a rasika-acharya.
Especially in our Mathura Matha, and especially after Janmashtami or Radhashtami, Srila Gurudeva would call all the panditas in our temple and everyone invited would speak on krishna-katha, Radharani’s kathas. However, when Srila Gurudeva spoke shastra, all the panditas present would become very surprised.
A quick example, everyone already established: ‘ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam’. But now, Gurudeva established a different conception by saying, “Okay, Krishna is Svayam Bhagavan. In the Brahma-samhita Brahmaji says, ‘Govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi.’ But, Srila Prabodhananda Sarasvati clearly said:
yat-kiṅkarīṣu bahuśaḥ khalu kāku-vāṇī
nityaṁ parasya puruṣasya śikhaṇḍa-mauleḥ
tasyāḥ kadā rasa-nidheḥ vṛṣabhānu-jāyās
tat-keli-kuñja-bhavanāṅgana-mārjanī syām
Sri Radha-rasa-sudha-nidhi (8)by Prabodhananda Sarasvati
[O daughter of Vrishabhanu Maharaja, ocean of rasa, that beautiful boy who wears a gracefully tilting peacock feather in His hair is actually the original Personality of Godhead. Still, He is always falling at the feet of Your maidservants and pitifully begging them with many humble words to gain entrance into Your kunja where the two of You engage in Your playful loving pastimes. My life would be successful if I could even be one stick in the broom Your maidservants use to clean Your delightful kunja.]
“Thus, Krishna, again and again, bows His forehead down at the lotus feet of Srimati Radhika. So how is it possible that Krishna is Bhagavan? Brahma, Shiva, Narada, all the high class elevated Vaishnavas, have paid their obeisances unto the lotus feet of Krishna. And now this same Krishna, what is He doing?
smara-garala-khaṇḍanaṁ
mama śirasi maṇḍanaṁ
dehi pada-pallavam udāram
Gita-govinda
[My beloved, offer the fresh buds of your enchanting feet as an ornament upon My head, so the devastating effect of Cupid’s poison may be alleviated and the harsh fire of amorous desires may also be relieved.]
Here, what is Krishna saying? “O Srimati Radhike, now I am offering all of My things, My mayura-mukuta, peacock feather crown, I am placing My flute at Your lotus feet while I am holding My ears,” Krishna actually pulls His ears and He sits down, stands up and sits down again. Yet still, Srimati Radhika is not pleased with Krishna. Then He says, “Dehi pada-pallavam udāram - O Srimati Radhike, please keep Your lotus feet on My head.”
You see, whenever Srimati Radhika displayed Her mana, She would close the doors to Her kunja. Then, Krishna would begin to weep:
yat-kiṅkarīṣu bahuśaḥ khalu kāku-vāṇī
nityaṁ parasya puruṣasya śikhaṇḍa-mauleḥ
tasyāḥ kadā rasa-nidheḥ vṛṣabhānu-jāyās
tat-keli-kuñja-bhavanāṅgana-mārjanī syām
There are actually many shlokas supporting this conception. And when Gurudeva quoted this verse, all the panditas became very surprised. Because they realised Gurudeva was not only a rasika-acharya, but was also very vedantic. Because of this, all the Vrajavasis from the Vraja Academy awarded Gurudeva the title of yuga-acharya. Gurudeva was so rasika that, even when he gave class on Bhagavad-gita, he spoke about Srimati Radhika and gopi-katha.
man-manā bhava mad-bhakto
mad-yājī māṁ namaskuru
mām evaiṣyasi satyaṁ te
pratijāne priyo ’si me
Bhagavad-gita (18.65)
[Always think of Me, become My devotee, worship Me and offer your homage unto Me. Thus you will come to Me without fail. I promise you this because you are My very dear friend.]
Gurudeva would ask, “But who should you actually be completely absorbed with? The gopis.” There are so many kathas to be shared because Gurudeva’s conception, vichara, on shastra, his vichara on tattva-siddhanta and his rasa-vichara was unique and unparalleled. Those who associate with him and hear his hari-katha, will realise how Gurudeva was great, mahana.
What is Guru’s mercy? If you receive chastisement from Guru, then you have actually received the mercy of Guru. And if you never receive chastisement from Guru, how can you receive Guru’s mercy? Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada composed one verse where he states that Guru’s chastisement is actually his mercy.
However, conditioned souls do not understand this philosophy. They just think, “Oh, this guru is always glorifying me by saying, ‘Oh, you are very nice, very sweet.’ This is definitely a bona fide guru.” Hey! Stupid nonsense! No, this is not what qualifies a bona fide guru. You did not see how heavily Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja chastised us. We were staying together, Madhava Maharaja, Tirtha Maharaja, Premananda Prabhu and others, we saw first-hand and realised that without Guru’s chastisement, how can you possibly say you received mercy?
Gaura premanande! Hari Hari Bol!
Bolo Vrindavana Bihari lala ki jaya!
[Jaya Srila Gurudeva ki jaya!]
[Jaya Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja ki jaya!]
[Jaya jaya Sri Radhe!]
Date: 2 February 2022 Location: Brazil
Transcriber: Chandrika dasi (UK) Editor: Sanatana dasa (USA) Integrity check: Divya-premamayi dasi (Slovakia) Proofreader: Chandrika dasi (UK)
Image: Navina-krishna dasa (Holland)