Greatness of Gaudiya

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
2 July 2013, Sri Nabadwip Dham, part 4

Question: Gurudev, could you explain what Gaudiya is? What does the word 'gaudiya' mean?

You can understand it from one joke also... One time, Iskcon sent a brahmachari devotee here to invite Gurudev for the appearance festival of Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Maharaj. He first came to me and said he wanted to see Gurudev, I said "OK" and took him to Gurudev. It turned out that the devotee did not know the name of our temple and wrote 'Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Gaudiya Math' on the envelope with the invitation. When Gurudev saw it, he said, "Oh, Chaitanya Saraswat Gaudiya Math? Who are they? This is not Chaitanya Saraswat Gaudiya Math here. Prabhu, please forgive my offence, but we have not been able to become Gaudiya yet." The boy got very shy, "Oh, this is a mistake..."

This is what Gurudev said, in a joking way.

Actually, 'gaudiya' means Mahaprabhu's conception, the real conception. One time, Mahaprabhu chastised one man and His chastisement was only calling that man a gaudiya. Why?

When everybody was cleaning the Gundicha temple in Puri, that man took water that was used to wash Mahaprabhu's feet and he began throwing it into the air. Mahaprabhu saw it and showed anger, "Do you see it, Swarup Damodar? Do you see? Can you see what your gaudiya is doing?! Do you see what kind of character he has?!" This is all Mahaprabhu said—he only called that man a "gaudiya".

Actually, that man is a very perfect devotee. When everybody threw their plates, he would come and take that prasad. And he was very clever. Mahaprabhu did not allow anyone to touch His feet, what to speak of washing His feet and taking that water—this was very far. That man has so much love and affection for Mahaprabhu, he actually has the deepest devotion, that is why he is very clever—it is said, "Ye jana Krsna bhaje sei bada chatur (যে জন কৃষ্ণ ভজে সেই বড় চতুর): those who worship Krishna are very clever."

When he began throwing that wash water in the temple, the water came down and he put his hand and drank that water. Mahaprabhu saw it and said, "Do you see, Swarup Damodar? Do you see how bad your gaudiya is?! What is he doing?! He washes My feet in the temple and then takes that water?!" Thinking that Mahaprabhu was very angry, Swarup Damodar quickly grabbed than man by his neck and threw him out. Mahaprabhu was very happy—not because Swarup Damodar had thrown him out, but because He wanted to teach others. Internally, He felt very happy to see that that man had so much devotion. No one could do what he did. Big, big devotees, great senior devotees are all great big personalities, but no one of them could do what he did—only this one small old man came and taught everyone. That is why Mahaprabhu called him a gaudiya. One who knows Mahaprabhu, who knows the conception of Mahaprabhu, who knows Gauranga is called 'gaudiya'. That man knew the inner feelings of Mahaprabhu, knew His inner fulfillment, that is why Mahaprabhu said, "You are a 'gaudiya'!"

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