(4) Understanding Guru's Heart

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's tirobhav
Sri Nrisingha Palli, 11 August 2018, morning, part 4
Translated from Bengali

So, today is the holy disappearance day of Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. Please listen carefully about our Param Guru Maharaj. If you have some service, do your service with your hands and listen to Hari-katha with your ears.

How do we know about Srila Sridhar Maharaj? Why does everybody respect him so much? Why did many of Gaudiya Math's acharyas take sannyas from him? It was owing to Srila Prabhupad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur and to his kirtan. You may have been to Sri Bagbazar Gaudiya Math, it is a temple in Kolkata that was established by Srila Prabhupad. At the age of sixty-four, Srila Prabhupad performed his last pastimes there. He showed a pastime of illness and everybody understood that he would leave soon. Actually, Srila Prabhupad did not declare anybody the next acharya. Later, Kunja Babu, who was Srila Prabhupad's appointed secretary of the Mission, took charge of Sri Chaitanya Math. If somebody asks you, 'In which guru-parampara did you take initiation?' you must be able to explain these things. Otherwise, how will you tell others about your guru-parampara?

So, when Srila Prabhupad showed the pastime of illness, somebody had to always be there with him in case Srila Prabhupad wanted anything or anything had to be done, so all the devotees divided this service among themselves. The hardest time was from two to four o'clock at night. Everybody is fast asleep at this time. We, too, usually take prasad at nine or ten o'clock and then go to rest and wake up at four o'clock in the morning the next day for mangala-arati. So, from two to four is the hardest time, and nobody wanted to take this time, but somebody had to be there with Srila Prabhupad, so Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj stepped forward, 'If nobody can do it, I will stay there at this time.' So, he would come and stay with Srila Prabhupad at this time at night.

The day before Srila Prabhupad left, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj stayed on his duty as usual and when it came to four o'clock, he went upstairs to his room. Others had woken up by that time to attend mangala-arati, so there were quite a few devotees around Srila Prabhupad by then. After mangala-arati, everybody also came to offer their obeisance to Srila Prabhupad. Srila Prabhupad was lying in bed. When everybody came, he told them, 'Where is Sridhar Maharaj?' Somebody explained, 'He went upstairs. His duty was from to two to four, so he went upstairs to take a shower and get some rest.' Then, Srila Prabhupad said, 'Call him. I want to hear him sing "Sri Rupa-manjari-pada" kirtan.'

Gurudev wants to hear a kirtan – from whose mouth? From Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's.

Somebody went upstairs and knocked on Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj's door. He opened the door and asked, 'What has happened?' The devotee said, 'Prabhupad is calling you.' Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj quickly went to get dressed, and by the time he got ready and came downstairs, a little time had passed, so another person had started singing instead.

This is called an insult to the guru – when your guru says one thing and you cross that and say something else; when you do not understand what your guru is thinking about and say something that does not align with your guru's wish. Gurudev says, 'I want to hear it from Sridhar Maharaj,' but because Sridhar Maharaj is a little late, you choose another person who can sing well and tell him, 'Start singing! You can chant it.'

When the other person started singing, Srila Prabhupad suddenly sat up and shouted, 'What is going on?? This is not Sridhar Maharaj's voice! Stop it! I do not want to hear a tune – I want to hear kirtan! And I want to hear it from Sridhar Maharaj. He will sing it when he comes.' Everybody was stunned. Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj had never actually been told to chant kirtan – he was not a good singer. Then, you can understand something from this...

Many people think, 'Oh, I have no voice, how can I sing?' Neither the Lord nor your guru wants to hear a tune or a melody. You think, 'Oh, I cannot sing well', 'I cannot play the mridanga well', 'I cannot play the kartals well' – do as you can! Do as you can and you can gradually learn in this way. If you cannot play well, it does not mean that you must stay away from the mridanga or kartals – no, you must try and make some effort to learn it. None of us is born from the mother's womb with an ability to chant kirtans. It all comes by the influence of sadhu-sanga, vaishnav-sanga. So, do not worry if you cannot sing well.

Srila Prabhupad said, 'I do not want to hear a tune, I want to hear kirtan – and I want to hear it from Sridhar Maharaj's mouth.' When Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj finally came (perhaps, five minutes later), he apologised, 'Prabhupad, I am sorry I am late.' Then, he started chanting that kirtan. After hearing this 'Sri Rupa-manjari-pada' kirtan from Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Srila Prabhupad left this world...

From this you can understand whom Srila Prabhupad gave the service of the acharya in his Gaudiya Math.

— : • : —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }