(1/7) Gurudev's Coming to Temple

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja of Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj
Sri Nrisingha Palli, morning programme
1 January 2021, part 2, translated from Bengali

Gurudev’s father was a descendent of Sriman Nityananda Prabhu’s lineage and was the kulu-guru of the village. He gave initiations and took disciples, and he was also very good at singing lila-kirtans. When Gurudev grew up a little – when he was, perhaps, ten–twelve years old – his father would take him to different places where he sang lila-kirtans. In this way, Gurudev also learned those kirtans. It happened so that one day Gurudev’s father left his body. After Gurudev, there were two more sons born in the family, but they were still very small at that time, so all responsibility for the family fell on Gurudev’s shoulders. He had to earn money to maintain the family. There was a practising doctor, Kalipata Singh, staying nearby, at Nadanghat, and Gurudev started working for him as an assistant: the doctor would prescribe patients some medicine, and Gurudev would prepare it. He stayed in Nadanghat and earned twenty rupees per month for his family (he would send it to his mother to run the household).

Actually, Gurudev was also a very good cook – I learnt whatever cooking I know from him. He told me: this should be cooked in this way, and that should be cooked in that way; he taught me everything. Gurudev was also a good mridanga player…

One day, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj’s preaching party came to Nadanghat on their way back from preaching. Among them were Srila Bhakti Kamal Madhusudan Maharaj, Narasimhananda Brahmachari (later, he became Srila Bhakti Vaibhav Puri Maharaj), Bhutavrit Prabhu (later, Sripad Ashram Maharaj). In the course of preaching, they did collection during the day and in the evening gave a class and chanted kirtans at the house of some zamindar. When they came to Nadanghat, Gurudev came and sat at the programme to listen to the Hari-katha. He told us later what he heard that day – the devotee who gave the class said that this body is nothing, this mind is nothing, the soul is everything (that we are souls). It changed Gurudev.

At the programme, somebody was playing the drum, and Gurudev thought to himself, ‘He does not know how to play the drum, but how can I tell it to them? They are sadhus…’ Finally, he said:

‘May I play the mridanga?’

‘Can you play it?’ they asked him, surprised.

‘Yes, I can,’ Gurudev answered.

When Gurudev started playing the mridanga, everyone liked it very much. They were impressed, ‘This boy knows how to play the mridanga!’

‘Do you want to come with us to the temple?’ they asked Gurudev after the programme.

‘Yes,’ Gurudev answered, ‘if you take me there today, I will go.’

‘Today?’

‘Yes, today.’

‘All right, let us go then.’

There was a large river in Nadanghat – after some rains, the Ganges had swelled and a river had appeared. There was no bridge, so they had to swim across it. Gurudev took off his clothes and put them on his head; after swimming across, he put his clothes back on and continued his way to the temple in Kolerdanga on foot. That day was Nrisingha-chaturdasi. Gurudev appeared at the temple for the first time on the day of Nrisingha-chaturdasi. He said that he was a Bardhaman boy, so he was used to eating rice three times a day, and he was very young at that time – he was a seventeen-year-old youth. So, when he came to the temple, having walked all the way from Nadanghat, he was told that it was Nrisingha-chaturdasi and the sadhus were fasting (not eating anything) that day. Gurudev had walked so long and was very hungry, and they told him that it was a fasting day! Gurudev thought, ‘Where have I come? They are not eating anything!’ He walked around and saw one very tall sadhu. It was Srila Sridhar Maharaj – he was chanting the Holy Name on his veranda, looking very serious. Seeing Gurudev, Srila Sridhar Maharaj called him, ‘Come here.’

‘Have you come today?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ Gurudev answered.

‘You must be hungry. Do you want to have something?’

‘What can I have? Everyone is fasting.’

‘Let me see what I have.’

Then, Gurudev noticed a ripe papaw on one of the trees nearby, and he told Srila Sridhar Maharaj about it. Srila Sridhar Maharaj asked him, ‘Can you climb the tree?’ Gurudev said, ‘Yes, I can. Shall I climb it then?’ Getting Srila Sridhar Maharaj’s permission, he climbed the tree, got the papaw and gave it to Srila Sridhar Maharaj. Then, Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave it to Gurudev, saying, ‘All right. Here, take it. You can have it.’ Everyone was fasting that day – they did not even drink water – but Srila Sridhar Maharaj told Gurudev that he could eat some papaw. Srila Sridhar Maharaj liked Gurudev from the very beginning. Moreover, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj observed Gurudev, and seven days after he came to the temple, he declared that this boy would be the next acharya and would hold the rudder of this Mission in the future.

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Size: 17 Mb
Length: 40 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Gurudev's Appearance
2) Gurudev's Coming to Temple
3) Perfect Adherence
4) Who Is Guru?
5) Sri Guru Tattva
6) Guru's Greed, Disciple's Greed
7) Deceivers and Deceived