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 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, and 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 in the family, but they were very small at that time, so all responsibility for the family fell on Gurudev’s shoulders. Gurudev had to earn money to maintain the family. There was one 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 a very good cook – I have learnt whatever cooking I know from him. Gurudev 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), Bhutabrit Prabhu (later, Sripad Ashram Maharaj). During their preaching, they did collection during the day, and in the evening they would give a class and chant kirtans at the house of some zamindar. When they came to Nadanghat, Gurudev came and sat at the programme, listening to the Hari-katha. Gurudev told us later what he heard that day – the devotee who gave the class said that this body is nothing, this mind is nothing, and the soul is everything (that we are souls). It changed Gurudev. At the programme, somebody played the drum, and Gurudev thought, ‘He does not know how to play the drum, but how can I tell it to them? They are sadhus…’ Finally, Gurudev said:

‘Can I play the mridanga?’

‘Will you play it?’ They asked him.

‘Yes, I will,’ Gurudev answered.

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

‘Will you come with us to the temple?’ they asked Gurudev.

‘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 rains, the Ganges swelled and a river 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 then went 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. Gurudev 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 for 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!’ Gurudev walked around and saw one very tall sadhu. It was Srila Sridhar Maharaj – he was chanting the Holy Name on his veranda and looked very serious. Seeing Gurudev, Srila Sridhar Maharaj called him, ‘Come here.’

‘Have you come today?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ answered Gurudev.

‘I guess you are hungry. Will you have something?’

‘What will 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 Gurudev 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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