Srila Gurudev's Pastimes (1)

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

As you know, my Gurupadpadma came to the Math in 1947. Pujyapad Bhakti Kamal Madhusudan Maharaj, Nrisinghananda Brahmachari (he became Pujyapad Bhakti Vaibhav Puri Maharaj later), and another devotee, who later became Pujyapad Ashram Maharaj went for preaching to Nadan Ghat. You have all heard—I do not want to exaggerate it—that Srila Sridhar Maharaj treated all his godbrothers with parental love and gave them shelter, even though the accommodation at the temple was not so good in those days. At that time, my Gurudev had lost his father and had to support his family, so he was working as a compounder for one ayurvedic doctor, earning about twenty rupees. Then, one evening, after collecting door to door the whole day, the devotees came to the house of a zamindar in Nadan Ghat and chanted kirtan, gave class, etc. there. Srila Gurudev said that seeing that programme reminded him of Raja Birhambir's assembly. He listened to Nrisinghananda Brahmachari telling, "This body is nothing, this mind is nothing, the soul is everything" and was astonished; he thought to himself, "What is it that I hear?" Then, when the devotees started kirtan, one of the brahmacharis was playing the mridanga, and Gurudev, who was very young at that time, seventeen years old, said, "He does not know how to play the mridanga; give the mridanga to me, I play better." Then, at some point the sannyasis asked him, "Will you come to the Math with us?" Gurudev said, "Yes, I will come." "Will you go today?" "Yes, I will go today itself!" Then, crossing across the river at Nagan Ghat, Gurudev came to this Math on the day of Nrisingha-chaturdasi. This was the first day he entered the temple.

After that, so many things happened. One time, I asked Gurudev, "You took shelter at the lotus feet of Srila Sridhar Maharaj, then how did you leave and get married?" Gurudev said, "Because I had made a mistake." I asked Gurudev directly, "What mistake did you make?" Gurudev replied, "I was very young and did not know any better—I had planted some onion at the temple. Srila Sridhar Maharaj went to the garden one day to see what I had planted, and when he saw the onion, he said, 'Have you planted this? You are finished! You will stumble and go away.'" After that, Gurudev took sannyas when he was twenty-four, but after that he left. Gurudev said, "I had fallen into a hole, but I did not grasp anyone's hand to get out—like a dog, I fell into a hole and was barking and whining. Then, my Gurudev stretched his hand out to me and pulled me out again."

Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave Srila Gurudev name 'Govinda Maharaj' when he was twenty-four, and even though he was a grihastha with beautiful curly hair and lived in Kolkata, what did he do in Kolkata? He would work and send money to Srila Sridhar Maharaj. When his daughter was born (later, she became a school headmistress; she is retired now), Guru Maharaj [Srila Govinda Maharaj] said, "I did not have money to buy milk for my daughter, I would feed her with barley, but I made sure I sent twenty rupees to my Guru Maharaj every month..."

Srila Gurudev did not study at school so much—he finished the third grade of primary school and was transferred to the fourth grade, and Gurudev said that he was so naughty that whenever he went to school to study, there was not a single day when he would not be flogged by the teacher. Gurudev said, "The teacher would enjoy beating me." So, although Gurudev completed only three-four grades at school, he did the proofreading for Srila Guru Maharaj's printing press! We have studied so much in our life, and even now if we write in Bengali, we will make ten mistakes, but I have seen Guru Maharaj's [Srila Govinda Maharaj's] handwritten cheque in English—his handwriting is so beautiful! I could not write like that. You know, there were times when I would proofread texts so many times, so many times, but when Gurudev looked at it, he would still find a mistake in it. So, when Gurudev stayed in Kolkata, Gurudev not only gave Srila Guru Maharaj money for printing books, but he would also proofread them...

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