All Glory to Sri Sri Guru Gauranga

— · Sri Guru-Puja Maha-Mahotsav Invitation · —

Dear Vaishnavas,

Please accept our humble obeisance at your holy feet.

Our supremely worshippable Sri Gurupadpadma Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj's worshippable Gurudev and the exclusive predecessor President Acharya of the world-renowned Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math Mission, selected and appointed by Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj, Param-pujyapad Parivrajakacharya Visva-guru Om Vishnupad Sri Srimad Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj's 92rd holy appearance day manifests on 21 December 2021 this year.

We pray that every sincere devotee of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math may find a possibility to observe this day immersed in Sri Hari-katha, Hari-kirtan, and Hari-seva, which are so extremely dear to our Sri Gurupadpadma and entire Guru-varga.

Although there is currently no bona fide centralised outlet for service contributions in the Mission, we pray that devotees can render assistance to the festivals observed in their communities and focus eternally in their lives on contributing the core ingredient of every service endeavour—one's entire being, mind, heart and soul. In the words of His Divine Grace, "Surrender to the Lord. Have full faith. You must surrender and give everything—your shyness, shame, fear, everything; keep everything at the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna, Srimati Radharani, or Gurudev. Give your everything, cent per cent."

Taking your feet dust on our heads, we humbly pray that this supremely worshippable divine appearance day of Om Vishnupad Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, celebrated with much joy and grandeur by the fortunate souls throughout the entire manifest creation, may pass auspiciously in every house and heart.

Your aspiring servants,
on behalf of SCSMathInternational.com

Email address for enquiries:

Satisfying the Lord
"Bali Maharaj asked Vamanadev, 'O brahman, what do you want? Tell me, and I can give You anything you wish.' Vamanadev replied, 'I do not want much. I know you have everything, but I want only something small.'"
• Download / listen to the audio (2.7 Mb, 7 min | 30 August 2020)

In view of the approaching grand festival of the divine appearance of His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, the predecessor President and Sevaite-Acharya of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, on 21 December 2021 (Tuesday), we humbly share the following as a way of general guidance on conducting festivals that we have learned from the association and eternal divine pastimes of His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj. Generally, the programmes arranged and hosted by Sri Gurupadpadma would go as follows:

• Assembling, gathering and welcoming all august Vaishnavs and devotees with obeisances, sweet words, garlands;
• A brief introductory opening speech;
• Chanting kirtans:

From the holy lotus mouth of Sri Gurupadapdma Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj:

• "What did Gurudev leave us for? So that we join the festival, give some glorification, take prasadam, and leave? Our service does not finish there. We must distribute to others what Gurudev told all over the world, what Gurudev kept for us—his books, his audio and video recordings. What we invent or discover is not necessary to distribute; distribute what he told, what he invented and discovered, that is sufficient—people will be benefitted through that. That is necessary for us. We should understand what he wanted and what he did not want..."

• "Gurudev, Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj always wanted to give some prasadam to the devotees, and I saw in Chaitanya-charitamrita, Prapanna-jivanamritam, and even Jagadananda Pandit's Prema-vivarta that if you have something, you must give it to others—if you have no wealth, you can give others some prasadam, and if you have no prasadam, nothing, you can give others sweet words. That is the main thing. You can make others happy with sweet words."

• "All the devotees know how to cook, what is there to it? When Nityananda Prabhu is in Ekachakra, He likes roasted and mashed eggplant (begun pora), and when Nityananda Prabhu comes to Venezuela or Colombia, He takes arepa there. What is the problem? Nityananda Prabhu's taste is different—He can take different things from everybody and from everywhere as long as you cook it with heart. The main thing is to serve with heart—not to do anything artificially. When you do any service or cook anything, you must do it with heart, then it will be good for everybody, and then Mahaprabhu, or Krishna, or Nityananda Prabhu will be happy—They will enjoy, and Gurudev will also enjoy. This is the main advice how to do everything. It is necessary for us to understand this."

An extensive guidance on the proper service mood during the Vaishnav seva festivals is kept in the Daily Practice section of the website:

Observing Festivals
A page of the Daily Practice section dedicated to Vaishnav-seva and observing festivals. "Why are you making a festival? Making a festival means you are inviting many people and you are giving them some prasadam, engaging them in Krishna consciousness—it means practising Krishna consciousness."

In honour of Sripad Jagabandhu Bhakti Ranjan:

Srestharyya Sripad Jagabandhu Das Adhikari (From The Harmonist)
"THE day before the close of the spiritual Exhibition that had been organised in the spacious compound of the Gaudiya-Math, which function formed the concluding, activity of the long series of the festivities of the auspicious Inauguration of the New Buildings of the Math, Srestharyya Sripad Jagabandhu Das Adhikari Bhaktiranjan, the donor and architect of those superb Buildings, took his departure from the scene of unique devotional labours with the supreme satisfaction that his soul had at last found and successfully performed his duty to Godhead and humanity...."

In honour of Srila Saranga Thakur:

"I Am Saranga's Murari!"
"Remembering the last day of Nabadwip Dham parikrama, I want to tell you some very important thing. We always glorify Mamgachhi (Modadrumdwip) and speak about the birthplace of Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur, but there is also one small temple beside it..."
• Download / listen to the audio (1.8 Mb, 5 min | 4 January 2020)

Sri Saranga Thakur's Math in Mamgachhi (Modadrumdwip).

In honour of Srila Narahari Sarkar Thakur:

Srila B.R. Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj: "Narahari Sarkar belongs to the section of devotees who are more fond of Krishna-lila. Their vision is, 'We do not recognise You to be a sannyasi! You are that Krishna of Vrindavan, we know You well! Here, You have only put on a garment—You are wrapping Yourself in the garment of a sannyasi—but it is Your external acquaintance. We know well who You really are and we must admit that we do not like this forged identity of Yours.' This is their temperament. Rather, they feel much pain, 'What is the necessity for You to be practising penances as a sannyasi, going through so many hardships, not taking food properly, not resting in a proper bed, etc.? Our hearts are aching, but You do not care for that. How can we tolerate all these things?' That is their nature and complaint to Mahaprabhu. They feel that it is all a sham."

Strongest Faith (3) Raghunandan Thakur
"Mukunda's son Raghunandan also has full faith. One day, when he was ten years old, his mother said to him, 'Raghunandan, I am very busy today. I have cooked the offering, but I have no time to offer it to the Deities. You can offer today...'"
• Download / listen to the audio (1 Mb, 3 min | 10 March 2015)

Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhura Sochaka
A song composed by Srila Narahari Thakur in glorification of Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu's life, character, and service. Bengali verses and English transliteration.

In honour of Srila Kaliya Krishnadas:

Srila B.S. Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj: "Nityananda Prabhu accepted everyone but would chastise those who were offensive. Mahaprabhu showed some caution in distributing Krishna-nama and Krishna-prema: He followed the rules and regulations of sannyas life very strictly and because of this Mahaprabhu could not give shelter to offenders. When Mahaprabhu went to South India He took Kaliya Krishna Das with Him. In Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita he is referred to as Kala Krishna Das. On their tour Kaliya Krishna Das suffered some disturbance with some women and Mahaprabhu rescued him from that. Later when they returned to Jagannath Puri Mahaprabhu said, "I want to leave this boy Kaliya Krishna Das, he was irresponsible and greatly disturbed our mission. I don't want to keep him with Me. I do not want to be responsible for him." Kaliya Krishna Das, as an eternal parsad devotee (of Sri Nityananda Prabhu), played this role in the Lord's drama. At that time Nityananda Prabhu did not leave him, He told Mahaprabhu, "If You do not want to keep him it is no problem, I will take him. I will send him to Nabadwip to give news to Sachi Mata and the other devotees that You have come back from South India." In this way Nityananda Prabhu showed His extreme mercy and Kaliya Krishna Das spent the rest of his life with Nityananda Prabhu. So even when Mahaprabhu is angry, Nityananda Prabhu keeps devotees at His lotus feet. The conditioned souls can have much hope when they see the very deep and merciful character of Sri Nityananda Prabhu."

(The Divine Pastimes of Sri Nityananda Prabhu)