(2/8) 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, when Pujyapad Bhakti Kamal Madhusudan Maharaj, Sri Narasimhananda Brahmachari (later, he became Pujyapad Bhakti Vivriti Puri Maharaj) and Sri Bhutavrit Prabhu (later, he became Pujyapad Saudha Ashram Maharaj) went for preaching to Nadanghat. You have all heard – I do not want to exaggerate anything – 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. [Many of his godbrothers stayed with him and even went for preaching on behalf of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math.]

At that time, my Gurudev had lost his father and had to support his family, so he was working as a compounder for an ayurvedic doctor, earning about twenty rupees. One evening, having been collecting door to door the whole day, the Math devotees came to a zamindar’s house in Nadanghat. They chanted kirtan and gave a class there. Srila Gurudev said that when he saw that programme, it reminded him of Raja Birhambir’s assembly. When he heard Nrisinghananda Brahmachari saying, ‘This body is nothing, this mind is nothing, the soul is everything,’ he was astonished. He thought to himself, ‘What is this that I hear?’

Then the devotees started kirtan. One of the brahmacharis was playing the mridanga. Gurudev, who was very young at that time (seventeen years old), thought, ‘He does not know how to play the mridanga. They should give it to me, I will play better.’ He thought like that, but he was shy to say it. Then, he finally said, ‘Can you give the mridanga to me?’ Gurudev played the mirdanga very well, and everyone was impressed.

At some point, the sannyasi who was there asked him, ‘Do you want to come to the Math with us?’

‘Yes, I do,’ Gurudev answered. ‘If you take me today, I will come with you today.’

Then, crossing the river at Nadanghat, Gurudev came to this Math, on the day of Sri 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?’ and 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 fall down and go away.”’ So, initially, Gurudev took sannyas when he was twenty-four, but after that he left. Gurudev said, ‘I fell into a hole, but I did not grasp anyone’s hand to get out. Like a dog fallen into a hole, I was barking and whining. Then my gurudev stretched his hand out to me and pulled me out again.’

Srila Sridhar Maharaj gave Srila Gurudev the name ‘Govinda Maharaj’ when he was twenty-four. Even though later he lived in Kolkata as a grihastha (and he had beautiful curly hair), what did he do in Kolkata? He worked and sent money to Srila Sridhar Maharaj. Later, his daughter was born (she became a school headmistress and got MSc in Mathematics). Gurudev 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, but 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.’ Although Gurudev completed only three–four grades, he did proofreading for Srila Guru Maharaj’s printing press! We have studied so much in our lives, and even now if we write in Bengali, we will make ten mistakes, but I have seen Gurudev’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 there. When Gurudev stayed in Kolkata, he would print books and give money to Srila Guru Maharaj…

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Satiating Hunger
2) Srila Gurudev's Pastimes (1)
3) Srila Gurudev's Pastimes (2)
4) Srila Gurudev's Pastimes (3)
5) Srila Gurudev's Pastimes (4)
6) Srila Gurudev's Pastimes (5)
7) Srila Gurudev's Pastimes (6)
8) Come as a Beggar