At first I pay my innumerable prostrated obeisances to the lotus feet of my most merciful and worshipable divine master, who is the redeemer of the fallen souls, the bestower of knowledge on the Absolute, the non-different manifestation of the Supreme Lord and the bestower of service of the Supreme Lord. I pray for his causeless mercy. I pay my prostrated obeisances to the lotus feet of the worshipable Vaishnavas and pray for their causeless mercy. I pay my due respects to all the devotees who are inclined to hear discourses on the Supreme Lord. May they all become satisfied.

Today is the ‘Tirobhava Tithi’ (disappearance day) of Srila Bhugarva Goswami who is a disciple of Srila Gadadhar Pandit Goswami and Srila Kashishwara Pandit Goswami who served Sriman Mahaprabhu by the order of his Gurudeva Srila Ishwara Puripada. Today is also the ‘Tirobhava Tithi’ (disappearance day) of my Shiksha Guru Nityalila Pravistha Om Vishnupada 108 Srila Bhaktipramode Puri Goswami Maharaj. In the scriptures it is said that Supreme Lord Krishna graces an aspirant through a Guru. Now, who is a Guru? It is written in Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita,

guru kṛṣṇa-rūpa hana śāstrera pramāṇe
guru-rūpe kṛṣṇa kṛpā karena bhakta-gaṇe
(Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi 1.45)

“According to the scriptures, Guru is the embodiment of Sri Krishna and Sri Krishna blesses the devotees in the form of Guru.”

śikṣā-guruke ta’ jāni kṛṣṇera svarūpa
antaryāmī, bhakta-śreṣṭha, — ei dui rūpa
(Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Adi 1.46)

Shiksha Guru is the manifestation of the Supreme Lord Krishna. Like the Lord, a bonafide Guru who is a pure devotee is also omniscient. The Lord resides in the heart of every living being and encourages the living being as the omniscient Super Soul.

Bhugarbha Goswami in Krishna Lila, is a personal associate of Sri Krishna called ‘Prema Manjari’. Kashishwara Pandit, a personal associate of the Lord, is the disciple of Ishwara Puripada. The Supreme Lord Mahaprabhu played the pastimes of taking shelter to Ishwara Puripada. So Kashishwara Pandit is the Godbrother of Mahaprabhu. It comes in Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita,

gurura kiṅkara haya mānya se āmāra
(Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita Madhya 10.142)

“The servant of my Gurudeva is worshipable for me.”

When Kashishwara Pandit and Govinda came to Mahaprabhu, He said, “How can I accept the service of the servants of my Gurudeva?” But Ishwara Puripada ordered Kashishwara and Govinda both to serve Mahaprabhu. So it is the order of His Gurudeva. When Mahaprabhu was enacting the pastimes of being in a dilemma, His personal associate Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya also said to Him, “One should abide by the orders of his Gurudeva.” So Mahaprabhu accepted the orders of His Gurudeva and kept Kashishwara and Govinda with Him. Since Mahaprabhu was the Supreme Lord Himself, He had no requirement ofdid not require a Guru but He only plays the pastimes of accepting a Guru. He is the Supreme Lord Himself. But He played the pastimes of accepting a Guru only to give teachings to the conditioned souls about the importance of accepting a Guru. In spite of being the Supreme Lord Himself He played the pastimes of a devotee.

Today is the Tirobhava Tithi of my Shiksha Guru, Nityalila Pravishtha Om Vishnupada 108 Sri Srimad Bhaktipramode Puri Goswami Maharaj. He perform his earthly pastimes for 101 years. He disappeared in Sri Purushottam Dham. He was then brought to Mayapur where he was given Samadhi. His Samadhi Mandira (temple constructed over his Samadhi) is situated in Mayapur. Puri Goswami Maharaj appeared in Ganganandapura village situated in Jessore district of East Bengal. Just by listening to the name of the places connected with the pure devotee one getgets purified. A big river is located at that place.

Srila Maharaj used to worship Shivji. In our Math some devotees observe Shiva Chaturdashi. How can a Vaishnava worship Lord Shiva? It is written in Srimad Bhagavatam,

vaiṣṇavānāṁ yathā śambhuḥ
(Srimad Bhagavatam 12.13.16)

“Lord Shambhu is the greatest of all Vaishnavas.”

One among the four Vaishnava Sampradayas is ‘Rudra’. Shivji is their Guru. We worship Shivji as a devotee of Lord Krishna. We do not worship Him as an independent God like Ravan or Kumbhakarna used to. In order to enter in Dham (Vrindavan, Mayapur or any other Dham), we need the permission of Shivji. In Vrindavan there is a place called Vamsivata where Supreme Lord Sri Krishna performed His Rasa Pastimes. Shivji also decided to participate in those pastimes. But only the cowherd girls (Gopis) under the guidance of Radharani can participate in the Rasa Pastimes of the Lord. So Shivji took on the form of a very beautiful girl and went there. All the Gopis became astonished to see the new Gopi and wondered, “Where does this new Gopi come from?” But Sri Krishna received him warmly, “Please come, please come.” Other Gopis became suspicious. The Lord told them, “You do not recognize him. His is Shivji. I am subdued by his love. Without his permission nobody can enter in My abode.”

The Mathura Dham is also protected by four formforms of Lord Shiva. When we offer obeisances in Lord Shiva’s temple, people in South India wonder why the devotees of Lord Krishna, adorn with Vaishnava Tilak, offers obeisances to Lord Shiva? In Ramanuja Sampradaya the devotees say that even if they encounter a tiger while walking in the woods, they will not enter a Shiva temple to save their lives. For them even death is preferable than entering a Shiva temple. So people think that the devotees of Ramanuja Sampradaya are so strict in their conduct but then how come the devotees of Gaudiya Sampradaya become so lenient that they offer obeisances to Shivji? Actually we do not worship Shivji as an independent Lord. We worship Him as a devotee of the Supreme Lord Krishna. Our way of worshiping Shivji is different. Shivji also resides in Mayapur Dham. He has a liking for Gangaji. There is a deity of Shivji there. If someone tries to worship Shivji as an independent God and offers Him something then even the priest of the temple won’t accept the remnant of that. There is a curse that if someone worships Shivji as an independent God then he shall become an offender and a miscreant. In Mayapur Shivji is offered Prasadam (the remnants) of Krishna or Gauranga Mahaprabhu. Only after worshipping Shivji in this manner and taking his blessings can one enter the Dhama.

Kashishwara Pandit Goswami used to stay at a place called Srirampur. Ishwar Puripada told him-“, “When I shall go away, you should go and serve Mahaprabhu.” Mahaprabhu was very much satisfied with the service of Kashishwara Pandit. The Lord gets satisfied with one who serves Vaishnavas. Kashishwara Pandit was specially graced by Ishwara Puripada. Kashishwara Pandit went out for pilgrimage and reached the place where Mahaprabhu was performing His sanyas pastimes (Jagannath Puri). There he served Mahaprabhu. Kashishwara was a very powerful person. When there was crowd in the temple and people used to come and see Mahaprabhu, Kashishwara used to make them move aside with his hand so that no one can come too close to Mahaprabhu. This was his service. During Rathayatra there were barricades in three places. Mahaprabhu used to sing and dance at the fore front. There were seven groups comprising of devotees who used to follow and guard Mahaprabhu when He was singing and dancing. The first one to guard Mahaprabhu was His personal associate Nityananda Prabhu. Kashishwara Pandit was another associate to guard Mahaprabhu. The other one to guard Mahaprabhu was the king of Purushottam Dham named Prataprudra. People used to watch Mahaprabhu and got immersed in joy. Such was the arrangement of service. Govinda was a personal servant of Mahaprabhu and Kashishwara pandit used to offer prostrated obeisances to Govinda and pray for his grace.

Today is also the Tirobhava Tithi of my Shiksha Guru Srila Bhaktipramode Puri Goswami Maharaj. He played pastimes in this world for hundred and one years. He used to tell us always, “I shall not remain for long.” Even when he was eighty eight years old he used to walk bare foot in Vraja Mandal Parikrama. He used to lean on his stick on one side and put his hand around the shoulder of another person and walk barefoot in Parikrama. After walking for some time he would sit and take rest. When somebody would say to him, “Why are you taking so much troublestrouble? There are cars and auto rickshaws. You can ride on them and do circumambulation.” There is no doubt that he had immense love and dedication. He did not care for his bodily needs and performed circumambulation. He used to see Vraja Dhama as the personal abode of the Lord and not a mere village. By the desire of the Supreme Lord the transcendental abode of the Lord gets manifested in this material world. Only exceptionally fortunate soul can see the eternal pastimes that are going on in the Dham. A worldly person cannot see those pastimes.

When the personal associates of the Lord disappear they go back to the spiritual world. The more long they stay here the more benefit we shall get by serving them. The personal associates of the Lord appear in this world by Lord’s desire and they go back again by His desire only. Puri Goswami Maharaj appeared in a place as mentioned before where a river flows by the name Kapotaksha. The place where he appeared is an abode of Shivji. The name of the village in which he appeared is Ganganandapur which is a Holy place. He appeared in a Brahmin family. He accepted Sri Tarini Charan Chakravarty and Sri Ramrangini Devi as his parents. They named him Tinkari Chakravarty. His fair name was Pramode Bhushan Chakraborty. At that time Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur had already left this material world. In the childhood, Srila Maharaj came in contact with one of the Godbrothers of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur namely Srila Bhakti Ratna Thakur. By his influence he came in contact with the path of pure devotional service to the Lord. Our Paramguruji Nityalila Pravistha Om Vishnupada 108 Sri Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur gave him diksha at the age of twenty five. After accepting Diksha he was named Pranavananda Brahmachari. He used to perform worship of the Lord and execute services with immense dedication. He has vast knowledge in all sorts of scriptures and histories. He had blessings of Mahaprabhu on him and was awarded the title of ‘Mahamahopadeshaka’ by his Gurudeva Srila Prabhupada. I had the fortune to travel with him, hear Harikatha from him and listen to his Kirtan. Maybe you all might not have heard in person. His Kirtan sounded very melodious. In Puri Dham I have witnessed him reciting full ‘Chaitanya Charitamrita’ while travelling from Jagannath Puri Mandir which we identify as Kurukshetra to Gundicha Mandir, which we identify as Vrindavan. He used to perform all sorts of services with lots of love and dedication. He never cared the sufferings he underwent through and performed services with dedication. When he performed worship of the deities he performed it with dedication. He had vast knowledge of scriptures. In every ‘Patrika’ (magazine) that was published he used to write articles for that. He used to write in ‘Gaudiya Patrika’.

People might forget what they have heard. But the published articles remain forever. So magazines and books are called ‘Brihad Mridangas’. Srila Maharaj used to dedicate himself much on those writings. I saw him writing till late night like 2 AM, 3 AM. He did not write during day time. I once asked him, “Why don’t you write during day time?” He said, “During day time there is so much chaos. For this reason I write during night hours.” He also wrote a few books. He was the main compiler of ‘Gaudiya Patrika’. I was performing service under him.

In my very initial days of Math life, I got an opportunity to have darshan of many prominent disciples of Srila Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad at a grand conference held at the University located in Vrindavan owned by most worshipable Srimad Bhakti Hridaya Vana Goswami Maharaj. That conference was attended by many well-known acharyas, sannyasis and household devotees of various Gaudiya Maths. I was a young boy at that time. I became astonished to have darshan of all of the great personalities there.

That time, to my surprise, Srila Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami Maharaj called me and said, “Pay obeisances to all the Vaishnava Acharyas who are present here including me and pray for their grace.”

I got astonished and very much blissful on hearing such a loving address from him. I paid prostrated obeisances to all the Vaishnavas present there.