Śrīla Gurudeva’s inclination as a Boy

In Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s time, Bengal was one state, and there was no division between east and West. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s associates were mainly from Bengal and the neighbouring state of Orissa. The inhabitants of both these places are very partial to rice products, whereas in Bihar the main foodstuffs are wheat and chickpea products. Śrīla Gurudeva, however, liked to eat rice every day. His family used to say, “How is it that this Bengali boy has come into our family? every day he wants rice.”

In Bihar rice is cooked once a week but Śrīla Gurudeva liked to have it every day. Although he hardly wept when he was a small child he would start weeping if no rice was served. His mother, out of her deep affection for her son, who was the eldest child in the family, cooked rice for him daily, whether the other family members wanted it or not.

“So, maybe I was a Bengali in a previous life,” Śrīla Gurudeva remarked. When a pure bhakta speaks, even nonchalantly, it can be taken as a fact. From this statement and from many other indications that I have seen throughout his life, I have concluded with utmost certainty that Śrīla Gurudeva is an eternal associate of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and the Divine Couple Śrī Śrī rādhā-Kṛṣṇa.

Growing up in Bihar, Śrīla Gurudeva was greatly influenced by Lord rāma. His father, Paṇḍita Baleśvaranātha Tiwari, was a learned scholar and he and his cousin-brother Śyāmalāla Tiwari were well-known and influential in the local villages. They would frequently discuss Rāmāyaṇa together, and whenever they gave a public discourse, several hundred people would attend and a big festival would be held. At these times Śrīla Gurudeva would abandon all play with his friends to sit quietly and attentively listen to the narrations of the great epic Rāmāyaṇa which is full of the adventures of Lord rāma.

Śrīla Gurudeva quickly learned to read Rāmāyaṇa. He would read with great faith, memorizing Rāmāyaṇa and other stories. As he would read, he would weep and weep, especially in the parts that described Lord rāma going into exile with Sītā-devī, how the mothers Kauśalyā and Sumitrā were so unhappy, and how Daśaratha Mahārāja became distraught to the point of death. Śrīla Gurudeva would weep incessantly and the sacred book would become wet with his tears. These symptoms are not ordinary for a child but are typical of highly advanced devotees.

Early one morning, just before four, Śrīla Gurudeva had what seems to be a dream. It was not in fact an ordinary dream but a real vision. Lord rāma appeared in his bedroom along with Sītā-devī, Lakṣmaṇa and Hanumān. even though these transcendental personalities appearing before Śrīla Gurudeva were brighter than the sun–the human eye cannot look at the sun when it has ascended in the sky–still, he was able to look at them clearly without hurting his eyes. When Śrīla Gurudeva went forward to touch Lord rāma’s feet, the Lord disappeared along with His consort and associates. It is very rare for anyone to receive the darśana of the Lord even in dreams but here again is an indication of his highly advanced spiritual consciousness. Although his sthāyī-bhāva was not fixed in relationship with Śrī rāma, his darśana of Their Lordships–Sītā, rāma, Lakṣmaṇa and Hanumān–was an indication of what was to come in the future.

Two of our great ācāryas, Śrī Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī and Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, appeared in South India. They were performing sādhana-bhajana in the Śrī samprādaya, but constitutionally they were gopīs of Vraja (Tungavidyā Sakhī and Śrī Guṇa Mañjarī, respectively). Although they worshipped Śrī LakṣmīNārāyaṇa from the beginning of their lives, their sthāyī-bhāva had not yet manifested and when they associated with Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, their moods changed and they became attracted to the sevā of Śrī Śrī rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. In Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, we find examples of sthāyī-bhāva not being manifested as in the case of Veṅkaṭa Bhaṭṭa. We also find examples of sthāyī-bhāva already being manifested, as in the cases of Murāri Gupta and of Anupama, the younger brother of Śrīla rūpa Gosvāmī and Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī. All these personalities were associates of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. This will be discussed later in great detail.