Serving Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāī Mahārāja

Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja^[1] was a godbrother of Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Hence, he was senior to Śrīla Gurudeva, who respected, loved, and served him in the manner of a disciple. When Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja awarded Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja the renounced order of sannyāsa in 1959, Śrīla Gurudeva (who took sannyāsa in 1952) arranged the sannyāsa initiation ceremony in Śrī Keśavajī Gauḍīya Maṭha in Mathurā. Śrīla Gurudeva served as the priest of the ceremony and did everything for its preparation; he even prepared the sannyāsa-daṇḍa. He assisted in many ways, including instructing Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja in the fine details and regulations of sannyāsa.

Śrīla Gurudeva told us everything about his relation with Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja. When Śrīla Gurudeva’s śikṣa-guru Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja was establishing ISKCON in America at the beginning of his mission in the West, he wrote to Śrīla Gurudeva many times in his own handwriting: “Please send Mathurā peṛā^[2], karatālas, mṛdaṅgas, deities. It will be best if you can purchase the mṛdaṅgas and karatālas from Navadvīpa and the deities from Vṛndāvana. I realise it is troublesome for you to go to these different places and purchase, pack and post all these things, but please do this for my service.”

Śrīla Gurudeva also sent some of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja’s own books to him. In these ways and others, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja dedicated himself to serve Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja, and helped him from the very beginning to launch his worldwide mission. When Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja arrived back in India for the first time, Śrīla Gurudeva was the only one to greet him at the Delhi airport. Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja shared with him many wonderful accounts and details of his preaching in America. Their relationship, as Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja had written to him^[3], was eternal, like his relationship with Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda.

In 1996, Śrīla Gurudeva followed the footsteps of his śikṣāguru Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja and began preaching in the Western countries. Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja had previously said that Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja was the real guru-sevaka, and repeatedly asked him to come to the West. Though Śrīla Gurudeva always acknowledged his request, he replied that he would do it later, as he could not leave the vital services of his gurudeva, Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja. At that time, Śrīla Gurudeva was constantly travelling all over India to assist Parama-gurudeva (the guru of one’s guru) in his preaching as his personal servant. He was also editing, publishing, and distributing two monthly Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava magazines. He helped to organize the yearly Navadvīpa and Vraja-maṇḍala parikramās, which attracted more than 10,000 guests and local devotees. Later he was fully engaged as the Vice-president and General Secretary of Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti. (Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja himself was one of the three co-founders of this society.) Due to the influence of time and circumstances, Śrīla Gurudeva was not able to physically assist Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja during that period, but later on, fufilling his desire, he travelled all around the world more than thirty times.

As Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s physical health declined, Śrīla Gurudeva remained constantly by his side, especially towards the end of his manifest pastimes. He served him constantly, day and night.

On October 6, 1968, in the most holy dhāma of Śrī Navadvīpa, Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, surrounded by his loving disciples and godbrothers, left this world, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Hare Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa Hare Hare Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma Rāma Hare Hare and holding a picture of Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda to his chest. It was a Sunday evening and at the time of sandhya-ārati in Śrī Devānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha–as he was leaving this world–Śrīmatī rādhikā’s garland broke and fell from Her neck. With tears in his eyes, the head pūjārī quickly brought the garland to Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja as he entered the śayana-līlā-vilāsa of his most beloved Śrī Śrī rādhā-Vinoda-Bihārījī.

At that time, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja was in Seattle, uSA. He was heart-broken on hearing the news and ordered his western disciples to observe a ceremony of separation (virahasabhā) and offer sraddhāñjali in all his centres, to honour the divine disappearance of his most worshipable godbrother.

He personally composed a Sanskrit verse in his loving memory^[4] :

वैराग्य-युग-निज-भक्ति-योगम्
अपययन् मम् अनभिप्सु अन्धम्
श्री-केशव-भक्ति-प्रज्ञान-नाम

vairāgya-yuga-nija-bhakti-yogam
apayayan mam anabhipsu andham
śrī-keśava-bhakti-prajñāna-nāma

Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja revealed that just as Śrīla raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was weeping for his gurudeva Śrīla Sanātana Gosvāmī, he felt the same way towards Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja. He explained, “Vairāgya-yuga means to become detestful of this material world. The child is afraid to take medicine, but the mother uses gentle force to put the medicine into the child’s mouth. Similarly, I was not in the mood to take the renounced order. My family rejected me, and I was penniless, but I was still not ready to take sannyāsa and fulfill my Gurudeva’s order to go to the Western countries to preach his mission. But Pūjyapada Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja gave me sannyāsa and told me, ‘You must accept this.’”

During a lecture at that time in Seattle, in 1968, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja further elaborated, “My godbrother (Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja) insisted that I take sannyāsa. Without accepting the renounced order of life, nobody can become a preacher and my spiritual master wanted me to become a preacher and to go to the Western countries. So I am feeling now very obliged to my godbrother, because he carried out the wish of my spiritual master and forced me to accept this sannyāsa order.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Śrīla Gurudeva’s relationship with Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja is described in more detail in the section titled ‘Association with Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja’.

[2]:

A Mathurā milk sweet that Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja particularly liked.

[3]:

This is described with more detail later and can also be seen in Śrīla Gurudeva’s book, ‘Letters from America’.

[4]:

You can read the full transcript of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāja’s class entitled His Divine Grace Bhaktiprajñāna Keśava Mahārāja’s Disappearance Day Lecture (Seattle, October 21, 1968) from Bhaktivedānta Vedabase Folio archive.