Leaving for Navadvīpa

While Śrīla Gurudeva was back in his home village of Tiwaripur, he longed at every moment to perform gauḍīya-bhajana again in the company of the devotees, and he was constantly planning how to get away from the clutches of his family. When he arrived back in Tiwaripur, he had a fever, but this passed after four or five days, and he thought, “Somehow or other, I have to get away from here, but it won’t be possible to leave during the day, because there are crowds of people around me. At night, it’s the same–there are so many people. I will have to make a move quietly sometime after midnight.”

It was January of 1948–the winter season. He was back in his village birthplace to preach, and that only after getting his guru’s blessings. On his return, he never entered the inner section of the house, but stayed in the drawing room where the male members of the family came to meet or discuss. There Śrīla Gurudeva slept at night inside a mosquito net with a quilt over him. One night, when he was sure that everyone was asleep, he silently slipped out of bed and arranged his quilt in such a manner that if anyone looked into the room, it would seem as if he was sleeping there under the mosquito net. Without making a sound, as stealthily as a cat, Śrīla Gurudeva made his way out of the house.

He had made his plan. He would leave Tiwaripur on foot in the dark, to avoid the risk of being seen. Furthermore, to avoid getting caught at the local railway station, he would walk past it and catch a train further down the line. He walked a long way down the railway line, and at a railway station a good distance away from Tiwaripur, he caught a train to Navadvīpa. He deliberately did not go back to Devaghara where Parama-gurudeva was.

The next day, at around 8 or 9 o’clock, Śrīla Gurudeva’s family members inquired, “Why is Śrīman Nārāyaṇa sleeping so long? He’s usually up so early.” His father and mother said, “Oh, maybe he’s tired. People are here every day, all day and night, talking with him and asking him so many questions–sometimes until midnight. Let him rest.”

However, after 10 o’clock, his mother thought that it was time for him to rise and take some breakfast. When they lifted the mosquito net, they found that no one was there, and they all began to lament: “Oh, no! Our darling Nārāyaṇa has gone again!”

The family members hurried to the place where the Vaiṣṇavas were preaching in Devaghara in the state of Bihar, because they thought that he was most likely to be there. “I don’t know where he is,” one of the Vaiṣṇavas told them. “He has not come to us.” They understood that Śrīman Nārāyaṇa must have gone to Navadvīpa, but he had not mentioned anything to them, so they said nothing. The family members then took the devotees’ blessings and returned to their own village of Tiwaripur.

Some time later in 1949, Parama-gurudeva gave the red cloth of sannyāsa to Śrīla Gurudeva. This incident has been described by Śrīla Gurudeva in Parama-gurudeva’s biography:

Once when Śrīla Gurudeva was sitting in Navadvīpa with one of his Godbrothers, Śrī Gaura Nārāyaṇa was also sitting nearby . Paramārādhyatama Śrī Gurudeva looked in Śrī Gaura Nārāyaṇa’s direction, and said, “I want to give you the red cloth of sannyāsa [cloth which has been coloured saffron by geru, a red stone]. I have seen many non-Bengali Indians; they don’t understand the profound depth of Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s elevated bhakti-siddhānta, especially prema-tattva. But you have taken to heart these moods in an unsophisticated way. Śrī rūpa, Śrī Sanātana and our many Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava ācāryas remained many days in Vraja, but they could not find any bhakta from North India who could take to heart Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s inner moods. You are very fortunate.” Then weeping, Śrī Gaura Nārāyaṇajī fell at the lotus feet of his guru and with great humility said, “I devote myself fully to your lotus feet. I am removing everything–the attachment of my mother, the affection of my father, the love of my wife and the friendship of my friends–and I am offering it at your lotus feet. You can keep me naked, dressed in a loincloth, in a white cloth, in a red cloth, or you can give me sannyāsa. Keep me in the way which is auspicious for me. Now I solely belong to you.” Hearing his words, Śrī Gurudeva's eyes also brimmed with tears.^[1]

After a devotee has been in the maṭha for a few years, and the guru sees that he has become qualified and renounced from worldly attachments, that bona fide guru will give him sannyāsa, just as Śrīla Gurudeva is giving today.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

From Ācārya Kesarī Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī–His Life and Teachings by Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja, p. 146 (First english edition published by Gaudiya Vedanta Publications).