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EDITORIAL February 11, 1999 VNN3015 A Pure Devotee Of Krishna BY SRIMAN BHAGAVATA DASA EDITORIAL, Feb 11 (VNN) — From a speech delivered by Sriman Bhagavata dasa on the occasion of the disappearance of His Divine Grace Srila Gour Govinda Maharaj, and submitted by his god brother Puru Das Adhikari, retyped from an issue of "Sri Krsna-kathamrta." Srila Gour Govinda Maharaj's disappearance day is celebrated on the same day as the appearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Gour Govinda Swami Maharaj was named Brajabandhu Manik by his parents. As a very small boy, he lived at his uncle's ashram, where they would every day chant Hare Krsna, read Srimad-Bhagavatam and Caitanya-caritamrta. So at a very young age he began this process of Krsna consciousness. Later when he Was eight years old, his grandfather, who was a great Vaisnava, called all his family members together because he was going to leave this world and he wanted to give his last instructions. Then his grandfather chose a day to leave this world which was the same astrological day that Bhisma left the world When he was leaving, the grandfather asked his son to read from Srimad-Bhagavatam about Bhisma's passing away. The when the appropriate time came, his grandfather sat up on his bed, moved into the yoga position and left from the crown chakra. According to sastra, to be raised in such an environment where one has the opportunity to hear the chanting of the Hare Krsna mantra and the reading of Srimad Bhagavatam indicated the kind of elevated birth one would find in the life of a great devotee. HOUSEHOLD LIFE When Brajabandhu was about twenty years old his father died. Although he had no inclination to get involved in householder life, his mother ordered him to do so, because as the eldest son he had to marry And manage the family. But it was not his personal desire. And because his wife wanted many children he gave her many children. He told me that although he had seven children he only passed semen seven times in his life. That means he was a perfect grhastha brahmacari- even in the grhastha asrama he had perfect control of his senses. Only a greatly advanced devotee could have such perfect control. MEETING SRILA PRABHUPADA When in his mid forties he was able to get a pension, he signed it over to his wife and children and left the grihasta asrama. First he went to a small temple on the edge of his town and stayed there. While he was There for three or four days, many relatives came to argue with him to try to convince him t go back to his family, but he defeated all their arguments. Then he left to travel around India to try and find his guru. After he left home he took the name Gaura Gopal. He went all around India to meet a guru who taught the synthesis of Krsna and Gaurasundara. He wanted these two, Gaura and Krsna. So his name was Gaura Gopal and he was looking for Gaura Gopal. After traveling to many places for quite sometime, perhaps one or two years he came to Vrndavan where he saw a sign board saying, "International Society for Krishna Consciousness. He was used to taking his prasada at different asramas, so he took prasada at our asrama in Vrndavana. Then one devotee gave him a Back to Godhead magazine. He looked at the BTG and began to read Prabhupada's lecture about Gaura and Gopal. When he saw the picture of Prabhupada and read the lecture, then he could understand, "This is my guru." He asked if he could see Prabhupada but the devotee there was reluctant to allow him because Gaura Gopal was just wandering everywhere and he was living with simple cloth so he looked like some ordinary person. No one could recognize him. Similarly the Bhagavatam describes how no one could recognize Jada Bharata. By looking at Gaura Gopal no one could understand him, they thought he was an ordinary man. They could not see that he was a greatly advanced Vaisnava. So the devotee said, "You cannot see Prabhupada, because he is very busy." They wouldn't let him see Srila Prabhupada. But Gaura Gopal was very intelligent. He remained quiet and just walked around and observed where Prabhupada's room was. When he saw that Prabhupada was alone in the room, he entered. He offered his obeisances, and sat down. As I understand it, in the first words Srila Prabhupada spoke to Gaura Gopal he asked, "Have you taken sannyasa?" Gaura Gopal said, "No." Srila Prabhupada said, "Then I will give you sannyasa." Just like that. They were talking, and Srila Prabhupada said, "Oh yes, I also left my family." While they were speaking together Prabhupada's servant came in and said, "What are you doing here?" But Prabhupada said, "no, no, let him stay". As Prabhupada came to know how educated and brilliant Gaura Gopal was, he requested him to immediately translate BTG magazine into Hindi. After a couple of hours when he had translated an article, he brought it back to Prabhupada and showed him. Prabhupada read the translation and was extremely pleased. ALWAYS ABSORBED At this point I had not met Gaura Gopal, until he went to Bombay to work on BBT translations. When I first saw him, like everyone else I was ignorant about who he actually was, but I noticed that he was very, very quiet. He never spoke to anyone. He was always either chanting, saying prayers, reading or translating. He never talked gramya katha. I noticed that he was very sincere , still I thought he was just another brahmacari. I remember one sannyasi came in the room when I was there with Prabhupada and he said, "That boy..." and Prabhupada said, "What boy?" "That boy Gaura." . . And Prabhupada said, "Do you mean Gaura Gopal?" And the sannyasi said, "Yes". Then Prabhupada said, "He is not a boy. He is practically old enough to be your father." In Bombay, after only two months in the movement he got first initiation. His name was Gaura Gopal but then Prabhupada named him Gour Govinda. After that, because he also knew Bengali and that work of translation was being done in Mayapur, Prabhupada told him to go to Mayapura with him to work on translations. After another few months he received brahmana initiation. Generally in our Society you have to wait a couple of years for second initiation, but Gour Govinda got everything within three or four months. Then we all went to Mayapur for the big festival of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. While there, Prabhupada told me that Gour Govinda was going to Orissa to preach. Prabhupada wanted to know if I would go with him. So we packed up the whole party and went with Gour Govinda to Bhubaneswar. When guru orders, you go. On our arrival we began living in old Bhubaneswar in one dharmasala. I had some funds from my traveling sankirtan party and we were living on that money. My treasury started to disappear. I went to Gour Govinda and told him, "We are going to have to leave because all the money is gone. We cannot pay the bills. How will we stay?" TAKING SANNYASA We went on the train to Hyderabad, Prabhupada saw us there and he called Gour Govinda to come and see him the next day to explain. The next morning we went to Prabhupada's room and Gour Govind explained everything. Then all of a sudden Gour Govinda turned to Prabhupada and said "Prabhupada, I want to take sannyasa." Prabhupada looked at him. There were two or three sannyasis as well as several GBC's in the room, some big or so called "big" devotees. At that time many of the leaders were against new Indian devotees taking sannyasa. Prabhupada said, "So you want to take sannyasa. Let me tell yo what it means to take sannyasa." Prabhupada explained the qualifications to take sannyasa. "The sannyasi can never have any sex desire. He should never even think of a woman for one second. A sannyasi is fearless, he'll go anywhere to preach, no matter how dangerous it is. A sannyasi never thinks he is alone, but always knows that Krsna and guru are with him." After Prabhupada had explained all these things, he just looked at Gour Govind and said, "yes," Then Prabhupada said, "Okay, let's take prasadam." And that was it. He never said yes and he never said no. Then I remember going into the secretary's room where all these sannyasis and GBC's had gathered. They were all saying, "Did Prabhupada say yes, or did Prabhupada say no? What did Prabhupada say? We don't understand." Next, we all went with Prabhupada to Vrndavan for the next leg of the festivals. In Vrndavan, on the last day of the festival there was a fire yajna and Gour Govinda was acting as the priest for the ceremony. Only one person was supposed to take sannyasa, that was Tripurari, but there were two dandas, and two sets of sannyasa cloth. No one knew who the other person was. Then Prabhupada said, "Can the sannyasa candidates come up and get their cloth." At that time Gour Govinda came out from behind the fire and took his cloth. Then Prabhupada handed him the danda, looked at him with a big smile and said, "You have understood." After Gour Govinda Swami took sannyasa, many sannyasis and GBC's started complaining." How he has taken sannyasa? He's a new man!" Then Prabhupada told them, :"He is a devotee from his birth, you are new men!" MUD HUT IN THE DESERT Then Prabhupada sent him to Orissa for preaching. I was on a traveling party selling books to libraries all over India. I went to Orissa to sell books so sometimes I would meet him. He was living in a mud hut that he had built. I would go and see him and we'd talk a little bit and then I would go and distribute books. Then he invited Prabhupada to go to Orissa. Gour Govinda Maharaj told Prabhupada that he had made arrangements for Prabhupada to stay in any one of many life member's homes of the government guest house. But Prabhupada said, "No, I want to stay on Krsna's land. At that time, we were preparing to install the Ananta Sesa Deity for the new temple to be constructed in Bhubaneswar. I remember Gour Govinda Maharaj would go into the room with Prabhupada and they would sit for a long time and talk about many things. Prabhupada was giving him special instructions. Actually, there was nothing here, only a mud hut. You could look for many miles in every direction and there was just vacant land. All these big GBC's and Maharajas who came to be with Prabhupada were saying to Prabhupada, "This place is useless. It's just a mud hut in the middle of the desert. There is nothing here. We should simply close this down and build something in Puri. Why are we wasting our time and money here." Prabhupada looked to them, shook his head, and said, "You do not understand. Some day this temple will be in the center of the city and it will be one of the most important temples in our whole movement. Now, we see that this temple is in the middle of the city as Prabhupada predicted. And because Gour Govinda Maharaj traveled and preached all over the world so many devotees came here for all corners of the globe. Now both the predictions of Srila Prabhupada have come true. The words of the pure devotee are infallible. What others cannot see, the great mahatmas can. So then began our adventure here in Orissa with Gour Govinda Maharaj and myself living in that mud hut. Even though I was a young brahmacari half his age, still he treated me with great respect and he allowed me to live with him side by side in his hut. What to speak of half his age, I was less than half his spiritual advancement. Prabhupada said to him that you will be co-presidents, so therefore Gour Govinda Maharaj treated me as an equal. That was his mercy and his humility. During this time Gour Govinda Maharaj shared many things with me. He would read from many different books like Gaura-ganodesa-dipika, Hari bhakti-vilasa and Bhakti-rsamrta-sindhu. I could not read the Sanskrit, so he would read and explain it to me. He would describe who everyone in Caitanya-lila was in Krsna-lila. And then he would tell me about all the personalities in Krsna-lila, what they were like, what they looked like and what they did. I began to appreciate his association and how great a devotee he was. PRABHUPADA'S SVARUPA There was another incident which revealed to me how exalted Gour Govinda Maharaja really was. Once we were having a discussion in the hut with two or three other godbrothers and myself. One of the devotees mentioned that once someone had asked Prabhupada, "Are you a cowherd boy?" Prabhupada answered, "I don't know who I am but I like cowherd boys." Another time someone asked Prabhupada if he was the incarnation of Vyasadeva, because he wrote all those books. Again Prabhupada replied, "I do not know, but it sounds nice." Because we were not very advanced, Prabhupada did not revel this to us. In this way these two or three godbrothers and I were discussing this subject matter about who Prabhupada was in his original svarupa. At that time Gour Govinda Maharaj had gone across the hut to the other end to get a drink of water. When he finished drinking his water-he always used to drink water in a sitting position-he stood up turned, looked at us and said, "Prabhupada is not a cowherd boy! Prabhupada is a gopi!" At that time, I was looking right in his eyes. The way he said it and the way he looked, made me think, "He really knows." ECSTATIC LOVE After Prabhupada left this world we went to Mayapur in l978. Gour Govinda Maharaj, Lagudi prabhu and I were staying in the same room. One day we were sitting in the room and reading. Then suddenly Maharaj started yelling and making motions with his arms. He was shouting, "Gauranga Mahaprabhu! Nityananda! Jaya Govinda! Visnu! Krsna! Visnu-cakra! Visnu's chakra is coming. . ." He would something like, "It is burning, it is burning, Visnu's chakra is coming, it is burning and everyone is burning." So I went before him and I called "Maharaj" I was talking to him but he was not responding to me. I put my hands in front of him and was gesturing, but he was no there, he was in another place. Then he laid down trembling and groaning. I became frightened. I thought that maybe he'd become mad or ill or inhabited by a ghost or something. I was confused. Then I brought some godbrothers and we were looking at him and talking. The two Indian devotees there were Sarvahavana and bhakti Vcaru. I said to them, "What should I do? I'm worried." They said, "Let's bring that astrologer who made predictions about Prabhupada. Let him examine Gour Govinda Maharaj. We took Gour Govinda Maharaj to the astrologer and he told us that Gour Govinda Maharaja was in bhava, the advanced stage of ecstatic love. But I knew that no one was going to accept the astrologer. I was convinced that he was experiencing ecstatic symptoms. But I was concerned as to how I would be able to convince others about his condition. I believed it, but I knew others wouldn't. On the way back to the Mayapur temple we stopped at Gaudiya Math temple where there was one Homeopathic doctor who was very good. We brought him to have a look at Gour Govinda Maharaj. He said he didn't know, and couldn't ascertain his condition or illness. We brought Gour Govinda Maharaj back to the room . One ayurvedic doctor came and after examining him he said, "I don't know, it appears like he has some sort of madness, but I cannot ascertain it." I became very depressed because I wanted to certify his condition but I thought only Prabhupada could do that and Prabhupada was not there, he had left the world. Later that day I was on the verandah feeling dejected. Lagudi was in the room with Gour Govinda Maharaj. Suddenly I saw Akincana Krsnadas Babaji. I don't know how many of you ever Krsnadas Babaji. Prabhupada said he was a great pure devotee of Krsna. It is said in sastra that when you are sinless, you can jump and dance before the Deity, because it is by the sins that you are weighed down. Well Krsnadas Babaji used to fly. He was always laughing and chanting, "Hare Krsna, Hare bol." He would make these bumper stickers with the Hare Krsna Maha Mantra on them, in Hindi and Bengali. He had no home, he simply had bumper stickers, and he was going and putting them up everywhere. He put them up at train stations and market places. He would collect some donations, print more bumper stickers and put them up everywhere. When I saw him, I became somewhat enthused. I went to him, and asked him to come and help me to ascertain the condition of our Gour Govinda Maharaj. Babaji Maharaj came into the room, took on thread from his dhoti and put it under the nose of Gour Govinda Maharaj. I was familiar with this technique because it describes in Caitanya-caritamrta how Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya did the same thing. Babaji Maharaj felt Gour Govinda Maharaj's pulse, looked at his eyes, and felt his head. Then he rose, turning to me he laughed and said, "bhava, bhava" indicating to me that Gour Govinda Maharaj was experiencing krsna-prema. Then I could truly understand how great Gour Govinda Maharaj really was. But no one else could understand. They would not accept. This was very painful to me. Gour Govinda Maharaj is very dear to my heart. There is no doubt in my mind that Gour Govinda Maharaj was a great pure devotee of Krsna. What else can I say? Gour Govinda Maharaja Gurudeva Vaisnava Thakura ki jaya! Srila Prabhupada, savior of the whole world, ki jaya. Gaura Premanandi. Comment on this Story This story URL: http://www.vnn.org/editorials/ET9902/ET11-3015.html
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