{"id":7036,"date":"2009-03-10T07:27:01","date_gmt":"2009-03-10T06:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=7036"},"modified":"2009-03-10T07:27:01","modified_gmt":"2009-03-10T06:27:01","slug":"a-short-tribute-to-shrila-shri-b-v-puri-goswami-maharaja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=7036","title":{"rendered":"A Short Tribute to Shrila Shri B. V. Puri Goswami Maharaja"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Patita Pavana das Adhikary<\/strong><\/p>\n

The departure of a Vaishnava saint is a time of mixed feelings. As devotees, we are joyous that the pure devotee has returned back to home back to Godhead, joining the eternal lila of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as He spreads His sankirtan throughout the Universe. But we also find ourselve drowned in sorrow that the sacred darshan of a monumental soul and pure devotee can no longer be experienced by us–fallen souls who are dependent upon sadhu sangha for our own well-being. It was my great good fortune to have the close association of Shrila Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Mahraja, the dearest Godbrother of Shrila Prabhupada, for only a rare few minutes in 1977, as I recall. I happened to be stranded in Calcutta, so I grabbed a train to Mayapur, and, lo and behold, I arrived at the sacred janma bhumi on the day that the Deity of Lord Kurma was being lowered into the ground as part of the foundation ceremony of Shridham Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir. The officiator of the divine ceremony was none other than His Divine Grace Shrila Shri B.V. Puri Maharaja, whose lotus hands our Shrila Prabhupada had entrusted with this task. I can say with certainty that Shrila Prabhupada would have trusted no one else from among his Godbrothers with this small but significant deed of chanting the foundation mantras. For it was nothing less than the watering of a seed for a future spiritual city to rise and unite all peoples of the world.<\/p>\n

I watched the puja ceremony with bug-eyed wonder, understandaing little. Shrila Puri Maharaja appeared to be a man in his late forties, though I found out later he was approaching mid-sixties. Though I looked up to him, a senior sadhu and lifelong brahmachary, he joined in with us very comfortably, putting each one in the assembly at ease with his absolute lack of ostentation. One could tell from his darshan that he was in no way a “party man” but rather a staunchly principled individual. Maharaja was nothing less than the epitome of a genuine holy personage of the highest order of Gaudiyas. I watched his expert fingers flicking the flower petals, incense and sacred items upon the back of Lord Kurma deep in the earth. Suddenly he stopped chanting the mantras and almost mystically looked me in the eye. “Gold.” he said. “We need to offer gold. Does anyone have gold?” Suddenly my memory was jarred. I had bought some gold earrings from a London life member’s jewelry shop some years before, thinking I would look like a pandit when I preached to the Indian community. I had put them on and, seeing how ridiculous I looked, immediately removed them and placed them in my pouch, forgetting all about them. I had been carrying these solid gold earrings around for some years along with my papers. Suddenly the twinkle in the eye of Shrila Prabhupada’s Godbrother jarred an old memory. Smiling I pulled out the ear rings and handed the booty over to him. With a detached and casual flick of the wrist, Shrila Puri Maharaja cast the gold–and my maya–into the pit and continued the mantras. My foolish, impulsive purchase had found a purpose that day in Mayapur.<\/p>\n

Today, we “foreign devotees” of Shrila Prabhupada join with the Indian Gaudiya disciples of His Divine Grace Shrila Shri Bhakti Vaibhava Puri Maharaja. You are all presently drowned in a sea of sorrow at the disappearance of your eternal friend, your guide, your guru who is your divine passageway to Mahaprabhu. We take shelter of the words of Shri Krishna at such a difficult moment, agnir jyotir ahah shuklah san-masa uttarayanam. (BG 8.24) Shrila Puri Maharaja was called unto the holy feet of Lord Gauranga during the devayana passage of the Sun, while the bright waxing Moon of Phalguna was just a few tithis from the holy celebration of Gaur Purnima. Even more than this holy astronomical calculation, as the best of the disciples of Om Vishnupda Paramhamsa Parivrajacarya Shri Shrimad Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaja, he was ever immersed in chanting the mahamantra:<\/p>\n

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare
\nHare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.<\/p>\n

A true mahatma has returned back to home back to Godhead in the footprints of Shrila Haridas Thakur, leaving behind an example of pure devotional service in unalloyed Krishna consciounsess for all devotees of the Supreme Lord to follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patita Pavana das Adhikary<\/strong><\/p>\n

The departure of a Vaishnava saint is a time of mixed feelings. As devotees, we are joyous that the pure devotee has returned back to home back to Godhead, joining the eternal lila of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as He spreads His sankirtan throughout the Universe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-memoriam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7036\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}