{"id":9849,"date":"2011-08-31T14:11:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T13:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=9849"},"modified":"2011-08-31T14:11:44","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T13:11:44","slug":"excerpt-from-the-first-chapter-of-a-new-book-about-the-life-of-srila-gour-govinda-swami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/?p=9849","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt from the first chapter of a new book about the life of Srila Gour Govinda Swami"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Madhavananda Das<\/strong><\/p>\n

In honor of his appearance day (today the 29th of August), we are posting the following excerpt from chapter one of a new book coming soon from Gopal Jiu Publications, called, “When Good Fortune Arises”. The bracketed matter will be endnotes.<\/p>\n

Chapter I<\/p>\n

Early Days (1929 to 1974)<\/p>\n

A Family of Kirtaniyas<\/p>\n

Sri Srimad Gour Govinda Swami was born as Braja Bandhu Manik 2nd September 1929in Jagannathpur, a small village in what is now the Jagatsinghpur District of Orissa. His parents were Pata Devi and Iswara Manik, strict Gaudiya Vaishnavas that never engaged in meat-eating, illicit sex, gambling, or intoxication. His mother came from the Giri family of the village of Gadeigiri. The Giris are Gaudiya Vaishnavas and well known for their expertise ink\u012brtana and for their worship of the deities Sri Sri Radha Gopal Jiu that had been passed down in their family for over 350 years [Gopal Jiu, the Beloved Deity of Srila Gour Govinda Swami from Gopal Jiu Publications describes the eventful history of these deities.]. Braja Bandhu\u2019s maternal grandfather, Bauri Giri, was famous in the local area as aparamaha\u1e41sa-vai\u1e63\u1e47ava. He was constantly chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and worshiping Gopal. <\/p>\n

Bauri Giri\u2019s daughter, Pata Devi, was similarly devoted to Gopal. From her early childhood she would come to see Gopal every day. Every morning she would sweep Gopal\u2019s temple, make garlands, and cook for him. Like the Giri family, Iswara Manik was also in the business of selling items made of bell metal. Aside from Braja Bandhu, Ishwara and Pata Devi had a younger son named Kripa Sindhu and a daughter named Swadhuri Devi. Although after her marriage Pata Devi lived 14 kilometers away from Gadeigiri in Jagannathpur, it did not detract from her devotion to Gopal. She always managed to come during festival times to serve her beloved Lord. Pata Devi was always quiet and absorbed in serving her husband and children. Every Saturday she would fast as an offering for their well-being. Each morning she would worship Lord Jagannath and recite from the Pur\u0101\u1e47as and the Bhagavad-g\u012bt\u0101. Every evening she would chant hare k\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a and circumambulate a tulas\u012b plant with her husband and Braja Bandhu, then recite \u015ar\u012bmad Bh\u0101gavatam. Any beggar ors\u0101dhu that came to her house never went away empty-handed.<\/p>\n

Once when Braja Bandhu was a small child and he and his mother were staying at his uncle\u2019s house in Gadeigiri, a famous blind astrologer from Dhenkanal named Nityananda Khadiratna stayed two days at Gadeigiri. Pata Devi took her son to the astrologer, desiring to know something about his future. The astrologer said, \u201cThis boy is very intelligent and is full of devotion. He will be married and get government service. In his middle age he will give up family life and become a s\u0101dhu. He will acquire high knowledge and an important place on the map of s\u0101dhus. He will build temples. He will make Gopal\u2019s place bright. Lastly, the astrologer said that God himself has sent this child from his abode to the material world for preaching his message and for the deliverance of the conditioned souls.<\/p>\n

Attachment to the Bhagavatam<\/p>\n

Pata Devi was eager that her Braja Bandhu would become a devotee of \u015ar\u012bmad Bh\u0101gavatam, and she became very happy seeing that he was developing such attachment. By the age of eight, Braja Bandhu had read the entire Bhagavad-g\u012bt\u0101, \u015ar\u012bmad Bh\u0101gavatam, and \u015ar\u012b Caitanya-carit\u0101m\u1e5bta, and he could explain their meanings. At night many villagers would come to hear his recitation of the Oriya Bh\u0101gavata, R\u0101m\u0101ya\u1e47a andMah\u0101bh\u0101rata. However, young Braja Bandhu was particularly attached to the \u015ar\u012bmad Bh\u0101gavatam.<\/p>\n

His old friend Fakir Charan Das recounts: Srila Gurudeva once told me that whenever as a young boy he would become naughty and would not stop crying, his mother would simply put the \u015ar\u012bmad Bh\u0101gavatam [kdd1] in his hands and he would stop. He was so much inclined to read the Bh\u0101gavatam that if he was reading he would forget to take his meal. The family was too poor to afford candles or a lamp for reading, so in the evening he would sit close to his mother\u2019s cooking fire and read \u015ar\u012bmad Bh\u0101gavatam. At night he would go to sleep clutching the Bh\u0101gavatam to his chest.<\/p>\n

From 1942 to 1945, Braja Bandhu stayed in Gadeigiri with his maternal uncles Gopinath and Jagannath Giri, and he attended high school in nearby Balikuda. Gopinath and Jagannath Giri were both fond of performing k\u012brtana. They would regularly go out to chant in the neighboring area, and it was not uncommon for them to travel to distant villages for chanting. Often they would perform nonstop k\u012brtana for one or two days at a time. They were very fond of singing traditional Orissan songs of Krishna\u2019s pastimes as well as the songs of Srila Narottam Das Thakur. Whenever possible, young Braja Bandhu would chant with them, and by their association he became deeply attached to performing k\u012brtana.<\/p>\n

Although Braja Bandhu would often engage in k\u012brtana with his uncles, he did not neglect his studies. During the day he would engage in study, in the evening he would join the k\u012brtana, and then in the early morning he would come back to Gopal\u2019s temple to render service. Young Braja Bandhu was a quiet and serious child. He did not engage in play with the other children and he showed no interest in cinema or other such pursuits. Whatever free time he had after completing his studies he would spend doing k\u012brtana with his uncles or in rendering various services to Gopal. Braja Bandhu would clean Gopal\u2019s temple, pick flowers for the worship, make garlands, and recite verses and songs for Gopal\u2019s pleasure. He would never take any food that was not offered to Gopal. As a child he was not interested in sleep and would only rest for three or four hours a night, a habit he maintained throughout his whole life.<\/p>\n

From the time that Braja Bandhu was about a year old, his older cousin Dhobani Devi helped to take care of him. Years later she recalled that he was always a very sober, innocent child, who never spoke to anyone, and who had a great attraction for Gopal Jiu.<\/p>\n

Dhobani Devi spoke of an incident when Braja Bandhu was four or five years old: From his childhood Braja Bandhu was very absorbed in Gopal consciousness. Most afternoons, Braja Bandhu would play near Gopal\u2019s temple. Next to the little thatched temple was a paddy field that was used for cultivating mung dal. The village boys used to enjoy picking and eating the fresh raw beans called muga chui\u00f1 in Orissa. Late one afternoon, Braja Bandhu was picking some of these bean pods. He would take whatever he could hold in his small hands, put it on Gopal\u2019s veranda, and then go back to collect more. One time, when Braja Bandhu returned from the field, he found that his original pile of chui\u00f1 had vanished. Surprised, he looked around wondering who had taken them, but no one was to be seen. So he put that handful of bean pods down and returned to the field to pick more.<\/p>\n

Carrying all that he could in his tiny hands, Braja Bandhu went back to Gopal\u2019s veranda and found that once again his pile of green dal was gone. This time he was determined to see who was taking it. So when he returned to the field to collect more, he kept a careful watch, regularly looking up at his pile of muga chui\u00f1 on the veranda of Gopal\u2019s temple.<\/p>\n

Suddenly Braja Bandhu saw a small dark boy grabbing all his bean pods. He ran towards the boy, shouting, \u201cGopal is taking my chui\u00f1\u201d. Gopal fled, running around the temple, hotly pursued by Braja Bandhu.<\/p>\n

By this time it was getting dark, and Gopinath Giri, Braja Bandhu\u2019s maternal uncle, was going to Gopal\u2019s temple for his evening prayers. He was most surprised to see young Braja Bandhu running around and around the temple shouting that Gopal had taken his chui\u00f1. His uncle called to him, asking why he was running around the temple by himself in the dark. Braja Bandhu said that Gopal had taken his chui\u00f1. Gopinath Giri told him that he should go home as it was getting late, but then he suddenly saw a boy\u2019s shadow rush through the temple doorway. Seeing this, Gopinath Giri became amazed and ecstatic. His hair stood on end, and tears came to his eyes. With a trembling body he embraced young Braja Bandhu, understanding that Gopal was playing games with his nephew! [Ananda Sambada, issue 28, pp. 38-39. From an interview conducted by Bhakta Pradosh.] <\/p>\n

In his childhood, when Braja Bandhu was studying in upper primary school, he was staying in his uncle\u2019s home in Gadei Giri. Ghanashyam Giri was responsible for Gopal\u2019s worship. Braja Bandhu would come and together they would perform k\u012brtana and render service to Gopal. Damodar Giri was a good singer and was expert in k\u012brtana. These three, Ghanashyam Giri, Damodar Giri, and Braja Bandhu, often sat together and performedk\u012brtana.<\/p>\n

Later in his life, Gour Govinda Maharaja commented: The first thing I remember as a child are the songs of Narottam Das Thakur sung by my uncles from.Gadeigiri. My uncles knew k\u012brtana. They were great k\u012brtaniy\u0101s…. I would regularly listen to k\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47a-kath\u0101from my parents. They would read different Pur\u0101\u1e47as and other Vedic literatures to me, such as \u015ar\u012bmad-bh\u0101gavatam, Mah\u0101bharata , etc. From my youth I was singing, dancing, doing k\u012brtana, and listening to \u015ar\u012bmad-bh\u0101gavatam. [K\u1e5b\u1e63\u1e47\u0101lingita-vigraha, p. 25. Interview with Gour Govinda Swami.]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Madhava- nanda Das<\/strong><\/p>\n

In honor of his appearance day (today the 29th of August), we are posting the following excerpt from chapter one of a new book coming soon from Gopal Jiu Publications, called, “When Good Fortune Arises”<\/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-9849","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\/9849","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=9849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9849\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dandavats.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}