bbtirtha - Audio

The Gaudiya Sky is Bereft of the Bright Sun

Harikatha, Bhakti Vedant Akinchan Maharaj

This audio is recorded at Mayapur Virahsabha, 2017 in which Srila Bhakti Vedant Akinchan Maharaj, a disciple of Srila Bhakti Vedant Narayan Maharaj remembers Srila Gurudev and prays for his blessings. Remembering his exchanges and the love he has got from Srila Gurudev he tells that his entering into eternal pastime has not incurred a big loss only to Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math but the entire Gaudiya sky has become bereft of the last bright sun of the era. He also described how he realized the presence of all the qualities of a real vaishnava in Srila Gurudev's character and conduct. He expresses that without his direct presence we have become helpless, guardian-less and master-less orphans.

Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Goswami maharaj’s disappearance has not only caused a big loss in Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math but it is a great loss for all the Gaudiya Maths and I think the entire Gaudiya sky has become bereft of the bright sun of this era. Today, there is no other person after him who has got the capacity to speak and protect the Gaudiya Lineage. Maybe I am not able to see such a person and that's why I am doubtful. He was a great-personality who has followed the manjaris of Srimati Radharani as his Guruvarga and maintained the proper conduct of behavior like humility (trinadapi) and affection for his disciples.

Who is a Vaishnava? Srila Prabhupada explains that the person who is impartial and unbiased is a real Vaishnava. We have seen and realized such qualities in his character and conduct. Previously, I used to visit Mayapur very often and in those days there was darshan of Srila Maharaj in the afternoon after Prasadam. In one such darshan, Srila Maharaj was speaking harikatha when he said "I will go ". Brihdavrati Maharaj, the personal servant of him, was also present there. We said "No, you cannot go so early. You can only go after completing hundred years. Why are you saying that you will go away? We are becoming helpless, guardianless and masterless orphans.”

The persons who had come for us from the Gaudiya sky are now leaving us. What will happen to us after this? Even if we keep on crying helplessly we won’t get any support.

So today, on this occasion in a brief period of time I offer my tributes to the lotus feet of Srila Maharaj by some words which have emerged from the core of my heart. I pray to him to bestow upon me a speck of his causeless love and enlighten my heart with a bit of his behavior, his vaishnavism, his humility and unbiased conduct. Wherever you may reside, I can’t see you since I am blind, conditioned and fallen and you are a liberated personal associate of the Lord sent by the Lord Himself. So please bless me that I may stay under the guidance of the stream of bhakti propagated by Srila Prabhupad and Bhaktivinode Thakur and attain the eligibility to preach fearlessly and reveal the words, the behavior and the ideology of persons like you. I desire to become a dog who feeds on the remnants of personalities like you birth after birth. I thus conclude my tributes here.