The functions which remind us about Guru, Vaishnav and Bhagavan destroys all our in-auspiciousness and fulfills our spiritual desires. As a proof, you can see that by the mercy of Narada Risi, Vedavyas Muni could realize the pastimes of the Supreme Lord and wrote Srimad Bhagavatam. He is the father as well as the spiritual master of Sukadeva Goswami. He made him to listen to Srimad Bhagavatam at the bank of Saraswati River in Badrikashram. Vedavyas Muni was the speaker and Sukadeva Goswami was the listener. Though, Sukadeva Goswami was fully established in Brahman realization by his birth, by hearing the pastimes of Supreme Lord, he became fully absorbed in the Divine love of Sri Krishna. And after that he did not give any value to the bliss of Brahman realization for which the great gyanis and Munis perform severe penances for thousands and thousands years but still they do not get it. Bliss obtained in Brahman realization is equivalent to the water retained in the foot impression of a cow. And the Divine Love of Krishna is equivalent to the water of a fathomless ocean. Krishna is the madhuryamaya-vigrah—the embodiment of highest sweet mellow. He is avatari—the cause of all other avataras. After describing all the avataras, Rama, Nrisimha etc. in Srimad Bhagavatam, Vedavyasa Muni wrote,

ete cāṁśa-kalāḥ puṁsaḥ
kṛṣṇas tu bhagavān svayam
indrāri-vyākulaṁ lokaṁ
mṛḍayanti yuge yuge
(Srimad Bhagavatam 1.3.28)

“All of the above-mentioned avataras are either plenary portions or portions of the plenary portions of the Lord, but Lord Sri Krishna is the original Supreme Lord. All of them appear on planets whenever there is a disturbance created by the atheists. The Lord descends to protect the theists.”

So, Krishna is svayam bhagavan—the original Supreme Person. Chatuhsan—Sanak, Sanatan, Sanandan and Sanat, the four Kumaras, were completely absorbed in the bliss of Brahman realization. When they attained the aroma of Tulsi offered to lotus feet of Narayan, they at once became attracted towards the lotus feet of the Lord and they immediately became devotees. They abandoned their long-cherished impersonalism straight away. The madhurmaya-vigrah of the Supreme Lord, towards whom even Narayan also gets attracted is, Nandanandan Sri Krishna. Krishna gave instructions making Uddhava the medium in eleventh Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. He says to Uddhava, “In Brahman realization, one cannot get even an iota of bliss in comparison with the transcendental bliss that the Gopis have because of their loving devotion for Sri Krishna. They do not know the ontological aspects of Mine. They do not know Me as the Supreme Lord.”

Srila Prabhupad appeared in Jagannath Dham, Purushottam Dham. That place is situated not far from the Jagannath Temple on the Grand Road in Puri and was constantly reverberating with the sound of Harinam. Six months after the appearance of the child, it was time for the Rathayatra festival. That year, by Lord Jagannath’s desire, His chariot stopped in front of Sri Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s house and simply would not move forward. Under Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s direction, a sankirtan festival was held in front of the Deity for the entire three-day and night. That place is known as Narayan Chhata. ‘Chhatta’ in Oriya language is umbrella. Now a big temple is established at that place. Our Guruji has established that temple because many God brothers of our Gurudev came to him and requested, “You have established so many Maths at various places in India but in Puri, the appearance place of our Gurudev (Prabhupad) has been occupied by many tenants from long time. We have to pay our obeisances from outside, sometimes even that is not possible. We do not see anyone else other than you who can rescue that place.”

My body is from Bengal, you do not know my language properly and I do not know your language properly so it is little difficult to explain. I have Bengali accent so you have to hear very attentively. If you do not pay proper attention then you will not be able to understand. So there were so many tenants, who occupied that place since more than forty years. It was very difficult to draw them out from that place. Who would go there to have the place vacated? Even the organization such as ISKCON ran away from there. No one was keen to procure the place. Our Guruji went to Srila Tirtha Maharaj, who was the President of Chaitanya Math that time, even he did not show any interest in procuring that place. Then many of the God-brothers of Guruji came to him and they requested him to take that task in his hand. Our Guruji had a special characteristic, whatever he speaks, he would do that. Guruji thought, “All the Vaishanava are giving me the order to rescue that place.” He was always in the mood of, gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥs—identifying oneself only as the servant of the servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Lord Sri Krishna, the maintainer of the gopis. So he took responsibility to vacate that place and to take custody of it. There were so many challenges involved in acquiring that place that it was almost impossible to make it happen. I requested Guruji, “No one is worried about acquiring that place. Your health is not good. So it will be good if you do not take such a hard work. There are no proper arrangements here for your stay. You have to stay in Dharmashala (lodge), there are so many ants here and you cannot get proper sleep in the night at such a place. What will be the benefit we would get by taking so much pain and doing so much hard work? Please you leave this task.”

Gurudev did not give any response to my words. Rather he told me to write an application. He said, “Tomorrow, I will meet the Chief Minister.”

Guruji’s nature was like that if he would take any task in his hand then he would surely complete it. He was thinking all Vaishanava had given him responsibility so he would fulfill their desire. He used to make the impossible possible. We were thinking that the place had so many controversies and so many court cases had been filed, so even if we would get that place, it would not be possible to get the possession of the place. But Guruji took the responsibility to procure that place and many big personalities like Rangnath Mishra, the chief justice of Supreme Court and Gangadhar Mahapatro came in his full support. Would such personalities come in support of any ordinary person like me? But they came behind our Guruji, being attracted by His exalted personality. He made the impossible task possible. When we try to serve Supreme Lord without any deceitfulness, nothing is impossible, our Gurudev is teaching us through his life. In the commentary of Gita, Vishvanath Chakravartypad gave an example, we should remember it.

There was a tiny sparrow, who laid her eggs on the shore of the ocean. She had strong attachment for her eggs. Once she was not there near her eggs. That time the water level in ocean rose up, as always happens with the tides in the oceans. The big ocean carried away the eggs on its wave. The sparrow became very upset when she returned back. She asked other birds about her eggs, they replied, “The ocean carried away so many valuable things, what is the value of your tiny eggs? You will get new eggs again.” She was not convinced by their opinion and approached the ocean. She paid obeisance and requested the ocean to return her eggs back. She said she has not committed any offense to him, why should he take her eggs? But the ocean did not respond to her request. She prayed many a times but the ocean did not even consider her appeal, so she became angry and decided to dry up the ocean. Is a tiny sparrow capable of drying up the ocean? But she jumped in to the water of the ocean and began to pick out a small drop of water in her small beak. Everyone laughed at her for her impossible determination. They advised her to stop her endeavors, as she would never be able to dry up the ocean and the whole cast of birds would be blasphemed for her foolish act. But she did not listen to any one and continued with her efforts. By divine arrangement, Narada Goswami was passing through that place and he saw the small sparrow’s act. He knew the language of birds, so he went to her and asked her, “What are you doing? Why you are doing so?” In reply she explained everything to him.

Narada Goswami advised her, “See! You would never be able to dry up the ocean by your endeavors. You are wasting your time. Leave it. Whatever happened, happened by the divine arrangement. You may get eggs again.”

But she fell down at the lotus feet of Narada Muni and told him, “I do not have any enmity towards the ocean, if he will return my eggs then I will stop. By drying up the ocean I will get my eggs back.”

Narada Muni is the personified form of mercy of the Supreme Lord. She fell at his lotus feet so she received his mercy. Narada Muni went to Vaikuntha to the Garuda. He told Garuda, “Even in your presence your community is getting blasphemed, I saw it.” Upon being asked by Garuda, Narada Muni described everything to him. He also told Garuda that whole world is laughing at the sparrow, which belongs to his bird community.

Garuda asked Narada Muni, “What should I do now?” Narada Muni replied, “You go there and do something so that that tiny bird will get her eggs back.”

Garuda immediately arrived and attacked the ocean with his huge wings. The personification form of the ocean came there and asked about the reason behind Garuda’s act. Garuda replied, “You have carried away the eggs of this small sparrow and you are not giving them back. You are insulting our bird community, you have to return the eggs.” The ocean was frightened at this and returned the eggs. That tiny sparrow did not have any capability but when someone continues his endeavors, sincerely, with firm faith then he will get help from above. Our Gurudev continued his endeavors to get that place so Lord Jagannath and his Gurudev, Srila Prabhupad came to his support and made the impossible task possible. We got the place and all the tenants went away and later a big temple was established there. When the tenants left that place, all the exalted Vaishnava Sanyasis were invited there. Srila Bon Maharaj and other Vaishanava came there and a big celebration was held in that old building. After that function, Gurudev left this material world and entered into eternal pastime of Supreme Lord. After the departure of Gurudev, we were thinking, how would we establish a temple at that place? How would that task be completed? But our Gurudev arranged everything!

One day, I was walking on a road in Puri. That time one unknown person got out from his car and came to me and gave me five hundred rupees. Keshava Prabhu and Krishnadas Babaji Maharaj were there with me and he gave three hundred rupees to each of them. We were surprised, how a person could give so much money to some unknown people while walking on the road? What was going on? It had never happened before. We thought Guruji was giving us a signal to go to that person for help. We did not have any courage to establish a big temple, we were worried. So our Gurudev guided us to go to that person for help. Gurudev made that person a medium. A huge Math was established there. Who did it? Our Gurudev did it. Though externally he was not present there but he only did everything. We did not do anything. We were worried and prayed to him, “We have this place but now what will happen? How will the temple be established?” And so our Gurudev guided us. It is a real incident. It is not a story. Because it is the appearance place of our Param Gurudev, people from all over the world come there.

Today is the disappearance day of our Param Gurudev. He enacted his disappearance pastime at Bagbazar Gaudiya Math, Kolkata. He was in Puri before, from there he went to Bagbazar Gaudiya Math. He stayed in this world for sixty three years. He appeared in this world in 1874 and left the world and entered in the predawn pastimes (Nishant-lila, the first yam pastime that we read during Kartik month daily) of the Supreme Lord at 5.30 a.m. on Friday 1st, January, 1937. According to the Western calendar after twelve midnight the new day starts.

It is written by Sri Vyasadeva Risi in the Padma-Purana, ‘hy utkale purusottamāt’, the message of pure devotion to Sri Krishna will be spread throughout the world from Jagannath Puri. And after the appearance of our Param Gurudev, Srila Saraswati Thakur, who descended accepting Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Srimati Bhagavati Devi as his parents, devotion to Sri Krishna was spread throughout the world. He was endowed with transcendental powers. He performed a sacrifice of chanting hundred crores of Holy Names which he completed in nine years. He observed Chaturmasya-vrata in Mayapur Dham. He did go-grass (eating like a cow without using his hands by serving the Prasadam on the floor) for these four months.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared to distribute the highest Divine love to the conditioned souls of the world. He declared,

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
(Sri Chaitanya Bhagavat Antya 4.126)

“In every town and village of the earth, the chanting of My name will be propagated.”

After the disappearance of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Svarupa Damodar, Ramananda Raya, the Six Goswamis, Srinivas Acharya, Narottam Das Thakur and Shyamananda Prabhu, a dark age descended on the world of Gaudiya Vaisnavism. Why did that happen? We should deeply think about that. Was there no scholar at that time? Was there no Bhagavatam that time? Or the books of six Goswamis, Chaitanya Charitamrita or Chaintanya Bhagavat? Everything was there, but no one could understand the doctrine of pure devotion. And because of that numerous pseudo-sects or apasampradayas cropped up. The Westerners translate apasampradaya to heretic-sects which does not clearly represent the word. The more appropriate translation is pseudo or false sects. Totaram Das Babaji Maharaj named thirteen such pseudo-sects and prohibited everyone from associating with them.

āul, bāul, kartābhajā, neṛā, daraveśa, sain
sahajiyā, sakhībhekī, smārta, jāta-gosāyi
atibāṛī, cuṛādhārī, gaurānga-nāgarī
totā kahe ei terar saṅga nāhi kari

The pseudo-sect people claimed that they also preach the message of Mahaprabhu but they are practicing and spreading the opposite of His real teachings. In the name of religion they keep elicit connections with woman. Their character is not good. They do not have the scriptural knowledge. At the time of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the whole of Bengal was influenced by His teachings but after He left to go back to the transcendental abode the pseudo sect people practiced and propagated His teachings inappropriately and the influence of Mahaprabhu’s teachings was diminished. No one could understand the real implication of those teachings. Preaching the message of pure devotion is not so easy. At first, one should judge his own character. No one will get benefited just by merely giving instructions to others. One must practice the teachings of pure devotion in his whole life. One’s whole life must be dedicated for the service of Sri Krishna. One should have unconditional surrender to the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord. There should not be any other motive. As long as misconception of the self is there, evil desires will automatically come. Who can stop them?

Mahadeva, who is the Guru of Vaishnava and the origin of Rudra-sampraday, which is one among the four Vaishnav-sampraday, told Parvatidevi,

bahavaḥ guravo santi
śiṣya-vittāpahārakaḥ
durlabhaḥ sadgururdevi
śiṣya-saṁtāpa-hārakam
(Padma Puran)

“There are many so called guru to squeeze out the wealth of the disciples but a sadguru is very rare to be found who takes away all the miseries of the disciple.”

It is very rare to find a sadguru in this world. If you want quantity, you will not get quality. One person with a good character can do immense good to crores and crores of people. But crores and crores of characterless persons cannot do good to even a single person. Quality is important. The medicine invented by one scientist can benefit six hundred crores people of the world. If you want quantity, you have to sacrifice quality. Persons with good qualities are always less in number. Therefore Mahadeva explained as such.

Mahaprabhu knew that nobody had understood and in future nobody would understand the real implication of His teachings by reading them from books, as conditioned souls have the misconception of the self and different worldly motives. He then decided to send someone from His associates to rescue the fallen souls and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur came to this world. Accepting him, Srila Saraswati Thakur appeared in this world. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur wrote more than one hundred books in different languages and refuted all the anti-devotional ideologies. He restarted the World Vaishnava Association (Vishva Vaishnava Rajsabha) in Kolkata. Srila Saraswati Thakur used to go with him carrying Bhakti-rasamrit-sindhu. He was a young boy that time. There used to be a World Vaishnav Association (WVA) meeting every Sunday. At present Paramdveti Maharaj from Germany is carrying out special efforts to have these meetings. He requested me to be the vice-president and then the president of WVA. I will continue to follow the order of Vaishnava as long as I have the capability.

It was the desire of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Srila Saraswati Prabhupad to continue WVA meetings. Not only Gaudiya Vaishnavas, but Vaishnavas from Ramanuja-sampraday, Vishnuswami, Nimbaditya and many other Vaishnavas were part of WVA that time.

Our Bhaktisiddhant Saraswati Prabhupad refuted all the anti-devotional ideologies. The Brahmins of Nabadvip Dham started charging money for having darshan of the deity in temples. Srila Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad opposed their acts as Mahaprabhu distributed the highest Divine Love to everyone without considering any material qualification of caste, religion or anything. He distributed the love to everyone whoever came in contact with Him. So making His deity the medium to earn money is not at all appropriate. He also opposed the acts of persons who made reading Srimad Bhagavatam as their source of income. Because he refuted all these anti-devotional thoughts and actions, they all became enraged towards him and many of them tried to harm him in various ways. They even tried to kill him but they were completely unsuccessful. Prabhupad did not take any of their acts as an offense. But whoever came to harm or to try and kill Prabhupad were all drowned in the Ganges. Srila Prabhupad was aggrieved on listening to their fate. Others who also were opposing him became very scared of doing any harm to him.

Srila Saraswati Prabhupad expanded his energy by transmitting his powers to his disciples and preached the message of pure devotion throughout the world. He established sixty-four centers all over India. He established the assembly for spreading the glories of Nabadvip Dham (Nabadvip-dham-pracharini-sabha). He sent his disciples to London, Germany and many other places. Srila Swami Maharaj who preached the message of devotional service to the Supreme Lord in Western countries was ordered by Srila Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad to do so. I did not know this before. I had gone to have his darshan, as he is the God-brother of our Gurudev, at RadhaDamodar temple, Vrindavan where he was staying after his Sanyas. That time he showed me his ‘Back to Home, Back to Godhead’—monthly magazine. It was very indistinct printing, difficult to read. I requested him, “Our Gurudev is here in Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math. Will you not go our Math?” He replied, “Yes.” Next day he came and he entered into the room of our Gurudev and talked to Gurudev for more than half an hour, or more than that perhaps. I was outside. I do not know what topic they spoke upon, they are God-brothers. When he came out and was leaving, he called me at the gate. He said, “I have got the desire to go outside India to preach Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s message, will you go with me?” That time I was the secretary of Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math and there were many incomplete services, in Chandigarh Math, in Puri Math, in Mayapur Math, all these were incomplete in terms of construction and I had the responsibility to complete. What could I do? I remained silent. He was disappointed. He could not get any help. He went to Western countries alone. Later, when I had gone to Western countries, I was taken to different places visited by Swami Maharaj by Vaikuntha Nath Das Prabhu. He was a professor and a disciple of Swami Maharaj. He came by Lord’s desire and helped me to go different places. While coming back from a function at Connecticut to New York, which is a two hour journey, he asked me, “May I listen to my Gurudev’s sermons on tape record?” I replied, “Yes, Yes. I shall be benefited by that.” There I heard Srila Swami Maharaj’s sermon delivered on the disappearance day of Srila Saraswati Prabhupad.

He says in that, “All my god-brothers were engaged in the service of Prabhupad but as I was a householder, I was endeavoring to earn money for the maintenance of my family. In that regard, I came to Mumbai from Kolkata. I was trying hard to earn money. That time I got the news that Srila Gurudev’s (Prabhupad’s) health is not good. He may leave this material world at any time. That time I wrote a letter to him saying I am your disciple, I am a fallen soul, everybody is engaged in your service but I do not have opportunity to serve you. You please instruct me on what service I shall do.”

In reply to his letter, Srila Prabhupad wrote, “You have good hold over English. You can preach the message of Divine love throughout the globe.”

“I got that letter of Srila Gurudev. I was thinking I have to carry out his order but I could not act upon it immediately and that time I got the message that Srila Gurudev has departed to his eternal abode.”

Last Narayan 4, 450 of the Chaitanya era, at the end of the Thursday night, Paush 16, 1343 of the Bengali calendar, on Friday morning, January 1, 1937, Srila Prabhupad, joined his eternal service in the pre-dawnpredawn pastimes (nisanta-lila) of Sri Radha-Govinda. That time, Swami Maharaj completely renounced worldly life and took Sanyas-ashram. He was always praying to Narottam Thakur and Bhaktivinoda Thakur through their kirtans for their grace so that he can fulfill the desire of his Gurudev, Srila Prabhupad.

Srila Saraswati Prabhupad met his Gurudev, Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj in 1900. Babaji Maharaj used to come to Godrum-dvipa at the place of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur from Nabadvip. He used to sing the kirtan, ‘vṛndāvana-vilāsinī, rādhe, rādhe , kānu-mana-mohinī, rādhe, rādhe'. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur ordered Srila Saraswati Thakur to take deeksha from Srila Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj. Srila Saraswati Prabhupad went to him and prayed to him to accept him as his disciple. But Babaji Maharaj refused to give him deeksha as he wanted to perform devotion in solitude without accepting any disciple. When someone accepts a disciple then he has to think about the ultimate welfare of the disciple. Srila Babaji Maharaj used to live beneath a broken boat with utmost renunciation.

Srila Prabhupad asked Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaja several times to give him initiation. The first time he asked, Babaji Maharaja told him, “If Mahaprabhu tells me to, I will.”

The second time Babaji Maharaja told him that he had forgotten to ask Mahaprabhu. Srila Prabhupad did not give up and came a third time. Babaji Maharaja said, “Virtuousness, scholarship and other qualities are not the means to attain the Lord. They do not give you any right for initiation.”

Though he had been turned away by Gaura Kishor Das Babaji repeatedly, Srila Prabhupad did not abandon his resolution.

Srila Prabhupad showed his qualities of patience and determination as he continued to come before Babaji Maharaja. He humbly entreated him to give him initiation until finally his heart melted, and out of great affection mercifully he initiated Srila Prabhupad by sprinkling the dust of his lotus feet on his head. He said, “You are eligible to propagate the message of Mahaprabhu throughout the world.” He then gave him deeksha-mantra and transmitted all the powers to him. Then Prabhupad performed sacrifice of performing hundred crores of Holy Names. He accepted sanyas-ashram in 1918 and established Chaitanya Math. He thought, “I do not have wealth or people, how can I propagate the message of Mahaprabhu? But it is the order of my Gurudev so I have to follow it.”

He was not an ordinary person, he was very powerful. Many great scholars came to him to refute the doctrine of pure devotion but on having seen his effulgent personality they could not even talk to him let alone try to refute his thoughts. In 1911, there was some debate that took place between Brahmins and Vaishnava. That time Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur was exhibiting the pastimes of ill health. Viswambharnath Goswami, a great scholar and the grandfather of Atul Krishna Goswami of RadhaRaman temple, also took part in that discussion. Everybody was astonished to hear Srila Prabhupad speak at such a young age on the differences between Brahmins and Vaishnava. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur was contemplating on who will propagate the doctrine of pure devotion after his departure. The grandfather of Atul Krishna Goswami, after listening to Srila Prabhupad in that assembly, went to Bhaktivinoda Thakur and very joyfully told him that his disciple Srila Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad is capable of propagating the pure devotional doctrine.

After the disappearance of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj, one night, however, Prabhupad had a svapna-samadhi (dream-like vision) in which he saw all the members of the Pancha Tattva, being led by Mahaprabhu in Sankirtan, dancing and approaching toward the birthplace at the Yoga Pith in Mayapur, from the eastern side of its Natya-mandira. They were followed by the Six Goswamis and by Vaishnava Sarvabhauma Jagannath Das Babaji, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj and other guruvarga members of the disciplic succession, all appearing in effulgent, divine forms. They consoled Prabhupad, saying, “Why are you worrying? Get the task of preaching pure devotion underway. Preach Mahaprabhu’s message everywhere. Spread the service to Gaura-dhama (Mahaprabhu’s abode), Gaura-nama (His Name), and Gaura-kama (His desire or work). All of us are ready to support you at every turn. We will help you at every moment in your efforts to preach pure devotional service. Countless people, unlimited wealth and extraordinary scholarship are all waiting for you to call for them. Whenever you need anything at all, it will come to you to be engaged in the service of the preaching mission. Simply go forward to preach the message of love of God as given by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, giving it your total effort. No worldly force will be able to disrupt this effort. We are with you always.

pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma
sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nāma
(Sri Chaitanya Bhagavata Antya 4.126)

“In every town and village of the earth, the chanting of My name will be propagated.”

There is no other remedy other than nam-sankirtan in this Kaliyug. It is true for all places, not only for India. You propagate this message throughout the world. Why should anybody be deprived?”

Then after He came to Kolkata at Ultadanga Road, and from there he propagated the teachings of Mahaprabhu throughout the world.