Sanatana Goswami Meets The Lord in Benares and Receives His Mercy

This is the second meeting of Sanatana Goswami with the Lord which is in Benares after his great escape from Hussain Shah’s prison and a long travel by foot for days crossing mountains and hilly regions and facing many hurdles. When Mahaprabhu saw him, He immediately rushed to embrace him. Also Mahaprabhu is extremely pleased to see Sanatana Goswami’s renunciation. Every single one of Sanatana Goswami’s actions contains an unmatched lesson for the conscientious sadhaka.

The Compassion of Thakur Bhaktivinod Flowing Through Gurudev

With an open heart Srila Gurudev sang glories of Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur and his life and teachings, his compassion and literary contributions in the form of transcendental kirtans to the world at large and especially to the Gaudiya Vaishnava Samaj. In this part of the Harikatha Srila Gurudev recalls how Thakur’s writing had great impact in his life and narrates his first meeting with Param Gurudev in Goalpara, Param Gurudev’s advice to him read Thakur’s Jaiva Dharma and later after some exchange of letters, his final transition to Math. He also remembers the incident when Srila Param Gurudev by his spiritual power and great compassion made him read the book ‘Kalyana Kalpataru’ and made him realize that the words of Thakur are completely transcendental.

How to Surrender

Suddha bhakti is a book about pure devotion and is compiled from lectures given by Srila Gurudev on his second visit to Europe in 1999. In this section Srila Gurudev delineates the concept of ‘saranagati’ which is the foundation of knowledge necessary to enter a life of devotion, the necessity of surrender and how we can actually get it.

Surrender To Sri Guru

Srila Gurudeva in his harikatha on the Disappearance Day of Srila Ramanujacharya, narrates an instance they often heard from Param Gurudev. It is from the life of Sri Varadarya and his wife who were disciples of Sri Ramanjacharya. It is an extremely rare case of self-sacrifice. The couple being very poor, the woman decides to sell her body to get the necessary provisions to serve Sri Guru and his disciples. The all-knowing Guru protects her chastity by advising her to offer some of the maha-maha-prasad to the evil merchant and the merchant’s heart changes instantly on honoring the prasad, he begs for forgiveness of the woman and then takes diksha from the Guru and serves the couple life long. At the end of the katha Srila Gurudev remembered a similar example of Kusum Kumari Devi, a disciple of Param Gurudev, who sold her only asset, her house, to serve Gurudev and the vaishnavas without thinking about her future.

Enchanting Pastime of Gaura-Gadadhar

Gadadhara Pandit is the fountainhead of all sakti-tattva, and non-different from Mahaprabhu and the embodiment of love, Vrandavanesvari Srimati Radhika. After return from Gaya when Mahaprabhu was desperately and intensely yearning for the darshan of Krishna, Gadadhar Pandi would pacify him. Seeing this Sachi Mata told him, ‘Gadadhar, you always stay near Nimai.’ From that time onwards Gadadhar Pandit stayed near Mahaprabhu always. Here is an account of the pastime narrated by Srila Gurudev which gives us a glimpse of Gadadhara Pandit’s love and his total surrender to Mahaprabhu.