Offering by His Holiness Radhanath SwamiMhg for His Holiness Bhakti

[Guest guest]

Excerpts from the offering given by His Holiness

Radhanath Swami

Maharaj for His Holiness Bhakti Tirtha Maharaj on

Saturday,2nd July

2005 at Gita Nagari, Pennsylvania.

 

 

In the wonderful lecture that His Holiness Bhakti

Tirtha Maharaj gave

(a video recording of HH Bhakti Tirtha Maharaj's

lecture was shown as

a part of the Memorial celebration), he described the

`school of

love'. In the Gaudiya vaishnav sampradaya, one of the

prominent

forces in this school is `love in separation'. The

anguish of the

heart that awakens on the disappearance of the

spiritual master is an

experience that cannot be understood by material

intelligence.

All of us, disciples of Srila Prabhupada, have also

personally

experienced within our hearts the disappearance of our

spiritual

master from the world and thus we know what you all

are going through.

Lord Chaitanya taught `union in separation'. "He

reasons ill who says

Vaishnavas die, for thou are living still in sound.

Vaishnavas die to live and, living, try to spread the

holy name

around." HH BTSwami ki jai!!!

When the spiritual master departs from the physical

presence, the

intense pain brings tears of separation. Deeper the

pain, more

ecstatic is the love. Those tears water the seed of

love in the

heart. It is convenient to see Guru with our eyes,

touch him, but in

the manifestation of separation, we must find the deep

essence of

union of his presence through our surrender, loyalty

and devotion.

Lord Krsna lived on this planet for 125 years. Out of

that he spent

only 12years and 8 months in Vrndavan and yet the

residents of

Vrndavan are the most exalted and glorified.

Their love was `love in separation'.

Krsna, in Dwarka, told Satyabhama and others that if I

go to

Vrndavan, I will interfere with the depth of their

love in

separation, which cannot get any higher.

Lord Chaitanya spent time in Gambhira, in His last

years, hearing

about the love of gopis for Lord Krsna. The six

goswamis captured the

essence, `He Radhe Vraja Devike'. Srila Prabhupada

said that the

essence of perfection of the Gaudiya Sampradaya is

`union in

separation' or `love in separation'

Krsna is represented by Guru within this world. PLEASE

UNDERSTAND

THAT HH BTSwami IS ALIVE WITHIN ALL OUR HEARTS.

On several occasions, in the last weeks, HH BTSwami HH

told me, "Srila Prabhupada is calling me back and when

I go back

(smilingly) I will be there to prepare for the arrival

of all of

you" .

Maharaj led an extraordinary life, His life gives hope

to the

hopeless, not only by word and action, but how Krsna

orchestrated him

to live in this world.

HH BTSwami was born and raised in a poverty-stricken,

inner-street

ghetto in a persecuted race. In the 1950's persecution

was hundreds

of times more than today. As a child he had a speech

defect. He would

stammer while speaking. He was ridiculed, laughed at

and criticized.

What hope is there for success in life for a person

brought up in

that situation?

He came from a broken family, hardly any food or

clothes to wear. He

had to fight to survive. For anyone to live in that

neighborhood ,they had to carry guns. What hope is for

someone to be

successful?

He became a graduate from Princeton University, joined

ISKCON, became

a spiritual counselor for heads of state, wrote about

25 books and he

has followers from practically every race -whites,

blacks, old,

young, etc, and from all places- Russia, Australia,

Germany...and

America too!(laugh) . They worship his lotus feet and

hear every word

of his as the word of God. If there is any success

story in this

world, it is of HH BTS! (Applause)

Since Haridas Thakur, if anybody has shown that

wherever you are

coming from, life is successful if you surrender to

Krsna; Maharaj

(HHBTS) exemplifies this statement.

HH BTSwami conquered Srila Prabhupada's heart by his

sincerity. We

heard from HH BhaktiCharu Maharaj, how deeply Srila

Prabhupada was

affected by his service. Srila Prabhupada embraced

him, shed tears on

his body, and with a voice of gratitude told him,

"Thank you very

much, your life is perfect".

These are the words of Srila Prabhupada.

Couple of weeks ago, Maharaj (HH BTS) told me a story.

I had never

heard it before, but to understand the mood of being a

teacher in the

school of love, I believe we have a lesson to learn.

Maharaj was behind the iron curtain risking his life.

He was the no.

1 book distributor. Srila Prabhupada was showering his

blessings and

praise upon him. In 1977, at the Gaur purnima

celebrations, in

Mayapur, the library party came. HH BTSwami, then

Ghansyam das, heard

something that devastated his heart. All the devotees

of the library

party had a meeting and were considering resigning.

The pressure was

so intense working with Ghansyam das. He would get up

at 1 am, chant

his rounds, read Srila Prabhupada's books, and before

the colleges

would open, he was there at the doors to preach. Such

determination!

His first meal was after the last college locked its

last door, ie:

at 10 in the night! BTSWAMI FELT THAT IF HE DIVERTED

HIS ATTENTION

EVEN FOR A MOMENT, THAT MUCH LESS OF SRILA

PRABHUPADA'S MERCY HE

COULD DISTRIBUTE! He considered every moment as an

opportunity to

preach.

He considered and expected everybody to be like him!!

But when he

understood that others wanted to resign, his heart

broke and from

that day his perception of devotional service changed.

He said, "It's

not about things we do, recognition we get from

spiritual master,

winning scores we achieve, but being the servant of

the servant of

the servant. If I am discouraging devotees, how am I

pleasing Srila

Prabhupada?". He understood that along with everything

to do for

Guru, priority is to show love and compassion to every

single devotee.

He lived by this principle. Anyone who was willing for

Krsna, HH

BTSwami was ready to face violence, criticism, to

encourage them and

make them feel loved and valued. He told me, "This is

my mission and

I expect everyone to live by this!"

In his last ishtagoshti, he told what he was

undergoing. He said it

was a blessing as he could understand other people's

pain. DEVOTIONAL

SERVICE IS NOT A MATTER OF DOING WITH BODY BUT HOW WE

ARE DOING WITH

HEART.

On snana yatra, it was also the disappearance of

Mukunda Datta. I was

explaining to him my understanding of the auspicious

day. I first

spoke about snana yatra and then about Mukunda datta.

Mukunda Datta

was one of the most loved kirtan singers of Lord

Chaitanya. I

concluded by saying that he was the brother of Vasudev

Datta. As soon

as I said this his lips quivered, his body shook and

tears came from

his eyes. He pulled my head, pressed it to his heart

and said," Thank

you for reminding me of Vasudev Datta". All he could

say was "Vasudev

datta, Vasudev datta, such a great soul".

In his last year's Vyas puja offering to Srila

Prabhupada, HH BTSwami

prayed to follow in the line of Vasudev Datta to be

willing to suffer

for the welfare of others. Vasudev Datta prayed for

everyone to go

back to Godhead. That mood, HH BTSwami considered most

sacred purpose

of life. He worshipped that compassion. Srila

Prabhupada lived by

that principle and how extraordinarily HH BTSwami

revealed this!

One day, two weeks ago, he was in immense pain and

asked me to speak

about Krsna, which according to him was the only real

medicine. I

started chanting Hare Krsna and his eyes became big

and he had an

expression of an innocent, simple little cowherd boy.

He was gazing

at me and chanting. And he did something that no one

has ever done to

me before(laugh), he took my hand and kissed it. And

looking with his

child like eyes he said, "Maharaj, isn't this

wonderful." He was

shaking his head in ecstasy and had a beautiful,

blossomed

smile, "Maharaj, it doesn't get any better than this.

I would not

exchange my place for anyone, and what is amazing is

that it gets

better everyday!"

Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur said that the essence of all

religion is

compassion to the fallen souls and complete absorption

in the Holy

Names. HH BTSwami was a man of essence and true

substance.

On this day, I place my head in the dust of the lotus

feet of all of

you and congratulate you for your supreme fortune. On

disappearance

of Srila Bhaktisiddhant Saraswati Thakur, in Los

Angeles, California,

Srila Prabhupada gave a lecture narrating about his

personal relation

with his Gurumaharaj, from the first meeting to

his(BSST)

disappearance. Srila Prabhupada became very emotional

and concluded

with this statement. The tape is there and you can

hear and make out

that Srila Prabhupada's voice is choked up as he is

speaking. He

said," I am very old and I can leave this world at any

time but all

of you are very young " Srila Prabhupada pleaded to

all of

us , "Please , I may die any moment, please carry on

the mission of

my Gurumaharaj. ". Srila Prabhupada appealed to us,

weeping and

crying.

HH BTSwami gave his life and soul, his everything for

this purpose.

My sincere and humble request to all his fortunate and

divinely

blessed disciples -search deeply in your heart,

without duplicity and

try to really understand what HH BTSwami wants, what

is his mission.

He begged to help him carry on the mission of Srila

Prabhupada's

life's work and doing so there will be tears of

separation, which

will get more and more painful .In the material world

when someone

dies, others console by saying "you will get over it".

But in Krsna

consciousness we say "please never get over it". Let

the pain get

deeper and in that you will feel the greatest

happiness of spiritual

love.

Thank you very much.

 

 

 

 

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