Prabhupada's Godbrother Akincana Krsnadas Babaji Maharaj

[Guest guest]

Dear Krsna bhaktas,

 

For over 6 years (1968-1973) I had the close association of Paramahansa Krsnadas Babaji Maharaj, and joined in over 2,500 of his wonderful kirtanas. Following are some things I have written about Srila Krsnadas Babaji Maharaj. I hope you will like this little bit of Hari-katha.

 

Paramahamsa Akincana Krsnadas Babaji Maharaj

 

He was the delight of all the associates of the great Sarasvati Thakura. He was the favorite of his Godbrothers and he gave them all his laughing "Hare Krsna!"

 

In 1968 Paramahamsa Akincana Krsnadas Babaji Maharaj was staying at Srila Vana Maharaj's Vrindavan Gaudiya Matha, "bhajan kutir," which he did every year (for 4-5 months at a time) during the hot season. In the winter he was in Navadvipa. We slept on the roof together many summer nights, and he never went to sleep. Prayers, quiet bhajan and chanting all night long, every night. He was constantly laughing, and he would always say "Hare Krsna!" with the greatest exuberance I have ever witnessed.

 

He was the most "Goswami" alike character. He looked just like you would imagine Sanatana or Rupa Goswami in Vraja to look like. He was the only devotee I ever witnessed who would weep flowing tears while leading kirtan without losing his voice. And he was the greatest kirtana leader in the universe! All the devotees within the various Gaudiya Math's everywhere agreed that Lord Caitanya would personally join Babaji Maharaj's kirtana. As long as he stayed at Srila Vana Maharaj's Vrindavan ashram he always led the kirtana starting at 4:30 am. He always played the mrdanga either in kirtan or alone while singing prayers before the Deities.

 

The Deities at bhajan-kutir were Lord Caitanya, Sri Govinda in the center, with Srimati Radharani on the other side. There were also Govardhana and Shalagram shila's worshipped daily with the central Deities. The puja standard was first-class. There were about 10-15 ashramites ranging in age from 18 - 80 years old. Everyone was either a brahmacari or sannyasi. Akincana Krsnadas was the only "Babaji" who stayed regularly at the Vrndavana bhajan-kutir. In the daytime, after noon kirtana, Babaji Maharaj would go down into a cave room which Swami Vana had constructed years before. It was very cool in that room. So everyday Babaji Maharaj would spend the entire afternoon in the cave room chanting his mala; he also kept track of his rounds.

 

Babaji Maharaj didn't seem to have any teeth. He was an old Bengali disciple of Saraswati Thakura's who (it is rumored) went to live in seclusion at Haridwar after the disappearance of his Gurudeva. In any case, that was many, many years before. He was about 70 years old when I first received his merciful glance. Making disciples, building temples or collecting money were the farthest thing from his mind; and he never, ever criticized anyone. His only concern was chanting constantly; either kirtan or rounds. He would answer with a laughing "Hare Krsna!" any time anyone would speak to him. He often had a gleefully pained look on his face like he had just heard the world's funniest joke and was going to burst out laughing. And when any one said Hare Krsna to Babaji he would laugh out loud in a most infectious manner. When ever he would say Hare Krsna he would laugh his way through the mantra. I have never seen Prema-bhakti as exhibited by Krsnadas Babaji Maharaj. All the Gaudiya Math devotees were so glad when Babaji Maharaj would come to stay. Time for the "Uttama" kirtana!

 

In 1968, for "protection" from my Vietnam draft problems, I proceeded to Govardhana Hill to perform parikrama. By great good fortune I was accompanied by Babaji Maharaj who also wanted to visit Govardhana. On the way we stopped at Nandagram where we stayed for a week at Sanatana Goswami's bhajan kutir (no electric, water, nor latrine). Begging "madhu-kari" from the local Vraja-vasis by proclaiming, "Radhe Syama!," we passed our time in chanting and exploring the home of Nanda Maharaj. Babaji Maharaj didn't speak anything (he only said "Hare Krsna!"), nor did I speak much Bengali yet, so our relationship was initially based on only saying "Hare Krsna!" to each other.

 

Next we proceeded to Varsana where he introduced me to Sriji Herself. But due to my "blunt material eyes" I could only see charming Deities. We also stayed a few days at Man-mandira with a siddha-purush known as Radha-charan Das Babaji. He is one of the most exalted souls I have ever met.

 

After many days we finally arrived at Mount Govardhana, but we got off the bus (at Babaji's insistence) before the bus drove over the hill and on to the bus station. Early the next morning, after bathing in Syama kunda & Radha kunda, we walked around Govardhana hill barefoot, carrying our bedding, chanting all the way. Sometimes Babaji Maharaj, while always chanting, would laugh out loud and other times he seemed morose like he was missing Krsna. Just like Srila Prabhupada, Babaji Maharaj never wasted a single moment without Krsna Consciousness. By evening we had completed the task and returned safely to Radha-kunda for the night. The next day we went back to Mathura by bus and onwards to Vrndavana by Tonga.

 

There are so many amrta-like stories associated with Govardhana and the two kunda's. I returned many times in the years that followed. Later, during another Govardhana parikrama with Babaji Maharaj, I am ashamed to confess I was chanting so poorly that he was forced to break his usual silence.

 

Samadhi of Akinchan Krsnadas Babaji Maharaj in Nandagram

 

Sanatana Goswami's sacred bhajan-kutir is on the banks of the eternal Pavan-sarovar lake. This kunda is so special because Sri Krsna takes His daily bath here eternally. It is said that a morning bath in Pavan-sarovar gives liberation from material bondage forever (at least a shira-snan). All the devotees would bath daily in this sarovar. It is very charming.

 

Attached to this austere ashram is a very sacred tirtha, the samadhi of Akinchan Krsnadas Babaji Maharaj, who is Srila Prabhupada's "bhajan-anandi" Godbrother. It is interesting to note that the only two disciples of Srila Sarasvati Thakura whose samadhi's are mentioned by H.H. Mahanidhi Maharaja in his book, "Gaudiya Vaisnava Samadhi's in Vrndavana," are Srila Prabhupada (who was acting as the most empowered gostya-anandi) and Krsnadas Babaji Maharaj (who was a most exalted bhajan-anandi).

 

Nandagram is the lila-stali chosen over all others by Babaji Maharaj to leave his old body. Some devotees believe that Babaji Maharaj is eternally in shakya-rasa with Lord Krsna. Although he would never say, still, I remember him at Madhuvana singing a Hindi song about Krsna's friends with tears streaming down his face (without losing his voice).

 

In the samadhi is a large picture of Babaji Maharaj looking kind of sad. I have never exactly seen Babaji with that look before. I always remember him laughing and very happy. He was so humble that we were all afraid to offer him obeisance's because he would always do the same in return. He would never accept obeisance's. Can you imagine a Vaisnava of Babaji's character bowing to a prakrta-bhakta and former beef-eater like me? I wasn't fit to wash his feet.

 

Please allow me to speak more about Akinchan Krsnadas Babaji Maharaj. One time he was leading a large sankirtan party through the streets of Vrndavana. It was the middle of summer (In Vrndavana!!). When we reached Srila Bhakti Saranga Goswami's Gaudiya Math, Babaji Maharaj fainted. We all thought he might die, so we continued chanting and took him into Bhakti-Saranga Maharaja's Amalitala ashram. Finally we got Babaji Maharaja to wake up and then he got sick to his stomach. When he felt a little better he asked us to continue on and he would catch up later. Sure enough, on the last stretch, there was Babaji Maharaj with mrdanga in hand and a beaming grin on his face.

 

On another occasion I was following Babaji Maharaj walking around Giriraj Maharaj. In all the years together I never heard Babaji Maharaj speak much. Example: "Babaji Maharaj, is it true that you're in shakya rasa?" To which he replies, "HARE KRSNA!!!" Even when he was meeting with his Godbrothers he would always sit at their feet, and he would simply laugh and proclaim, "Hare Krsna!!!" whenever he was told anything. So we were walking past a devotee who was performing 108 dandavat parikrama around Govardhana when suddenly Babaji Maharaj turned to me and said, "Ucharan Koro!" ("Pronounce it"---the Holy Name). My chanting was so poor that Babaji Maharaj had to break his silence.

 

As I mentioned before, Babaji Maharaj never slept. He was always up all night performing bhajan; at least during the summers when he would always stay in Vrndavana with Srila Vana Maharaj. First thing in the morning Babaji Maharaj would lead all the kirtana with all the many traditional Gaudiya Matha melodies. Then, after Caitanya Caritamrta reading (in Bengali), Babaji Maharaj would sit alone before the Deities and sing endless sweet bhajans for a few hours. He would also sing (recite) so many verses, and he would always begin with all the Guru vandanas (Siddhanta-Sarasvati, Gaura Kishore, etc....). During the afternoon he would stay in an underground room to chant rounds. I often went to serve him and I never saw him sleeping. At night he would again lead the kirtana, and after prasadam he would sit on the roof to pray, all night! The best way to describe Babaji Maharaja is a laughing "Hare Krsna!!"

 

Once (on the order of Srila Vana Maharaj) Babaji Maharaj picked out a stone from Govardhana and handed it to me. Later, while worshipping that shila, I was starting to practice "manasa-seva" (mental service*) while offering bhoga. I was told by Srila Vana Maharaj not to try and visualize my self; rather just visualize the lila discriptions of the Divine Couple. As for my seva I was told to only "visualize my delicate hands" when performing service, and otherwise be an observer of the bona fide lilas.

 

After about 6 months of this practice, one day a Vrndavana monkey came into my room (during my chanting/meditation) and knocked the shila onto the floor. Srila Vana Maharaj was perturbed to hear about this accident, and he ordered me to immediately place the shila into the temple and stop trying for manasa-bhajan while in my prakrta-bhakta condition.

 

*Information on Manasa Seva (meditational service)

 

As an after thought to many devotee's sincere questions, first let me state that I am a fallen soul with no idea about my spiritual identity (just like the ISKCON gurus). But still my eternal identity is there, as my true svarupa. It does not need to be concocted or "created" from nothing. Without boring you with quotes let me speak directly from my understanding.

 

Some devotees who are still stuck within the material concept (prakrta bhakta's) have been given some 11 fold siddha-pranali information to meditate on. But they haven't "realized" this information as their self. It is only academic and perhaps a mental concoction. So the following points are required in order to actually realize our nitya svarupa which remains covered until we pass beyond our "prakrta buddhi."

 

1) The aspirant to self (svarupa) realization must not limit himself to only one manifestation of Guru-tattva in his search for the realized soul (acting as Guru-shakti) who can actually see through our material covering and thereby inform us of our true identity. ("antaryami bhakta-srestha aay dui rupa" CC)

 

2) This knowledge is then to be cultivated by manasa-seva, within the bona fide confines of our Gaudiya "asta-kaliya-lila" information which Srila Prabhupada himself told me is the REAL NITYA-LILA DETAIL. The details of these 'possible to enter' lila's are given by Srila Kaviraj Goswami and others, and they are consistent with the absolute truth. By using one's awarded svarupa information he/she can "imagine" or visualize the spiritual world (as it is for the Gaudiya bhakta's) or Goloka Vraja-dhama. One then pictures (her) self as taking part. In this meditation there is no limit to the items and service which can be performed under the guidance of our dearly beloved (siddha-pranali) guru and the other revealed nitya-parishad's within this (initially) mental domain.

 

3) This type of mental service cannot be maintained with out a natural attraction to that mental domain combined with intense concentration. If concentration is not 100% then the whole scene becomes "hazy" and can disappear. But luckily this is spiritual life so the "domain" and service can be regained instantly with a further plunge into one's 100% concentration mode. I used to do this everyday for a long time while chanting well over 16 rounds. Each session got better and more clear and I was no longer counting my rounds, just chanting non-stop. Concentration on the bona fide lila's combined with mental service will bring about attachment to that manasa "domain" and a growing attraction to participate in one or more of the 8 nitya-lila periods will be natural.

 

Srila Vana Maharaj, for example, eternally resides with in the Divine Couples "pratham-yam" (1st part) early morning lila**. He is fixed and fully satisfied with that part of the lila only. But with no material limits the satisfaction of serving in even one period can (and will) be ever-fresh and ever increasingly blissful. Such mental service is fully accepted by Radha Krsna, even more than service done with the material body (like dressing the Deities in the temple here on earth), because it requires bona fide and total concentration or dira-caitanya. This sincere practice (but not to gain pratista) will simply expand and grow until IT becomes more attractive and less of a hassle that action performed by the body in this jada-samsara. It grows into firmness (to operate within), taste, attachment, bhava, and finally prema when the devotee has no desire to leave his manasa-seva state of Krsna consciousness.

 

But I warn you that the first person in ISKCON to attain such Prema will be tarred 'n' feathered before being crucified. So that is the material sacrifice faced by every aspiring rasika bhakta. Also too much association of the "prakrta bhakta's" will pull you down from such ever-increasing attachment to service within meditation. And having once tasted such bona fide mental service, one can experience great agony in the association of the prakrta bhakta's, who will try to argue "material duality" and drag one back into "karma-misra-bhakti."

 

Dear devotees, I have never spoken about this with any of my Godbrothers before, so please don't waste this information on the prakrta sahajia's (like most ISKCON gurus), who think they are already liberated without even a clue of their spiritual self identity. But I say, try now before death so that your understanding of Nitya-lila and 'serving without a material body' will have already become attractive to your heart and you will simply enter (at death) a place (consciousness) of which you are already familiar and most attracted.

 

I am a lowly grihasta and patit sannyasi. By I was trained right and associated with real paramahansa's who taught me the truth of Krsna Consciousness, a drop of which I also experienced personally. So please don't take it that I am trying to teach you something. I believe that you already know in your hearts all that I have said.

 

Fully familiarize your selves with the "asta-kaliya-lila" that Srila Prabhupada allowed me to put into the sloka 10 translation of Sri Upadesamrta or Nectar of Instruction. That is the only place you will find it positively mentioned in the entire VedaBase. When speaking with Prabhupada (after 6 years training under Srila Vana Maharaj) about these matters he never once treated me like some fool the way he did with his other disciples. He knew that Vana Maharaj was an expert and that I knew the inside truth...viz.,

 

krsnam smaran janam casya

prestham nija-samihitam

tat-tat-katha-ratas casau

kuryad vasam vraje sada

 

"A devotee should always reside in the transcendental [initially mental] realm of Vraja and always engage in krsnam smaran janam casya prestham, the remembrance of Sri Krsna and His beloved associates. By following in the footsteps of such associates and by entering under their eternal guidance, one can acquire an intense desire to serve the Supreme Personality of Godhead."

---Srila Rupa Goswami (B.r.s., 1.2.294)

 

seva-sadhaka-rupena

siddha-rupena catra hi

tad-bhava-lipsuna karya

vraja-lokanusaratah

 

"In the transcendental realm of Vraja (Vraja-dhama) one should serve the Supreme Lord, Sri Krsna, with a feeling similar to that of His associates, and one should place himself under the direct guidance of a particular associate of Krsna and should follow in their footsteps. This method is applicable both in the stage of sadhana (spiritual practices executed while in the stage of bondage) and in the stage of sadhya (God realization), when one is a siddha-purusa, or a spiritually perfect soul."

---Srila Rupa Goswami (B.r.s., 1.2.295)

 

**Pratham-yama-kirtanam : Chanting during the first period: (3:22 a.m. to 5:46 a.m.)---By Paramahansa Srila Krsnadas Kaviraj Goswami:

 

ratryante trastavrnderita bahuviravaibedhitau kirasari-

paghairrhrdhyairapi sukhasayana dunthitau tau sakhibhih

drstau hrstau tadatvoditarati-lalitau kakkhatigih sasamkau

radhakrsnau satrsnavapi nija-nijadhamnyapta talpau smarami

 

ratryante --at the close of night; trasta --afraid; vrnda --vrndadevi; irita urged; bahuviravai --with many chirping tunes; bodhitau --awakened; kira saripaghai --by poems of parrots and mynas; api --also; sukhasayanat --from happy sleep; utthitau --got up; tau --they both; sakhibhih by female friends; drstau --seen; hrstau --happy; tadatva --of that time; udita-rati-lilatau --attractive on account of profound love; kakkhati-gih-sasamkau --suspicious about the voice pronounced by a she-monkey; radha-krsnu --Radha and Krsna; api --also; satrsnau --having desire; nija-nija-dhamni --in Their respective residences; apta-talpau --occupying the beds; smarami --I remember.

 

"I remember Radha and Krsna at the close of night. Vrnda, who was attending Them, was not happy at that moment, knowing that before dawn the Divine Couple would separate Themselves. However, she did her duty. She prompted the parrot and the myna to sing many pleasing songs. These songs awakened Radha and Krsna, who rose from Their bed of bliss. Their female friends observed Them looking very charming because of the deep love and affection They shared at that time. Both were suspicious about the voice of a she-monkey, and although They desired to continue Their mutual association They left that place for Their own residences, where They occupied Their own beds."

 

Your servant,

Hrsikesananda das