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SRILA BHAKTI DAYTA MADHAVA GOSVAMI MAHARAJ
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01
The Prabhupāda & Gauḍīya Guru-varga
Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur used to commend him saying, "His energy is volcanic energy." Srila Gurudeva's exemplary character, his warmth and affectionate behaviour, his tolerance and forgiveness were qualities, which attracted everyone.
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Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada never hesitated to send Him to perform any important task or to send Him out as an advance party because He was confident and sure that the task at hand would be successfully completed in due course.
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Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada had so much confidence in Srimad Hayagriva Das Brahmachari (Madhava Goswami Maharaja), that He first selected Him to be sent to foreign countries for preaching, for which purpose His Passport and all necessities were ready. But Rajarshi Sri Saradindu Narayan Ray, one important household devotee, objected to this proposal saying that Sri Hayagriva Das Brahmachari was young and very beautiful, "There may be difficulty in sending such a beautiful, young Brahmachari to foreign countries. Instead an old Sannyasi should be sent there." At his suggestion, Param Pujyapad Srimad Bhakti Pradeep Tirtha Maharaja was sent instead.
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“For an elephant,” Śrīla Śrīdhara Gosvāmī Mahārāja started, “a stick of sugar cane is as insignificant as nasavāra (snuff tobacco), whereas for an ant, the same sugar cane stick is like a mountain. An activity that to us may seem like a huge endeavor is nothing but an insignificant task for pūjyapāda Mādhava Mahārāja; he can perform such deeds without any difficulty.
“In this regard, I have had first-hand experience. Śrīla Prabhupāda had sent pūjyapāda Mādhava Mahārāja—then known as Śrī Hayagrīva Brahmacārī—and me to acquire some land at the meeting place of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Rāya Rāmānanda at Kovvur, near the banks of the Godāvarī River, in order to establish Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s footprints (pada-pīṭha) there. After many days of endless endeavor, I said, ‘Hayagrīva Prabhu, Śrīla Prabhupāda has sent us here with great hope to obtain a piece of land on which to establish Mahāprabhu’s padapīṭha. My brahmacārī name given by Śrīla Prabhupāda was Rāmānanda dāsa, and this is the meeting place of Mahāprabhu and Rāmānanda Rāya. Although we have tried our best to acquire land, we have not been successful. What is your opinion? Should we stay here longer, or should we leave for Madras for preaching?’
“Śrī Hayagrīva Prabhu replied, ‘It is my feeling that we have thus far not made any special endeavors. I think we should continue our efforts for some time more.’ ”
Śrīla Śrīdhara Gosvāmī Mahārāja then mentioned to all the Vaiṣṇavas present, “You may estimate his capability from this statement of his. The apparent end point of our attempts was for him a beginning point of fresh endeavors. Later, through his tireless efforts, a plot of land was acquired in Kovvur and a maṭha was established there. Śrīla Prabhupāda used to refer to Śrī Hayagrīva Brahmacārī as having ‘volcanic energy.’ Śrī Vāsudeva Prabhu used to call him sarva ghaṭe, one who excels in completing all types of tasks.
“My personal view about pūjyapāda Mādhava Mahārāja is that he is comparable to none other than Śrīla Vakreśvara Paṇḍita, an associate of Śrīman Mahāprabhu who could dance continuously during kīrtana for seventy-two hours without becoming fatigued."
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I feel proud to have him as my Godbrother. Unprecedented was the way he boldly & fearlessly preached the truth with his ever smiling face, his spotless character, his readiness to sacrifice his own life for the service of Guru and his most ideal life principles without deviating so much as an inch from what was taught by Srila Prabhupada.
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Srila Gurudeva was regarded as one of the most favourite entourage of Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. He was generally sent by Srila Prabhupad as the advance party man to do groundwork for the preaching events. He actively helped in organising preaching festivals as well as Parikramas of Vraja and Navadwip Dham, establishing preaching centres and the Maths, spreading the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the cities and villages. He also established shrines of Mahaprabhu's Lotus feet (Pada-pithas) in many of the places the Lord had visited, restored other holy sites, published transcendental books and magazines in order to spread the message of pure devotion.
'Hyutkale Purushottamat' - Sri Krishna Bhakti will spread from Sri Purushottam Dham in Orissa - predicted Sri Vyasdev in Padma-Purana. This prophecy was fulfilled after the appearance of Srila Prabhupada in the house of Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode in Puri. Srila Gurudeva recovered this most munificent place of the appearance of Srila Prabhupad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur after great effort for which he is justly renowned.
'A gigantic spiritual personality,' Srila Gurudeva pierced the fortress of impersonalist philosophy in Punjab, where he was first to introduce the Divine Love of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Tenth in the preceptorial line from Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Srila Gurudeva founded Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math organisation.
Srila Gurudeva, as per direct direction of his spiritual master, preached in the North-East India and established many preaching centres there. He wandered from village to village, travelling by foot and sometimes by oxcart, simply to bring the greatest good to every living being to turn them toward Krishna. He established Maths at Sridham Mayapur, Gauhati, Tezpur, Gwalpara, Calcutta, Puri, Chandigarh, Vrindaban, Hyderabad, etc. He also took over the service of the 500 years old temples of Lord Jagannath at Jasra, Chakdah and at Agartala, Tripura. He established Sri Chaitanya Vani Press in Calcutta. He preached extensively in different parts of India spreading the divine message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu irrespective of caste, colour or creed.
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His seva mood
Srila Prabhupada asked Hayagriva Prabhu, “What makes you extremely happy?-
Seeing Sripad Hayagriva Prabhu’s service attitude, Srila Prabhupada used to say that you have amazing Volcanic Energy. Once, Srila Prabhupada asked Hayagriva Prabhu, “What makes you extremely happy?” Sripada Hayagriva Prabhu answered, “Srila Prabhupada, when you give me a service, which I have not yet been able to complete but again, you order me to do an additional service, that makes me extremely happy.”
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Established Sri Caitanya Gaudiya Math
In 1953, for the sake of creating a base for every devotee to practice spirituality, Srila Madhava Goswami Maharaj established a spiritual society in the name of Sri Chaitanya Gaudiya Math with a non-sectarian and non-judgemental mood. He had spontaneous affection for all of his godbrothers. He often used to say, “For the service of my godbrothers, even if it is required for me to beg from door to door, I will do so.” He allowed all of his godbrothers to stay in his society and eventually, they could establish their own societies without hesitation.
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Srila Madhava Goswami Maharaj’s broad Vision
Srila Madhava Goswami Maharaj’s broad vision was to make people understand the real goal of spiritual practice. Once, a businessman came to Mayapur and approached Srila Madhava Goswami Maharaj for opening a brick factory in his agricultural field. The businessman said, “Here in Mayapur, many temple constructions are going on. They need to buy bricks. You can sell them bricks and get enough money to manage your institutional activities. You can use the leftover bricks from the field for constructing your temple.” After hearing this proposal, Srila Madhava Goswami Maharaj told him, “Seth ji Mahashay, our proposal is very good. You are proposing to make the poor material detached, fakir, into the rich materially attached, amir. However, the goal of my society is to change the rich materially attached, amir, into the poor materially detached, fakir. Your proposal is materially attractive but for us it is not acceptable.”
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Srila Madhava Goswami Maharaj’s entire life allowed us to learn the main goal of Lord Chaitanya’s mission, real meaning of sincerity, generosity, magnanimity, purity and simplicity.
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The small effort presented in this section is not enough to describe the glories of this great Vaiṣṇava. For more information, please refer to the book "Volcanic Energy" (click on the image below to download it):
02
ISKCON Prabhupāda
“You should not write anything to Madhava Mahārāja’s camp. You may have talked many things with Mangala Niloy but why write him in black and white. The letter must not be sent. Their policy has been all along to suppress me and take credit for himself. Their proposal for cooperation is a myth. They haven’t done anything which is cooperative. You know in a recent article they managed to write in such a way that Madhava is doing the world movement and we are his subordinate. From the beginning that has been their mentality. So, there is no possibility of cooperation with them. Rather you should avoid strictly meeting with them. They are not after preaching but material gain and reputation and adoration. Otherwise, why they are non-cooperating with me? So, no cooperation is possible. Do not think or indulge in loose talks. Be careful always. Let us do the duty of propagation sincerely and seriously on our own principles.”
(740608 - Letter to Acyutananda written from Paris)
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He never recommended anyone to be acarya of the Goudiya Math. But Sridhar Maharaj is responsible for disobeying this order of Guru Maharaj, and he and others who are already dead unnecessarily thought that there must be one acarya. If Guru Maharaja could have seen someone who was qualified at that time to be acarya he would have mentioned. Because on the night before he passed away he talked of so many things, but never mentioned an acarya. His idea was acarya was not to be nominated amongst the governing body. He said openly you make a GBC and conduct the mission. So his idea was amongst the members of GBC who would come out successful and self effulgent acarya would be automatically selected. So Sridhar Maharaj and his two associate gentlemen unauthorizedly selected one acarya and later it proved a failure. The result is now everyone is claiming to be acarya even though they may be kanistha adhikary with no ability to preach. In some of the camps the acarya is being changed three times a year. Therefore we may not commit the same mistake in our ISKCON camp. Actually amongst my Godbrothers no one is qualified to become acarya. So it is better not to mix with my Godbrothers very intimately because instead of inspiring our students and disciples they may sometimes pollute them. This attempt was made previously by them, especially Madhava Maharaj and Tirtha Maharaj and Bon Maharaj but somehow or other I saved the situation. This is going on. We shall be very careful about them and not mix with them. This is my instruction to you all.
They cannot help us in our movement, but they are very competent to harm our natural progress. So we must be very careful about them.
(740428 - Letter to Rupanuga written from Hyderabad)
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Prabhupāda: [...] amader Madhav Maharaj to sunechi advertise koren double M.A. (Opposition, malice agenda . . . (indistinct) . . . anyways, that's alright. But when Godbrothers are . . . (indistinct) . . . but the main, basic principle is envy. That we couldn't make it happen like this . . . (indistinct) . . . they are such big big Mahārājas, and here is this tiny little fellow . . . (indistinct) . . . I heard that our Madhava Maharaja advertises himself to be a double M.A.)
Dr. Kapoor: Ācchā. He is not a . . . (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: Eh?
Dr. Kapoor: He is not a . . . (indistinct)
Prabhupāda: You do not know?
Dr. Kapoor: No, I don't know. I think he is a graduate. Huh? He's not even a graduate? (Prabhupāda chuckles) I was told that he was a graduate long ago, you see, when I used to go to Calcutta, the Gauḍīya Maṭh there.
Prabhupāda: Anyway . . .
Dr. Kapoor: And Bon Mahārāja also has told he is a graduate. What is he?
Prabhupāda: What is he?
Dr. Kapoor: Bon Mahārāja, graduate? He is Karachi graduate.
Prabhupāda: No, I don't think so. Anyway, so Falanite ata sota, bikr belay kac kola (Bengali proverb). (Shows off alot but when it is a question of working, then they are nothing.)
(740214 - Conversation - Vrndavana)
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Bhavānanda: . . . never leave the boundaries of our land and never go down the road to his place, but I... Prabhupāda: No, they admit. He is Mādhava Mahārāja's man.
Bhavānanda: Fifteen-twenty men maybe, at the most. And when you go by there, it's like ghost town. (Prabhupāda chuckles) Now no action. You don't see anyone. You don't hear any sound. Therefore all the people, they walk right by and come right in our gate, where the taktaki is going, the boys are...
Prabhupāda: Here also, Mādhava Mahārāja temple, nobody goes.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: Is this his temple here, in Vṛndāvana?
Prabhupāda: Yes. It is always closed. They are cooking.
(770525 - Conversation B - Vrndavana)
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"If you are serious to be an important assistant in our Society you should fully engage yourself in translation work, and do not mix yourself with my so-called god-brothers. As there are in Vrindaban some residents like monkeys and hogs, similarly there are many rascals in the name of Vaisnavas, be careful of them."
(721121 - Letter to Niranjana written from Hyderabad)
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03
Śrī Śhyām Das Bābā
Some such similar example we can get in the life of Sri Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja, long ago at the time of Srila Prabhupada that time he was known as Hayagriva Brahmacari. Some of his senior Godbrothers wanted to request him to approach Srila Prabhupada with the issue of how to complete one lakh Harinam! Because they knew it very well that Srila Prabhupada has great affection for him. On their request, Srila Haiyagriva Brahmacari wanted to put this question in front of Srila Prabhupada at a very suitable time when Srila Prabhupada was busy doing Harinam and he got the rare scope to play on the hand-fan to Srila Prabhupada. He was hesitating to put this question in front of Srila Prabhupada, but somehow this question was put in front of Prabhupada. We know it very well that Srila Prabhupada never goes into compromise with anybody regarding shuddha Hari Bhajan. So Srila Prabhupada was not at all ready to approve doing less Harinam than the quota already fixed by him (1 lakh Harinam as was the standing instruction of Sriman Mahaprabhu). Srila Prabhupada started speaking that— “Night-time what you are doing?" That was the question by Srila Prabhupada. Now we can understand very easily how exclusive and how unique was the Acaryaship of Srila Prabhupada.
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The great exalted Vaiṣṇava Śrīla Bhakti Daiyta Mādhava Gosvāmī Maharaj was the only shelter or support in your helpless life of dangerous sickness for whom you got back a new life. Then how it is possible for you to forget him so easily? Surely Śrīla Bhakti Vijñāna Bhāratī Gosvāmī Maharaj was not informed at all about all those dirty remarks or criticism past by Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaj about his Gurudeva and guru-varga, otherwise it would not have been possible for him to glorify Śrīla Svami Maharaj that way (big way) in his book named ‘My Beloved Masters’. If we are failure to unveil the mystery lying behind the screen, then anybody can express doubt about our most honorable Śrīla Vijñāna Bhāratī Gosvāmī Maharaj, that how it was possible for him to glorify Śrīla Svami Maharaj even after knowing all those bad remarks passed by Śrīla Svami Maharaj about his own Gurudeva and guru-varga. From Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam we can get the following example established by Ma Sati Devi during the time of criticism of Vaiṣṇava Raj Syambu (her husband) by Daksa Prajapati, ultimately she left her body by the help of Yoga agni, because of hearing vaiṣṇava ninda.