Guru Maharaj in Damodar desh, Shyamadesh & Avatari desh

Shivaram prb was very exited when he called me on the 27th and he confirmed that HH Gopal Krishna mhg would be arriving in the next two days and that he was going to be fortunate to host HH at his residence. Sreevallabh prb was making the programe schedules and
shivaram prb was looking forward to have a programe at his residence also .

During the month of April 02 I was fortunate to meet maharaj at Vrindhavan with my wife and son .We had very nice association and mercy from mhg who mentioned that he had a wish to meet the devotees in the various desh as mentioned above.On behalf of the yatra leaders I took this opportunuity to invite HH again as he had a long standing invitation from Sreevallabh prb .Mhg took my address etc and that day there was a class for Russian devotees in his room .HH inquired as to the possibility of carrying his deities during the trip and I mentioned that many of his Godbrothers came with their deities and sheelas last year but the Gaur Nitai deities were a little big to be easily carried .Before leaving WE met HH next to Srila Prabhupads samadhi and as my wife was not well. Mhg inquired if she took some medicines and suggested a local doctors name .This reminded me of the wonderful caring nature that mhg always had when we were fortunate to have his association at Bombay very regularly . His memory was
also astonishing as HH also remembered some old incidents of Bombay in 86 -87 relating to Srila Prabhupad,s and also of the vyasa Puja of HH which would fall the next day

Shiva ram prb is the only disciple of HH in this area and naturally it was dream come true for him. .Many of you would be knowing him as Sharma prb from The bank of Baroda .We have our weekly Bhagavad-Gita study class for the Bhaktivriksha members at his residence and his whole family are practicing krishna consciousness.

On 29th of may Mhg arrived from Nairobi and was Greeted at the airport by Sreevallabh prb ,Shivaram prb and Bhakta Rajeev who had purchased his new car .He was lucky to have HH sit in his car and we always find him doing a lot of hitech computer work at the programs and is very supportive to various sanyasees for their computer requirements.

After resting around 1.30 am mhg was awake in the morning and we waited for HH top get ready for the morning deity worship of the shilagrams. It was very nice to meet HH again and after paying our obeisances Ramani pati prb and I waited for mhg to finish the conversation that HH was having with a devotee in Vrindavan .Mhg would occasionally tell us that he Was sorry for keeping us waiting but in real fact we were very fortunate to spend more time and then after a lot of travel rescheduling to USA HH kept the phone and inquired about us and the yatra.

Mhg started to display the shilagrams and asked us Rashmi mataji & Sonia mataji to prepare some offerings for the bhog .HH has some wonderful shilagrams of ugra narasimgha ,Krishna Balaram ,Damodara form with a white band running around the center of the shila, tulasi devis imprint on one, krishnas foot prints ,one with basuri &another was aGiriGovardhan shila .Above all these HH has 108 small shilas . I was lucky to get the ugra narasimgha shilas blessings when mhg touched it on my head . Mhg explained that the smaller the shila the more powerful it is and every one cannot get them at the Ghandaki river bed .HH conducted the puja in a very nice manner and applied scented oil on the shilas and dressed them.

There was a padapuja ceremony for maharaj after his deity worship and shivaram prb, Bhaktin Saroj (shivaram prbs wife) daughters bhaktin Rashmi, Sonia, Hema , Mira & little Madhav participated .we had a photo session with mhg and there was a call from bhaktin Monia from Delhi who is the 3rd daughter of shivaram prb and mhg inquired about her well being Mhg then recollected his early days with Srila Prabhupad and narrated about the being with HH Jayapataka Swami Mhgin Montreal and the initial struggle with finances running short for day to day running of the temple .There are some restrictions about the diet of HH and the prasadam was prepared with care avoiding oil ,ghee and too much spice and salt.

I requested mhg to come home for installing Gaur Nitai at our residence and the swame could not be finalized as mhg had some visits with sreevallabh prb.mhg then went to sreevallabh prbs house and after that used the treadmill for some time to exercise as it would be difficult to have a comfortable stroll with the temperatures soaring to 44 deg centigrades now.

On the 30th evening there was a discourse by HH after a wonderful kirtan and spoke on the pastimes of Chaitanya mahaprabhu. HH narrated about the incident of nimai pulling the legs of the Brahmins during their bath at the Ganges, deviating their minds from the Gayatri mantra & also the pranks of interchanging the cloths of prbs and matajees.

Then the wonderful leela of Kesava Bharati was narrated as to how this great digvijay who defeated everybody with his knowledge was in great loss of words when Chaitanya mahaprabhu showed 100 mistakes in the various slokas that Kesava Bharati had composed on the mother Ganges.

When the digvijay admitted defeat the lord did not snub him but gave vhim honour and chastised the students of his class for laughing at the digvijay. HH mentioned that we should learn about humility from this incident. HH mentioned about the incident where at the age of 3 nimai takes a small puppy home and is scolded for the same, but in the end the puppy lets liberated. Mhg mentioned that we should not imitate these incidents but follow the great acharayas and if we can liberate a puppy then only we should keep one at home.

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May 2nd

Initially the mangala arti was to be at shivaram prbs residence but mhg wanted the same at shyamadesh. mhg left with Bhakta Rajeev , shivaram prb, Bhaktin Saroj &Rashmi.The programe was held at the residence of Ramananda prb. An ecstatic padapuja and kirtan was done by the devotees before the programe . HH spoke on the supreme occupation of living beings& emphasized the need for a human being to understand the goal of human life.HH spoke about Suta Goswamis explanation on dharma that it meant to attain transcendental devotional service to the the lotus feet of the supreme personality of Godhead .Krishna is not only for the hindus but there are no boundaries regarding devotional service to him. Krishna said that he is the seed giving father and never said that only to the hindus. Mhg has a very nice humorous way of putting things across and gives a charming smile. Mhg explained that achieving devotional service is the highest benefit and it is rarely achieved. Mhg mentioned that all of are obliged to the various demigods eg sun god gives so much light and energy but we are not returning any thing back to him .So if we take to devotional service we water the root and there is no obligation for the benefits being received from various demi gods. As mhg was speaking in English it was made sure that the hindi speaking audience got the nectar with Shivaram prb translating the same for them.

Mhg had to take the trouble of changing from his kavi dress to karmi dress whenever he had to move around .HH also visited the residence of Bhakta Vikas & Tota Gopinath prb at shyamadesh .Bhakta Swaroop
was fortunate to have the opportunity of bringing mhg back to Damodarsesh.

The afternoon programe at Damodardesh was very enlivening and the hall was packed. HH spoke on the chandan yatra of Madhvendra Puri and the leela of Lord Krishna as a cowherd bringing milk for him and then coming in his dream, asking him to be taken out of the jungle where the deity of Gopal was hidden from melecha invaders by the priests.The installation ceremony was carried out with great pomp at Govardhan Paravath and till date the annakuth festival is celebrated after the same in memory of this day. Later the lord demands chandan paste on him for soothing the hot burns. But a poor Saint like Madhvendra Puri had no source to get chandan which in those days was the perogative of princely class of people.

With the instruction of the lord in his heart Madhevendar Puri sets off to Jagannath Puri and gets the chandan from the king.On returning back at the temple Of Gopinath he could not taste the tasty khir prasadam that would be offered to the lord every day. Madhvendra Puri also felt guilty of having thought on the lines of having this khira prasadam and praying to the lord continues his journey.During the night the pujari is woken up by the lord who orders him to take the khir which is behind the altar and rush it to the village where Madhavendra Puri was resting .This is duly done by the pujari and the deity is known as kshira chor Gopinath AS HE STOLE THE SAME FOR HIS DEAR
DEVOTEE.Then the lord tells Madhevendra Puri to apply the sandal wood paste on The deity of kshira Gopinath as the same would cool him at Govardhan . HH told that we should not expect Lord Krishna to appear in our dreams and that he does for specific cases for exalted devotees and we should follow the footsteps of the acharyas without fail. Mhg kept every one with these transcendental narrations and there was a nice sankirtan also.

Mhg left for Avatari desh in the evening and there was a program in the house of Swayam Smriti Krishna das prb, after the paadpuja. HH spoke on the various types of devotional service and explained about them .There was an example given of a devotee at Jagannath Puri who put a board in front of his room that pl do not disturb as in samadhi for completely concentrating on the holy names of Krishna.By the time the programe ended it was around 10.30pm and the time mhg took rest it was 1am .

June 1st

Went to meet mhg in the morning to check the possibility of having Gaur Nitai installation ceremony but the schedule was very tight as mhg was to meet some prominent business men ,and there was a visit due to the local temple of sreenathji and the museum along with a visit to the mosque if the time permitted. Watched mhg doing the deity worship and HH was consoling me about the lack of time and he was so caring which in itself was something we would be not able to pay back .Mhg left for Mumbai by the afternoon flight after rushing back and having a quick prasadam
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HH promised that he would spend some more time during his next visit. There would be many other devotees who also rendered service and it is my misfortune that i am unable to include all their names To write about the spiritual contents of mhgs discourse the points were given to me by Bhaktin Sonia who is Shivram Prbs daughter and she took the trouble of hearing the taped cassets for noting the points.

Your humble servant,

Radhabhava Gaur das
Camp Shyamadesh