(03/JAN/2015) Last night, we reached home from Guru Maharaj's weekly hospital check-up at 1:15 a.m. We unloaded the car, unpacked, and attended some phone calls from abroad. As you can imagine, it was a very late night. Guru Maharaj ended up going to bed at about 3 a.m. This morning, I entered Guru Maharaj's room at about 11 a.m. Some local devotees and some devotees from Vrindavan had come to meet Guru Maharaj. Afterwards, Guru Maharaj did his translation of the Caitanya Book. Today was the start of a new lila, the one in which Jagannath Misra sees Nimai in a dream, as a sannyasi, crying out to Krsna in ecstasy. After finishing the translations for the day, Guru Maharaj chanted his gayatri and was ready to take lunch; by now, it was well past 2 p.m. Guru Maharaj rested for just 45 min this afternoon as he was giving class in the Punjabi Bagh Radhika Raman temple. Janakiram Pr, Dhanya Nimai Pr, and I went along with Guru Maharaj, following behind the other devotees. Upon reaching the temple, there was a tumultuous kirtan with hundreds of devotees singing, dancing, playing mrdangas, karatals, and ghantas, welcoming Guru Maharaj to the temple after seven to eight years! As Guru Maharaj entered, a beautiful rendition of Radha Krsna Prana Mora was being sung. Guru Maharaj offered aarti and flowers to Krsna-Balarama, Jagannath-Baladeva-Subhadra, Radhika Raman, and Srila Prabhupada. Then, Guru Maharaj gave class on the glories of the holy names, speaking about Ajamila calling out to his son, Narayana, at the time of death and a lady who was saved by the Visnudutas due to her chanting of Rama's name unintentionally, motivated by her parrot who would always chant Rama's name. Guru Maharaj also spoke on the specialty and straightforward approach of Bhakti Yoga, how it is this love of Krsna that is the ultimate goal; he elaborated on the pastime of Hanuman hugging Rama in this regard and how chanting the holy names of Krsna is the one devotional service that will still be performed even when we see Krsna face-to-face, not performing aarti etc. After class, Guru Maharaj distributed sweets to about 400-500 devotees who were literally falling at his feet for blessings and giving presents and their love. Guru Maharaj then went to meet some of his disciples. It was a nectar-filled meeting. Two devotees took shelter. Next, a 20-year-old devotee was asking Guru Maharaj about how he gets disturbed by thoughts of females and watching movies, sometimes, to due peer pressure. He excused how there is a battle within, one in which he sometimes wins and sometimes loses. Maha Varaha Prabhu was keeping a strict watch over the time. So to extend the meeting time, Guru Maharaj asked Maha Varaha Pr to answer this question. Everyone laughed at this joking response from Guru Maharaj. Then, Guru Maharaj explained how when he was 19, a temple president's wife said that if he didn't get, married, then he couldn't go back to Godhead. Guru Maharaj told Prabhupada about how he wasn't even thinking of marriage as he was only 19. Prabhupada explained to Guru Maharaj how a disciple has until 25 years of age to decide to stay as a brahmacari or grihastha and then the Guru will tell the disciple what the disciple cannot see at 25 years of age. Then Guru Maharaj inmediately said that after this exchange with Prabhupada, he was given sannyasa ashram at 21 years of age and everyone laughed. It was getting quite late but the Punjabi Bagh Temple President had one last question - he asked Guru Maharaj about how he keeps his enthusiasm so high even now. Guru Maharaj immediately said out of humility that he doesn't feel that he is much enthusiastic at all but that he wants to engage whatever energy that he has left in the service of Lord Caitanya's mission and to please Srila Prabhupada. Then, we all got ready to leave and as we drove out of the temple, hundreds of devotees were ecstatically singing Nrsingha prayers and "Jai Gurudeva"! Guru Maharaj took prasad in the car, chanted his gayatri, and entered the house past 11 p.m. Guru Maharaj took some juice and went to bed hearing Brhad Bhagavatamrta at around 1 a.m. Guru Maharaj never complains about any inconveniences and is extremely merciful, such a true fighter for Srila Prabhupada! Jaya Gurudeva!
(Diary for 3rd January 2015 by Syama Madhusudana Dasa)
