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WORLD  Bangalore Program Of Srila BB Tirtha Maharaj Cancelled BY GOKUL  INDIA, Dec 20 (VNN) — Sri Sri Guru Gaurangau Jayatah!Dear Friends, Dandavat pranams. We regret to inform you that the much anticipated preaching tour to Bombay and Bangalore by His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj has been cancelled. Doctors in Delhi have diagnosed that Srila Gurudeva is suffering from angina and critical coronary artery disease. One artery in his heart is 100% blocked and there are two others blocked approximately 80% each. One other artery is still functional. His sevaks in Delhi are presently trying to talk him into having bypass surgery. Gurumaharaj was asked under what circumstances he feels chest pain, to which he replied, "When I dance, climb stairs, etc." But, he says, when he feels this, he feels that he should "do hari katha loudly." His disciples lovingly chastise him for his loud chanting, feeling that this is bad for his delicate condition. To this, Srila Gurudeva replies, "By speaking loudly, a wicked mind can be controlled. My mind is very wicked, so I have to speak loudly." The devotees keep trying to convince him to rest, to which he repeatedly replies, "What is the meaning of rest? By sleeping, our minds think about material subject matters. The meaning of rest is Hari Katha." Gurumaharaj was extremely reluctant to cancel the Bangalore program, which was to run through mid-January and has been in the making for nearly a year due to the dedicated efforts of so many devotees from Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math. He expressed great concern about the disappointment that the devotees would feel, were he not to go there. This would have been the first time Gurumaharaj preached in this area, and devotees from around the world have been making preparations to attend this historic month, especially because all of the lectures would have been in English---a very special gift to Western devotees who may not understand Hindi or Bengali. It is painful for us, who are bereft of divine vision, to witness these pastimes of apparent discomfort to our beloved Gurudeva. Nonetheless, for those of us who, by Krishna's arrangement, are many miles from him at this time, such pastimes increase our thoughts of him and intensify the mood of separation grief, which brings us closer to him. In London, some of us have had the good fortune to read a small piece of paper (which we still keep as a jewel of prasad from his own hand) upon which Gurudeva scribbled some private thoughts, saying, "Guru is the totality of all that we want." Such is the lesson that our Gurumaharaj has continually demonstrated in his consistently divine, and unlimitedly humble, behaviour over these many years of his service as acharya. Gurumaharaj's only concern is service to his own Gurudeva and the Vaishnavas. When first meeting him in 1981, we naively said to him, "We were told that you are the head of the Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math throughout India." Gurumaharaj looked shy and amused and quietly replied, "I am not the head of anything. I am the servant of all of the devotees." Whenever Srila Gurudeva offers harinam or diksa initiation to his disciples, he tells them that he is doing so only because his Gurudeva, Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaj, had asked him to, and that his Guru is the actual Guru. He, himself, has no mind that he is Guru. In Moscow recently, on the occasion of Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur's appearance day, he requested several devotees to speak their thoughts on our divine preceptor. One devotee, who had been asked to speak, later expressed that he had not felt adequately prepared to deliver his speech properly. To this, Srila Gurudeva replied, "You should never miss an opportunity to glorify." Gurudeva nevers thinks that he is "preaching"; he is, rather, always "glorifying". This subtle and all-important distinction can only be learned by witnessing such perfect demonstration of these ideals by a sad-guru, such as our beloved Gurumaharaj. In all self-honesty, we must sadly admit that vanity prevents us from being able to comprehend such intimate and transcendental understanding of devotional service. Srila Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Maharaj is solely and constantly engaged in serving---serving his Guru, serving the devotees, serving us who are most incapable to serve him. How can we ever repay our debt to him? This pastime of Srila Gurudeva's being unwell leaves all of us in the West breathless. We can only watch him and think of him patiently and lovingly from a distance, as he is the Absolute Counterpart of the Supreme Lord, and his sweet will is independent and divine---his actions always resulting in the ultimate benefit for all living beings. Vaishnavdasanudas, GOKUL, London bhakti@gokul.org http://www.gokul.org Contact VNN about this story  Send this story to a friend
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