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WORLD January 31, 1999 VNN2940 Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja In Singapore, December '98 BY SRIDAM SAKHA DASA  SINGAPORE, Jan 31 (VNN) — (Part 2) Morning class 12/12/98 On December 12th we celebrated the appearance day of Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Vamana Maharaja. Srila Vamana Maharaja is Srila Maharaja's diksa and sannyasa godbrother and is the present acarya of the Gaudiya vedanta samiti. Both Nabin Krsna prabhu (Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja's servant) and Srila Maharaja himself spoke about the amazing qualities, personality and life of this exalted vaisnava. From his earliest years, Srila Vamana Maharaja has had a completely perfect memory. He is sruti dhara. Simply by reading a text or sloka once he is able to remember it forever. He is famous as a vaisnava encyclopedia. At the advanced age of eighty one years old he has read every sastra and committed them all to memory, and therefore has no need of books. While he was still at school, it just so happened that the head teacher left the school for another post. Coming into the classroom for the first time, the new head teacher told Srila Vamana Maharaja, who was the leading pupil, to read from a certain portion of the text book they were studying. However, Srila Vamana Maharaja simply remained silent. Becoming angry, the head teacher demanded to know why Srila Vamana Maharaja was not picking up the book as he had been ordered. Then one of the other pupils explained to the new teacher that Srila Vamana Maharaja had already memorized the whole book, and therefore did not need to consult it. Incredulous, the teacher asked Srila Vamana Maharaja if this were true. Srila Vamana Maharaja humbly replied that he knew by heart any book which he had ever read. Picking up a book which the class had studied previously, the teacher opened it at random, and instructed Srila Vamana Maharaja to recite what was written on that page. To his astonishment, Srila Vamana Maharaja was able to repeat it flawlessly. When Nabin Krsna prabhu first became Srila Vamana Maharaja's disciple, Srila Vamana Maharaja asked him if he knew one particular story from the life of the King of ancient England named "Canute". Nabin Krsna prabhu who had heard the story as a student then related it to the best of his memory. Having heard him, Srila Vamana Maharaja then told the same story but in all its minute detail straight from the history book which he had read as a child. Srila Vamana Maharaja joined the Gaudiya math in 1930. At that time, Sri Srimad Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja was instructing the brahmacaris to learn a sloka a day, as well as testing them. To those who had managed to learn the daily sloka, Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja would give a sweet as a reward. Since Srila Vamana Maharaja was sometimes learning up to twenty or thirty slokas a day, true to his word, Sri Srimad Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja would give him that many sweets. Afterwards, Srila Vamana Maharaja would distribute the sweets to the other vaisnavas. Srila Vamana Maharaja is not only celebrated for his scholarship and learning, but also for his incredible humility and tireless, unending service of guru and vaisnavas. In those early days, the modern sewage system hardly existed in India, and the toilets in the Math consisted simply of a hole in the earth with large clay pots inside. Srila Vamana Maharaja would daily take those pots on his head and carry them away, to empty them somewhere outside of the Math. In this way he resembled Srila Narottama das Thakura who humbly performed the same service to his guru, Srila Lokanath Gosvami. Srila Vamana Maharaja would also cook for the vaisnavas every day. Having done this, he would clean the whole area of the kitchen as well as where the vaisnavas would respect prasada. He would sprinkle it with water, sweep it, lay out banana leaves along with pieces of lemon, salt and cups of water. He would then serve prasada to all the devotees, and, when they had finished, he would clean the whole area again and wash all the pots. Srila Vamana Maharaja performed many services to both Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada, from whom he received harinama. On an appearance day of one of the acaryas about one hundred devotees or so assembled at the Math to hear Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja speak one time. Seeing so many devotees, Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja became concerned to know who was going to cook for all of them. Normally Srila Vamana Maharaja would have done it, but at that particular time he was laid up with a fever of 104 degrees. When Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja heard from one of his disciples that Srila Vamana Maharaja was very sick he at once went to the room where Srila Vamana Maharaja was lying. "Sajjan sevaka" (Srila Vamana Maharaja's diksa name) he said "get up and cook for all the devotees. I don't want to hear any 'fever' from you!" Srila Vamana Maharaja at once rose and cooked the whole feast. Afterwards he retired to rest, and, upon waking, found that his fever had gone. By the order of Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja Srila Vamana Maharaja was very much involved in producing his publications. One time his hand was severely injured when caught in a printing press. His fingers were badly crushed, and nearly all of the top phalange of his longest finger was cut off. When Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja saw what had happened he began to weep, and he immediately arranged for a car to take them both to a hospital in Calcutta. They did not return until four or five days after. However, despite the seriousness of the injury Srila Vamana Maharaja's hand completely healed, so much so that without knowing, one would never be able to guess what had happened to it. Miraculously, even the missing part of his finger completely grew back, and thus we are reminded of Srila Ramanujacarya's disciple Kuresa whose eyes, by the mercy of his guru, grew back after he had been blinded. When Srila Bhaktisiddhanta sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada entered his aprakat lila, the Gaudiya Math became divided over who the next acarya would be. Ananta Vasudeva was nominated, but in time it was seen that he was not qualified. Many devotees asked Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja what to do, and he told them that if a guru is fallen he should be given up, and a bonafide guru accepted instead. If a disciple does not realize that his guru is unqualified at the time of diksa, but finds out later, then he should reject that person and accept a real guru. If one's diksa guru is unable to give siksa, then one should humbly ask his permission to take shelter of a qualified guru. However, if the disciple is refused permission, then he must conclude that this so-called guru is selfish and worldly minded, and should therefore be rejected. We should determine in whom fault lies. If our guru is not following his guru and the guru parampara, then one should go to a guru who is, in the line of Srila Rupa gosvami and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He should also follow unnata ujjvala rasa sva bhakti sriyam in the line of Srila Rupa gosvami, Srila Raghunatha das gosvami, Srila Visvanath Cakravarti Thakura, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Bhaktivedanta Svami Maharaja. Those who have not followed him properly are now falling down, and there is no stoppage to it. After the fall down of Ananta Vasudeva, Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja immediately advised that this person should be rejected, and all the senior vaisnavas followed this advice. When this happened, those who were opposed to Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja and those godbrothers of his who had sided with him, formed a conspiracy against them accusing them of a murder. The devotees who had been accused including Krsna das babaji Maharaja, numbering some twenty in all, were seized and thrown into jail. Moreover, the rest of Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja's godbrothers sympathetic to him now became fearful and left, thus leaving the imprisoned devotees with no-one to plead their case. However, when the police came to arrest all the devotees in the temple they left Srila Vamana Maharaja, seeing that he was a mere fifteen year old boy. Thus he was left to take care of the whole temple by himself. Besides this, he had to engage lawyers on behalf of the devotees in prison, and provided the lawyers with all the information they needed. He was also obliged to attend lengthy court sessions to answer the questions of the prosecuting lawyers as well. In addition to this, the responsibility to provide prasada for all the devotees now fell squarely on his head. However, in order to cook it was necessary that he have diksa, so Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja gave him the mantras through the prison bars. On top of all his other duties, Srila Vamana Maharaja cooked for all the devotees twice a day, carrying prasada and water to them all by himself. Eventually it was discovered that the so-called "murder" victim had in fact died by accident when falling from a tree. All of the vaisnavas were immediately released from jail, and an official apology made to them by the judge. When Srila Maharaja first joined the Gaudiya vedanta samiti, he was taught to cook by Srila Vamana Maharaja, who was so talented and experienced in this. Srila Maharaja was coming from a wealthy and aristocratic family and had therefore never learnt to cook. Even while working as a police inspector, he had had servants to carry out this kind of task. Srila Vamana Maharaja used to be very shy. When Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja would tell him to give class Srila Vamana Maharaja would tell him that he did not want to. He did not like to go out with the other brahmacaris for begging or outside preaching engagements. He did not like to speak to outsiders, except for children. But to them he would tell so many stories, and they would flock to hear him speak. He would also give them sweets, and was so loved by them. Even now, it is also the case. He was like a mother to them, as well as to all else who knew him. In 1993 while they were in Calcutta, Srila Vamana Maharaja told Srila Maharaja that Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja had reserved a very special service for him. It would come to pass within the next three years he said, and was such that only Srila Maharaja would be able to do it. Srila Maharaja then replied that he was now old, plagued with many kinds of sickness, and a cardiac patient. What kind of service would he be able to do? Srila Vamana Maharaja told him that everything would become clear to him in due course of time. Three years later when Srila Maharaja first went to New Vraja (devotee community, Badger, California) in 1996 during his first tour of America, he was able to understand what Srila Vamana Maharaja had meant. Weeping, he wrote a letter to him in acknowledgment of this. Sri Nabin Krsna prabhu told us that when Srila Maharaja had left India for his first world tour, six ISKCON devotees approached Srila Vamana Maharaja at the Devananda Gaudiya Math, Navadvip, to speak against Srila Maharaja. They began to suggest to Srila Vamana Maharaja that, unlike him, the preaching which Srila Maharaja was doing was deviant, being of a sahajayistic nature. They suggested that he had no respect for the Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti and its principles. Hearing this insidious blasphemy, Srila Vamana Maharaja became furious. "No-one in this world knows Srila Narayana Maharaja as well as I do. We have been together for fifty years. Do you think that I am going to listen to this from you? Get out of here at once, and never pass through these gates again!" Towards the end of his class, Srila Maharaja talked about the solidarity that exists in Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti (the movement started by Srila Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Maharaja). "So it is our gurudeva's mercy that all godbrothers and sisters are together. They have so much faith in us three. Trivikrama Maharaja (contemporary diksa and sannyasa godbrother of Srila Maharaja and Srila Vamana Maharaja) and Vamana Maharaja have given all of the administrative service to me and I am doing it, although I am not qualified. There is so much love and affection between myself, Trivikrama Maharaja and Vamana Maharaja, and that is why everyone is serving in Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti. It is not outward or artificial. "We should have an aim and objective in our spiritual lives, to know how we can increase our Krsna consciousness. Don't worry about how to maintain yourself. Our only concern is How can we serve visaya Krsna in asraya tattva. The main asraya tattva is Baladeva and Srimati Radharani, but Srimati Radharani is the more prominent. "If my guru has gone to hell, taking all money and three 'ws' (wine, women and wealth) then we should try instead to select bonafide association, or we cannot advance. If you want to serve Srimati Radharani and Krsna, you must always remember the sloka: trnad api sunicena, taror api sahisnuna, amanina manadena kirtaniyah sada harih But alone, how can we do it? We cannot fulfil the instructions of this sloka without the mercy of guru. We can distribute books, perform arcana outwardly, but we cannot control the mind, or become free of our anarthas and aparadhas. Simply imitating is not bhakti. If there is no mercy of guru, then there will be no realization. The seed of devotional service comes from guru. Within Krsna's mercy, guru, vaisnava and sastra are included. So by this mercy guru will give the seed of bhakti and make it sprout, and it will grow through all the stages up to bhava, svarupa-siddhi. Then, vastu siddhi, birth in the womb of a gopi and from that stage further developing sneha, mana, pranaya, raga, anuraga and bhava - but it cannot come from an artificial guru. We should not waste time. You should be in very good association." --end-- Many thanks to Pundarika prabhu who patiently read through this after I had finished it and corrected any mistakes. All of the tours completed to date are archived at the following site: http://www.igvp.com/tours If you would like to read more material on or by Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayana Maharaja, then please contact the following websites: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/2469 http://www.angelfire.com/ar/goloka/index.html http://www.angelfire.com/va/vaishnavism/news.html http://hgsoft.com/agrahya/ http://www.igvp.com Comment on this Story This story URL: http://vaishnava-news-network.org/world/WD9901/WD31-2940.html
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