About Krishna Das Babaji Maharaj

Goswāmī Mahārāj: Any question from anyone?

Question: Tomorrow is disappearance of Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj. Can you say something about him?

I have to think, I mean it may be more appropriate to speak of that, maybe I won't speaking at that time. Well I will say this. When Mahāprabhu was in Purī the question arose about His accepting service from god-brothers, in the form of Govinda particularly and some others. In other words they are disciples of Īśvar Purī. So Mahāprabhu thought, this is inappropriate for me. And then we hear that the consideration came about the order of guru. So in that way some adjustment was made and there was some discussion about the guru-varga, the śiṣya-varga, meaning the Guru section and the disciple section. So one of the considerations is that those who are god-brothers of our Guru are to be revered as members of the guru-varga. To be respected in that way.

Why did Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī revered Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj as his Guru?

So, we find in the instance of Śrīla Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj that he's a disciple of Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur, a god-brother of Śrīla Guru Mahārāj. But he had some special regard for Śrīla Guru Mahārāj, because like many god-brothers they saw Śrīla Guru Mahārāj as being substantially, accurately, comprehensively someone who represented Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur. In other words they took when he was saying to be as good as Saraswatī Ṭhākur himself saying something. So you have this unique perspective of someone being a god-brother, but revering that god-brother as guru. That's also allowable through the natural grow of śraddhā development. Not only that, sometimes Śrīla Bābājī Mahārāj would say when ask why he like to sing the songs of Śrīla Guru Mahārāj popularizing them at different Gauḍīya Maṭhs. He said because I find what he writes what he's composed that it is on a par and equal to what is given by Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī. And that's not a casual remark a light remark. There must be some way to substantiate that, to verify that. And so in my own way I've tried to show some parallel, particularly in Chaianyāṣṭakam of Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī and Premadhāma-deva-stotram of Śrīla Guru Mahārāj.

The golden radiance of Mahāprābhu is mirrored in poetry of Guru Mahārāj and Rūpa Goswāmī

So in one instance,

rasoddāmā kāmārbuda-madhura-dhāmojjvala-tanur
yatīnām uttaṁsas taraṇi-kara-vidyoti-vasanaḥ
hiraṇyānāṁ lakṣmī-bharam abhibhavann āṅgika-ruchā
sa chaitanyaḥ kiṁ me punar api dṛśor yāsyati padam
(Śrī Chaianyāṣṭakam: 4)

Rasoddāmā kāmārbuda-madhura-dhāmojjvala-tanur, so, this is in Chaianyāṣṭakam of Rūpa Goswāmī saying rasoddāmā kāmārbuda-madhura-dhāmojjvala-tanur, so the tanur, he's talking about the divine form of Mahāprabhu and he says, rasoddāmā kāmārbuda, if ten million Cupids were in full rasik bloom, rasa uddama means expressing rasa to the highest and most intense degree rasoddāmā kāmārbuda-madhura-dhāmojjvala. The radiant sweetness of the divine form of Mahāprabhu, can be expressed in this way seen in this way. This is the unique statement of Rūpa Goswāmī. And in the following line he says yatīnām uttaṁsas taraṇi-kara-vidyoti-vasanaḥ. So radiantly beautiful is the divine form of Mahāprabhu that even his sannyās-veś, the cloth, is glowing with a golden effulgence. So the clothes of His divine form makes even His clothes glow.

So, we know now in the modern digital world with Photoshop and different kind of things, you can make some kind of effect like that. But this is not some halo effect, or if we shall say that is the halo effect outcome of the rādhā-bhāva-dyuti-suvalitaṁ, the heart and halo of Rādhārāṇī engulfing the heart of Kṛṣṇa. So these are very high things very deep things very wonderful and extraordinary things. And that is what is expressed by Rūpa Goswāmī in his śloka. So when asked why does he sing the Premadhāma-deva-stotra, why are you singing the songs written by your god-brother? He said I find this songs to be on par with the poetry of Rūpa Goswāmī. That is not, a careless remark or something that wasn't thought out very carefully or lacking substance. So I'm giving that example of Rūpa Goswāmī then we return to Premadhāma-deva-stotra, we hear Śrīla Guru Mahārāj saying,

svarṇa-koṭi-darpaṇābha-deha-varṇa-gauravaṁ
padma-pārijāta-gandha-vanditāṅga-saurabham
koṭi-kāma-mūrchitāṅghri-rūpa-rāsa-raṅgaraṁ
prema-dhāma-devam eva naumi gaura-sundaram
(Śrī Śrī Premadhāma-deva-stotram: 2)

What type of golden effulgence possesses the divine form of Mahāprabhu?Svarṇa-koṭi-darpaṇābha, means ten million shining mirrors made out of gold. If you could make mirrors from gold, solid gold how that would give illumination. We hear in the beginning of Chaitanya-charitāmṛta Kṛṣṇa Dās Kaviraj Goswāmī, well, in Mahabharata, says, Hariḥ raṭa-sundara-dyuti-kadamba-sandīpitaḥ (CC: Adi, 1.4). Well that's actually quoting Rūpa Goswāmī, and Svarūp Dāmodar and others. But mentioning the way it's rendered by Śrīla Prabhupād, he says like molten gold. So gold is shiny and beautiful to begin with, but if you melted gold, the way gold would look when it's in a melted condition that type of shiny radiance. So Guru Mahārāj says, koṭi-kāma-mūrchitāṅghri-rūpa-rāsa-raṅgaraṁ. Rūpa Goswāmī said ten million Cupids in full bloom, Guru Mahārāj says ten million Cupids will faint to see the beauty of Mahāprabhu. So, that is something that is inconceivable. But it shows the magnitude of beauty and sweetness and charm and radiance of the divine form of Sri Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, and it's uniquely mirrored in this śloka of Guru Mahārāj and the śloka of Rūpa Goswāmī.

Guru is delegation of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī

So Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj he had great appreciation for Śrīla Guru Mahārāj and also by extension after so many years when Śrīla Guru Mahārāj returned to Hapaniya, the place of his birth, he went there with Jajavar Mahārāj, Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj and Achyutānanda Prabhu who was there at the time. And Guru Mahārāj hadn't been there in something like 30 or 40 years. So, there was a nice reception. But it was Bābājī Mahārāj and Jajavar Mahārāj, they have so much regard and faith for Śrīla Guru Mahārāj that the way they have seen Hapaniya, they compared it to Varṣāṇā, the place of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

So they are showing if we look carefully into the statements of the guru-varga, were told by Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur in His concluding words of the Chaitanya-charitāmṛta that, "If I look deeply at my Guru Mahārāj as Guru-tattva, I see actually it goes to the central conception of the Infinite, to Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī Herself." So, in this concluding words he said, “I see Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur and Gaura Kiśor Dās Bābājī Mahārāj as Svarūp Dāmodar and Gadādhar Paṇḍit. Well in reverse, Gaura Kiśor Dās Bābājī as Svarūp Dāmodar, and Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur as Gadādhar Paṇḍit. And seeing them also as their parallel in Kṛṣṇa-līlā: Lalitā Sakhī and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

So, this is in line with conception of Śrīla Narottam Dās Ṭhākur that ultimately the guru shall be seen as Rādhārāṇī's delegation. So, Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj and Jajavar Mahārāj they took it, applying that principal to Śrīla Guru Mahārāj, seeing Hapaniya, his birth place as representing Varṣāṇā. And Śrīla Guru Mahārāj mentioned about him that every Ekādaśī he would stay up all night taking Kṛṣṇa-nām, singing songs, not sleeping, fasting, chanting the whole evening. We saw also ourselves how he was incessantly taking Kṛṣṇa-nām. Sometimes just 24 hours a day. Weather he's chanting on beads or just chanting he's always singing the name of Kṛṣṇa.

Imitation is suicide

And at the same time we have to say as a footnote, sidebar comment. So, that devotee are not misled or particular neophyte devotees. That what his behavior and practices, Guru Mahārāj clearly indicated were not to be imitated by neophytes and some of these things to be honest we're not approved of by Saraswatī Ṭhākur. And Śrīla Guru Mahārāj would point that out and Bābājī Mahārāj would concede.

As an example, even in the time of Saraswatī Ṭhākur he once went into seclusion. He's taking Kṛṣṇa-nām. Chanting a lakh of Kṛṣṇa-nām every day, that's 64 rounds, in a place called Balihati. So Śrīla Guru Mahārāj at the time was in charge of the Delhi Maṭh and he wrote a letter to Saraswatī Ṭhākur saying, “I'm thinking of inviting Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj here to the Delhi Maṭh to do service”. He said, “But at present he's in the forest of Balihati taking Kṛṣṇa-nām everyday 64 rounds.” And Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur wrote back to him, “If you will invite him to the Delhi Maṭh and engage him in service there you'll be his real friend.” You'll be doing him a real favour, because I do not consider that living in seclusion, and he said 'counting beads', he didn't say taking Kṛṣṇa-nām, he said 'counting beads', that this is Kṛṣṇa anusilanām, favorable to the culture of devotion. So if you can invite him to the Delhi Maṭh and engage him in some practical service there, you'll be his real friend."

So that was there. And Guru Mahārāj also frankly told some stories. He said he had some affinity sahajyā-kīrtan, which is not approved. And Guru Mahārāj said that although he mixed with sahajyās, imitationists, how do we say, he did not betray the lotus feet of Sarasvatī Ṭhākur or come under their influence. But this is like a guilty pleasure of his. I can’t think of another way to express it.

So, this not approved. And they have some sahajiyā meeting every year, where groups come together and sing these kīrtans and he would go there and hear that. And this disturbed Śrīla Guru Mahārāj very much. So Śrīla Guru Mahārāj once because he was staying at the Chaitanya Saraswāt Maṭh and went to this sahajiyā-kīrtan, so Guru Mahārāj ousted him from his Maṭh. He said: “You have to get out, go! Cause I can't tolerate this, especially Prabhupād Sarasvatī Ṭhākur would not approve of you doing, this is not authorized, not approved, so you can't stay here at Maṭh. You'll be out ousted from my ashram!”

So Bābājī Mahārāj was in Māyāpur across the river and met some other notable Gauḍīya Maṭh personality. And that person said, “Oh, Bābājī Mahārāj I thought you're staying at Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj's Maṭh, what are you doing here?” He said, “Oh, Śrīdhar Mahārāj ousted me from his Maṭh.” And that person was, “What? He was shocked. You, how could be possible oust someone as exalted and dignified as you, famous disciple of Saraswatī Ṭhākur, all these things.” He said, “Well, he disapproved of my attending the sahajyā-kīrtan.” When the man heard that, he said, “Oh, Śrīdhar Mahārāj has done right. He should have kick you out, that's true.”

This is how critical this is, in the culture of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Sahajiism is equated with imitation. Sometimes Saraswatī Ṭhākur would say, “This is the greatest enemy for devotees.” Sometimes saying pratiṣṭhā, sometimes sahajiism, imitationism. In the words of Emerson, “Imitation is suicide.” That's how he put it. “Imitation is suicide”. What does it mean, how can he said that? Yes, because if you imitating someone else you're not being yourself. You're killing yourself. That's the implication. By imitation you become, it's not you, it's not real.

Acting devotion

Sometimes I've mentioned acting. And the famous Russian acting teacher Stanislavsky. What later became one as “the method”. And Stanislavsky, this is his system and this is for an actor. If you will imitate the behavior of the character that you're portraying, you'll dress like them, you will move like them, you will talk like them, so many ways you'll imitate them comprehensively. He said when the point will come where suddenly you have an epiphany and you've become that character. That's his way of teaching and it later became known in America as "the method". It's a particular method employed by actors, so they just named it ''the method'', method acting. “Oh he's a method actor.”

So, they'll imitate everything about that character and go so deeply in that character they won't come out. Even when the camera is not rolling they're still "in character". Speaking like that person, moving like them. If they walk with a limp, they're limping, everything. Drives some people crazy, but that's what they do. But that's for actors. The method of prākṛta-sahajiyas is similar. Imitate exalted devotee. Dress like them, talk like them, walk like them, try to think like them, mimic their behavior and you'll find at some point you've become them. But the fact of the matter is you've not become them. You're acting.

Sentimental expression in relation to Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not necessarily devotion

So Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī warns in the Bhakti-rasamṛta-sindhu two things. He says, those who are sentimental by nature, like we may hear in some place that, Kṛṣṇa consciousness culminates in the hearts expressing itself and even tears from the eyes as in the case of Mahāprabhu and the great devotees, they're crying tears of ecstasy. But Rūpa Goswāmī says there are also people who are just sentimental. They cry a lot, easily. You know who you are.

We have some devotee friends, who have told me, “In my family, it's a family of criers, people who cry easily.” And we can see in the modern world in media advertisement. You can watch a 30 second commercial and it could be so well done, in 30 seconds. It could be a commercial for beer and you'll have tears in your eyes. They're so expert.

So Rūpa Goswāmī is saying, the person who cries watching a beer commercial, may also cry when exposed to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That does not mean they are advanced in devotion. Just means they're sentimental by nature. They cry easily, and they also cry about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. That's one side. Then the other side is beware of actors. And we know, the director can tell the actor or actress, “In this scene, something horrible just happened and you have to just start crying.” And so, “Action. Speak.” And then they start, they say something and then suddenly tears are coming out their eyes and then, “Alright, stop, cut, we have to do that again”. And then they can cry again. On cue, they can cry.

So, it's interesting, Rūpa Goswāmī is warning us five hundred years ago, that just any sentimental expression in relation to Kṛṣṇa consciousness is not necessarily devotion, and he is warning us that there are those who acting. They can put on a show, make a show of devotion. So, no less than Mahāprabhu Himself says, na prema-gandho ’sti darāpi me harau krandāmi saubhāgya-bharaṁ prakāśitum (CC: Madhya, 2.45) I don't have a scent of the fragrance of Kṛṣṇa-prema, what to speak of a drop of that divine substance. And we say, “No, but we see and we read in the scriptures you're crying, it says sometimes as if the Gaṅgā is streaming out of your eyes, your hair is standing on end, your falling.” He says, “That is to make a show. I'm making a show to people that I've got devotion to Kṛṣṇa. But my heart is, like a rock. It's steel-framed. It's not really moved. I’m making a show, acting.” So he's saying that.

“You didn't say I couldn't come back.”

Anyway, so Śrīla Guru Mahārāj in the line of Saraswatī Ṭhākur, over this point he ousted Bābājī Mahārāj from his Maṭh. He meets that other devotee in Māyāpur and He says, “Oh Śrīdhar Mahārāj has done the right thing, you should be chastised for such a thing.” But Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj's love and affection for Śrīla Guru Mahārāj is so great, and as I told, and he's always chanting, so you can hear him even if he's like a hundred meters away, you can hear, “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa.” So, they hear this sound coming closer and closer to the Maṭh and it's Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj. Then someone runs upstairs, maybe Gururdev, and they say, “Bābājī Mahārāj is coming.” And Guru Mahārāj is waiting. Then he heard, “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa.” He's always chanting, chanting, chanting, goes up the stairs, goes to the Deity, comes up to see Guru Mahārāj. And Guru Mahārāj said, “Why have you come? I ousted you from my Maṭh, for going to this sahajiyā-kīrtan. Isn't it so?” And Bābājī Mahārāj said, “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, yes, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa.” “Then why have you come?” And Bābājī Mahārāj said very loving and affectionately he said, “You didn't say I couldn't come back.” And Guru Mahārāj said, “That's true.”

Cause his heart is also melted. It's his dear friend. How do you lovingly and affectionately deal with a dear friend. Sometimes you have to say something hard. We hear the vaiṣṇava strong as a thunderbolt, soft as a rose. Both of those things. Strong as a thunderbolt, soft as a rose. Guru Mahārāj threw him out—hard as a thunderbolt, “Out, be gone Satan!” He comes back and said, “But you didn't say I couldn't return.” Then soft as a rose, he's accepting him.

So we don't want to sit in judgment of such souls, but I've risked the offence of saying these things, because I'm quoting Śrīla Guru Mahārāj and Śrīla Gurudev. And they knew that I also had some, I'm not going to call it affection, I'll say infatuation with Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj, myself and some of my friends. Cause we can't use these words, love, affection, too easily cheaply, casually. I would say we're somewhat enamored, and infatuated by Bābājī Mahārāj and his kīrtan.

So, once my friend, his name later became Bhakti Abhay Nārāyāṇ Mahārāj who was from Hungary and to his credit he translated Prabhupād’s book Easy journey to other planets in Russian. So the first Russian publication he did, and he knew Russian from a high school. Because if you have to go to school in Eastern Europe, I mean, when you went to school in Eastern Europe you had to learn Russian. It's just part of the deal. So we have some devotees to this day who, if they grew up in Eastern Europe, like Deva Priya is one of them, remember her? She's from the former Yugoslavia but when she was visiting Russia she could speak some Russian. So similarly, my god-brother he also could.

First acquaintance with Śrīila Śrīdhar Mahārāj

So, anyway, he and I being infatuated with Bābājī Mahārāj one time, I believe it was the Gaura Pūrṇimā of 1979.Very early in the morning around the time of Maṅgal ārati we left Māyāpur and crossed the river and went to Nabadwīp in search of Bābājī Mahārāj. We heard that he was at Śrī Chaitanya Saraswāt Maṭh. And at the time although in principal we would have like to meet Śrīla Guru Mahārāj we didn't think that was possible, that persons like us would be allowed to do that. But we heard Bābājī Mahārāj is at the Maṭh so we went there and found him downstairs and then gave our daṇḍavats and expressed, I said to him, “We fear that the proper way of doing the kīrtan of Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur's songs, Narottam's songs, that this will vanish. So many god-brothers, disciples of Saraswatī Ṭhākur are leaving the world and you remain, and if we hear from you and we make some recording that will be good for posterity, generations in the future.”

And saying that, I brought out my tape recorder, and Bābājī Mahārāj his behavior is an unpredictable. Whether he'll deal in a gentle manner, or like a thunderbolt, we're not sure. So then I kind of slid the tape recorder out, and he said, “Important thing is that you chant Hare Kṛṣṇa! Hare Kṛṣṇa!” So, I put the tape recorder away and then we got our mālā and we started chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa. And he was a little disturbed at first, but then he listened to us chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa and after one round, two rounds, three rounds gradually he's becoming a little soft. Maybe five rounds six rounds he's getting softer. Then he's like listening, and then he jumped up from his seat. He's very sprightly and swift in his movements, and he then, “Come, come!” And he started going quickly and I said, “Wherever he's going, we want to go there.” We don't know where he's going, but wherever he's going we want to go there.

And then we were following him, going up the stairs, and then we see there's Śrīla Guru Mahārāj sitting in the morning in the chair with the long arms wrapped in many layers. It's cold. And we were in a state of shock, because we didn't think that we would be allowed to have his darśan. So, immediately we fell from a great distance sāṣṭaṅga daṇḍavats and started almost crawling towards Guru Mahārāj. And then when we finally reached him, Bābājī Mahārāj let us to the lotus feet of Guru Mahārāj, we gave daṇḍavats again and then he perched himself behind him and said to us, “Listen!” That's all he said, “Listen!” In other words, he doesn't preach, he's a Bābājī. But he knows Guru Mahārāj is the best preacher on the planet. So he knows. “My job is to take this boys to him.” They need to hear something about Kṛṣṇa consciousness. So he said, “Listen!” And then he sat there, and Guru Mahārāj started speaking many wonderful things.

Including about Russia because he ask me, he said, “'What is your preaching field?” And I said, “Normally in Eastern Europe, but recently I've gone to Russia.” And he said, “There was a cloud of atheism hanging over the Soviet Union, but by Swāmī Mahārāj Prabhupād going there,” remember he went there once for two or three days, the famous picture of him in Red Square, “just by his presence, we hear in Chaitanya-bhāgavat and elsewhere, when a Mahabhagavata, for what is it, 8000 yojanas, it's a field of purification, that's 8000 yojanas. That means around 80.000 miles or what is that a 140,000 kilometers, purified. So he's saying, “By Prabhupād's going there, the cloud of atheism lifted.” He said and now you can go there and preach successfully. So we were astonished and also, very inspired to hear that because that was our field.

And anyway Guru Mahārāj said many things. And about Bābājī Mahārāj he said, with a wry sense of humor, “You are members of Hare Kṛṣṇa movement.” And this gentlemen”, because Bābājī Mahārāj was on his shoulder, chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, he said with this comedic understatement, “And this gentlemen, he has some affinity for Kṛṣṇa-nāma.” He's chanting twenty four hours a day. “He has some affinity for Kṛṣṇa-nām.” He said, “So since you're members of the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement and he likes so much to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa,” he said, “It is natural that you will have friendship.” Bābājī Mahārāj, “Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

What was in the heart of Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj instead of the heartbeat?

And something I discovered about him accidentally without trying. Once I had a preaching party in a place near Delhi which had some peripheral towns. And so we were invited to stay and preach in a house of one Gauḍīya Maṭh gṛhasta, doctor Guha was his name. He's from Bengal originally but living over there. When I say Gauḍīya Maṭh gṛhasta I mean in his house he had a temple room but it was like a full temple, with full, Deities, āratis , Maṅgal-āratis, evening ārati, dress, decoration, prasādam being offered. Everything is pakka, perfect. And he's very sober, serious, grave individual. Is what I can say about him. Very serious, to the extreme.

So I was preaching there, every day, and he would come and listen to the classes, but never say anything. So I couldn't tell does he approve of what I'm saying, is it like close, you know. He would just listen, and this is at least for an hour and more every evening, three, four, five days. And they treating us very nice, serving us prasādam three time a day. We're doing preaching in the area, book distribution, collection, program, everything and always have a program in his house. Then one day, at the end of the program in the evening, he turned to me and he said, “Do you know Bābājī Mahārāj?” And at first I got a little excited, “Oh, like Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj”, and then I thought I should not assume that he's talking about Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj. So I said, "There are many Bābājīs they’re all called Bābājī Mahārāj, so who do you mean?" And he said, “Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī. And I thought, well all this Bābājīs, most of them they're named Kṛṣṇa Dās or Ram Dās.” So there are many. And then they give another appellation, like the city they're from originally, there's many of them. And they're all called Kṛṣṇa Dās or Ram Dās. Most, many if not most.

So, finally he goes, “Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj of Gauḍīya Maṭh!” Like he's almost getting a little annoyed, and I then, “Yes! I know him! I've had a fortune of his association. Yes!” He could understand I'm a fan, that I have some appreciation. And then he told me, “You know he would spend six months in Nabadwīp, six month in Vṛndāvan, like that. Maybe a little bit in Purī.” Some do that, some live that way. They stay in Nabadwīp up until Gaura Pūrṇīma and after a certain point then go to Purī, then Vṛndāvan, he could stay like that. And he said, “He does not stay with any gṛhasta, he's only staying in the Maṭh. But he stays here. And I have a room upstairs, would you like to see it?” And I thought, yeah. For us it was like a place of pilgrimage. He took us upstairs, and there is this room with nothing in it but a wooden bed and a mṛdaṅga on the wall with a wrapper. Then we took the mṛdaṅga down and just put it back.

He said, “Every ekādaśī he stays up all night chanting Kṛṣṇa-nām, wake up in the morning you go to sleep at night, you wake up in the morning and hear him chanting Kṛṣṇa-nāma and kīrtan. But last winter he was very sick and he came to stay at my house, and his health was very bad.” Remember this man is a doctor. He said, “So at one point I had to give him a medical examination. So I got my stethoscope out, put it on his heart, but I couldn't hear any heartbeat. I heard this khol and karatāl and Kṛṣṇa-nām-sankīrtan". I'm just telling you what the man said. He said, “I put the stethoscope on his heart and didn't hear a heartbeat, I heard Hari-nām.” And this man, he was very serious.

Where did the tradition of singing “Jaya Prabhupāda” come from?

So, we bow eternally to the lotus feet of Śrīla Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj, and in appreciation to taking us to the lotus feet of Guru Mahārāj. And there's other divine pastimes particularly singing the songs of Guru Mahārāj, pranāmami sada prabhupāda padam. Śrīla Swami Mahārāj Prabhupād told to all of his disciples to go to Chaitanya Saraswāt Maṭh. This is in 1974 I believe. The first big Māyāpur festival celebration internationally they flew in the first 747, from Atlanta to Calcutta airport. Imagine, the whole plane was just devotees in every seat. And they had never landed 747 landed at that airport before. It was the first one, so government official was everywhere. It was a big deal. So anyway Śrīla Prabhupād sent everybody over to the Chaitanya Saraswat Maṭh. Guru Mahārāj spoke, some other god-brothers were there. Bābājī Mahārāj was leading kīrtan and he sang Pranāmami sada this song and finished it by singing “Jaya Prabhupāda, Jaya Prabhupada”, and this may  sound odd right now, but it's true. No one was singing “Jaya Prabhupāda” in ISKCON before that.

So, when the devotees they don't know, we can see how things work in divine ways. They don't know the song that Bābājī Mahārāj is singing is glorification of Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur. They’re hearing him sing some song and appreciating it. But when he start singing “Jaya Prabhupada” they're thinking, like Śrīla Bhaktisiddhanta Swāmī Prabhupāda, he's also Prabhupād. I believe it's Saraswatī Ṭhākur disappearance day, but whatever. So they're thinking the joy of hearing Prabhupād's name song with Jaya, so they're totally uplifted and become ecstatic. It's the first, imagine, the first time in ISKCON they're singing “Jaya Prabhupada”, was at the Chaitanya Saraswat Maṭh. Then they go back to Māyāpur and this becomes part of every kīrtan. And sometimes Bābājī Mahārāj is visiting there and you can hear on one tape where he's leading a kīrtan and it's with a group of mixed devotees. And by that I mean to say that some of them appreciate him, some of them have heard we've been cautioned about association with these god-brothers, some of may be thinking he's bogus, there's a mix of a group.

There is no other way

So, as he's singing and doing his kīrtan, in the beginning there's a little response. As the kīrtan continues, the response is expanding, because more devotees are starting to appreciate. Around midway through everyone is now reciprocating and whatever unholy things were being carried in their minds and hearts have now vanished and they're just surrendering to the kīrtan. As it comes toward the end, you hear people screaming in joy and happiness. They're actually at one point not even singing, some people are just screaming with happiness. Bābājī Mahārāj captured everybody. And then he concluded his kīrtan, and everyone was now glowing and ecstatic and full of Kṛṣṇa-nām. And one devotee to offer some praise to him said, “This is what Prabhupād is doing, spreading Kṛṣṇa consciousness all over the world.” And Bābājī Mahārāj, anything that has Hare Kṛṣṇa in it he prefers. So he said, “Hare Kṛṣṇa movement!” And they're going, “Yes, it's the Hare Kṛṣṇa movement spreading all over the world.” And then Bābājī Mahārāj said, he quoted one of his favorite verses which was,

harer nāma harer nāma
harer nāmaiva kevalam
kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva
nāsty eva gatir anyathā
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Ādi, 7.76)

And he just dissolved into delightful laughter. He's saying, “Harer nāma Harer nāma Harer nāmaiva kevalam”, the only way is to take the Holy Name. This the only way, it's the only way. Not by karma, not by yoga, not jñāna. Just harer nāmaiva kevalam kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva nāsty eva gatir anyathā.” In Kali-yuga it's the only way, he loved that śloka.

And final śloka of Śrīmad Bhāgavatam which is,

The whole Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, imagine, from the 'janmādy asya' śloka to the Pastimes of Kṛṣṇa in the tenth canto, the Uddhava-gītā, 11, 12, summary the conclusion, the last śloka’s saying, Nāma-saṅkīrtanaṁ yasyasarva-pāpa praṇāśanām, if you take the Holy Name of Kṛṣṇa, all sinfulness inauspiciousness will be destroyed, all suffering and happiness will be removed, and the supreme–the supreme spiritual activity in Kali-yuga, it will give you everything. Nāmnām akāri bahudhā nija-sarvva-śaktis (Śikṣāṣṭakam: 2), everything is in the name of Kṛṣṇa.

Life of success

So his life became [an] exclusive dedication to Nām-sankīrtan. So much so that on Śrīla Guru Mahārāj's song-book some years back, if you opened the song-book, you'd see, Śrīla Gurudev [put] a dedication, it had the picture of Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj. It was a particularly edition. So he was an extraordinary personality and Guru Mahārāj said also the songs of the sakhya-rasa awakened in him some special appreciation and he expressed some preference and that regard, and other things that we're not qualified to speak about, but we bow down to him eternally, to his lotus feet, the dust of his lotus feet and his Nām-sankīrtan is reverberating in our hearts. We can be sure wherever Śrīla Guru Mahārāj is Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj cannot be far away. Hare Kṛṣṇa.

Here comes a bee, bhrāmara. Looks like a bumblebee,

Raghunāth Dās Goswāmī telling, respect all the paraphernalia of the dhām including the bees. Any question that anyone might ask Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj, the answer invariably, inevitably would be, “Hare Kṛṣṇa!” That's the solution to everything, take the Holy Name, kīrttanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ. He liked to put that śloka everywhere,

tṛṇād api sunīchena
taror iva sahiṣṇunā
amāninā mānadena
kīrttanīyaḥ sadā hariḥ
(Śrī Śikṣāṣṭakam, 3)

Always take the Name of Kṛṣṇa. So if you leave this world and your reputation. We say, “Well, how is this person to be known, what was their distinguishing quality or characteristic?” You may say, “Well they will know for incessantly taking the Name of Kṛṣṇa, for incessantly chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa Mahāmantra.” That's a life of success. Hare Kṛṣṇa.