Guru Maharaj is now in the United States. He transited through Malaysia, Hong Kong and took a thirteen hour flight to Los Angeles. “Travelling is not easy, Guru Maharaj travels just to see his disciples”, said Mahavaraha Prabhu in his address to the devotees at Dallas.
The deities at Dallas ,Sri Sri Radha Kalachand ji are the oldest deities of Radha and Krishna installed and worshipped by Srila Prabhupada in the west. HH Tamal Krishna Goswami Maharaj following Srila Prabhupada’s instruction took forward the Dallas temple project. The temple president, a senior disciple of Tamal Krishna Goswami Maharaj spoke about Guru Maharaj, his contribution to ISKCON and how happy they were to have Guru Maharaj in their presence . He was explaining to the audience at the temple, what a great opportunity it was to serve a pure devotee and said that Sri Radha Kalachand ji had personally invited Maharaj.
While at Dallas, Guru dev was staying at Sarvajaya Madhav prabhu’s house. He and his team of devotees exemplified devotee care. Guru Maharaj visited the temple on Narshima Chaturdashi. Guru dev performed Abhishek for the Narsimha deity and gave a wonderful class that lasted over an hour. He spoke in detail about the appearance of Lord Narsimha dev and also spoke about Lord Narsimha’s appearance in a different Kalpa of Brahma. He spoke about Narsimha Dev’s glories and said that Mayapur Narsimhadev is in the mood of looking for demons and destroying the demoniac mentality in them.”I saw a picture of the Narsimha deity here, but I am seeing Narsimha dev everywhere”, quite a powerful statement it was!Guru Maharaj also said that there is ‘Karma airline’ and the other is ‘Lord Chaitanya’s airline’ and was enthusing everyone to take Lord Chaitanya’s airline ofcourse .
At the host’s house, Guru Maharaj met devotees and their families from different Bhakti Vrikshas, enthusing them to spread Krishna Consciousness. He addressed them and gave two classes as well. Devotees from other cities in the US like Houston , Oklahoma visited as well. The stay was comfortable for Guru Maharaj and was organised with great care and detail, with Guru dev and his servants well take care of.
In his address to the devotees, Mahavaraha Prabhu explained that although it may appear that the Guru may be doing most things similar to us, although he may appear like anyone else, what differentiates him from the rest is that a Guru is willing to suffer for us. Guru is willing to take one’s karma away and take him/her back to Godhead.
One day, Guru Maharaj was just about to exit a complex and all of a sudden, it started to rain. When they were just wondering where to get an umbrella from, an elderly lady walked past Guru Maharaj. She suddenly stopped , held out her umbrella and gave it to one of the care takers. “Make sure he doesn’t get wet, keep him dry! Keep him dry”, she said. ” I just saw him and felt that I should give it to him”. Krishna was certainly arranging for his pure devotee, that moment seemed magical, more than anything else. Sure enough, she was going to carry forward devotional service to Krishna by serving his pure devotee.
In one of his classes Guru Maharaj answered a question about associating with devotees. He said that one should be careful with his dealings with the opposite sex . He said that association with devotees actually meant discussion of Krishna Katha and was certainly to be without any prajalapa. When asked on how to preach if one feels unqualified, Guru Maharaj said that one should think that one is actually preaching on behalf of Lord Chaitanya because he asked everyone to distribute the fruits of Krishna Consciousness, so that way although one may not consider oneself qualified, preaching is still done on behalf of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Chaitanya.
In the city of Dallas – Darshan of Kalachand ji, kirtan, devotees , visit to devotee’s houses ,pleasing devotees and preaching Krishna Consciousness, perfect life of a Sanyasi. Amidst all this Guru Maharaj also visited the doctor for his general health check up, performed exercises everyday and followed his strict dietary regime. Such a great empowered father, given to us by Srila Prabhupada.
Right now Guru Maharaj is at New Talavan, we’ll keep you posted from New Talavan soon.
All glories to Srila Prabhupada. All glories to Sri Guru!
Nanda Priya Nivedita DD
JPS Media