"He Spoke the Language of Love"

I offer my humble obeicances to the most revered Vaishnavas and Vaishnavis. I offer my most loving dandavat pranams to the lotus feet of my beloved Shiksha Gurudeva Sri Srimad Bhakti Vijnana Bharati Gosvami Maharaji.

It is very difficult for me to write something about such a pure, holy and great person as Guruji, because to glorify him I do not have the appropriate qualities. However, his disciple very much requested me to write something as an offering to Guruji on the most auspicious day of His appearance. Therefore, considering it my duty to serve the disciples and followers of Guruji, I will try to sparingly express my impressions of association with Srila Gurudeva for those 4 short years that I spent with him, by his great mercy.

First of all, I would like to say that I have never met a more sincere, humble, patient and loving soul in my life than Guruji. When I first saw him during Kartik in Chandigarh in 2013, I felt a strong, as if magnetic attraction to Him, I felt that next to him was at last my home. Guruji was giving darshans every day, during which he spoke hari-katha, which was so much alive, deep, filled with realized love for the Vaishnavas and Guru-varga, penetrating so deeply into the heart and letting the roots in it. In every word of Guruji there was so much surrender that it was not possible to remain indifferent to his words. One time I saw how he held back tears when he requested in his katha to surrender to the Lord, as if begging us to finally cease to live separately from Krishna, considering ourselves independent.

Thanks to Gurudeva, I learned and could at least touch in my mind such rare diamonds as Srila Param Gurudeva Bhakti Dayita Madhava Goswami Maharaja, Srila Bhakti Pramoda Puri Goswami Maharaja, Srila Jayajavar Maharaja, Srila Vaikhanas Maharaja, Srila Santa Maharaja, Srila Keshava Maharaja, and also many other disciples and sannyasis of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada. Guruji always spoke with such enthusiasm about them, their conduct and contribution! There was a feeling that he counted the days in the calendar until the next day the appearance or disappearance of Vaishnavas, like a sincere child who is waiting for his birthday. It was a great happiness for Him to serve them in this way, because the service of the Vaisnavas was all his life! It seems to me that Gurudev did not live for a single day for himself, every minute was for His Gurudev and the Lord.

Listening to Srila Gurudeva's narrative, I myself felt a strong attachment to these Vaishnavas, they became not just stories for me, but living personalities that I know, and most importantly I felt and feel how they invisibly support me and protect me, now they are my family.

When I met Srila Gurudeva I did not want to leave his association. For me, he is a person who is not dual in this world, who knows how to truly love and who would have enough love for everyone, even if the whole world was orphaned.

I did not have much personal communication with Guruji, and I think that this is due to the fact that he always showed that real relationships, love and service are not conditioned by time, distance, body and circumstances. Guruji always made it clear that the relationship with Guru and Vaishnavas should not be built on a bodily concept, because the body is temporary, and the Guru, his teaching and association are eternal!

I always had the feeling that Gurudev hears me from the heart, and his desire to serve the devotees was so strong that he always accepted any attempts to do anything for him, even when they were imperfect and polluted with selfish desires. On the day of his appearance in 2015, he said, "Do not think, since I'm sitting on the asana, that I feel more elevated than you! You are all my gurus! Speaking katha is the only chance for me to somehow serve my guru-varga. I accept your service as an opportunity to serve you in this way, because if I do not accept your sincere efforts to serve, it will upset you greatly."

Guruji is an absolutely transcendental person from whom it is not possible to hide anything, and now since my material eyes can not see him and my material ears would never hear his sweet voice in this life, it comes as a feeling that I am an orphan, who didn`t take the treasure he was distributing.

I think that his love for Vaishnavas is unprecedented! He was called an encyclopedia of Gaudiya Math. And it is true. There is no other like him!

In my last darshan with Guruji, he thanked me for serving Krishna, and told me that everyone who serves Krsna is His friends, he requested to continue to always serve Lord Sri Krishna and chant His holy name. I did not often ask Srila Gurudeva for instructions, but he always said the same thing - chant Harinam!

This was his main instruction for me and it seems to me that he did not in vain choose the day of the departure of the nama acarya of Srila Haridasa Thakura as the day of his divine departure.

Srila Gurudeva is a person who speaks the language of love, not Hindi.

He became a father to all of us and even more! He is eternal and therefore I hope that I can be with Him, listen to Him again, associate and serve Him one day, when the time would come.

Guruji many times said that we have a five recording devices that constantly work. I pray Him that what He has given me those impressions that have remained in my heart would never get lost and not forgotten with the passage of time, with the advent of old age and decrepitude of the mind. Because this is the most precious thing that I actually have.

Jaya Gurudeva! Jaya Prabhupada!

Jaya Sri Sri Guru Gauranga!

Jaya Sri Chaytanya Vani!