The Guardian of Devotion and His Divine Servitor

by

Tridaṇḍi Bhikṣu Śrī Bhakti Ānanda Sāgar

Bhakti means ‘devotion’, and Rakṣak means ‘guardian’. Situated within the holy province known by the devotees as ‘Gauḍa-maṇḍal’, the humble village of Hāpāniyā has now become a cherished place of pilgrimage for theistic scholars and pilgrims the world over. Small wonder, since it is the holy place of advent of Oṁ Viṣṇupād Aṣṭottara-śata-śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj, the great Grandfather of all the faithful Vaiṣṇava tridaṇḍi sannyāsīs, the grand preceptor of the divine nectarine message of Śrī Gaurāṅgadev. This great saintly personage made his glorious advent at Śrīpāṭ Hāpāniyā of Rāḍh-desh, in 1895 of the Christian calendar. The formidable scholar Śrīyukta Upendra Chandra Bhaṭṭāchārya Vidyāratna Mahodoy and Śrīmatī Gaurī Devī, were both unalloyed pure souls imbued with righteousness and devotion for the Supreme Lord Hari. At the fitting auspicious moment, Śrīla Guru Mahārāj made his advent, choosing them as his father and mother, and revealing the advent of his divine pastimes to the world. They named their beloved son Śrī Rāmendra Chandra Bhaṭṭāchārya.

In 1923 he was attracted by the grace of Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Goswāmī, and at the Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭh situated at No. 1 Ulṭāḍiṅgi Junction Road, Kolkata, he heard Śrī Śrīla Prabhupād’s holy talks of the Supreme Lord. Not long after that, in December of 1926, with full surrender, he joined Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭh. The natural attraction for the Nām-saṅkīrtan of Śrī Chaitanyadev that Śrīla Guru Mahārāj had felt since his very childhood now bloomed into the resplendent personality of tridaṇḍi sannyāsī Śrī Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Mahārāj, at the behest of Śrī Śrīla Prabhupād Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Goswāmī. Śrīla Prabhupād conferred this holy order, name, and title upon Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj in the year 1930, having marked his profound expertise and depth of divine realisation in the holy scriptural theistic conclusions, thus recognising him as a veritable ‘Guardian of Devotion’. Śrīla Prabhupād further solidified this recognition upon hearing Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj’s Sanskrit composition Śrī-Bhakti-vinoda-viraha-daśakam, when he endorsed the holy poem as a direct inspiration of Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur.

Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj took a prominent part in the founding, organising, and preaching of many of the Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭhs of Śrīla Prabhupād Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Goswāmī all over India. As a climax to his divine affection and blessings to Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj, during the last days of Śrīla Prabhupād’s manifest divine pastimes in this world, he especially selected Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj to sing Śrī Rūpa-mañjarī-pada for him, which is well-known as the most venerated and adored prayer of the entire Gauḍīya sampradāya; by this action we can know Śrīla Prabhupād’s indomitable confidence in his ‘Guardian of Devotion’ as the future captain of the Śrī-Rūpānuga sampradāya or divine succession of faithful followers of Śrī Chaitanyadev in the line of Śrīla Rūpa Goswāmī. And who could doubt this? The nectarine river of Sanskrit and Bengali compositions that flowed from his pen stand as great monuments in the line of Śrī Chaitanyadev. In his latter years some hundreds of disciples of the late world preacher, Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāj, flocked to Śrī Nabadwīp Dhām to hear the holy informal talks and advices of Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj, and from tape-recordings of those talks many English publications reached to the Western public, scholars, and devotees. The wholehearted acceptance of his divine delivery and those transcendental works by the genuine devotees is irrevocable, not only by dint of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Mahārāj’s openly avowed acceptance of Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj as his Śikṣā-guru, but simply by the strength of their own spiritual merit. Therefore, great numbers of sincere seekers from all over the world also flocked to the lotus feet of Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj to become surrendered disciples of the Guardian of Devotion.

His Divine Servitor

Oṁ Viṣṇupād Aṣṭottara-śata-śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Sundar Govinda Mahārāj made his appearance in this world on 17th December, 1929, at Brāhmanpārhā, District Burdwan, only about six miles from Śrīpāṭ Hāpāniyā where his beloved Gurudev made his advent, also situated in the holy area of Gauḍa-maṇḍal. Revealing his pastimes to the conditioned souls of this worldly plane, at the tender age of only seventeen years, Śrīla Govinda Mahārāj manifest his coming to the lotus feet of his Gurudev Śrī Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj in April 1947 on the holy appearance day of Śrī Nṛsiṁhadev (Nṛsiṁha Chaturdaśī).

If any of the dear readers of this short account may have, or have had, the opportunity of hearing directly from other stalwart veteran disciples of Śrīla Śrīdhar Mahārāj (an opportunity the humble writer has fortunately had on many occasions), such as Śrīpād Bhakti Prasūn Araṇya Mahārāj, Śrīpād Hari Charaṇ Brahmachārī Sevā Ketan Prabhu, Śrīyuktā Kṛṣṇamayī Devī, Śrīyuktā Ramārāṇī Devī, and Śrīla Guru Mahārāj’s own revered brothers and disciples Śrīyukta Satyendra Chandra Bhaṭṭāchārya, Śrīyukta Amarendranāth Bhaṭṭāchārya and others — any fortunate soul will be able to trace the unbroken line of continuous unalloyed divine affection that Śrīla Guru Mahārāj bestowed upon Śrīla Govinda Mahārāj, and continues to eternally bestow from his holy abode in the Nitya-līlā (Eternal Divine Pastimes).

On the Amāvasyā (dark-moon day) of 12th August, 1988, when Śrīla Guru Mahārāj silently took his form of holy samādhi at his beloved place of bhajan, Śrī Chaitanya Sāraswat Maṭh, Nabadwīp Dhām, at that time all the devotees felt that the exalted moon had disappeared from their vision, yet by his divine grace, Śrīla Guru Mahārāj had already foreseen the devotees’ need for uninterrupted light, for the smooth continuation of their devotional services, and therefore three years before he conferred the holy order of tridaṇḍa-sannyās upon Śrīla Govinda Mahārāj, naming him as his illustrious successor, as the guiding light to perfectly ensure that no darkness could enter into his sampradāya (divine succession).

The illustrious Āchāryas or divine preceptors have often been described to be as brilliant as the sun. Their divine dispensation of Hari-kathā and Hari-kīrtan are as the life-giving rays of the supreme sun, giving life and warmth to all creatures, moving and stationary. They are the merciful bestowers of the very kernel of love divine for the Supreme Lord which is the absolute life of all that lives (divya-bhagavat-premṇo hi bīja-pradam). In this way, it was no surprise that the faithful loving devotees of Śrīla Guru Mahārāj could only receive with great transcendental joy the appearance in the Gauḍīya firmament of Jagad-guru Gauḍīya-bhāskarāchārya Śrīla Śrī Bhakti Sundar Govinda Mahārāj. In the personage of his dearmost Divine Servitor, Śrīla Guru Mahārāj had long before selected our future Guardian.

Highly learned in Sanskrit and Bengali, Śrīla Govinda Mahārāj has, as did his illustrious Gurudev, given us many divine prayers and songs most valuable for the cultivation of our spiritual life; his valuable natural talent coupled with his fine delivery of Hari-kathā (holy talks of the Supreme Lord and His Pastimes), and, on the practical side of devotional life, his untiring services to his Śrīla Guru Mahārāj in nurturing and upholding Śrīla Guru Mahārāj’s India-wide and worldwide Mission from the very beginning to the present — it was none other than he who designed and supervised the building of Śrī Chaitanya Sāraswat Maṭh — have, as we have seen with our own eyes, ever fulfilled the divine desires of Śrī Gurudev (gurvābhīṣṭa-supūrakam).

By his grace we have been able to continue our spiritual life and do some service to bring out this transcendental series of Sermons of the Guardian of Devotion. Gradually, it will come into all languages of the world. May Guru Mahārāj and his divine Godbrother Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāj Prabhupād, and the most beloved divine servitor of them both, Śrīla Govinda Mahārāj, cast their merciful glance upon us and our company, the fallen souls of the mundane world; with this prayer I beg to offer my humble sāṣṭāṅga-dandavat praṇām unto the lotus feet of them all.

For an illuminating full translation extracted from Śrīla Guru Mahārāj’s informal talks, see p.126 — 129, Search for Śrī Kṛṣṇa: Reality the Beautiful, published by Guardian of Devotion Press. — Ed.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Paul von Hindenburg, 1847-1934, was a German field marshal during World War I. Noted for its immense strength, the ‘Hindenburg Line’, also known as ‘Siegfriedstelling’, was a defensive barrier improvised by the German Army on the Western Front, extending between Soisons and Laon.

Informal, affectionate address of Śrīla A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmī Prabhupād.