The Sublime Life and Qualities of Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja
[Adapted from the introduction to Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārājer Prabandhāvalī, 2006]
Early life
Nitya-līlā-praviṣṭa oṁ viṣṇupāda aṣṭottara-śata-śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s sacred life and character reveals that he was a mahāpuruṣa sent forth by Bhagavān. Some of his godbrothers are often heard saying to others, “All this time, we ourselves have not been able to truly know him, so how will you understand him?” As Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya-līlā 9.194) says, “aprākṛta nahe kabhu prākṛta gocara – that which is supramundane is never accessible to the mundane.” Obtaining the mercy of that embodiment of divine compassion is our only recourse.
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja appeared in this world on 23 December, 1921, which was a Friday and kṛṣṇa navamī-tithi, the ninth lunar day of the dark fortnight, in the month of Pauṣa. He took birth in India’s East Bengal in the district of Khulna (the modern day Bagerhat district of Bangladesh), in the village of Piljang, to parents Śrī Satīśacandra Ghoṣa Mahāśaya and Śrīmatī Bhagavatī Bālā-devī. He was named Śrī Santoṣa, which means “satisfied”, and his audience (darśana), nature, and behaviour were truly very satisfying to everyone.
The spiritual atmosphere in which Śrī Santoṣa was raised brimmed with the influences of pure Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism. His mother, Śrīmatī Bhagavatī-devī, was a disciple of jagad-guru Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda. His maternal aunt, Śrīyuktā Nirmalā Bālā Bose, was widowed in her youth and lived at her father’s home. She too was a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda. As a boy, Santoṣa was very dear to his aunt. His only paternal uncle, Śrī Vīrendra, was also initiated by Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrī Vīrendra came to reside in Śrī Caitanya Maṭha in Māyāpura, where he was known as Śrī Vīracandra dāsa Brahmacārī. Later, he was known by the name tridaṇḍi-svāmī Śrīmad Bhakti Kuśala Narasiṁha Mahārāja. Santoṣa’s father took śrī harināma and dīkṣā-mantras from jagad-guru Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja in the year 1948, and Santoṣa’s brothers also became disciples of Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, receiving the names Śrī Nimāi-caraṇa Brahmacārī and Śrī Subala-sakhā Dāsādhikārī.
Coming to Māyāpura
From childhood, Śrī Santoṣa was very calm, humble, loyal, and extremely bright. He had just graduated from the fifth grade when he came to know that some devotees from his village were going to participate in Śrī Navadvīpa-dhāma parikramā and Śrī Gaura-jayantī. Feeling his eternal attraction to the holy dhāma, he expressed his desire to go with them to Śrī Māyāpura. Since there already was a very spiritual atmosphere in the home and, on top of that, since they all adored Santoṣa, no one was going to forbid him from going. Moreover, the pilgrimage only lasted a few days. Santoṣa was therefore permitted to go to Śrī Māyāpura with his aunt, under the guidance of Śrī Viṣṇupāda Dāsādhikārī “Bhakti-sindhu” Prabhu, who served as an organizer for the pilgrims from their village. It was the year 1931 and the boy Santoṣa was all of nine years old.
It was during this time that his uncle, Śrī Vīrendra left his job as a surveyor at the Government Survey Office and took up residence at the maṭha in Śrī Māyāpura. Santoṣa performed parikramā of all the nine islands of Navadvīpa with his aunt and uncle and continually heard hari-kathā from Śrīla Sarasvatī Prabhupāda and his disciples. He also came into the proximity of Śrī Caitanya Maṭha’s magnanimous temple president, Śrīla Narahari Sevā-vigraha Prabhu, popularly known as Mā (mother), and the maṭha’s estate manager, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Kṛtiratna Prabhu, and became the object of their profuse loving blessings.
That year, on Śrī Gaura Pūrṇimā day, Śrīla Sarasvatī Prabhupāda inaugurated Śrī Bhaktivinoda Institute, which had been founded on the initiative of Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī Prabhu. Seeing all this, the boy Santoṣa quietly made a vow to not return to his home. Feeling he had found his own true place and his real guardians, there was no question in his mind of returning to an ordinary worldly life. Pursuit of the ultimate goal of life was his eternal inclination. To follow the associates of Śrī Gaura was his dharma.
At the end of the parikramā, when everyone was returning to their homes, the boy Santoṣa would not go. His aunt was thunderstruck. What to do? No matter how much she pleaded, how much she tried to reason with him, it was all in vain. He would not budge. Finally, his uncle Śrī Vīrendra Prabhu took the boy’s side and persuaded his sister to return home.
Distressed at the news, his parents rushed to get him. However, the boy’s resolve was as immovable as a mountain. Despite all their tears and anguish, nothing could sway him. Śrī Vīrendra Prabhu consoled them. “Santoṣa can stay here and go to school. A new secondary school has been started here and he will be able to receive both spiritual and material education. You can come to visit from time to time and see him. He will not have any inconvenience here. Once he finishes his studies, I will convince him to go home.” With these assurances and those of Śrī Narahari Prabhu and Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Prabhu, Santoṣa’s parents were persuaded to let him stay there.
Going to school in Māyāpura and serving the Vaiṣṇavas
Thus, the boy Santoṣa began to reside at Śrī Caitanya Maṭha with great delight and no desire to return to his hometown. Nothing could make him falter in his resolve for even a moment, not even missing his parents or his doting aunt. He did not seem to miss his friends or his toys or the pony he used to love to ride. He felt that Śrī Gaurasundara’s birthplace, Śrī Māyāpura, was his true home and that Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda and his associates were his real family members.
Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Prabhu arranged for him to be enrolled in the Śrī Bhaktivinoda Institute. There, his teachers quickly became very fond of him because his intellect was so sharp. He could memorize a textbook just by listening to it being read out loud. Everyone was amazed. He could listen to Śrīla Prabhupāda’s hari-kathā and repeat it word for word. Śrīla Prabhupāda himself would become delighted to hear this charming boy repeat his lectures verbatim. Santoṣa thus quickly endeared himself to Śrīla Prabhupāda and his learned disciples.
The boy Santoṣa had another special quality, however, which was his sincere inclination to serve. It was because of this quality in particular that he won all their hearts. Every day, early in the morning during brahma-muhūrta, before anyone was awake, he would wake up with Śrīla Narahari Prabhu and perform a variety of services incognito and in a very beautiful manner. These services ranged from cleaning the toilets, picking flowers from the garden, cutting and preparing vegetables, cleaning the sannyāsīs’ and brahmacārīs’ rooms, washing their clothes, hanging the clothes to dry and later, folding and delivering them to their owners, refilling the pots of drinking water in all the rooms, polishing the ācamana cups, and so on. There was not a sannyāsī or brahmacārī who lived in Śrī Caitanya Maṭha during that time that he did not serve.
It was this wholehearted and remarkable propensity for service that Śrīla Prabhupāda and the bearers of his divine message, his disciples, recognized as an indication of Santoṣa’s eternal nature. It was this that made them count him as one of their own. Śrīla Prabhupāda was very pleased to see the sincere service tendency of this little boy and the fact that he had memorized Gītā and Vedānta-sūtra in their entirety. When Śrīla Prabhupāda was in Māyāpura, Santoṣa would always be around him. He would wash Śrīla Prabhupāda’s clothes, massage his feet, pick fresh green chickpeas from the garden, shell them, and offer them to Śrīla Prabhupāda. In August of 1936, Śrīla Prabhupāda, being pleased with Śrī Santoṣa, granted him harināma mahā-mantra. Śrīla Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja would sometimes say, “I was possibly the last person to receive harināma from Śrīla Prabhupāda.”
Dedicated service and receiving initiation
Then, on the 1st of January, 1937, Śrīla Prabhupāda, the driving force of the Gauḍīya Maṭha mission, entered the niśānta-līlā of Śrī Gāndharvikā-Giridhārī. In order to carry on the services in all the maṭhas, the board of trustees created by Śrīla Prabhupāda appointed various individuals to various positions to manage the mission. Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Kṛtiratna Prabhu was engaged as the General Superintendent at that time.
That year, Śrī Santoṣa took the government-administered high school exams in Krishnanagar and passed, coming top in the class. He had no desire to go to college or university to continue cultivating material knowledge. How could an eternal servant of Śrī Caitanya’s message separate himself from the guidance of his guardians and become enamoured with the pale shimmer of māyā that is the cultivation of mundane education? Those whose all-in-all is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, which is the pinnacle of knowledge perpetually cultivated by Brahmā, Śiva, and the demigods, do not find taste in any other topic. When he told his main guardian, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Prabhu, that he had decided not to pursue further material education, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Prabhu was very pleased.
Of the many boys in his age group who were at Śrī Caitanya Maṭha at the time, he was, somehow, by the mercy of guru and Vaiṣṇavas, the only one who stayed. His god-brothers and childhood friends from that time later held him in the highest regard and sought his guidance in their spiritual practices. Only those very rare personalities who are free from mundane ambition and intensely attached to the service of Śrī Caitanya’s message can follow the guidance of śrī guru and the Vaiṣṇavas in such a one-pointed manner.
When Śrī Vīrendra Brahmacārī sent news home that Santoṣa had passed his secondary school exams and came first in his class, his mother, Bhagavatī-devī, came to Māyāpura to take her son home. Just before her arrival, however, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī took Śrī Santoṣa elsewhere. Unable to find her son at the maṭha, Bhagavatī-devī began looking for him everywhere. Finally, she came to know from Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī Prabhu that her son would not be returning home, that he had donned saffron cloth, and had been engaged in service at another maṭha. People tried to console her, telling her that a mother who has borne in her womb such a gem of a son is supremely fortunate. However, despite hearing such praise and consolation, Bhagavatī-devī was heartbroken. She did not return home, but instead went to Vṛndāvana for some time.
In time, when the brahmacārī who had been appointed as the ācārya of the Gauḍīya Maṭha began to deviate from certain aspects of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s teachings, those who were staunch followers of Śrīla Prabhupāda could not abide by the changes. As a result, different groups formed, and an intense conflict ensued. Eventually a plot was hatched to frame those in active positions of management, like Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī, Śrī Mahānanda Brahmacārī, Śrīla Narahari Sevā-vigraha Prabhu, and other devout servants of Śrīla Prabhupāda. They were arrested on false charges of murder and imprisoned for a period of time. Seeing the state of the mission, many people lost their faith and returned to their homes. Those whose faith was very tender even left the path of sādhana-bhajana and entered fully into worldly life.
Santoṣa, however, persevered. Nothing could make him waver. Seeing his beloved guardians the victims of this plot, he jumped into action. On the direction of Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī, he sought the assistance of a well-known lawyer in Medinipur, Śrī Manmatha Mukhopadhyāya. Living in a house in Krishnanagar, Śrī Santoṣa busied himself with the case under Manmatha Bābū’s guidance, rushing files back and forth, conveying messages to and from Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Prabhu. When people from the opposing party saw him helping Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Prabhu, they tried to discourage him from doing so and even tried to bribe him. His response was: “I will always give up asat-saṅga and I will take the association of Vaiṣṇavas and serve them, wherever they are. Gold does not lose its value even if it gets tossed in a sack of husks.”
Another devotee, Śrī Dīnadayāla Vrajavāsī was living in that house with Śrī Santoṣa and cooking for all the devotees who were in prison. Śrī Santoṣa would bring the prasāda to the prison every day and consult with Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī about the case. As he was śrutidhara (able to remember everything he heard) and very intelligent and devoted, he was able to follow all of Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī’s instructions.
At one point, Śrī Dīnadayāla Vrajavāsī Prabhu fell gravely ill and could not cook anymore. This was a serious concern, as the devotees could not eat food cooked by someone who did not have dīkṣā initiation. On the suggestion of Śrī Narahari Sevā-vigraha Prabhu, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī imparted the dīkṣā-mantras to Śrī Santoṣa. Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Prabhu had never given dīkṣā-mantras to anyone before and he was not a sannyāsī yet. Santoṣa’s name then became Śrī Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī, as per his eternal inclination to serve saintly persons (sajjana). From that day forth, he started doing all the cooking himself and providing prasāda to his beloved guardians. Later, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Prabhu had Śrī Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī’s upanayana-saṁskāra (donning of the sacred thread) and upanayana-yajña performed by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s last sannyāsa disciple, Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Vicāra Yāyāvara Gosvāmī Mahārāja, at the Śrī Śyāmānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha in Medinipur city.
In the end, the court released all the devotees on bail and eventually they were proven innocent. Then, in 1940, along with Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī, Śrīla Narahari Sevā-vigraha Prabhu, Śrī Mahānanda Brahmacārī, Śrī Vīrendra Brahmacārī, Śrī Narottamānanda Brahmacārī, and others, Śrī Sajjana-sevaka took up residence in Koladvīpa (Navadvīpa town) in a rented house in Tegharipara. Later, he went to Śrī Śyāmānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha in Medinipur and lived there for some time. On the orders of his guardians, he also went preaching in various districts of Bengal with Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Bhūdeva Śrauti Gosvāmī Mahārāja and Śrī Hayagrīva Brahmacārī (Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Dayita Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāja), always busying himself in serving all the Vaiṣṇavas by cooking and tending to them in various ways.
Founding of Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti
That year (1940), on Akṣaya-tritīyā, in order to protect and re-establish the current of conceptions (vicāra-dhārā) of Śrīla Prabhupāda, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī founded Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti with his god-brothers Śrī Abhaya-caraṇa Bhaktivedānta Prabhu (Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Svāmī Mahārāja) and Śrī Narottamānanda Brahmācārī at a rented house at 32/2 Bosepara Lane in Baghbazar, Kolkata. Śrī Sajjana-sevaka was also present there at that time.
On the order of Śrīla Prabhupāda imparted via a dream, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī accepted sannyāsa in 1941 on Bhādra Pūrṇimā (Viśvarūpa Pūrṇimā) from Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Rakṣaka Śrīdhara Gosvāmī Mahārāja in Katwa, at the site where Śrī Gaurasundara Himself took sannyāsa, and became known as tridaṇḍi-svāmī Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Mahārāja. He then began preaching the message of Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga everywhere with abundant enthusiasm. His one and only disciple, Śrī Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī, was with him constantly, like a shadow, serving him.
Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja established Gouranga Printing Works in Kolkata and started publishing the works of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Śrī Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī was his right-hand man then. He learned all the tasks of printing and gave himself fully to the work of publishing granthas.
In 1943, Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti accepted the responsibility of caring for the ancient Śrī Gaura-Nityānanda deities personally served by Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita in Chunchura. The old home that housed the deities became known as Śrī Uddhāraṇa Gauḍīya Maṭha and began to be utilized as the main office of the Samiti. On the order of Śrīla Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrī Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī shifted the printing press there from Kolkata and continued the Samiti’s publishing work.
In 1948, Śrī Gauḍīya Patrikā was registered as the main publication of Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti and Śrī Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī was appointed as its first publisher and printer. In addition to publishing various Gauḍīya granthas, he published issues of Śrī Gauḍīya Patrikā every month in a beautiful manner and without errors, thereby earning everyone’s praise.
In 1952, on the sacred day of Phālguṇī Pūrṇimā, on the appearance day of Śrī Gaurahari, jagad-guru Śrīla Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja granted sannyāsa to his dear sevaka, Śrī Sajjana-sevaka, and adorned him with the name and title tridaṇḍi-svāmī Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Mahārāja. Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Trivikrama Mahārāja and Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja also took sannyāsa on that same day.
Becoming Ācārya of Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti
Just as Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara Prabhu was renowned as Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s most intimate servant or just as Śrī Kureśa was devoted to Śrī Rāmānujācārya and Śrī Hanumān to Śrī Rāmacandra, Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja was Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s right hand and a servant who knew his master’s heart. “Kṛṣṇa-bhakte kṛṣṇer guṇa sakali sañcāre[1] – all of Kṛṣṇa’s qualities are infused in His devotees.” The virtues of the object of service are infused within the servant. Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja inherited all divine qualities of his eternal guardian, Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja. This is why Śrīla Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja himself, various distinguished sannyāsī and gṛhastha disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, and all the prominent disciples of Śrīla Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja accepted Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī as the next ācārya and president of the Samiti. Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja wrote in his will: “It is my exclusive desire that after my departure, my dear Śrīmān Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Mahārāja will become the president-ācārya of Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti and grant śrī harināma and dīkṣā to the faithful devotees.”
Though Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja carried on his duties in publishing books and the monthly Patrikās, from time to time, he also had to go preaching in various places. Śrīla Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, anticipating his own departure to the abode of Vraja and wanting to introduce people to the next chief of the Samiti, transferred Śrīla Mahārāja’s responsibilities in the press to others in 1966 and engaged him fully in preaching. From then onwards, he preached the message of Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga tirelessly in various regions of Bengal, Bihar, and Assam.
In 1968, at the beginning of dāmodara-vrata, on the day of Śāradīya-rāsa Pūrṇimā, jagad-guru oṁ viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja departed for the eternal service of Śrī Śrī Gaura-Rādhā-Vinoda-bihārī-jīu. Thereafter, as per his wishes, Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Śrīrūpa Siddhānti Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Dayita Mādhava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Pramoda Purī Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prakāśa Hṛṣīkeśa Gosvāmī Mahārāja, Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prāpaṇa Dāmodara Gosvāmī Mahārāja, and other sannyāsī disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda appointed their trusted and much adored Santoṣa, Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Mahārāja, as the president and ācārya of Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti.
Śrīla Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja comments in this regard in one of his letters: “I do not sit in the seat of ācārya because I was elected or selected by my god-brothers. Even though I do not desire this responsibility at all, weeping and weeping, I have been bound to accept this responsibility because of Śrīla Guru-pādapadma’s wishes. I never had a desire to be ācārya and still do not.”
On the day of his accepting the position of ācārya, after paying his respects to his guru-pādapadma and all the assembled Vaiṣṇavas, he glorified his guru-pādapadma briefly and humbly, and made the following solemn comments:
“Today, on the disappearance day of Śrī Śrīla Guru-pādapadma, we have been hearing from the lotus mouths of my guru-varga present here, as they profusely sing his glories. I cannot think of anything to say that they have not already said. My sole duty is to chew what they have chewed, just like a servant who survives on his master’s remnants. I have neither the capability nor the words to narrate the glories of Śrī Guru-pādapadma, but I will endeavour to describe his glories in brief so as to execute the order of the Vaiṣṇavas.
“Specifically, we can contemplate a few aspects of his glories that we have been hearing from the lotus mouths of the Vaiṣṇavas. If we reflect upon the significance of his life, we find that his behaviour could be divided into two distinctly notable classifications. He exhibited them while he preached the innermost desire of his supremely worshipful master, Śrīla Prabhupāda. We can observe both types of behaviour in all mahājanas.
vajrād api kaṭhorāṇi mṛdūni kusumād api
lokottarāṇāṁ cetāṁsi ko nu vijñātum īśvaraḥ
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya-līlā 7.73)
[Who can comprehend the heart of exalted, supramundane personalities, whose natures are stronger than thunderbolts and more tender than flowers.]
“Vajrād api kaṭhorāṇī – stronger than a thunderbolt.” This virtue was prominently illuminated in his character. “Mṛdūni kusumād api – more tender than a flower.” Yet this virtue was also consistently observed in him. Today we have heard examples fom the lips of our guru-varga that clearly reveal him as a fearless preacher of the Truth. You yourselves have sufficient evidence of his kindness and soft-heartedness. In this sphere, I want to convey that Guru-pādapadma is our eternal friend and well-wisher. Those who have given up all sorts of material comfort, mundane attachments, and affections, and have taken shelter at his lotus feet by acquiring spiritual knowledge (śikṣā) and by taking initiation (dīkṣā), are trying wholeheartedly to advance on the path of bhajana – for them the only destination is Śrī Guru-pādapadma.
“Therefore, let Guru-pādapadma’s ideals, directions, and instructions be our life and soul. Today, on the occasion of his disappearance, our earnest prayer to his lotus feet is that, although we can no longer behold his form, may he bestow his unlimited blessings upon us. In this way we can abide by his words, orders, and instructions in every respect and establish his glories meticulously throughout the world. May we also propagate the glories of his worshipful Lords, Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Vinoda-bihārī-jīu, throughout the world.
“Respectable speakers have yet to deliver their addresses, so I will keep my talk brief. I have already confessed my inability to contribute more than the previous speakers, so finally, my humble entreaty to the venerable Vaiṣṇavas and affectionate guru-varga here today is that I am completely unqualified for the heavy responsibility that has now been conferred upon me. In fact, I cannot comprehend its weight. But since taking this responsibility is the order of my śrī gurudeva, I must submissively comply. May he and other venerable Vaiṣṇavas consider my worthiness.
“I can assure them that I will not waver in abiding by the orders of Śrī Guru-pādapadma. This I solemnly vow. Therefore, I pray for their kind cooperation, sympathy, benedictions, and all else. With their mercy and blessings, I may be able to acquire the strength and ability to carry out these responsibilities competently. Finally, I convey my humble submission unto the lotus feet of my god-brothers and pray for their sincere, wholehearted cooperation. Without their cooperation, sympathy, and help, I am unable to move forward a single step.
“My earnest appeal unto the lotus feet of Guru-pādapadma is that he shower his profuse blessings upon me, even though he is no longer visible to us. In this way, I will be able to follow his order and execute his final instructions, thus making my life successful. My humble prayer to the Vaiṣṇavas is that they bestow profuse benedictions upon me so that I can act in accordance with the grave responsibility given to me by my gurudeva. I would like to conclude my talk here.”
As president of the Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti, Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja gave proper honour to all of his god-brothers and thereby guided the Samiti in such a beautiful manner that it proved to be truly exemplary in what is an age of constant quarrel. The sort of fearsome conflict that generally ensues once an institution’s founder departs could not even sprout once he was installed as the principal overseer of the Samiti. Many of his god-brothers have commented in this regard, saying, “Residing in the shade of his umbrella, we have not really felt the absence of or separation from our śrīla guru-pādapadma (Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja). From him, our most senior god-brother, we have received all the nourishment we received in the presence of our śrīla guru-pādapadma. He is truly non-different from Śrī Keśava.”
[1] Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Madhya-līlā 22.75)