His Divine grace
Om Vishnupad Śrīla Bhakti Pramod Purī Goswāmī Mahārāj
His Divine Grace Om Visnupād Śrīla Bhakti Pramod Purī Goswāmī Mahārāj is a pure devotee.
His humility, sweetness, and kindness give new meaning to the concepts of humility, sweetness, and kindness. To know his life is not to know facts and figures, dates and events, but to know a reality that can sustain life, a joy that can transcend time. When we get a glimpse of his inner mood, his daily devotional practice, and his unique individuality, we will finally see the saint as a real person and not as an abstract concept. That real person is so amazing, so transcendental, that we see in him a glimpse of divinity. Out of spontaneous reverence and love, we will make a place for this divine being in the core of our heart. That is sādhu-sanga (association with a pure devotee), which can grant us eternal benediction.
When we accept the path of devotion, on one hand many things become clearer and easier for us. Yet on the other hand, we often feel we are living in two different worlds, the mundane and the transcendental, and it becomes difficult to harmonize the two. Indeed, in moments of frustration we may wonder if such harmony is even achievable by most of us. So, knowing a saint personally gives us the ultimate help and hope that we need – it answers many questions, shedding light on previously unperceived concepts. We see how the great devotee is also the perfect person, the most lovable person, the most trustworthy person. To have a relationship with him is to have a father and a mother, a teacher and a friend, whose love is limitless, whose knowledge is perfect. In order to establish such a relationship we must bring our most sincere inner self to the shelter of the pure devotee and receive his grace. As Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Mahārāj often said, we must “close the department of the mind and open the department of the heart.”
To study Śrīla Purī Mahārāj’s life is to study Gauriya Vaisnavism. What we cannot realize by reading many scriptures or listening to many eloquent lectures, we can realize by observing his conduct with the śraddha it deserves. And that realization will be a glimpse into his heart, which is an ocean of Krsna-prem and bhāgavat dharma. We will marvel at its depth and its vastness. Sriman Mahāprabhu has described the twenty-six qualities of a pure devotee in Sri Chaitanya-charitāmrta, and Lord Krsna has described the twenty-eight qualities of a sādhu in Śrimad Bhāgavatam those we can see in His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Pramod Puri Goswami Maharaj.
Śrīla Bhakti Pramod Puri Goswami Mahārāj is known all over the Vaisnav world as the greatest living saint.
He is the senior most living disciple of His Divine Grace Gaudiya Gosthipati Srila Bhaktisiddhānta Saraswati Goswāmī Prabhupād, the Founder-Achārya of all the Gaurīya Maths. Vaisnavs all over the world have heard of his long life of dedication, his saintly character, his extraordinary scholarship, his exclusive surrender to his Gurudev, and his intimate and loving relationship with his Godbrothers. Even at one hundred years of age, he
tirelessly preached Hari-kathā with youthful enthusiasm….
(From A Life of Devotion)
Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj’s appreciation for Śrīpād Śaṅkar Āchārya’s writing.
