Tamal Krishna Goswami’s Legacy of Love—Disappearance Day

Giriraj Swami: I would like to say just a couple of things about how the program this evening has affected me.

My first impression was during the kirtan. Somehow, during the kirtan, I was seeing within my heart the picture of Goswami Maharaja in Mayapur doing parikramā of the temple room with Srila Prabhupada, with many flower petals showering down on them. I do not know what more I can say, but I was seeing this picture of Goswami Maharaja with all the flowers showering down on him as if from the sky.

While we were doing kirtan, I was thinking how much Goswami Maharaja loved kirtan, especially in the last weeks in Mayapur, when devotees would gather in his room and do kirtan for two or three hours every night. I was thinking, “He loved kirtan so much!—we should just do kirtan.”

But then I thought, “We should sing some bhajanas, because he loved bhajanas so much, especially Srila Narottama dasa Thakura’s, which he taught at VIHE.”

And then I thought, “How much he loved the devotees! How much he loved to reciprocate with the devotees! How much he would love to talk with the devotees and hear them speak to him!” And so then I thought, “The devotees here should speak.”

And finally I thought, “How much he loved everything about Krishna consciousness!"—and I guess that is the main thing I thought.

In Dallas, when the devotes used to speak about their experiences with Srila Gurudeva, I would mentally take note of his wonderful qualities and activities, and think, “I have to do better in this area; I have to do better in that area—I have to try and emulate him.” But today I know there is no hope of that, so I am just listening and appreciating.

But I believe what Bhakta Carl said is true about seeing Tamal Krishna Goswami’s legacy of love. Everything Carl said was true—but here especially what he said about Goswami Maharaja’s legacy of love. All the devotees around us, all the devotees who were touched by Srila Gurudeva and who found some shelter in him, directly or indirectly, are particles of his legacy of love. Each particle of him—of his love and of his compassion and of his humor and of his competence—each particle of him that is distributed in all the devotees or manifest in all the devotees is precious, and so we should treasure all of those particles and embrace them and hold them very dear to our hearts.

Hare Krishna.