My coming to the Math — Sri Nrsimha Chaturdasi 1947

 

His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj reflects on the events that surrounded his first days at Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math at the lotus feet of His Divine Master, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj. This talk was given 50 years after the event, here at the Math.

 

My birth place was Bamunpara, known in former times as Brahmanpara, as you have seen when you visited there recently. I studied at the village school, and later went to school at Putsuri. Presently my father sold the property at Bamunpara and bought a new house in Rangpur, so we left this district to move there. My maternal uncle and his family lived in Rangpur. They were very wealthy and they invited my mother and father to settle there. At the time the political tension was building up to the inevitable division between India and Pakistan which eventually came in 1947. Then my father died in Rangpur and my family and I returned to my native Bamunpara.

 

The responsibility then came to me to support my family. In order to do so it was necessary for me to receive training and learn some kind of profession. So I went to train in a small charitable dispensary cum hospital. If it still exists I do not know. Doctors and nurses were in very short supply there – there was only one doctor and one nurse in attendance and then myself. At that time it was unwritten law that if you took training from a doctor for between five and ten years you would be accepted as a doctor in your own right. So, to this purpose I would go daily to two separate dispensaries, two kilometres apart from each other. In each place I would open the dispensary, whereupon someone would come and clean and prepare everything for the days work.

After the doctor came and was attending the patients I would take that opportunity for recreation and go to play football. This was my regular daily routine. Afterwards, sometimes I would go back to the hospital and sometimes back to the village of Nadanghat where I would stay at a big zamindar’s house. He was a big landlord and consequently also very rich. He and his family liked me. It is my good fortune that everywhere people liked me. Nadanghat is situated 12 km from Nabadwip and about 15 km from Bamunpara.

After playing football in the evenings I would relax with my friends and eat some supper, which often included channa (fried curd) and sak (spinach). Then together we would go back to that big zamindar’s house to read. In those days I would read novels, and at night I would often sleep in the reading room.

 

One day a group of sadhus came from this Math, four or five of them. I first saw them at about 7.30 in the evening. They sang kirttans and then gave a discourse on Srimad-Bhagavatam. I was drawn to them. One of the sadhus appeared to be especially exalted. He had a very saintly body.

As he was giving a lecture about Srimad-Bhagavatam he reminded me of Srinivas Acharyya lecturing in the assembly of King Birhambir. Previously I had read much Vaisnava literature, and was familiar with the story of Raja Birhambir. He was a dacoit chief prior to becoming a disciple of Srinivas Acharyya. Have you heard of these events? Anyhow, that exalted sadhu appeared to be exactly like Srinivas Acharyya giving his discourse.

There were so many people there, maybe a hundred listening to his lecture. Sitting amongst them were three or four zamindars who were known to me, all of them dacoits. Although they were dacoits, nonetheless they were like grandfathers to me. I would constantly joke with them and tease them, and sometimes even chastise them very much, and they liked me for it. Somehow they relished my chastisement.

After hearing the very revolutionary lecture delivered beautifully by this brahmachari I was very impressed. It was not like the usual lectures given by roaming ‘goswamis’ and after hearing it, I was so attracted. So the next day I returned.

I had played mrdanga drums from a very early age, and I was well able to sing songs, so I had some capacity in this way. When I arrived they were singing “Vande guroh sri charanaravindam” and I asked if I could join them and play the mrdanga. They were surprised at my request as I was just a village boy, but they gave the mrdanga and I played. They were very impressed.

At that time I held the position of a professional singer, but that’s another story. My father was a very famous professional singer of Vaisnava songs, kirttans, etc. He was very famous in that district and other districts also, and through him I inherited many songs. He died when I was fourteen years old. Not everybody knew that my father, being a professional singer leading a large sankirttan group, had to be paid in order to maintain it. He would ask 200-250 Rs, which was quite a lot at that time.

 

One day I saw my uncle sitting on the veranda crying. He was very strong and a stick fighter. Indeed he was a famous stick fighter, so it was very unusual for him to be in such a state. After seeing this I asked my uncle why he was crying. He then told me a call had just come for my father to sing at a particular function, but the caller did not know that my father had already passed away. That had touched my uncle’s heart and caused his sadness.

My Uncle said that the person would call back but he had no one to sing in my father’s place. I told my uncle that there was a solution and he could take the call. He seemed surprised. “Who will sing these songs?” he asked me. I told him, “I can sing them.” My uncle had never heard me sing before and he asked me how I had come to know these songs, because at that time I was too young to hear the songs about the Madhura-Rasa pastimes of Sri Sri Radha-Krishna. My father would not permit me to sing such kirttans because my father thought me, at such a young age, to be unqualified. I was not even allowed to listen to songs of such a high type. Nonetheless, I was very much attracted. So, whenever my father would go to sing, I would follow him and hide in a nearby rice paddy field where I was able to hear him sing these songs. Sometimes it would take him a whole month to fulfil all the invitations in a particular village.

I was very much addicted to the songs of Radha-Krishna, and at that time my memory was very fresh and I was able to memorise every song he sang. Also, every day my father would give lessons to some students, while I pretended to read a little distance away. Instead of reading I would listen to him teaching. In this way I became qualified.

I explained this to my uncle. Although he was very surprised he called me to his house to sing a ‘heavy’ song. I sang it fully, and he cried again and embraced me. He now knew that he would be able to take the phone call and tell them, “Yes, my brother is not here, but my brother’s son will fulfil your appointment.”

It was so far away from here – about 30 km. In this way my first assignment as a professional singer began. After that I travelled to so many villages and sang so many songs. In this way also I was able to gain more experience and knowledge.

 

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