20201017 Zoom session Remembering Śrīla Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Gosvami

The following is a zoom session Remembering HH.Srila Tamal Krsna Goswami Maharaja by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on October 17th, 2020 in Śrī Dhāma Māyāpur, India.

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: I am very glad to be present on this occasion of glorifying His Holiness Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami. Actually, when I first came to the temple in San Francisco, I saw Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami. But then I went after the Ratha-yātrā to Montreal to see Śrīla Prabhupāda. And then, when I was in Calcutta, at that time Śrīla Prabhupāda established His Holiness Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami as GBC for India. So I was the temple president in Calcutta in 1970-71 and Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, he was a perfectionist and I did not come up to his standard. So he kept removing me and Śrīla Prabhupāda kept putting me back. And one time, he appointed another president for the Calcutta temple. But it is very hard to be the Calcutta president because we had all Śrīla Prabhupāda disciples. Everyone was individually very strong personalities. When Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami came back, the new president grabbed him by the neck and said, “You made me temple president of this crazy temple!” I had to save Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami. At that time, he made me the temple president again. But actually, he was a very close friend, and he was a hands on leader. We would take the steel or cement up to Māyāpur, we would ride sometimes ride on trucks carrying goods. One time we were riding on a steel truck and the driver stopped and said, here is a Punjabi Dhabha. You can take some hot milk. So we thought it was a good idea, so we took some milk. Someone came up and said they are stealing your steel, they are throwing it in the ditch. We went out and saw that true enough, they were throwing the steel off the truck.

So like that, Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, he was taking great effort to please Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrīla Prabhupāda said we wanted land in Māyāpur. He went out and got some land. Then when he had the land transferred, in the Krishna Nagar court, he wrote the serial number of each hundred rupee note, hundreds of notes. And then he gave that document to Śrīla Prabhupāda. So, like that he was very dedicated in carrying out Śrīla Prabhupāda’s instructions. I always would appreciate his association. And then I stayed in India and he went back to the West. But then he had some trouble with the US temple presidents and at that time, he said, “What do you want me to do? Go to China or something?” Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Kṛṣṇa has spoken through you, you must go to China!” So that is how our Chinese mission started. Although we were designing the Māyāpur temple, at that time we set up a design office at Raleigh, UK and Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami he was attending that office also. And some of his disciples were the architects and designers of that temple. Somehow, I was always having some association with him.

In 1978, I became an Indian citizen, and someone sponsored me my first round the world ticket. Then Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami also invited me to come and see him in Dallas and Houston. Beautiful Deities of Kālacandjī in Dallas. At that time there was a new center in Houston with a big hall. So Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, he always thought big. At that time, he took me out to the farm in Oklahoma, he had an idea to service a large farm community in Oklahoma. Then when he went to Cambridge to study his PhD, I lost my contact with him. But then when he got his PhD, he was attending the GBC meetings and coming to Māyāpur and he had become very gentle and he was encouraging everyone to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa together, to study the books of Lord Caitanya. But then someone started to mistreat him. He was like a lion but like a sleeping one. But then when they were mistreating him, he kind of flared up, don’t push me! It is like Śrīla Prabhupāda told the story about the cobra. That all the people were abusing the cobra because they thought the cobra was non-violent. Nārada Muni told him that you can show your hood. So like that Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami kind of showed his hood! But anyway, he was so much dedicated to serving Śrīla Prabhupāda. And I could never be at that level. But I am very fortunate to have had his association. I think all the devotees are very fortunate to have had the association of His Holiness Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami. So I don’t know what the format is, can I speak for ten more minutes? Is there any question and answer?

So as I said, he was the chairman of the MVT, Māyāpur Vṛndāvana Trust, and I am still a trustee of that. He was doing various services for Śrīla Prabhupāda. Like when Śrīla Prabhupāda was in Vṛndāvana, he would just raise his hand and Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami would immediately understand what he wanted. And Śrīla Prabhupāda would say that the first-class disciple knows what the guru wants even without the guru speaking. One time had the good fortune to be riding with Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami and Śrīla Prabhupāda on a train to attend the Kumbha-Melā. At that time, because he was in a train, he had prasādam in both hands and was eating. So he was sitting on the bed on the train and the other devotee was sitting on the ground across the aisle. It was a first-class train room with four berths. So Śrīla Prabhupāda was eating and Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, he was saying that, “In India they have all kinds of milk, buffalo milk, cow milk, do they have dog milk?” Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Ahhhh, that is not milk!”

I wanted to grow some things in Māyāpur so I asked permission from Śrīla Prabhupāda if I could do some agriculture. In my material life, my purva-āśrama uncle was an agriculturist. But Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami said, “Oh, he is a city boy, what does he know about agriculture!” But Śrīla Prabhupāda let me do some agriculture. Then I grew some tomatoes and radish. Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami he wanted to please Śrīla Prabhupāda very much. And his standard was very high. I appreciated very much, his commitment to Śrīla Prabhupāda. And he was very kind, to keep me by his side sometime. And he was one of the dearmost brothers that I had. And he told me that he had an accident in Ranaghat and that I should go and see him and I immediately went but he had already left. The doctor said that why you want to see him, he has already gone, go and see the other people. So I tried to help the others but they would not let Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami to go without doing a post mortem. We had no choice. So they did that. Then the people blocked the road and said he is a saint. We want to have his darśana before he goes and they would not leave. They sat down on the road. And so then we gave them a darśana of Tamāl Kṛṣṇa Goswami’s vapu. They paid obeisances and let him go.

In 1989 I was attached in Madrid. At that time I was in the hospital and Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, he came to see me I think with Śivarāma Mahārāja and at that time, of course when they operated on me they took my brāhmaṇa thread. And then I said to him I don’t have a brāhmaṇa thread. Then Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami he chanted on one and gave me. So few people have the brāhmaṇa thread from Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami. So, what time is it now? Any questions?

? Any special moment you shared with Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami?

Jayapatākā Swami: Always people ask me this kind of question. There is a bunch of memories that I have. I went to see him in Hong Kong and he had just made a book kind of prose book. So he was sharing that with me. One very sweet time was when he came back from Māyāpur after buying the land and he was just so happy that he had done what Śrīla Prabhupāda had requested him. And that way he was very expert. Sometimes he would have us all discussing Lord Caitanya or Lord Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes and then chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa. He gave us hats made in China, that was worn by all the devotees on the parikramā. Someone had a vision that he was taken back by Śrīla Prabhupāda. He was a very intelligent person. Another question?

Question: Can you share one of the qualities of Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami that was very dear to Śrīla Prabhupāda and how can we inspire to obtain such qualities?

Jayapatākā Swami: He was very dedicated to pleasing his spiritual master. And although Śrīla Prabhupāda would sometimes set a very high standard for him, he was always surrendered to carry out his order and I know that is one of the most endearing qualities of him. Of course, he had so many qualities, his vision for preaching, his idea of making a community in Dallas, he had many different ideas. And his vision was very deep. But everything he was doing to please Śrīla Prabhupāda. Hare Kṛṣṇa! All glories to Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami!