Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj describes the joy of the Śrī Gaura Pūrṇimā festival.
Translated from the original Bengali editorial
published in Śrī Gauḍīya Darśan,
Volume 8, Issue 8, Tuesday, 12 March 1963.
To read the Bengali text, view this year’s Śrī Gaura Pūrṇimā edition of Śrī Gauḍīya Darśan [PDF 2.9 mb].
This year again, as in previous years, a grand festival organised by Śrī Chaitanya Sāraswat Maṭh for Śrī Śrī Nabadwīp Dhām Parikramā and Śrī Gaura Jayantī was observed with great pomp. With the auspicious visits of Āchāryas and devotees from various places in India, this grand annual festival in Śrī Dhām Nabadwīp produces great spiritual inspiration and enthusiasm. How the world is now becoming attracted to Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu is becoming evident by the joyful illustration of this grand Śrī Gaura Jayantī festival. In particular, in Kolkata this year also this festival was observed with great inspiration.
sarvatra prachāra ha-ibe mora nāma
Seeing that this prophecy of Śrīman Mahāprabhu is gradually being fulfilled, there is no limit to the devotees’ joy. Today we offer our obeisance with heartfelt admiration at the feet of Śrīla Prabhupād Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī Goswāmī, the great soul who appeared sometime ago in this world as Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s potency, pierced through the armour of Eastern and Western materialistic society, and spread Śrī Chaitanya’s message worldwide. He is the one who first sent envoys of the spiritual world [Vaikuṇṭha-dūtas]—tridaṇḍi-sannyāsīs—as messengers of Śrī Chaitanya from door to door in this world and arranged for the ultimate welfare of the souls sleeping in illusion. He is the one who grandly inaugurated the circumambulation of Gaura Dhām. Still today His followers, the Gauḍīya Matḥs’ Vaiṣṇava sannyāsīs, continue the worldwide campaign for Śrī Chaitanya’s message.
The path shown by Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu is the soul’s only way to good fortune.
nāhaṁ varṇī na cha gṛha-patir no vanastho yatir vā
kintu prodyan nikhila-paramānanda-pūrnāmṛtābdher
gopī-bhartuḥ pada-kamalayor dāsa-dāsānudāsaḥ
By establishing the soul’s one and only eternal identity with this verse, Śrī Chaitanya has accepted every soul. That we, the people of the world, have become attracted to Him is solely a result of His affection towards us.
Today, on this auspicious occasion, we are offer ourselves at the feet of Śrī Gaurahari and His associates with Śrīla Prabodhānandapād’s praṇām mantra, feeling most fortunate.
durdāntendriya-kāla-sarpa-paṭalī protkhāta-daṁṣṭrāyate
viśvaṁ pūrṇa-sukhāyate vidhi-mahendrādiś cha kīṭāyate
yat kāruṇya-kaṭākṣa-vaibhavavatāṁ taṁ gauram eva stumaḥ