Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj recounts the glories of Śrīpād Ajita Kṛṣṇa Brahmachārī.
The following is an English translation of the article Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj wrote in honour of the passing of Śrīpād Ajita Kṛṣṇa Prabhu Seva Saurabh. It was first published in Śrī Gauḍīya Darśan in Volume 14, Issue 4, on Sunday, 19 September 1971.
Śrīpād Ajita Kṛṣṇa Prabhu reaches the dust of the Holy Dhām
Last Wednesday, 30 June 1971, the Maṭh’s distinguished servitor—the best of Śrī Guru Pāda-padma’s single-minded servitors—the ever-smiling Śrīpād Ajita Kṛṣṇa Brahmachārī Sevā Saurabh Prabhu suddenly left for his abode and immersed us all in an ocean of separation. Today it is painful to even think that this courageous, enthusiastic, resolute, tolerant, and single-minded servant of Śrī Guru, Śrīpād Sevā Saurabh Prabhu, who was a tireless worker and determined to make the impossible possible, is no longer externally present amongst us. His extraordinary qualities and extremely sweet behaviour equally attracted everyone, even if they were unacquainted with him, be they residents of the Maṭh, householders, sannyāsīs, or townspeople. Thus everyone is heartbroken and overwhelmed by separation from him.
His endeavours to serve were so extraordinary and broad that all the servants of the Maṭh would get inspiration to perform their own services with more enthusiasm and natural satisfaction when they saw him covering and completing all of his services. Everywhere—whether on parikramā in Śrī Nabadwīp Dhām, in Vṛndāvan, in Dvārakā, in Haridvār, in Ayodhyā, in any other place in North India, in South India, or in Śrī Kedār Badarīk Āśram—his service and companionship were completely indispensable. There was no place for even a moment of rest on the garland of his service and duties. Over the course of all his prolonged and extremely laborious service, no one would ever see him lay down to rest on a bed during a break time. Such was his enthusiasm for service. He was the ideal servitor: he engaged in service twenty-four hours a day, every day.
Almost twenty years ago today Śrīpad Ajita Kṛṣṇa Prabhu joined Śrī Chaitanya Sāraswat Maṭh Nabadwīp.
Prior to that, he frequented many Maṭhs enquiring about spiritual life. Not finding satisfaction anywhere, he at last came at the request his Vartma-pradaśak-guru Śrīyukta Satyacharaṇ Ghaṭak Mahāśay—a long-time servitor of Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭh—to the holy lotus feet of our Maṭh’s Āchārya, the supremely worshippable Parivrājakāchārya-varya Om Viṣṇupād Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Raksāk Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj, accepted Śrī Hari-nām and gāyatrī-dīkṣā from him, and dedicated his heart to the service of Śrī Guru with great satisfaction.
His name in his previous āśram was Śrī Adhīrachandra Majumadār. His only tie [at that time] was his mother. (She also later accepted initiation from Śrī Guru Pāda-padma.) Although he externally conducted himself like a householder as long as his mother lived, because there was no one to look after her, he never slackened his service to Śrī Guru and Śrī Gaurāṅga. Even during his life as an employee of Bengal Immunity Co. Ltd., everyone knew of his exalted reputation and good name. Not only was he elected a ‘selected member’ of the said company’s ‘watch committee’ on account of his honesty and efficiency, but after his mother’s death, even after he resigned from his employment, offered all of his wealth at the feet of Śrī Guru, and embraced a life of constant service to the Lord in the Maṭh, many of his friends and relatives, who were enamoured by his qualities, frequented the Maṭh desiring to met with him and eventually took shelter of the Maṭh as a result of his association. Furthermore, the said company also behaved extremely respectfully towards him [even after he resigned].
Although his detached household life was one of abundant affluence and furnishings, his service life in the Maṭh was filled with service-based austerity, renunciation, unostentatiousness, and deep attachment to Śrī Guru and Śrī Gaurāṅga. Although his destiny was to leave in Kedār Badarīk Āśram this year, he reversed this on the strength of his service, returned from there, and performed his Pastime of departing in Śrī Gaura Dhām, which he always cherished; souls with deep vision are praising his disappearance Pastime in this way.
When we think of his grand departure from the midst of Śrī Guru and Śrī Gaurāṅga, Śrī Gaura Dhām, and Śrī Gaṅgā, and above all, his leaving one service to immediately engage himself in another, as the limit of his fortune cannot be ascertained, so we are not able to estimate our misfortune in being deprived of the great association of this exalted soul. “Svatantra Kṛṣṇera ichchhā ha-ila saṅga bhaṅga: Kṛṣṇa’s independent will has broken that association” (Cc: Antya, 11.92). Although Śrīpād Sevā Saurabh Prabhu is not personally in our midst today, we make only the small prayer at the feet of Śrī Guru and Śrī Gaurāṅga that the Lord does not deprive us of his association eternally.