“I Heard Heart’s Crying: Turning Badger Into Braj”
In the “First Disappearance Day” Anniversary Edition of The Rays of the Harmonist (2011), Pran Kishor Prabhu, one of Srila Gurudeva’s first Western siksa disciples, recalls Gurudeva’s first arrival in the US. He shares that Gurudeva explained that his guru maharaja, Srila Bhakti Prajñana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja, instructed him to preach in the West and that he had also promised Srila Prabhupada that he would do so. Now, the time had come to fulfill that promise. When Srila Gurudeva landed at LAX and greeted the devotees anxiously awaiting his arrival, he was “shining like the warm morning sun.” Devotees were weeping and laughing. Sripada Gaur Govinda Maharaja had predicted just a few years earlier that a prema-yuga would begin in 1996, and, as Pran Kishor states, a “massive flood of bhakti enveloped the planet again” as Srila Gurudeva began his world travels, which would go on continuously for fifteen years until Srila Gurudeva’s departure from this world in 2010.
Floods of tears poured from the eyes and hearts of the devotees wherever Gurudeva visited. Again and again, Gurudeva would melt hearts, and, as he would say, he would then keep those hearts in his “pocket” to offer to Sri Sri Radha and Krsna and his Guruvarga. After hearing Gurudeva speak harikatha for just a few days, devotees would become completely transformed. Pran Kishor Prabhu remembers watching these transformations and seeing “grown men and women, Godbrothers and Godsisters, stand before Gurudeva, weep uncontrollably, and fall at his feet.” “Only a resident of Vraja, a parikara of Sri Radha, and an intimate associate of Sri Rupa,” he writes, “could perform such magic on the hearts of devotees everywhere.”
Srila Gurudeva visited Badger, CA, for the first time in June of 1996. While Gurudeva’s completely miraculous visits to Badger were surely destined to occur by his will and great mercy, the Badger devotees were hesitant to invite him. Learning that Srila Gurudeva was coming to the West, some unfavorable persons spread propaganda that Gurudeva was against Srila Prabhupada and that no one should see him or hear from him. Feeling concerned, the Badger devotees held a conference to decide whether it was wise to bring Srila Gurudeva to our small community. Finally, Gopa Vrndapal Prabhu famously declared that there is “no problem”: “He will come for a few days, he’ll speak, he’ll leave, and everything will go back to normal.” This declaration quickly became a joke amongst the devotees, repeated year after year with each of Gurudeva’s visits, for nothing could be further from the truth. Laughing, Srila Gurudeva would himself state: “Srila Prabhupada turned hippies into happies, and I have turned Badger into Braj.” Each year, when he arrived, he would ask the devotees, “Why have you called me here?” After hearing many answers, Gurudeva stated that he came because “he heard hearts crying.” Gurudeva exhibited such astounding mercy that, with great difficulty and in his old age, he came here to this mountain town, reachable only through long winding roads, every year. The life of the devotees in New Braj soon centered completely around Srila Gurudeva’s annual visit. He melted the aching hearts of all with his presence, his harikatha, his loving glances. By his mercy, he brought the mood of Braj wherever he went.