sri sri guru gauranga jayatah!
Year 4, Issue 2, Amāvasyā Special Edition
Posted: 2 March 2022
Dedicated to and Inspired by
nitya-lila pravista om visnupada
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
The Effect of Hearing in the Dhāma
A letter by
Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Māhārāja
Appearing in English for the first time
Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅgau Jayataḥ
Śrī Keśavajī Gauḍīya Maṭha
P.O. Mathurā (U.P.)
11 August, 1977
Mā Umā, I received your letter dated 9 August, 1977 and became happy to know all the news. At the time of Ratha-yātrā, you went to Śrī Dhāma Navadvīpa, taking your mother with you, and there you attained the opportunity to hear hari-kathā from prominent Vaiṣṇavas such as pūjyapāda Vāmana Mahārāja. It is indeed very rare to receive such opportunity. On top of that, to have the opportunity to hear Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛtam from the lips of pūjyapāda Trivikrama Mahārāja is also not a matter of less fortune. Despite this, your hankering for śravaṇa has not been satiated. This is astonishing. It seems that a little fruit resulting from the boon Śrī Nārada Gosvāmī prayed for towards the end of the second volume of Bṛhad-bhāgavatāmṛtam can be observed in you. He had implored Bhagavān, “May no one ever become satiated by hearing Your kathā.”
If possible, from time to time, you should visit Śrī Vraja-maṇḍala, Śrī Gaura-maṇḍala and Śrī Kṣetra-maṇḍala, that is, Śrī Vṛndāvana, Śrī Navadvīpa and Śrī Purī-dhāma respectively, under the guidance of guru and Vaiṣṇavas. By hearing – in those places – the pastimes and narrations of Śrī Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa, Śrī Gaurasundara, and those of Their associates, the heart becomes pure and soft, and thereafter pure bhakti manifest [in the heart]. You have a desire to come to Vraja. By the mercy of Śrī Hari, guru and Vaiṣṇavas, that opportunity will manifest easily. Here, we residents of the maṭha, in one way, are well. Send news of your well-being from time to time. How is [Gārgī] Dīdī [Umā Dīdī’s sister] and your mother? Convey my daṇḍavat-praṇāmasto the Vaiṣṇavas and Vaiṣṇavīs there. Accept my affectionate blessings. Thus I conclude.
Your ever well-wisher
Śrī Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa
