Paying due honor to an Acārya
I once invited Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Swāmī Mahārāja to visit Śrī Caitanya Gauḍīya Maṭha in Chandigarh while he was visiting the ISKCON temple there. He graciously accepted my invitation and arrived at the maṭha on the scheduled day. During his visit, my godbrother Śrī Rāma-prasāda Prabhu offered him a new wooden vyāsāsana, which he had constructed and carved with his own hands. Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Svāmī Mahārāja, however, refused to sit on it. He explained, “A new siṁhāsana must first be offered to and used by the maṭha’s ācārya.”
That day, we served Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Svāmī Mahārāja and his disciples prasāda. He very lovingly honored prasāda, and later appreciatively told us, “Today, after so long, I have honored the type of prasāda I am used to honoring. My disciples cook many preparations for me, but there is a big difference between
their way of cooking and ours. They use large amounts of ghee, which I cannot digest. I would probably stay in this world longer if I were to regularly receive the type of prasāda we honored here in the maṭha today.”
Later, when Guru Mahārāja (Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Goswami Maharaja) came to Chandigarh, he too declined Śrī Rāmaprasād Prabhu’s request to accept the vyāsāsana he had made for Śrīla Svāmī Mahārāja. He said, “How could I sit on it if my godbrother refused to do so?
According to my godbrother ’s words—‘Only the ācārya of the maṭha should sit on a new siṁhāsana’—I will place my gurudeva on it, for he is the true ācārya of this maṭha.”
Thereafter, Guru Mahārāja kept a portrait of Prabhupāda ( Śrīla Bhakti Siddhant Saraswati Thakur) on the vyāsāsana.
- Sri Srimad Bhakti Vijnan Bharti Goswami Maharaj ( From My Beloved Masters)