Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj recounts Śrīla Kṛṣṇadās Bābājī Mahārāj’s appreciation for Śrīla Bhakti Rakṣak Śrīdhar Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj’s compositions.
Every composition of Śrīla Guru Mahārāj, every verse, is enriched with so much knowledge, devotion, realisation, and quality. At first we could not understand this fully; we could only partly understand. But Śrīla Kṛṣṇadās Bābājī Mahārāj was always praising Śrīla Guru Mahārāj’s verses. Actually, he spread Śrīla Guru Mahārāj’s verses all over the world. Praṇamāmi sadā Prabhupāda-padam: everyone knows these verses, though they may not know who composed them. Everyone in our sampradāya knows these verses, though they do not know that Śrīla Guru Mahārāj composed them.
Kṛṣṇadās Bābājī Mahārāj was learned, and he read and memorised so many of the Goswāmī’s writings. Yet he praised the verses of Śrīla Guru Mahārāj so much. One day Guru Mahārāj asked Kṛṣṇadās Bābājī Mahārāj, “When you come from Vṛndāvan to Nabadwīp, you stay in Māyāpur and you come to my Maṭh, but why do you go to Hāpāniyā every year? And why do you walk from there to the village where I went to school?”
Bābājī Mahārāj replied, “Because of your verses. Your verses have given me inspiration, and I feel that they are Rūpa Goswāmī Prabhu’s gift to you. You are enriched with Rūpa Goswāmī Prabhu’s conception, and your verses are nondifferent from Rūpa Goswāmī Prabhu’s verses.”
When I heard this, I was not so learned, but now I am a little more. And now I am realising and very happily tasting every verse of Guru Mahārāj. Very very happily I am tasting them. Before I was collecting flowers, but I was not realising how much quality and taste the flowers had. I was in the flower garden and quickly picking and putting so many verses into my bag. At that time I did not have so much realisation, but now I am realising everything about the writing, behaviour, and mood of Śrīla Guru Mahārāj. I am always thinking about that and very happily tasting it. When I was living with Guru Mahārāj, I did not understand his full divine form and activities. But now that Guru Mahārāj is far from our vision, I am feeling many things and tasting so many of his verses.
One who enjoys through Kṛṣṇa consciousness is a very fortunate soul.