Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj explains the second verse of Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛta.
Śrīla Janārdan Mahārāj: In Prapanna-jīvanāmṛta, Śrīla Guru Mahārāj has a Sanskrit prayer in which he described Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Saraswatī as the Deity of kīrtan.
Śrīla Govinda Mahārāj: Yes. That is a very nice verse.
gaura-vāg-vigrahaṁ vande gaurāṅgaṁ gaura-vaibhavam
gaura-saṅkīrtanonmattaṁ gaura-kāruṇya-sundaram
(Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam: 1.2)
What kind of ecstasy is inside of this verse? Kṛṣṇa Dās Bābājī Mahārāj was very much attracted to it. He knows all the ślokas of Rūpa Goswāmī, Sanātan Goswāmī, Kṛṣṇa Dās Kavirāj Goswāmī, and Jīva Goswāmī. He knows many things. He was vastly learned in the scriptures, but he could not forget Guru Mahārāj’s verse. Every Ekādaśī, he would come to our Maṭh, and the whole night he would chant the verses of Śrīla Guru Mahārāj. He had memorised them all, and without any book, he would chant them all night. He would start by chanting the glories of Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur with this verse. Here, Śrīla Guru Mahārāj said,
gaura-vāg-vigrahaṁ vande gaurāṅgaṁ gaura-vaibhavam
gaura-saṅkīrtanonmattaṁ gaura-kāruṇya-sundaram
(Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam: 1.2)
Gaura-vāg-vigrahaṁ: You are the form of Mahāprabhu’s preaching; that transcendental vibration has taken the form of a person, and he is Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur. Gaurāṅgaṁ: Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur looks like Mahāprabhu. Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur was very tall and golden, and Mahāprabhu was also tall and golden. They both were golden. Śrīla Guru Mahārāj was also golden. Gaura-vaibhavam: Mahāprabhu is his only wealth, and he is the wealth of Mahāprabhu. The meaning goes both ways. Gaura-saṅkīrtanonmattam: he is ecstatically mad to engage in the saṅkīrtan of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu, and Gaura-kāruṇya-sundaram: all the beautiful mercy of Chaitanya Mahāprabhu took form as Śrīla Saraswatī Ṭhākur. This is the meaning of the praṇām mantra.
Reference
Spoken 7 June 1993.
Note
gaura-vāg-vigrahaṁ vande gaurāṅgaṁ gaura-vaibhavam
gaura-saṅkīrtanonmattaṁ gaura-kāruṇya-sundaram
(Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛtam: 1.2)
In the Bengali edition of Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛta, a comment follows the translation of this: “Vividha-vyākhyā sambhava: various explanations are possible.” In this lecture of Śrīla Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāj, we find illumination of this.
The verse is translated in the English edition of Śrī Śrī Prapann-jīvanāmṛta as follows:
“I make my obeisance unto the Deity, Gaura-Saraswatī—the personified message of the Golden Lord Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu—whose bodily lustre is of a beautiful golden hue, like that of the selfsame Lord Gaurasundar; who is the personal expansion of that Supreme Lord Gaurahari; who is always intoxicated by preaching the message of that golden Lord; and whose divine beauty blooms in the revelation of Lord Gaurāṅga’s mercy potency.”
A minimalistic translation of the rendering of the verse in the Bengali edition of Śrī Śrī Prapanna-jīvanāmṛta reads as follows:
“I offer my obeisance to the divine embodiment of the message of Śrī Gaura, whose figure resembles Śrī Gaurasundar, who is a bodily expansion of Gaurahari, who is always maddened by the saṅkīrtan prescribed by Śrī Gaura, and whom the manifestation of Śrī Gaurāṅga’s mercy-potency has made supremely beautiful.”
A minimalistic translation of the verse itself reads as follows:
“I offer my obeisance to the embodiment of the message of Śrī Gaura, whose figure resembles Śrī Gaura, who is a manifestation of Śrī Gaura, who is maddened by the saṅkīrtan of Śrī Gaura, and who is the beauty of the mercy of Śrī Gaura.”