Bauri Giri’s daughter Pata Devi was very devoted to Gopal. From her early childhood she would come to see Gopal every day. Every morning she would sweep Gopal’s temple, make garlands, and cook for Him. Pata Devi married Ishwara Manik from the nearby village of Jagannathpur. Like the Giri family, Ishwara Manik was also in the business of selling bell metal. Ishwara and Pata had two sons, named Braja-bandhu and Kripa-sindhu, and one daughter named Svadhuri Devi. Their eldest son, Braja-bandhu, born on 2 September 1929, was later to be known as Srila Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja. Being married did not detract from Pata Devi’s devotion to Gopal. Although living 14 kilometers away in Jagannathpur, she always managed to come during festival times to serve Gopal. Pata Devi was always quiet and absorbed in serving her husband and children – every Saturday she would fast as an offering for their well-being. Each morning she would worship Lord Jagannath and recite from the Purāṇas and Bhagavad-gītā. Every evening she chanted Hare Krishna and performed tulasī-parikramā with her husband and her son Braja-bandhu. After parikramā she would recite Śrīmad- Bhāgavatam. Any beggar or sādhu that came to her house never went away empty-handed.
Once a famous blind astrologer named Nityananda Khadiratna traveled from Dhenkanal and stayed two days in Gadeigiri. At that time Braja-bandhu was a small child and he and his mother were staying at his uncle’s house in Gadeigiri. Pata Devi took her son to the astrologer, desiring to know something about his future. The astrologer said, ‘’This boy is very intelligent and is full of devotion. He will be married and get government service. In his middle age he will give up family life and become a sādhu. He will acquire high knowledge and an important place on the map of sādhus. He will build temples. He will make Gopal’s place bright. Lastly the astrologer said that God Himself has sent this child from His abode to the material world for preaching His message and for the deliverance of the conditioned souls.
Attachment to the Bhāgavatam
Pata Devi was eager that her Braja-bandhu would become a devotee of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and she became very happy seeing that by her influence her eldest son was developing such attachment. By the age of eigh Braja-bandhu had read the entire Bhagavad-gītā, Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and he could also explain their meanings. At night many villagers would come to hear his recitation of the Oriya Bhāgavata, Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata. However, young Braja-bandhu was particularly attached to the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. His old friend Fakir Charan Das recounts:
Srila Gurudeva once told me that whenever as a young boy he would became naught and not stop crying, his mother would simply put the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in his hands and he would stop. He was so much inclined to read the Bhāgavatam that if he would forget to take his meal. The family was too poor to offerd candles or a lamp for reading, so in the evening he would sit close to his mother’s cooking fire and read Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. At night he would go to sleep clutching the Bhāgavatam to his chest.
From 1942 to 1945 Braja-bandhu stayed in Gadeigiri with his maternal uncles Gopinath and Jagannath Giri and he attended high school in nearby Balikuda. Gopinath and Jagannath Giri were both fond of performing kīrtana. They would regularly go out to chant in the neighboring area, and it was not uncommon for them to travel to distant villages for chanting. Often they would perform nonstop kīrtan for one or two days at a time. They were very fond of singing traditional Orissan songs of Krishna’s pastimes as well as the songs of Srila Narottama Das Thakur. Whenever possible, young Braja-bandhu would chant with them, and by their association he became deeply attached to peforming kīrtana.
Although Braja-bandhu would often engage in kīrtana with his uncles, still he did not neglect his school studies. During the day Braja-bandhu would engage in study, in the evening he would join kīrtana, then in the early morning he would come back to Gopal’s temple to render service. Young Braja-bandhu was quiet and serious child. He did not engage in play with the other children and he showed no interest in cinema or mundane theater. Whatever free time he had after completing his studies he would spend doing kīrtana with his uncles or in rendering various services to Gopal. Braja-bandhu would clean Gopal’s temple, pick flowers for His worship, make garlands, and recite verses and songs for Gopal’s pleasure. He would never take any food that was not offered to Gopal. As a child he was not interested in sleep and would only rest for three or four hours a night, a habit he maintained his whole life.
Ghanashyam Giri was taking care of Gopal’s worship. Braja-bandhu would come and together they would perform kīrtana and render service to Gopal. Damodar Giri was a good singer and was expert in kīrtana. He was working in Bengal, but whenever he got the opportunity he would come to Gopal to perform kīrtana. These three, Ghanashyam Giri, Damodar Giri and Braja-bandhu often sat together and performed kīrtana.
Household life
In 1952, on the request of his mother, Braja-bandhu entered household life. He first met his wife, Srimati Vasanti Devi, during their marriage ceremony. Family members recall how during the wedding ceremony while everyone was enjoying the festivities Braja-bandhu was sitting sadly by himself quietly chanting Hare Krishna. He considered family life a material entanglement and an impediment to his service to Gopal. He never wanted to marry.
Braja-bandhu’s father passed away in 1955, and as the eldest son he became responsible for maintaining the family. Owing to financial constraints he could not enroll formally in University courses, but he studied privately at night to attend the examination, obtaining a B.A. degree from Utkal University with overall second highest marks on the exam. He later obtained government service as a schoolteacher.
During the course of the next nineteen years Braja-bandhu and Vasanti Devi had four sons and three daughters. Despite many family responsibilities, Braja-bandhu’s devotion to Gopal never slackened. He would rise daily at 3:30 A.M., chant the Hare Krishna mahā-mantra, worship tulasī, and speak to his family from Bhagavad-gītā. In school he took every opportunity to speak to his students about Krishna and devotional principles. Thirty years later some of those same students would become his disciples. During school breaks he would take his wife and travel to the Himalayan Mountains, visiting different tirthas and āśramas, and he would sometimes engage in philosophical debates with the māyāvādīs he found there.
‘’Please Give Me Prema’’
Throughout his life he wrote daily entries in his diary. For the most part these were in the form of letters to Gopal. Each entry would begin, prabhu gopāla kṛparu, kona si mate dinoti koti gala – ‘’By the mercy of Prabhu Gopal, this day was spent thus…’’ Then entries would end with a prayer to Gopal, ‘’Please give me prema-bhakti, ecstatic love of God.’’
A sample, from 1 October 1973:
On account of the Durga-puja festival, school will be closed for some time. It will be reopened on Thursday 18 October 1973. Today I saw a picture of Sri Chaitanya in Banambara’s shop. In that picture I saw Mahaprabhu clutching the feet of the prema-maya-yugala- mūrti, the divine loving coulple.
Sri Chaitanya Dev started chanting divya-prema-nāma, Krishna’s divine ecstatic names. He rejected śuṣka-jñāna, dry knowledge. He preached divya-nāma-prema. He gave nāma-prema to all indiscriminately. Prema-taraṅga, the waves of prema, spread everywhere. Wherever He was going, prema was following. Even the very hard-hearted got a touch of that prema and their hearts were changed. This is the wonderful power of prema! By seeing that picture of Sri Chaitanya Dev I got a sparśa, a touch of that prema. How can I get a picture of that Sri Caitanya Dev? By seeing His picture i’ll get a touch of prema and from prema I’ll get wonderful inspiration and bliss. Then I can give bliss to others. Prabhu Gopal, please shower this mercy on me! Give me shelter at the prema-kuṭīr of Srila Premanandaji! I must drown in that divya-prema and, giving prema to others, pacify the fire in their hearts!
From 9 October 1973:
By the mercy of Prabhu Gopal, on the last two days our Gītā recitation program was finished here in my iṣṭā-deva’s [Gopal’s] temple. Prabhu Sri Gopal, O you who are known as Premānanda, as prema-maya-puruṣa, as vṛndāvana bihārī, and as rādhā-kānta! By your mercy this Gitā program was finished with ānanda and prema. Prabhu, may Your place be joyful! May prema and ānanda, love and bliss, be distributed! Make me Your servitor! Give me and opportunity to distribute that prema and ānanda! Don’t cheat me! Because You are antaryāmī-nātha, the Lord of my heart, You know my desire. And I am begging that from You! Please give me that prema and ānanda! Let me get it and let me distribute it!
The 1973 entries frequently mention his desire to renounce family life. From 10 October:
Today there was a mahotsava, a festival. Prasādam was distributed and bala-gopāl-līlā, Your childhood pastimes, were recited. Prabhu Gopal, for a long time I have had a desire to hear songs of māna-bhañjana-līlā, stories of how Krishna breaks the sulkiness of Srimati Radharani. Prema-mayi Radharani had developed abhimān, loving pride, and Krishna was experiencing intense viraha-kātara, pangs of separation, because Radha would not permit Him to see Her. Therefor there was an need for māna-bhañjana. Today, by the mercy of Prabhu, it happened. Vṛndāvana-bihārī, Krishna, became rādhā-prema-bhikārī, a beggar of Radha’s love. My Gopal dressed up like a sannyāsī to beg prema-dhana from Radharani.
O prabhu Gopal, please make me a yogī, sannyāsī like that! I don’t need anything, Prabhu. I am not asking You for material opulence, respect, glory or anything else. You may give those things to my younger brother Kripa-sindhu. Let him maintain Your family. Make me a saṁsāra-vairāgī-yogī, a renunciate of family life. Let me beg that prema-dhana, that wealth of love of Godhead! Let me distribute prema and ānanda! Let me serve you! Please shower this mercy on me, Prabhu! Please bless me with prema-bhakti, ecstatic love for You!
Leaving home
Out of respect to his mother, he spent twenty-two years in household life. At the age of forty-five, on 10 April 1974, at the end of the school year, he completed his routine teaching duties and then gave a letter to Prabhlad Mahanty, the headmaster of the Bunbihari High School in Kujanga:
Sir,
Respectfully I beg to state that I am leaving Kujang tomorrow on 11/4/74 (moning) to start my divya yātrā for Guru Dham, Rishikesh. This is for your kind information and necessary action.
Your faithfully,
Brajbandhu Manik,
Assistant Master
10/4/74
Leaving the school, he went home. He did not say anything to his family, but he packed his Bhagavad-gītā, two gāmuchās, a pen, a pencil, and one notebook. That night, while his family was sleeping, he quietly got up at midnight and walked a half-mile away to a nearby temple known as Kakudia Math. He had decided to become a sannyāsī, a wandering mendicant, entrusting the care of his family to his eldest son Vijay, aged 19. His diciple Svayambhu Das, then known as Subhas, was attending the same high school in Kujanga. He recalls:
I heard that Gurudeva had left his family life and his position as a teacher and had gone to the Kakudia Math. The day after he left home I went to Kakudia Math to see him. When I arrived he was sitting and looking at a picture of Gopal and singing over and over again, ‘’Gopala, Gopala, Gopala, Gopala, Gopala, Gopala, Gopala.’’ In the afternoon a group of teachers and students from the high school arrived to meet him. They were stunned by his sudden renunciation. They asked him, ‘’Why have you left your job and your home?’’ Gurudeva then asked me to recide Manabodha-cautiśa, ‘’instructions to the Mind’’, a song by the Oriya Vaishnava Bhakta Charan Das:
Kaha-i mana āre mo bolo kara
Kaļāśrī bare dekhiba cālare
Kete dinaku mana bāndhuchu āņṭa
Ki ghenijibu tora chuṭile ghaṭare
Khaņdi je Khaņdi tora panjarā kāṭhi
Khāuņa thibe śvāna śŕga śṛgāla bāṅṭire
khaṭ palaņke mana sejāi śou
Khaļa durgandha heba e tora dehure
galeņi to saņgaru jeteka jana
gaņthire bānddhinele ke kete dhanare
guru gobinda nāma tuṇḍe nabolu
gāḍe majjīņa nitye dhana arjilure
gharaboli arjichu jete padārtha
ghaṭa chuṭile tote bolibe bhụtareg
ghara gharaņīdhe kiļāuthibe
gheni bandhu kuṭumba śuddha hoibere
I say to you, O mind: Obey my order!
Let us go and see the beautiful black-faced one [Lord Jagannath]!
For how long will you remain bound in material life?
At the end of your life, what will you take with you?
Piece by piece your ribs will be distributed
Amongst the dogs and jackals.
O mind, you are now sleeping comfortably on a nice mattress,
But after death your body will give off a terrible smell.
How many of your friends and family have already died?
How much of their wealth could they bind in a cloth to take with them?
You have never uttered the names of guru and Govinda!
Always deeply absorbed in thinking how to gather wealth,
You are acquiring so many things like house and family!
But when your life is gone, all will cry, ‘’Ghost!’’
The ladies of the house will close up the doors.
And only after the recommended period of purification will your relatives be considered freed from contamination.
Gurudeva was listening intently to the song. When I came to the last line he fainted and fell back unconscious against me. Seeing that his jaw was clenched tightly shut, I took a piece of bamboo and pried open his mouth. When the teachers saw him faint in this way, they became convinced that Gurudeva was no ordinary person and that he was truly qualified to leave home and take to spiritual life. The students, however wanted him to return. Seeing the mood amongst the students, I told them, ‘’Now he is unconscious. We can easily take him back to his home. Go and get a motor rickshaw.’’ As soon as they left I carried Gurudeva away where they could not find him. Later we came back to the maṭhā. That evening Gurudeva’s wife Srimati Vasanti Devi came. Gurudeva had her sleep inside the room while he and I slept outside on top of some coconut palm leaves. In the morning I pointed out to Gurudeva how there was an imprint on his body from the leaves. He said, ‘’Yes, renounced life is like this.’’ His wife was unable to convince him to return, and he sent her back home that morning. He stayed there at Kakudia Math for five or six days, during which time he called for his younger brother Kripa-sindhu and asked him to take care of his family. Then he left Kakudia Math and walked 14 kilometers to Gadeigiri to request Gopal’s permission to take sannyāsa.
Leaving his old life behind, Braja-bandhu took on a new name, ‘’Gour Gopal’’. ‘’Gour’’ for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who is known as Lord Gauranga, and ‘’Gopal’’ after his beloved childhood deity.
Ghanashyam Giri was in Gadeigiri when Gour Gopal arrived. He recalls:
He arrived at Gopal’s temple about 2:00 p.m. Generally Gopal’s ārati begins at 12:00 noon and by 2:00 p.m. the ārati is finished and everyone has taken prasādam. Somehow on that day the key was lost and Gopal’s service was delayed. When Gurudeva arrived, the ārati was just beginning. I think that Gopal made this arrangement so that He would be able to see His dear devotee.
After the noon ārati Gour Gopal read Bhagavad-gītā and Rāma-carita-mānasā to the devotees. When he came to the pastimes of Lord Rama leaving for the forest, Gour Gopal held the cloth around his neck in the manner of a sannyāsī begging alms. With a choked vocie he sang the following verse where Lord Ramachandra says: ‘’Vane gale muhiń munī-jane sāthaka koribi prāņa – If I go to the forest I will meet so many sādhus and thereby fulfill my life’s desire.
After the discussion, Gopal’s evening ārati started. Braja-bandhu’s cousin Damodar Giri began to lead kīrtan and Gour Gopal requested him to sing Daśāvatāra-stotra by the Oriya poet Jayadeva Goswami. Following the ārati, Gour Gopal requested the devotees, ‘’You should always sing this song for Gopal and remain Krishna conscious. Otherwise your life will have no value.’’ Hearing that Braja-bandhu was leaving family life, many villagers, including family members and old friends of Braja-bandhu, came to the temple that evening. Everyone requested him to go back to his wife and family in Jagannathpur. But one old friend of Braja-bandhu named Satyananda Kandi spoke up in his support, saying, ‘’You should let him go. If someone has tasted nectar, how will he be satisfied with water?’’
That night Gour Gopal laid down to take rest in Gopal’s temple. At the last part of the night Gour Gopal woke up one of the devotees and told him, ‘’I have recieved Gopal’s order. I’ll be a sannyās.’’ As he was leaving in the morning, all of his old friends and family members again came to see him. Gour Gopal told Damodar Giri to sing Țīkā Govinda-candra:
Bolu ki nā rāma- nāmare govinda, bhaju ki nā rāma- nāma
Bhaji na pārile kulacandramā re, bāndineba kālayama
Sehi kālayama baḍa nidāruņa
Not speaking the names of Rama and Govinda, not performing bhajan of rāma-nāma, if we cannot worship You, O moon of the living entities, then we will be bound up by the god of death. That binding of the god of death is very painful.
Gour Gopal then told the devotees, ‘’I am going. I will send you a letter and you should please reply. All the devotees here are great kīrtanīyas. Always do kīrtan for Gopal, Take care of Gopal. Gopal is the son of Nanda Maharaj. He should not stay like this [the devotees there were worshiping Him in a humble way]. We will all cooperate together to help maintain and develop Gopal’s place.’’