[October 2, 2019 is the appearance day of Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Pramoda Purī Gosvāmī Mahārāja in Vṛndāvana, India. Below is an excerpt of his glories from 'My Beloved Masters' by Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Vijñāna Bhāratī Gosvāmī Mahārāja]
UNPARALLELED SERVICE TO ŚRĪLA PRABHUPĀDA'S BRHAD-MRDANGA
In 1922, at the age of twenty-four, Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Pramoda Purī Gosvāmī Mahārāja (then Śrī Prāṇavānanda Brahmacārī) accepted complete shelter at the lotus feet of Śrīla Prabhupāda on the most auspicious day of Śrī Kṛṣṇa Janmāṣṭamī. On that day, he accepted both harināma and dīkṣā initiations and engaged himself exclusively in the service of the maṭha. Previously, he had been a science student who later switched to studying the arts. After finishing his secondary schooling and receiving his Indian School Certificate, he went on to study the arts at the university level and acquired a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Knowing Śrī Prāṇavānanda Brahmacārī to be well educated, Śrīla Prabhupāda called him near and said, “I desire to publish a daily spiritual newspaper titled Dainika Nadiyā Prakāśa, and I want you to be its editor.”
Śrī Prāṇavānanda Brahmacārī asked Śrīla Prabhupāda, “What are the duties of an editor?”
Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “When you begin your service and start publishing the newspaper, you will automatically understand what must be done. When a devotee accepts the responsibility of performing a service with the intention of pleasing Śrī Hari, guru and Vaiṣṇavas, then they themselves reveal all the necessary knowledge to him and invest him with the required competence to properly perform that service. There is no need to externally advise or instruct him on what must be done.”
Under the editorship of Śrī Prāṇavānanda Brahmacārī, Dainika Nadīyā Prakāśa preserved and broadcasted the teachings of Śrīla Prabhupāda, and when it was distributed among the masses, it illuminated the whole world with its literary and spiritual excellence. Contemporary scholars were baffled that someone was publishing a spiritual newspaper, and that too on a daily basis.
I heard the following instance from the lotus mouth of Śrīla Purī Gosvāmī Mahārāja himself.
Once, while speaking with Śrīla Prabhupāda at Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha in Bāgbāzār, Kolkata, Śrī Madana-mohana Malaviya, the founder of the world- famous Banaras Hindu University in Vārāṇasī, Uttar Pradesh, with great astonishment asked him, “For how long will you be able to run this Dainika Nadīyā Prakāśa? From where will you obtain the great number of spiritual articles needed to keep it in print every day?”
Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “Your astonishment pales in comparison to the astonishment I feel in seeing that you, a person regarded as foremost among the best scholars of India, is expressing wonder about these concerns. This material creation is merely the reflection of a quarter of the transcendental creation.
“Across the globe, countless newspapers are published every day in different languages, and this earth planet is only one part of the fourteen-fold planetary system, which belongs to just one of the innumerable brahmāṇḍas in the material creation. Despite the mundanity of the articles in these newspapers, everyone feels they are ever-fresh. Therefore, why would you be astonished about the daily publishing of but one newspaper, the Dainika Nadīyā Prakāśa, which focuses on the transcendental spiritual world? In fact, we have enough transcendental content about the spiritual realm to publish numerous daily newspapers for all eternity.”
For approximately seventy-five years of his life— from the time Śrīla Prabhupāda was physically present until well after Śrīla Prabhupāda’s departure— Śrīla Purī Gosvāmī Mahārāja experienced great internal bliss in his persistent and enthusiastic service of Śrīla Prabhupāda’s bṛhad-mṛdaṅga, his printing press.
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