Humans may be born in any place in the world but fortunate souls are always directed by the Supreme Lord to the place of ultimate eternal benefit. On 1st May 1908 (Bengali: 18 Vaishakh 1315), an effulgent Brahmin baby boy was born in the remote Durmuth village of Medinipur district (Kanthi area) located in West Bengal. His father, Padmalochan Sharma, mother, Srimati Rukmini Devi, and relatives named the baby Sarveshwar. Sarveshwar is a name of the Supreme Lord Krishna, which means the Lord of all Lords. When the baby was in Srimati Rukmini Devi’s womb, she used to see many pastimes of Sri Krishna in Vrindavan in her dreams; thus, they named the baby boy, Sarveshwar. Since childhood, Sarveshwar was simple, enthusiastic, and hardworking. He was inclined towards renunciation. All of the surrounding relatives inspired him to join Ramakrishna Mission’s Belur Math near Kolkata. Sarveshwar went to Belur Math and stayed for some time. He realized that the residents there were eating non-vegetarian foods. Therefore, Sarveshwar just left the Belur Math and continued his search for the spiritual path. When he was 18 years old, Sarveshwar decided to leave home and started for JagannathPuri Dham in order to search for a spiritual master. When he reached Jagannath Puri Dham, he stayed at the home of a priest of Lord Jagannath. One day, on the way back after taking bath in the ocean, Sarveshwar met with a sannyasi named Bhakti Prasun Bodhayan Goswami Maharaja and offered his obeisance. The sannyasi asked Sarveshwar about his background. Sarveshwar expressed that he was searching for a pure devotee of the Lord under whom he could take shelter. Srila Bodhayan Goswmi Maharaja immediately invited Sarveshwar to come to the Gaudiya Math located at Chatak Parvat, Jagannath Puri and meet Srila Prabhupada Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur. As soon as Sarveshwar saw Srila Prabhupada’s tall, golden, and grave form, Sarveshwar surrendered himself from the heart to Srila Prabhupada’s divine feet. In that same year in the year 1926 on GauraPurnima day, Srila Prabhupada gave him first and second initiations. He got the new name, Sarveshwar Das Brahmachari. After initiation, Srila Prabhupada looked at SarveshwarvBrahmachari’s nature and saw that he could be a good pujari. Therefore, Srila Prabhupada engaged Sarvaeshwar Brahmachari as a pujari for the deities at Sri Chaitanya Math (Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharvika Giridhari). Srila Prabhupada also engaged him in studying Sanskrit grammar through Jiva Goswami’s Harinamamrta Vyakarana, in the temple campus’ Sanskrit school. Sarveshwar Brahmachari’s focused on study and puja without wasting any time on excessive sleep or gossip. Seeing Sarveshwar Brahmachari’s inclinations and nature, Srila Prabhuapda engaged him in various services in different temples such as in Kolkata, Dhaka, Patna, Gaya, Kashi, Prayag, Kurukshetra, etc.
Once, the Gaudiya Math was invited to an International Religious Conference in Kolkata and Srila Prabhupada chose Sarveshwar Brahmachari to present the philosophy of the Gaudiya Math in that conference. Sarveshwar Brahmachari was not very much educated in terms of material academics. Thus, he felt fearful at the sight of such a heavy responsibility and was crying. He felt unqualified to represent the Gaudiya Math in that huge conference. He requested Srila Prabhupada’s personal servant, Sripad Krishnananda Prabhu, to request Prabhupada to engage someone who was more educated to attend the conference, such as Srila Bhakti Rakshak Sridhar Goswami, Srila Bhakti Hrdoy Bon Goswami, Sripad Atul Chandra Prabhu etc. As soon as Sripad Krishnananda Prabhu presented this message to Srila Prabhupada, Srila Prabhupada said, “Why is he crying? There can be no change. He should follow whatever I have said.” With eyes full of tears, Sarveshwar Brahmachari went to the conference. The next day, Srila Prabhupada was reading the newspaper and the headline read, “Glories of the Gaudiya Math.” Sarveshwar Brahmachari had so brilliantly presented the teachings of the Gaudiya Math. Srila Prabhupada called over all of the disciples who were surrounding him and said, “Look. He was crying and felt unqualified but now look at his qualification. Actually, we are all unqualified but we become qualified when we get the mercy of the guru parampara. We are not representing Mahaprabhu’s mission by our academic degrees. It is actually Mahaprabhu’s mercy which allows us to represent His mission.”
Once, Sarveshwar Das Brahmachari went to Dhaka, Bangladesh with Srila Prabhupada. A miraculous incident took place there. There was a landlord (zamindar) who was by nature completely atheistic. If people did not follow what he liked, then he used to punish them by physically beating them. When Srila Prabhupada reached that place, the local people informed him about it. Srila Prabhupada sent Sarveshwar Brahmachari to the house of the landlord for begging alms but the wife of the landlord very roughly rejected Sarveshwar Brahmachari. This type of incident occurred for several days. Then one day, the wife of the landlord gave Sarveshwar Brahmachari some uncooked rice. He took that rice back to the temple. The next day, he cooked it in the temple and brought the prasadam of the cooked rice along with other preparations back to the landlord’s house. Some time after this incident, the atheistic landlord’s family all became disciples of Srila Prabhupada.
In 1935, the Gaudiya Math in Gaya was facing some problems with the local people who stopped cooperating with the temple. Srila Prabhupada sent Sarveswhar Prabhu to Gaya. Due to the purity of Sarveshwar Das Brahmachari, the whole atmosphere transformed by 180 degrees and all of the local residents became inspired to cooperate with the temple again.
In 1936, during a spiritual meeting (Nabadwip Dham Pracharini Sabha) conducted at the Yogapitha temple, Mayapur, in the presence of Srila Prabhupada, Sarveshwar Prabhu sweetly chanted kirtan and gave discourses with attractive vaishnava language. There in, Srila Prabhupada gave him the title Raga Ratna and gave him the Bhakti Sastri certificate. Ragarata means jewel of spontaneous loving devotion. Thus, he was known as Raga ratna Sarveshwar Brahmachari Bhakti Sastri.
While Sarveshwar Das Brahmachari was in Bag Bazar Gaudiya Math, he once met with his relatives. This was 12 years after he had taken up renounced life, staying at the Gaudiya Math. He brought his relatives to meet Srila Prabhupada. Thereafter, Srila Prabhupada told Sarveshwar Das Brahmachari to with his relatives and preach in their home.
In June 1936 during the period of the Ratha Yatra festival, Srila Prabhupada gave sannyasa initiation to Sarveshwar Prabhu at Purushottam Math located in Chatak Parvat, Jagannath Puri. This was the last sannyasa initiation that Srila Prabhupada gave during his manifest pastimes. Sarveshwar Brahmachari received the new name Bhakti BicharYayabar Goswami Maharaja. Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja was an excellent kirtan singer and spontaneously possessed all vaishnava qualities. By the grace of Srila Prabhupada, Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja got all of the knowledge of vaishnava philosophy and used to disseminate the teachings in simple and eloquent language on the basis of Srimad Bhagavatam and Srimad Bhagavad Gita. Since the time he joined as a Brahmachari in the Gaudiya Math, Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja used to chant 64 rounds of the Hare Krishna Mahamantra everyday even when he was physically ill.
In 1937, after Srila Prabhupada’s physical departure, Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja’s spontaneous, peaceful, sweet, simple nature kept him away from conflict and inspired him to establish a temple named Shyamananda Gaudiya Math along with like-minded godbrothers in Medinipur near his birthplace in Medinipur. Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja’s life was filled with miracles. Once, Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja along with his disciples went to the home of one of his sannyasi disciples for preaching.When Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja reached that home with his disciples, a snake had bitten one of the people living next door to that household. Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja along with his disciples went to that house and read the pastime of Lord Krishna subduing the Kaliya snake from the Srimad Bhagavatam.After hearing Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja’s recitation of the Kaliya-daman pastimes, that person who was bitten by the snake miraculously became cured, got up and offered his obeisance to Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja.
Later on, Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja established a temple in Mayapur, named Sri Chaitanya Bhagavat Math. He also established a temple in Jagannath Puri.
Since the morning of the anniversary day of Srila Narottam Das Thakur’s disappearance, Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja was physically severely ill, but he was completely calm, quiet and conscious. All of the disciples surrounding him were chanting the Hare Krishna Mahamantra and Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja was also chanting with his soft voice. That evening, Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja physically departed from this world in Shyamananda Gaudiya Math in Medinipur on 15th October 1984 (Bengali calendar: 28 Ashwin 1391) at 5.30 PM in the presence of all of his disciples and his appointed successor, Bhakti Vistar Vishnu Goswami Maharaja.
During the disappearance pastime, Bhakti Vistar Vishnu Goswami Maharaja saw in his divine vision a beautiful, transcendental chariot in which Sri Sri Radha Krishna were seated on a beautiful throne; two sakhis appeared from that chariot in front of Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaja and they said, “This is our Malati Manjari” and they took him to the spiritual world. After his physical departure, all of the disciples decided to take Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaj’s holy, transcendental body to Sri Mayapur Dhamand he was placed in samadhi at his Sri Chaitanya Bhagavat Math. Srila Yayabar Goswami Maharaj’s entire spiritual life teaches us to keep sound faith on the words of the spiritual master and the authenticated scriptures. Eventually, the eternal truth will be revealed in our hearts; there is no need to depend upon academic degrees. We just need the blessings of the parampara in order to reach our ultimate destination – Sri GolokaVrindavan.
