nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chinna-vichinna-kartri
vibhuda-bahula-mrigya-mukti-mohanta-datri
shithilita-vidhi-ragaradhya-radhesha-dhani
vilasatu hridi nityam bhakti-siddhanta-vani

With his first step, he vigorously cut asunder the whole plane of exploitation, and with his second, he has put a stop to all the calculations of the different scholars with their different conceptions of salvation, or liberated stages. With his third step, he has minimized the hardness and stiffness of the rules and regulations of calculative devotional service, by the touch of divine love: crossing Vaikuntha, he has given us the worship of Radha and Govinda. May these sweet pastimes of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur always reveal joyfully in my heart.

Today is a very auspicious day for this world. Bhagavan Krishna, when he appeared, there was a cause, it is explained in Bhagavad-gita

yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutanam adharmasya tadatmanam srijamy aham
paritranaya sadhunam vinashaya ca duskritam
dharma samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge

When Krishna appeared he did all of his jobs, killing the asuras, establishing religion and giving relief to the sadhus,  but after that he had another desire. He had not tasted so much the Brindaban play of madhura-rasa, his pastimes with Radharani and the Braja-Gopis; he wanted to taste more and he took the divine form of Mahaprabhu.

Bhaktivinode Thakur was in the service of the Jagannath Temple, that service was also government service: he was a magistrate and administrator of the Temple. At that time Prabhupad Saraswati Thakur appeared in his house. It was a miracle that at birth, his umbilical cord  decorated him like a brahmin thread and other miraculous symptoms were there. The devotees of the Lord were very happy to know that at Utkhal Purusottama Dham, a pure representative of Lord had appeared. When Ratha Yatra happened that year, the Ratha cart stopped at the door of Bhaktivinode Thakur and would not move until Saraswati Thakur, whose was given the name Bimala Prasad by Bhaktivinode Thakur, was brought out to see Lord Jagannath.

From childhood Saraswati Thakur showed his courage for preaching Krishna consciousness and he himself practiced that very strongly. Bhaktivinode Thakur was very famous and many so-called liberated souls came to see him because he was in a high position and after meeting with Bhaktivinode Thakur they were thinking, "We are so great because Bhaktivinode Thakur met with us."

One of those types, Caran Das Babaji had come to meet with Bhaktivinode Thakur. Bhaktivinode Thakur gave honor to everyone, that was his nature, but he always spoke the truth. Prabhupad Saraswati Thakur everyday, after his duties, would pay dandavat to Bhaktivinode Thakur, but that day he saw that he was seated with Caran Das Babaji  and he did not go. From so far he paid dandavat and Caran Das Babaji  seeing Saraswati Thakur, a very nice, beautiful boy asked why he paid dandavat from so far? Bhaktivinode Thakur replied, “Everyday his is coming to pay dandavat but not today because he has some promise that he will stay 100 feet away from sahajiyas. You are a sahajiya babaji and for that he is not coming." That was the nature was Bhaktivinode Thakur and Saraswati Thakur,  always speaking the truth. Saraswati Thakur studied at Oriental Seminary on Chitpor Road and then in a Sanskrit college.

Finally, he left everything and went to Mayapur. At the time Mayapur had been discovered by Bhaktivinode Thakur, and he took charge of Mayapur by the wish of Bhaktivinode Thakur. At first Saraswati Thakur was of a very renounced mentality and did not wish to take charge, but Bhaktivinode Thakur chastised him, "If you will not give your energy for the service of Mahaprabhu, you will be a mayavadi. Mayavadis are renounced from this material world, but here is service for Mahaprabhu. It is not a material job, it is a transcendental job and for Mahaprabhu’s service, you will engage yourself. I want that." Then Prabhupad took charge of Mayapur. At that time he was writing, preaching, everything. Everyone was very astonished to see his capacity and his courage. He was such a big pandit. Bhaktivinode Thakur sometimes was appearing sick and he sent Saraswati Thakur to a meeting of pandits, Balighai Sabha. Three thousand pandits were there and Prabhupad gave a lecture, what is  brahmin and vaishnava. For the first two days, he described the glories of the brahmins and the brahmin pandits were very happy. Then for two days he glorified vaishnavas. The brahmins were very much submissive to the vaishnava conception and finally they understood, Saraswati Thakur is a great vaishnava and vaishnava-pada-jal, pada-dhuli (foot dust and foot water) can rescue everyone and they tried to get the water from his lotus feet and very a big crowd gathered. That became a very unhappy situation, but then some intelligent person took a big pot and put Saraswati Thakur's feet there and that water was distributed to the crowd. That lecture, Brahmin and Vaishnava was published by the Gaudiya Math and I read it.

Saraswati Thakur was alone, but after a few years, some parshadas came to him. Kunja Babu, Kunjabihari Das Adhikari Vidyabushan, who became the secretary of  the Gaudiya Math, then Tirtha Maharaj, Ashram Maharj, Bon Maharaj, so many great highly qualified vaishnavas, came as his associates. They joined and with them, Saraswati Thakur tried to preach in Calcutta. Gaura Kishor Das Babaji Maharaj told Saraswati Thakur not to preach in Calcutta. That is Kali's place. Saraswati Thakur was surprised then he thought, "My master ordered me to go to Calcutta," and he went to Calcutta and taken Kunja Babu and the others. They were geniuses and great vaishnavas. They rented a house and stayed downstairs, and upstairs was for him. Number One, Ulta Dinghi Road. There Prabhupad started to preach. At that time he was not doing any collecting, he was getting six or sixteen rupees pension from the King of Manipur. He taught the Prince of Manipur English for six months and through that the King was grateful for what Saraswati Thakur did for his son and gave him a pension. During this time Saraswati Thakur accepted that, but later he refused it.

To earn income, Kunja Babu went to Mesopotamia (now known as Iraq) for service and Prabhupad was very unhappy and wrote a letter to Kunja Babu, "I cannot do so many things, you know that but you left me to earn money. This is not good." Then he came back. In this way Saraswati Thakur started at Number One, Ulta Dinghy Road and there our Guru Maharaj, Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev Goswami Maharaj joined. At that time he was searching for a guru and he found Prabhupad. Then he was constantly visiting the Gaudiya Math in Mayapur and Calcutta and Guru Maharaj was convinced he found his Spiritual Master, Prabhupad Saraswati Thakur and he also showed us how to search.

At first there was a brahmacari named Kirtanananda that did not want to give Guru Maharaj a chance to meet with Prabhupad Saraswati Thakur. When Prabhupad had not seen Ramendra Sundar for some time, he inquired why Ramendra Sundar was not coming to meet with him and someone said that Kirtanananda gave objection. Prabhupad was angry. “He may come at any time to see me.” Then Srila Guru Maharaj could meet with Saraswati Thakur very freely.

When Guru Maharaj was restricted, he was thinking, "Why am I coming here? It is for my spiritual benefit, not for prestige. If there is some spiritual substance, I must come. If they will beat me with a broom, again I will come. I am born in a Brahmin family, I am an educated man, but there is no value for me to be in a place if I have no spiritual interest. In that way Guru Maharaj decided I must come and in that way when Saraswati Thakur started Gaudiya Math Guru Maharaj joined and preached in the style of Saraswati Thakur and fully satisfied the desire of Saraswati Thakur. Saraswati Thakur's preaching was so great.

You are all in the group of Saraswati Thakur’s divine servitors. All over the world, not only our Mission. So many Missions manifested in this world and all are the divine group of Saraswati Thakur servants. Finally all over the world everyone has received the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, which was the preaching objective of Saraswati Thakur. Now that transcendental, subjective evolution has spread all over the world. I was recently questioned by someone, "You are seeing the world situation what do you think it will be like?" I told and I believe the world will get more Krishna consciousness and day by day it will spread; the preaching will not stop. Krishna consciousness never will be stopped and it will grow day by day.

That objective was begun by Saraswati Thakur and his group. He wanted to preach Krishna consciousness out of India and all over the world. He sent, in his lifetime, two or three persons to London for preaching and so much money was spent for that. They were not so successful, no doubt, but  Saraswati Thakur wanted that. Whoever would come to see him, seeing their capacity he would say, you are an English speaking man, you have that Krishna consciousness, and you can preach it. Prabhupad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami took that in his heart and after Prabhupad Saraswati Thakur, he did not forget it. He was always trying to preach and finally, he was successful. Now we are all taken his remnants and going country to country. Guru Maharaj liked him very much and Guru Maharaj gave so much enthusiasm to Prabhupad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Others were envious of him but Guru Maharaj was not and always giving the conception of subjective evolution to him and Prabhupad A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami knew that. He was a very simple hearted vaishnava and he declared, I am learning from Sridhar Maharaj. This kind of declaration is not done by an ordinary man One who has real substance in his heart, he can declare like that. "If you want to learn anything, go to Sridhar Maharaj and learn from him. He is my siksha-guru."

I know him very well because at that time I was a child and lived with him. When all over the world they are chanting that holy name of Lord and I am seeing that, then I understand it is coming down from above, it is not a material thing. If it is a material thing, after a few days it would be finished, but I am seeing day by day this Krishna consciousness is spreading, and more it will grow. It is all the mercy of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. He started in Mayapur brajapathan and there was not one servant, only one maidservant cleaning, etc., but later, one by one they joined him. Now thousands of servants are trying to preach Krishna consciousness by the grace of Saraswati Thakur. We cannot glorify him properly, but we have tried to the best of our ability.