In Memorium
From SREE SAJJANA-TOSHANI
THE HARMONIST
January 1931
J. B. D. has built the Temple of God,
Right in the heart of Calcutta.
He has built with care the holier abode
Of His servants, the Gaudiya Math.
J. B. D. is gone from among the people
Whom he had loved with all his heart.
May he be praised with right good will;
For so we may understand th’ devotee’s part.
For such was truly th’ immaculate soul,
Who had served the Vaishnavas in every act.
Un-alloyed devotion to the Lord was the goal
That made him choose the humbler part.
Who can recognise the soul that loves
His Lord with singleness of heart?
He may know who really strives
Fully, in his turn, to serve the Lord.
It is our duty to praise J. B. D.
In words untainted at their source,
By devotion’s Language that is the Lord
Who teaches our souls to praise His grace.
Let us praise the servant to please the Lord,
Whom J. B. D. had, indeed, served so truly.
The Lord has a special love for the good;
This they know who serve Him fully.
The Lord is the Beloved of all our souls;
J. B. D. has built the Home of our Lord.
Here all who love Him, need assemble,
To win the special favour of God.
The Gaudiya Math is J. B. D.’s memorial;
Nay, the Math is his living soul.
Brick and mortar make not the Temple;
They only delude the perverse soul.
J. B. D.’s soul is the Gaudiya Temple,
The Divine Pair there sit enshrined.
May the holy sight bless all the people!
May J. B. D. be thus every praised!
This holy Truth is borne upon my soul
That the Lord e’er fulfils His servant’s will;
For the pure in heart have no other goal,
They minister to God’s pleasure still.
J. B. D. wished that all the people
May truly serve the Supreme Lord.
The Lord has fulfilled His servant’s will
By making him build the Gaudiyas’ Math
J. B. D. knew this as he toiled
Night and day at the commissioned task.
He knew that the Lord had accepted,
When the call did come, his work.
‘Twas this peace that made him leave
This world with an easy mind;
He gained Sri Guru’s blessing that gives
Assured access to the Presence Divine.
Let all rejoice that our deliverance
Is wrought by faith of each loyal soul;
May J. B. D.’s Memorial ever impress
This saving truth on the hearts of all.
May we realise God does not scorn
To abide in brick Temple reared by faith;
He ever dwells in His devotee’s home;
He loves so to live in the Gaudiya Math.
The Truth is never conceivable
To the paltry reason of worldly man.
The Lord Himself appears to all
In Forms repugnant to our brain.
But His actual sight does bless our reason,
And imparts th’ power to understand,
How the Lord is served by every form,
Although He never is of the world.