Dear Maharajs, prabhus, didis,
please accept my obeisances.

I had heard that our Srila Prabhupada had said that we could approach two persons for knowledge: His Godbrother Srila BR Sridhara Maharaja, and Srila Narayana Maharaja of the Kesavaji Gaudiya matha in Mathura.
When HH Tamal Krishna Goswami personnally admitted to me in early 1985 that Srila Prabhupda had not appointed any of them as gurus, I was about to leave Iskcon due to the 'gurus politics'. I was then intensely praying to Srila Prabhupada to send me some genuine sadhu to help me. I then met Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja, and was so impressed by his devotion, knowledge and saintly character that I decided that as long as there was a sadhu like him in Iskcon, I didn't have to leave and take shelter of a saintly Vaisnava. I approached him for siksa and he plainly told me that since I was praying Srila Prabhupada for help, Prabhupada had told him to help me. I took siksa from him for ten years.
When we asked him why he didn't go to Vrindavan and only stayed very shortly in Mayapura, he answered that he didn't have to go to Vrindavan to preach since Srila Narayana Maharaja was there, nor to Mayapura since Srila Bhakti Promode Puri Maharaja was there, and that the three of them were 'covering' the preaching needs in the three main dhamas of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas.
We asked him about Srila Narayana Maharaja and he said that he was a pure Vaisnava.
When we objected that he was not in Iskcon, he replied, "are baba! Iskcon, not Iskcon, Vaisnavism is not so narrow! Vaisnavism means broad-minded, not sectarian."
So, when Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja departed in 1996, I immediately went to consult Srila Narayana Maharaja in Mathura, telling him that I was bereaved, mourning my siksa-guru. With great compassion he told me that if he could help me in any way, he would gladly do so.
I started to read his books and was impressed. But, as all of us in Iskcon, I had been vaccinated, with boosters, against the Gaudiya Matha, so I was uncomfortable in spite of the attraction I was feeling from his benevolent and unassuming personality. After visiting him in England on his first tour in 1996, I had the surprise to see him coming in France the next year. I saw that all the french devotees, including blooped godbrothers we had not seen for ten, fifteen or twenty years came. It seemed that our Srila Prabhupada had gathered everyone, giving everyone a chance to hear from him. I was translating his lectures, and he was literally pouring forth showers of nectar and displaying great compassion and care for all. His indian disciples said that they were amazed and had never heard speak like this even in India.
I started to translate his books as a seva, as Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja had drilled us about the importance of sadhusanga and sadhu-seva. I found no difference whatsoever in siddhanta, just a different angle of approach, and upon debating with the many senior godbrothers following him, all my doubts were cleared.
I had the good fortune to attend many parikramas and to receive from him a lot of attention and many personal instructions which, I feel, have tremendously helped me to deepen my attachment to and understanding of our Srila Prabhupada. Isn't this the role of the siksa-guru, to make devotees into better disciples of their diksa-guru? I have never heard anyone glorifying our Srila Prabhupada in such a profound, non-superficial way.
I believe Srila Narayana Maharaja is giving the next dipensation of knowledge and mercy that we need to progress further in our understanding and realization of our Gaudiya Vaisnava teachings. Our Srila Prabhupada begged him a few days before departing to help his disciples, as he had no time to train them all sufficiently. Maharaja has helped Iskcon tremendously, counselling many senior devotees, saving Iskcon in the Bombay court case by witnessing. For years he refrained from giving initiations to disillusioned or disenfranchised Iskcon members, not wanting to create any confusion in the institution of our Srila Prabhupada whom he considered as a personal friend and among his siksa-gurus. It is only when he was ignominiously criticized and blasphemed by Iskcon leadership that he started to give
I cannot understand, or rather I think I only understand too well why all these politics and criticisms against him, as I heard the same against Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja: When saintly persons, highly qualified as gurus, preach all over the world, it seems that those who have assumed the position of guru prematurely feel threatened to be exposed as students playing teachers next to real teachers. The rest seems to me to be just words and ploitical games.
As far as others criticizing someone who at 88 is still compassionately travelling all over the world to extend his association and , it is simply a display of their misfortune, which they aggravate by vaisnava-aparadha, or a display of duplicity disguised as loyalty to our Srila Prabhupada "do not read blasphemy; read his publications, come to see for yourself, associate with his followers, write to him to dissipate your doubts.

Humbly,
your servant,
Bv Suddhadvaiti Swami, (formerly Jayanta Krishna dasa or Jayantakrid dasa)