The second verse of Sri Sri Prapanna-jivanamrta explained.
By Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj
Srila Janardan Maharaj: In Prapanna-jivanamrta, Srila Guru Maharaj has a Sanskrit prayer in which he described Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati as the Deity of kirtan.
Srila Govinda Maharaj: Yes. That is a very nice verse.
gaura-vag-vigraham vande gaurangam gaura-vaibhavam
gaura-sankirtanonmattam gaura-karunya-sundaram
(Sri Sri Prapanna-jivanamrtam: 1.2)
What kind of ecstasy is inside of this verse? Krishnadas Babaji Maharaj was very much attracted to it. He knows all the slokas of Rupa Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, and Jiva Goswami. He knows many things. He was vastly learned in the scriptures, but he could not forget Guru Maharaj’s verse. Every Ekadasi, he would come to our Math, and the whole night he would chant the verses of Srila Guru Maharaj. He had memorised them all, and without any book, he would chant them all night. He would start by chanting the glories of Srila Saraswati Thakur with this verse. Here, Srila Guru Maharaj said,
gaura-vag-vigraham vande gaurangam gaura-vaibhavam
gaura-sankirtanonmattam gaura-karunya-sundaram
Gaura-vag-vigraham: you are the form of Mahaprabhu’s preaching; that transcendental vibration has taken the form of a person, and he is Srila Saraswati Thakur. Gaurangam: Srila Saraswati Thakur looks like Mahaprabhu. Srila Saraswati Thakur was very tall and golden, and Mahaprabhu was also tall and golden. They both were golden. Srila Guru Maharaj was also golden. Gaura-vaibhavam: Mahaprabhu is his only wealth, and he is the wealth of Mahaprabhu. The meaning goes both ways. Gaura-sankirtanonmattam: he is ecstatically mad to engage in the sankirtan of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and Gaura-karunya-sundaram: all the beautiful mercy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took form as Srila Saraswati Thakur. This is the meaning of the pranam mantra.
Source
Spoken on 7 June 1993.
Reference
gaura-vag-vigraham vande gaurangam gaura-vaibhavam
gaura-sankirtanonmattam gaura-karunya-sundaram
(Sri Sri Prapanna-jivanamrtam: 1.2)
In the Bengali edition of Sri Sri Prapanna-jivanamrta, a comment follows the translation of this: “Vividha-vyakhya sambhava: various explanations are possible.” In this lecture of Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj, we find illumination of this.
The verse is translated in the English edition of Sri Sri Prapann-jivanamrta as follows:
“I make my obeisance unto the Deity, Gaura-Saraswati—the personified message of the Golden Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu—whose bodily lustre is of a beautiful golden hue, like that of the selfsame Lord Gaurasundar; who is the personal expansion of that Supreme Lord Gaurahari; who is always intoxicated by preaching the message of that golden Lord; and whose divine beauty blooms in the revelation of Lord Gauranga’s mercy potency.”
A minimalistic translation of the rendering of the verse in the Bengali edition of Sri Sri Prapanna-jivanamrta reads as follows:
“I offer my obeisance to the divine embodiment of the message of Sri Gaura, whose figure resembles Sri Gaurasundar, who is a bodily expansion of Gaurahari, who is always ecstatic in the sankirtan prescribed by Sri Gaura, and whom the manifestation of Sri Gauranga’s mercy-potency has made supremely beautiful.”
A minimalistic translation of the verse itself reads as follows:
“I offer my obeisance to the embodiment of the message of Sri Gaura, whose figure resembles Sri Gaura, who is a manifestation of Sri Gaura, who is ecstatic in the sankirtan of Sri Gaura, and who is the beauty of the mercy of Sri Gaura.”
