A Week with a Saint

His Holiness Srila Mahavishnu Goswami Maharaj was born in the outskirts of Mumbai in 1919 on the auspicious day of Dattätreya Purnima in the month of mārga-śīrṣa [November-December]. He appeared in an eight generation Vaishnava family. He was the most elderly sannyasi (spiritual teacher) in ISKCON (International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness). Maharaj first took darshan of Srila Prabhupāda in 1973. There Srila Prabhupada’s lecture marked the turning point in Maharaj’s life. Srila Prabhupāda had stated that whenever we meet our friends, we ask them so many material things, like how is your business, your family etc. But this is simply a waste of time. If we really cared for them, then when we meet them, we should ask them how far they have progressed, since we last met, in the matter of stopping the repetition of the cycle of birth and death.