Prabhupada told me a little of the history of Tirtha Maharaja. He was originally with the Ramakrishna mission, and known as Kunja Babu. After meeting Srila Bhaktisiddhanta he realized what a saintly person he was. He told Srila Bhaktisiddhanta that, as far as preaching was concerned, as long as he remained in Mayapur he would not be able to do anything. He offered to manage everything for him if he came to Calcutta.
For his part, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta was pure and simple, with no knowledge of business and worldly affairs. He took it as an opportunity to spread Krsna consciousness and so he accepted Tirtha's offer. In this way he became a little indebted to Tirtha.
After Srila Bhaktisiddhanta's disappearance Tirtha claimed that he and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta had actually been co-partners in the Gaudiya mission, and that he was now the senior partner, and so therefore the mission was his. Tirtha even directly remarked to Srila Prabhupada once, "Why my Godbrothers are interfering with my business?" From this, Prabhupada could understood that Tirtha simply regarded the whole thing as a material enterprise, so from then on he carefully avoided him.
Other Godbrothers split away and formed their own sections of the Gaudiya mission, due to the problems caused by Tirtha's Maharaja's claims. Although they were independent of each other they retained the nomenclature with slight variations -- the Sarasvata Gaudiya Math, Purusottama Gaudiya Math, Devananda Gaudiya Math etc.
Prabhupada chuckled, and said that he was the only one not to use the title, and therefore some of the others were annoyed with him.
- From "A Transcendental Diary Vol 4" by HG Hari Sauri Prabhu
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