Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Vamana Gosvāmī Mahārāja never claimed that he is a disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda, he was so humble. Some of his disciples asked him, can we call Śrīla Prabhupāda as our param gurudeva? But Śrīla Vamana Gosvāmī Mahārāja said— “Why should you identify Śrīla Prabhupāda as your param-gurudeva, whereas my Gurudeva is Śrīla Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvāmī Mahārāja?” Śrīla Mahārāja could easily realize the dirty pratiṣṭhā asha (desire for pratiṣṭhā) of his disciples.
On the contrary some of the disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda who only took harinama from Śrīla Prabhupāda, not dīkṣā, they wanted to establish themselves as a parshad of Śrīla Prabhuapda. How funny! Those who wanted to establish and implement the desire of Śrīla Prabhupāda in toto, only they can be called as parshad of Śrīla Prabhupāda not everybody. Whereas we see that the great disciple of Śrīla Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvāmī Mahārāja—Śrīla Bhaktivedanta Vamana Gosvāmī Maharaja never wanted to identify himself as disciple of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Śrīla Vamana Gosvāmī always told that, “I don’t want this kind of pratiṣṭhā to declare that I am the disciple of Prabhupāda”.
We know that someday Śrīla Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvāmī Mahārāja wanted to test his beloved disciple Sajjan Sevak Brahmacari (after he was known as Śrīla Vamana Gosvāmī Mahārāja) by calling him as Godbrother, but the result was so pathetic that even he couldn’t realize it. Immediately, he (Sajjan Sevak Brahmachari) burst into tears like mad. He started speaking to Śrīla Kesava Gosvāmī Mahārāja that–“Gurudeva you want to test me? Please never speak like that, otherwise I can die.” And from that onwards, Śrīla Kesava Mahārāja could realize that he is not an ordinary soul.
Śrīla Vaman Gosvāmī Mahārāja was such an exalted devotee that we can compare him with our guru-varga. He was no less than our guru-varga. Śrīla Vamana Gosvāmī Mahārāja used to say that—“All those scriptural instructions are for me, so I will have to follow everything in toto.” But nowadays we can see just the opposite of what he said, I mean all those scriptural instructions all for others, not for the preacher or who is acting as Guru.
All the writings and hari-katha of Śrīla Vaman Gosvāmī Mahārāja were perfectly in line with Śrīla Prabhupāda and guru-varga. We never saw any single mistake in his siddhanta-vichar. He used to say that— “My rūpānuga-bhajana is to follow Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Śrīla Prabhupāda and all other rūpānuga-guru-varga. And I can solemnly say if I follow them, then today or tomorrow, I can come out successful in my rūpānuga-bhajana.” That’s why I love Śrīla Vamana Gosvāmī Mahārāja so much.