THE CONTEXT
Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda led a life of incessant labor and activity for Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. He effected such immense good in the world that his work is only to be compared with the unbounded works of Lord Śrī Caitanya Himself and the six Gosvāmīs. It was the spiritual attempts and divine writings of this individual that turned the scale and led the intelligent and educated community to believe in the noble precepts and teachings of Lord Caitanya.
If we look back a century and a half, we cannot but be astonished to find how degraded was the condition of the Vaiṣṇava faith which had its pure origin in the deep and majestic spiritual philosophy of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Even vastly learned scholars could not fathom the superexcellent precepts of Lord Caitanya’s philosophy, yet due to incredulity born of the ignorance of uncultured men, the Vaiṣṇava faith had been degraded and was considered a beggar’s excuse for living at the expense of society. It was by sheer love for the Godhead that Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda expounded the deep philosophy which had remained concealed in the pages of the Vedas, the Upaniṣads, the Purāṇas, and the Bhāgavatam. By his action toward divine service and also by his words, set in simple language to be easily understood by readers in general, he has given this philosophy to the world. It is his writings and his divine, unparalleled character that have helped to produce a class of educated and enlightened men who are now proud of their Vaiṣṇava faith and of their acquisition of the spiritual knowledge of the pure and sublime philosophy of Kṛṣṇa, on which the superexcellent teachings of Śrī Caitanya are based.
BIRTH TO YOUTHHOOD
Though born in opulent circumstances—on September 2, 1838—Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda, who was given the name Kedaranātha Datta, had to meet many difficulties in his early life. His childhood was spent at his maternal grandfather’s house at Birnagar (Ulagrām), from where he came to Calcutta at the age of thirteen, after the death of his father. After he completed his education, he was requested to be present at the time of his paternal grandfather’s death. His grandfather, Rājāvallabha Datta, had been a famous personality of Calcutta and had retired to a lonely place in Orissa to spend his last days as an ascetic. He could predict the future and knew when he would die, since he could commune with supernatural beings. Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda was present at the eventful time when that great soul passed away, and after receiving his grandfather’s instructions, he visited all of the major temples and āśramas (monasteries) of the state of Orissa.
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura then entered the educational service and introduced English education into the state of Orissa for the first time. He wrote a small book about all the āśramas of the state and mentioned an āśrama which was on his ancestors’ property. “I have a small village Choṭimaṅgalpura in the country of Orissa of which I am the proprietor,” he wrote. “In that village is a religious house which was granted by my predecessors to the holy men as a holding of rent-free land. The head of the institution entirely gave up entertaining those men who chanced to seek shelter on a rainy night. This came to my notice, and I administered a severe threat that his lands would be cruelly resumed if in the future complaints of inhospitality were brought to my knowledge.”
THE POWERFUL PREACHER AND MAGISTRATE
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura later took to the government service and was transferred to Bengal. In one town he gave a historic speech on the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam which attracted the attention of thousands. He made the world know what hidden treasures pervade every page of the Bhāgavatam, which should be read by all persons having a philosophical turn of mind. He was transferred some years later to a town called Camparan. In this town there was a brahma-daitya (a powerful ghost) living in a great banyan tree, and he was being worshiped by many degraded people. One day the father of a famous girl scholar came to Bhaktivinoda for alms, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura at once employed him in reading the Bhāgavatam under the shade of the banyan tree which was the abode of the ghost. After one month, the Bhāgavatam was completed, and then and there the tree crashed to the ground, and the ghost was gone for good. Everyone was thankful for this act except the few degraded persons who were worshiping the ghost.
Bhaktivinoda’s next move was to Purī. The government commissioner was much pleased to get him in his division, and he asked him to watch the affairs of the temple of Jagannātha on behalf of the government. It was through Bhaktivinoda’s exertions that many malpractices were checked and the time for the offering of foods before the Deity was regulated to its extreme punctuality. Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda was especially entrusted to quell the rise against the government of one Biśākisena, who declared himself to be an incarnation of Mahā-Viṣṇu. During the course of his investigation, Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda found him to be a hoax and a culprit and charged him with transgressing government injunctions. After his trial the fellow was sentenced to imprisonment for a year and a half, but he died shortly after in jail. This man was really possessed of supernatural powers, but as they were the outcome of non-spiritual practices, he had to submit to the Ṭhākura when the latter wanted him to do so. Biśākisena was held in dread by the common people, and everyone warned Śrīla Bhaktivinoda not to admonish him, even for the sake of justice, in view of the serious consequences that the yogī would inflict. But although the Ṭhākura was not a man of ostentation and did not allow people to know his true qualities and spiritual strength, he easily cut down the demoniac power of the impostor. With the fall of Biśākisena there rose an impostor Balarāma at another village, and there were also other so-called incarnations of God, but their plans were similarly frustrated.
HIS UNIQUE LITERARY CONTRIBUTIONS
During his stay at Jagannātha Purī, Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda devoted much of his time to the discussion of spiritual works and prepared notes on the Vedānta-sūtras which were published with the commentaries of Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa. He also composed the Kalyāṇa-kalpataru. This may very truly be termed an immortal work, and it stands on the same level as the divine writings of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura. In 1877 he left Purī on government service, and in 1881 he started a well-known spiritual journal called the Sajjana-toṣaṇi (“The Satisfaction of Pure Devotees”). He also published the Śrī Kṛṣṇa-saṁhitā, which revealed to the world the underlying philosophy explaining the spiritual existence of Kṛṣṇa. This book opened the eyes of educated people and taught them their true relationship with God. It also attracted the admiration of many German scholars, for although the public regarded Kṛṣṇa as a poetic creation of erotic nature, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda revealed Kṛṣṇa as Parabrahman, the Supreme Transcendental Person, the Absolute Being, on the basis of Vedic evidence.
While staying at Barasat, Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda met the famous Bengali writer Bankimacandra Chatterjee. This novelist and playwright had just finished writing a book on Kṛṣṇa, and knowing Śrīla Bhaktivinoda to be an authority on topics of Kṛṣṇa, he gave the manuscript to Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura to see. It was full of mundane Western-stylized speculations and ideas, but after four days of discussion, Bhaktivinoda had the whole text revised by Bankimacandra to accommodate the pure supramundane precepts of Lord Caitanya. During his last year at Barasat, Bhaktivinoda was requested by a noted high court judge to publish an authoritative edition of the Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā with the commentaries of Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravarti Ṭhākura as well as his own (Bhaktivinoda’s) translation. The preface, written by Bankimacandra, expressed his gratitude to the Ṭhākura for his endeavor, and when it was published, the copies were soon exhausted. Then Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda published a unique work entitled Śrī Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta (“The Nectarean Teachings of Lord Caitanya”), which dealt with Lord Caitanya’s theistic philosophy and the philosophies of the Western speculators. This book defeats every other philosophy point for point and establishes the philosophy of Lord Caitanya as supreme. In 1885 he started a society named Śrī Viśva-Vaiṣṇava-rāja-sabhā for the propagation of pure hari-bhakti. Many eminent citizens of Calcutta joined the society, and several committees were organized with assigned duties.
THE DISCOVERY OF LORD CAITANYA’S BIRTHSITE
Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was so anxious to see the land of Lord Caitanya that he applied many times for a transfer to any town nearby. Upon not receiving the desired transfer, he formally submitted a resignation from public service, but it was refused. Then, to his great joy, he obtained a transfer to Krishnanagar, twenty-five miles from Navadvīpa, Māyāpura. Once stationed at a place near Navadvīpa, he did not let a single free moment pass without visiting the land of Navadvīpa.
He at once made inquiries about the exact whereabouts of the different places of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. He soon discovered that the then city of Navadvīpa was a town of only a hundred years’ standing, so he was curious to locate the actual birthplace of Lord Caitanya. He was convinced that the town of Navadvīpa was not the authentic location, and he at once commenced a vigorous inquiry to find the truth of the matter. But he could not easily escape from the people who tried to make him believe that the birthplace of Caitanya was at that town.
Then, after careful inquiry, he was told that the site was lost under the shifting course of the Ganges. Not satisfied with this explanation, he himself set out to discover the yoga-pīṭha (birthplace). After great difficulties, he came to know of a place which was being adored by many realized souls as the true birthplace of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and which was then in the possession of the Muhammadans. Local inquiry and corroborative evidence from ancient maps of the latter part of the eighteenth century which showed the name Śrī Māyāpura at last helped him to discover the real site of the birthplace. The discovery led to the publishing of a valuable work called Navadvīpa-dhāma-mahātmyā.
The year 1895 was the most eventful year in the history of the Vaiṣṇava world, and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was the prime mover of the events. It was in this year that he officially memorialized the birthsite of Śrī Caitanya and brought its true identity and importance before the public eye. Thousands of visitors were present at a function held at the spot.
Just after retiring from government service, Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda himself, in a spirit of perfect humility and with a view to giving a firm standing to the discovery, went from door to door to raise funds for a temple. In the Amrita Bazar Patrika newspaper, on December 6, 1894, the following article appeared: “Babu Kedaranātha Datta, the distinguished Deputy Magistrate who has just retired from the service, is one of the most active members.
Indeed, Babu Kedaranātha Datta has been deputed by his committee to raise subscriptions in Calcutta and elsewhere and is determined to go from house to house if necessary and beg a rupee from each Hindu gentleman for the noble purpose. If Babu Kedaranātha Datta sticks to his resolution of going around with a bag in hand, we hope that no Hindu gentleman whose house may be honored by the presence of such a devout bhakta as Babu Kedaranātha will send him away without contributing his mite, however humble it may be, to the Gaura-Viṣṇupriyā Temple fund.” Truly, Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda honored the houses of many persons for the fulfillment of the noble project he had undertaken. He went to persons to whom he would not have gone for any purpose but for this mission of Lord Caitanya, and his efforts were not fruitless, since the sum collected contributed to the construction of a building on the holy site of Lord Caitanya’s appearance.
BEYOND THE BORDERS OF INDIA
Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s mercy reached far beyond the geographical boundaries of India or even Asia. He was intent on spreading Krishna consciousness to the West. He sent out a small booklet, written in Sanskrit, Śrī Gaurāṅga-smaraṇa-maṅgala-stotra, with a commentary by Srila Sitikantha Vacaspati of Nadia. The introduction, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, His Life and Precepts, was in English. This book found its way into the library of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, the library of McGill University in Canada, and other respectable institutions. It was reviewed in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society by Mr. F.W. Fraser, an erudite European scholar.
THE PROLIFIC WRITER
The more the names of Lord Caitanya and Lord Kṛṣṇa were preached, the merrier was Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda. He thereafter made annotations of Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā and Śrī Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta and gave to the world his immortal and precious works Śrī Harināma-cintāmaṇi and Bhajana-rahasya. He also edited, with commentary, Śrīmad-bhāgavatārka-marīcī-mālā, which contains all the most prominent slokas of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam pertaining to the Vaiṣṇava philosophy. His pen never tired, and it produced many other Vaiṣṇava philosophical works. He would begin his writings very late at night, after completing his government work, and stay up until one or two o’clock in the morning composing songs and literatures. Most of his works appeared in the Sajjana-toṣaṇi magazine. He was equally engaged in writing and in preaching the holy name in many districts of Bengal. His personal appearances at villages had marvelous effects on the people. To maintain the center at Nadia he built a house at Śrī Godrumadvīpa which is called Śrī Svānanda-sukhada-kuñja. Here in this abode the preaching of hari-nāma continued in full swing.
THE SEVENTH GOSVĀMĪ
Śrī Śiśira Kumāra Ghoṣa—the founder of the Amrita Bazaar Patrika, a leading newspaper in Bengal at the time, and the author of the Śrī Amiyā Nimāi-carita (the biography of Lord Caitanya)—had great respect for Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, and in one of his letters to him, he wrote, “I have not seen the six Gosvāmīs of Vṛndāvana, but I consider you to be the seventh Gosvāmī.”
It was at the beginning of the twentieth century that he chose to live at Purī and build a house on the beachfront there. Many honest souls sought his blessings and readily obtained them when he accepted the renounced order of life by taking bābājī initiation from Śrīla Gaurakiśora dāsa Bābājī in 1908. Though he was leading the life of a renounced soul, he could not avoid the men of all description who constantly visited him. All of them received oceans of spiritual training, instructions, and blessings.
In 1910 he shut himself up and remained in a perfect state of samādhi, or full concentration on the eternal pastimes of the Lord. In 1914 he passed on to the blissful realm of Goloka—the highest planet in the spiritual sky—on an auspicious day in the month of May. Here we quote a stanza written about the samādhi of Haridāsa Ṭhākura which Śrīla Bhaktivinoda wrote sometime in 1871 to explain what influence a Vaiṣṇava carries in this world even after his departure.
He reasons ill who tells that Vaiṣṇavas die
When thou art living still in sound!
The Vaiṣṇavas die to live, and living try To spread the holy name around!
Śrīla Bhaktivinoda predicted, “Soon there will appear a personality who will preach the holy name of Hari all over the world.” It is clearly understood that His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda is that great personality.
It is beyond the scope of this magazine to include all the details of the great Ācārya’s life. What is presented here is an ultra-short synopsis. For the entire autobiography of the Bhaktivinoda Thakura, one can read the book “The Seventh Goswami”, translated into English by Rūpa Vilāsa Dāsa. [End]
Courtesy: ‘The Seventh Goswami’—the authorized autobiography of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura—as summarized by His Holiness Acyutānanda Svāmī, a disciple of His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda
