Jagat

This was originally posted on Vrindavan Today  Over the past nine days, I had the opportunity to stay at Golok Dham ashram in Bijwasan, South Delhi, where the appearance day of Nimbarkacharya was being celebrated. During this time, I was lucky to meet a number of spiritual leaders from around India and talk to them about Vrindavan. The acharya at Golok Dham is Gopal Sharan Devacharya Maharaj , who was named "Hindu of the Year" by Hinduism Today magazine. The editor and publisher of Hinduism Today both came from Hawaii to present Maharaj with the award. The acharya of the Kaua'i ashram, Bodhinath Swami, has given his account of the event on his blog . Other important guests over the five days included the Peethadhishwar of the Salemabad seat of the Nimbarka sampradaya, Radhe Sarveshwar Sharan Shriji Baba , who is universally accepted as its spiritual head, Karshni Gurusharanananda Swami, Svarupananda Saraswati of the Gautameshwar Peeth in Gujarat, Acharya Balkrishn...

Charismatic renewal and institutionalization in the history of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and the Gaudiya Math “History is the biographies of great men.” Thomas Carlyle. If traditional India could be said to subscribe to a theory of history, it would be the “great man theory,” which holds that history moves by the actions of great men upon it. Perhaps the best known of the Bhagavad-gita ’s 700 verses is the one in which Krishna promises to appear in the world whenever there is irreligious practice or rampant injustice in human society (Gita 4.7). However different this belief may be from the Shi’a’s belief in the Mahdi or the Jew’s expectation of a Messiah, its influence has been equally pervasive in Hindu society. Not only has it led to messianic hopes for a savior, but also to the conviction that wherever or whenever greatness appears in human society, it is a manifestation of the divine (Gita 10.42). Though such a belief can naturally be exploited for political ends or to buttress...

  II. Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Our second “great man,” Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, was a charismatic figure who acted as a reformer of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition and, according to some, broke with it. Though the extent of his influence on Bengali society as a whole was nowhere near that of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, he must nevertheless be included among the many Bengali reformers in the 19th and early 20th centuries who contributed to the revitalization of Hindu pride in its own traditions. His role in inspiring others to carry the Chaitanya Vaishnava message beyond Bengali society alone makes him worthy of examination. Unlike Chaitanya, Saraswati was not an ecstatic, but an ascetic and intellectual, who was driven by a vision of the potential glory of Chaitanya Vaishnavism and by the desire to overcome the restraints placed on it by contemporary conditions. He saw himself as continuing his father Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s attempts to rationalize Gaudiya Vaishnavism and bri...