Jagat

In Daśa-mūla-rasa , Bipin Bihari Goswami tells a little of his life story, some of which I summarized in an earlier article about him . Those details were taken from Kanan Bihari Goswami’s book on the Baghnapara tradition, but reading here directly I think it worthwhile giving a bit of nuance to that. This information is supplementary to that. Bipin Bihari lost both his parents when quite young. He had been having trouble applying himself to his education and after their departure he fell into bad company and was about to mess up his life when a friend of his father’s, Anupam Chandra, set him straight. Bipin Bihari then asked him what he should do, and was told to take up devotion to Krishna. As a result of this advice, Bipin Bihari started frequenting Bhagavan Das Babaji in Kalna. Bipin Bihari refers to Bhagavan Das Babaji in several places in the course of this book, and it seems that Bhagavan Das was quite familiar with the Baghnapara tradition and literature. Bipin Biha...

Previous posts in this series: 1: Guru Nishtha 2: Raganuga Sadhana following Bhaktivinoda Thakur's Manjari Parampara 3: Svarasiki Bhajan 4: Attaining Siddhi 5: Learning about Siddha Krishnadas Baba's Gutika 6: The Gutika's Contents In Chapter 2 Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s authentic mañjarī paramparā was introduced. Beginning from Radha’s younger sister, Ananga Manjari, the sampradāya ācārya , it descends in an unbroken succession of mañjarīs to reach Vilasa Manjari, who is Kamala Manjari (Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s) guru-rūpa-sakhī . When one hankers to take up gopi-ānugatya bhajana , this is how the process can ideally begin: When at the time of receiving initiation we have a guru-mañjarī and a mañjarī-paramparā who will factually be there to guide us in Radha-Krishna’s nikunja-sevā . Because Bhaktivinoda Thakur took dīkṣā  in such a lineage, and furthermore instructs in Hari-nāma-cintāmaṇi that one should receive ekādaśa-bhāva from such a guru, won’t those wishing to fo...