BVT 6 :: Bhaktivinoda Thakur in Jagannath Puri

Old photo of Jagannath Vallabh Garden in Puri. P.C. Iskcon Desire Tree.

It was during his stay in Jagannath Puri [149-154] that Bhaktivinoda Thakur got the golden opportunity to observe Gaudiya Vaishnava culture from a very privileged position in one of its most prominent centers. As Deputy Magistrate, he had the great responsibility of overseeing the affairs of the great temple. "I blissfully served Lord Jagannath for almost five years," he writes. [154]

This was the time when he was able to undertake an intense and comprehensive course of study in the bhakti shastras. Moreover, he himself became something of a teacher of Vaishnava scripture, even holding public Bhāgavata classes in the Jagannath Vallabh garden and on the Jagannath temple grounds, classes that were attended by many brahmins and Vaishnavas.

The Thakur gave special attention to learning Sanskrit and made great strides, so much so that he even composed his first Sanskrit work, Datta-kaustubha, in 1873. This book contains 100 verses with a commentary in prose by the author himself. He concludes this work with a few autobiographical verses:

kadācit kurvataḥ karma jñāna-mārgāśritasya me |
jagatāṁ maṅgalārthāya prārthanādau ratasya ca ||97||
arūpa-dhyāna-saktasya śānta-bhāva-gatasya ca |
prādurāsīn mahān bhāvo vraja-līlātmakaś citi ||98||
tad-ādi sthūla-liṅgākhyau pṛthag-bhūtau dehau mama |
sva-dharma-sādhane kintu niratau ca yathā purā ||99||
ahaṁ tu śuddha-cid-dharmī nija-preṣṭha-samāśritaḥ |
carāmi yāmune deśe cit-kadambānilānvite ||100||

"Once, while engaged in my career and following the path of knowledge, devotedly praying for the benefit of the entire world, attached to meditation on a formless God and to the mood of peacefulness, a great love based in Krishna’s pastimes in Braj suddenly appeared in my heart. From that time onward my gross and subtle bodies became separated from each other, for even though I continue to engage in my worldly duties as before, my true self is engaged in the pure and eternal activities of the pure consciousness: taking shelter of my own dearmost [associate of the Lord], I wander in the land bordering the Yamuna, which is cooled by the breezes that blow through the spiritual kadamba trees." (Datta-kaustubha 97-100)

Sundarananda Vidyavinode remembers Bhaktivinoda's public teaching and authorship of Datta-kaustubha to make it seem that he was not really in need of any external blessings or initiation, being an "incarnation of the mercy of Mahaprabhu's energy." He writes in his introduction to the 1942 edition:

"Reading Datta-kaustubha along with its commentary, one immediately recognizes [Bhaktivinoda Thakur's] natural yet superhuman capacity to extract the essence from the scriptures. Such a superhuman capacity prior to the lila of being initiated by a guru fixed in Krishna tattva is something that could only be achieved by one who is himself an incarnation of the mercy of Mahaprabhu's energy, and is not possible through scholarship and human intelligence alone."

Sundarananda makes reference to the following story told briefly in the Jīvanī, which also from the same period in Puri:

"At that time we would hold a "Bhāgavata association" in the Jagannath Vallabha gardens. Mahanta Narayan Das, Mohan Das, the Mahanta of the Uttar Parshwa Math Harihara Das, and other pandits used to attend the sessions. Kanthadhari Raghunath Das Babaji Mahashay was opposed to these meetings and forbade many people to go there. Raghunath Das Babaji used to stay at Hati Akhada at that time. He was a siddha purush and thus aware of everything. After a few days he became a close friend and told me, 'When I saw that you were not wearing tilak or neckbeads, I committed an offense by being disrespectful. Please forgive me.' I replied, 'O Babaji, what have I done wrong? One gets tilak and kanthi-mala [neckbeads of tulasi] from the diksha guru and thus far the Lord has not given me a diksha guru. I only recite Harinam on japa beads. In such a situation, is it proper to take tilak and kanthi-mala at one's own whim?' Babaji understood all of this and praised me and showed mercy to me, and I also remained submissive to him." [150-151]

This passage is interesting and those who wish to show Bhaktivinoda Thakur's freedom from the obligation to take initiation point to it as a kind of proof. But we know from Bipin Bihari Goswami's own autobiographical notes in his Daśa-mūla-rasa [see below] that the two had started corresponding from the time the Thakur was in Puri. Clearly, he could have decided at this time to break out on his own as an independent spiritual leader in his own right, based on his own charisma and without any specific connection to the tradition, but he did not. Rather than doing so, he sought out a qualified spiritual master from whom he could take initiation and obtain legitimacy in the Gaudiya Vaishnava community.



Other articles in the introduction

BVT 1-2 : Invocation and Introduction to the Autobiography
BVT 3 :: Modern Scholarship on Bhaktivinoda Thakur
BVT 4 :: Bhaktivinoda Thaku and his thirst for knowledge.
BVT 5 :: Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Christianity
BVT 6 :: Bhaktivinoda Thakur in Jagannath Puri
BVT 7 :: Bhaktivinoda and the Meat-eating issue
BVT 8 :: Initiation from Bipin Bihari Goswami
BVT 9 :: Bipin Bihari Goswami in the Thakur's Writings
BVT 10 :: Lalita Prasad Thakur
BVT 11 :: Bhaktivinoda Thakur and Sampradaya
BVT 12 :: The Authenticity of the Autobiography

Other articles inspired by the Autobiography:

A Bengali Zamindar's education in the 1840's
Bipin Bihari's testimonial to his best disciple Kedarnath Datta
Longfellow and Bhaktivinoda Thakur's poems

And also,

Hari-nama-cintamani related posts
Siddhi-lalasa

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