Jagat

Another Side of Thakura Bhaktivinoda Pariśiṣṭa (An Additional Topic):  "What Changed the River’s Course?" By Gadadhar Pran Das  Email: gadadhar_das000@yahoo.co.in  After completing thirty chapters and assuming that our writing task was done, one reader put forward a good question: “Although the guru parampara of Thakur Bhaktivinoda that is described in your book appears to be genuine, why don’t more of his followers know about this?” Yes, we considered, he is right. Here is a matter that merits explanation. But before we attempt to uncover the Thakur's legacy, we should say a few words about what was going on in the beginning. Because from Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s time there was a traditional system in our Gaudiya Sampradaya that was much more in practice in Bhaktivinoda’s period than it is today: Vaishnavas were accustomed to take diksha from a Goswami parivara, a family line of Vaishnava Acharyas that descend from one of Gauranga’s eternal associates. Not only does Thakur ...

Bhaktivinoda Thakur also mentions his spiritual master’s name in several places in his own writings to offer him respects, as is appropriate Vaishnava etiquette for an author. These appear: (1) at the end of his commentary on the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (1894), bipina-bihārī hari tā~ra śakti abatari bipina-bihārī prabhu-bara śrī-guru-gosvāmī-rūpe dekhi' more bhava-kūpe uddharila āpana kiṅkara Krishna is known as Bipin Bihari, his energy descended into this world as Bipin Bihari Goswami, my master. Seeing me, his humble servant, in the dark well of worldly existence, He took the form of my spiritual master and delivered me. ( Amṛta-pravāha-bhāṣya , p.1687) (2) In Sanskrit, in his introduction to an edition of Kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛta in 1898, guror hareḥ padaṁ dhyātvā śrī-vipina-vihāriṇaḥ kṛṣṇa-karṇāmṛtasyeyaṁ bhāṣā-vyākhyā viracyate Meditating on the holy feet of my guru Sri Bipin Bihari who is Lord Hari, I am writing this Bengali translation and explanation of...

This is again a rehashing of a previous article, Bhaktivinoda and Bipin Bihari Goswami , with added material that I also published earlier, Bipin Bihari Goswami's testimonial to his best disciple, Kedarnath Dutt Bhaktivinoda . Some additions and revisions have been made for the purpose of finalizing the introduction to the Jivani . We have already made a couple of references to Bhaktivinoda Thakur's initiation by Bipin Bihari Goswami in 1880. Since for the most part, Bipin Bihari Goswami (1850-1919) is unknown to many who claim to follow Bhaktivinoda Thakur, we will here give some background information about this great soul. Born 3 Śrāvaṇa of the Bengali year 1357, Bipin Bihari was twelve years Bhaktivinoda’s junior. He was born in the family of Goswamis whose seat is in Baghna Para, situated between Kalna and Nabadwip in the Burdwan district. This center was established by Ramachandra Goswami in around 1600 CE. Ramachandra Goswami or Ramai Thakur was the grandson of...

Anyway, the whole subject must be looked at in the context of the sociology of religion. Religions, like any other social phenomenon, go through periods of stagnation and reform. All reforms, which are usually carried out by charismatic individuals. In the wake of a charismatic founder or reformer's death, the followers are bewildered because nobody can equal the divine messenger. So other lines of legitimacy have to be established. The primary legitimacy usually is "the person who was closest to the divine messenger, his companion, the greatest recipient of his grace, etc." In the first generation of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, this legitimacy was extended to ALL of Mahaprabhu's associates. That is the purpose of texts like Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā and the other Vaishnava vandanās and śākhā-nirṇaya type texts. gaurāṅgera saṅgi gaṇe nitya siddha kari māne . And this legitimacy was extended to all their descendants. But of course there is a caveat, and certainly BB...

[I have been working on the introduction to Bhaktivinoda Thakur's autobiography for the longest time and still haven't finished fine tuning it. On a couple of threads on Facebook I dashed off a few of my considered thoughts. I also went back and looked at an early article I wrote on the subject, which might still prove useful, The Parampara Institution in Gaudiya Vaishnavism . Not so long ago I wrote an article " All this parampara business, why do I bother?  Those same thoughts come over me again. After all, isn't the human race about to go extinct , so what is the point on what appears to be a trivial matter and a personal obsession? What can I say? I am working on Bhaktivinoda Thakur now and so it is preeminent in my mind. So I shall continue reflecting on it until I am liberated from it.] Someone suggested that Jagannath Das Babaji gave initiation to Bhaktivinoda Thakur, as would appear to be the case of the Gaudiya Math paramparā , but of course there is no p...

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...