Jagat

[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...