Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakurs Appearence day

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Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur

 

>From Back to Godhead Vol.1 Part 9

March 1952

An offering by

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

 

 

It is the honest belief of Srila Saraswati Thakur that

people in general, modern philosophers and thinkers as

also the religionists will be struck with wonder when

they seriously make a study of the gift of Lord

Chaitanya.

 

Oh! my Master

The evangelic angel.

Give us thy light,

Light up thy candle.

 

Struggle for existence

A Human race,

The only hope

His Divine Grace.

 

Absolute is sentient

Thou hast proved.

Impersonal calamity

Thou hast moved.

 

This gives us a life

Anew and fresh.

Worship thy feet

Your Divine Grace.

Had you not come

Who had told,

The message of Krishna

Forceful and bold,

 

That's your right

You have the mace.

Save me a fallen

Your Divine Grace.

 

The line of service

As drawn by you,

Is pleasing and healthy

Like morning dew.

 

The oldest of all

But in new dress

Miracle done

Your Divine Grace.

 

 

Om Vishnupada Sree Sreemad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati

Goswami appeared in this mortal world in the year in

February on as the third son of Srila Bhaktivinode

Thakur known as Late Kedarnath Dutt in His early

householder life. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati was

known as Bimala Prasad Dutt in His early life and from

His very boyhood, inspired by His devotee father,

lived a strict pious and religious life. One instance

in His early life will prove how much He was rigid in

His principle of religious way of life. The instance

may be cited here as a matter of course. Srila Kedar

Nath Dutta as an ideal Grihastha used to worship Sree

Sree Radha Govinda Vigraha at his house. As such one

day he purchased some good quality mangoes for the

deity when Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati was a mere

child. The child Bimala Prasad pretending the childish

nature ate up the mangoes without the knowledge of His

father. The father when he came to know that the

mangoes purchased for offering to the deities at his

house were swallowed up by his child Bimala Prasad, he

mildly rebuked Him and warned Him also not to commit

the mistake in future. The child Bimala Prasad took up

this matter very seriously and as the proverb goes

that child is the father of future men, so He proved

Himself then as the future Acharya of the human

community. From that day forward till His departure

from this mortal world He remembered that mistake

which He had committed in His early life and as a

matter of self imposed punishment He never touched

mangoes of any kind for His eating purpose. In His

later life He was so many times requested by His

thousands and thousands disciples to accept mangoes

but He always reminded of His childish so called

mistake and always quoted the instruction from the

Ishopanishad that everything belongs to the Almighty

God. No body therefore accept anything in this world

unless the same has first been offered to Him

(Almighty God).

 

Another instance of His early life may be stated here

that when Bimala Prasad was on the lap of his beloved

mother His father Late Kedar Nath Dutta was posted as

Magistrate of Puri. The Car festival of Sree Sree

Jagannathji took place at that time. The house was

situated just near the main road through which the Car

used to pass. So when the Car was moving it stopped

all of a sudden in front of the house where Sri Bimala

Prasad was on the lap of His mother. The Car of

Jagannath stopped and did not move with utmost

endeavour of the pulling devotees. The mother of

Bimala Prasad took this opportunity and was helped to

get up on the Car for Darshan of the Deity with her

saintly son. The baby Bimala Prasad was then thrown on

the holy feet of Sree Sree Jagannathji and at once the

baby was blessed by the God as some flowers fell down

on the baby from the hands of the Deity. After this

incidence the Car began to move and every intelligent

person present there could understand that the child

Bimala Prasad was not an ordinary one. There are many

such small but very significant instances from His

very childhood which indicated Bimala Prasad to be a

future great personality and it so happened that in

His later age He became the most powerful Acharya in

the line of Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya in the

disciplic succession from the Madhyacharya who was in

the line of Brahma Sampradaya coming down Brahma the

Creator of this Universe. There are four Sattawata or

transcendental spiritual Acharya Sampradayas or

fundamental schools of Theism such as the Brahma

Sampradaya beginning from Brahma after His initiation

from the Personality of Godhead; the Rudra Sampradaya

beginning from Sankara or Mahadeva; the Shree

Sampradaya beginning from Sreemati Luxmi Devi the

Eternal Consort of Shree Narayana and the Kumar

Sampradaya beginning from the Kumar namely Sanak Sanat

Kumars. Sree Madhyacharya belonged to Brahma

Sampradaya, Sree Ramanuja to the Sree Sampradaya, Sree

Vishnuswami to the Rudra Sampradaya and Sree Nimbarka

belonged to Kumar Sampradaya. All these four Acharyas

are bonafide preachers of the pure transcendental

philosophy dealing with the problems of the world, the

living entities and the Almighty God who is the Father

of the creation as well as the living entities who are

falsely trying to dominate over the creation and the

controlling energy known as the material Nature.

 

Sree Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj

happened to be the tenth generation in the line of

disciplic succession from Lord Chaitanya who accepted

Srila Iswar Puri as His spiritual Master. Srila

Madhabendra Puri was the spiritual Master of Srila

Iswar Puri and He (Sri Madhabendra Puri) belonged to

be in the disciplic succession from Madhyacharya who

was direct disciple of Sree Vyasdeva. The Spiritual

Master of Srila Vyasdeva was Srila Narada Muni who was

directly initiated by Brahma the originator of the

Brahma Sampradaya and therefore my spiritual Master

Sree Sreemad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami

Maharaj belonged to the transcendental spiritual

school of philosophy of the Brahma Sampradaya linking

Brahma to Vyasdeva; from Him to Madhyacharya, from

Madhyacharya to Lord Chaitanya and from Lord Chaitanya

to Himself in a systematic principle of disciplic

succession as stated in Bhagavad-gita.

 

As a bonafide Acharya of the Brahma-Madhya-Gaudiya

Sampradaya the mission of Sree Sreemad Bhakti

Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami was to re-establish the

pure form of theism as propounded by Lord Chaitanya in

the line of His predecessors. Lord Chaitanya preached

only the teachings of Bhagwat Geeta in the most

practical way to suit the present environment created

by the dark age of quarrel and fight. In the

latter-age calculated to be two hundred years before

the advent of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami

Maharaj many pseudo-spiritualistic parties in the name

of Lord Chaitanya grew up like mushrooms to exploit

the noble sentiment of spiritualism of the innocent

people of Earth. Such pseudo-spiritualistic parties

deviated poles asunder from the preaching of Lord

Chaitanya because they were unfit to undergo the

disciplic regulations and as such they had mitigated a

via-media principle of rotten materialistic idea with

pure spiritualism. They misunderstood the highest form

of worship contemplated by the Gopies of Brindaban in

the transcendental loving pastimes of Lord Shree

Krishna and misidentified the spiritual process with a

materialistic idea of erotic principle. As such the

highest principle Rashlila stated in the Bhagwat to be

understood and relished at the stage of the

Paramhansas was made a plaything by such pseudo

parties are known as the Oal, Baoul, Nera, Karta

Bhaja, Sain, Darbesi Sakhi-vekhi, Sahajia, Caste

Goswamins, Caste Brahmins and so on. These pseudo

parties passed as the disciples of Lord Chaitanya with

their cheap nefarious activities and of all the above

parties the Sahajias and the Caste Goswamins became

the most obstinate obstructors to the onward progress

of the universal movement of Lord Chaitanya.

 

The Philosophy of Lord Chaitanya was that God is One

without a second. He is known as Shree Krishna but His

incarnations such as Rama Nrisingha are all identical

with Him. The living entities or Jivas are

qualitatively one with Godhead but quantitatively they

are innumerable but eternal servitors of the Supreme

Personality of Godhead. The present materialistic

activities of the Jivas are to be understood as the

acts of Maya or illusion and therefore they are all

waste of energy of the human being. The energy of the

human being as also of other living being should

therefore be directed under the bonafide regulations

of the Acharya so the line of Lord Chaitanya and as

such He vehemently protested against the principles of

those pseudo transcendentalists now passed in the name

of Lord Chaitanya.

 

Srila Thakur Bhaktivinode initiated the reformatory

movement by literary contributions while he was still

engaged as a high Government Officer. During his

householder life and serving as a Magistrate he wrote

books of various descriptions in Bengali, English,

Sanskrit & etc. to present an actual picture of pure

devotional activities of Lord Chaitanya. Srila Bhakti

Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj got inspiration

from his very Childhood all about Srila Thakur

Bhaktivinode's movement. As a matter of fact out of

all his other son's Srila Saraswati Thakur practically

worked as the private secretary of Srila Bhaktivinode

Thakur as such Bhaktivinode Thakur gave Him (Srila

Saraswati Thakur) the transcendental Power of Attorney

to espouse the cause of Lord Chaitanya and so after

Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur's departure--Srila Saraswati

Thakur took up reins of that reformatory movement.

 

The first and foremost task of Srila Saraswati Thakur

was to excavate the holy birth-place of Lord Chaitanya

at Sreedham Mayapur in the district of Nadia in West

Bengal. To substantiate this preliminary act of His

great future movement Srila Saraswati Thakur had to

face tremendous difficulties offered by the caste

goswamins at Nabadwip--because they apprehended a

lawyer in that initial movement. The caste goswamins

were exploiting and still are exploiting the religious

sentiments of the common people in the name of Lord

Chaitanya and presented themselves as so called

relative and descendants of Lord Chaitanya and Lord

Nityananda. Factually Lord Chaitanya or for the matter

of that Lord Nityananda accepted nobody as their

relative or kinsmen who were not devotee of the Lord.

On the contrary Lord Chaitanya accepted Thakur

Haridas, who happened to come out of a Mohammedan

family, as the Namacharya or the most powerful

authority for preaching the samkirtan movement which

Lord Chaitanya inaugurated so arduously.

 

Lord Chaitanya, as it is stated in the Bhagwat Geeta

or in other authentic scriptures, wanted to

re-establish the Vaishnava Dharma on the real basis of

spiritualism. He never deprecated the natural caste

system but neither He approved of the birth-right

caste system, which has degenerated into slut of

anachronism. Lord Chaitanya opined that anyone who is

well conversant with the philosophy of the Absolute

Truth Shree Krishna, never mind what he is either a

born Brahmin or Sudra or in the Ashram of a Sanyasi or

Grihastha, is perfectly competent to act in the role

of Spiritual Master. And He practically demonstrated

this fact during His preaching work.

 

The caste goswamins assisted by the other

pseudo-transcendentalists made a clique to check up

the universal movement of Lord Chaitanya and made a

business of dispatching those foolish followers to the

kingdom heaven after having drawing a lumpsum amount

for this priestcraft hooliganism.

 

Sree Sreemad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami

Maharaj wanted to check up this pseudo-spiritualistic

activities of the so-called followers of Lord

Chaitanya and present the actual thing for acceptance

by the general public religionists and modern

philosophers for a critical study of the sublime gift

of Lord Chaitanya. It is the honest belief of Srila

Saraswati Thakur that people in general, modern

philosophers and thinkers as also the religionists

will be struck with wonder when they seriously make a

study of the gift of Lord Chaitanya.

 

What was thought by modern leaders like Gandhi and

Rabindranath was long long before thought by Lord

Chaitanya not as a public leader of political

aspiration but as the Father of all living entities.

The movement of Lord Chaitanya is generally known as

the Samkirtan movement which is a transcendental

process of self-realisation by removing the dust of

materialism on the mirror of human intelligence. The

present problem confronting the human civilization is

due to lack of a proper introspection of the goal of

human knowledge.

 

By: His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

Prabhupada

 

 

 

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