Bilvamangala Thakura

[Guest guest]

Dear Vaishnavas!

Please accept my humble obeisances.

All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

 

Does anyone out there have an e-copy of the full story of Bilvamangala

Thakura? If so, would you kindly forward it to me?

 

Thank you in advance.

Your servant

Stavavali dasi.

[Guest guest]

Dandavats, Vaisnavas. Jaya Srila Prabhupada.

 

 

On Fri, 24 Feb 2006, Stavavali (dd) KKD (Zagreb - HR) wrote:

> Dear Vaishnavas!

> Please accept my humble obeisances.

> All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

>

> Does anyone out there have an e-copy of the full story of Bilvamangala

> Thakura? If so, would you kindly forward it to me?

 

 

Unfortunately or fortunately, there are too many different legends about

Bilvamangala Thakura, some of which are bonafide and others not, as they

come from all over India and sometimes from other sampradayas. Srila

Prabhupada spoke about him many times on various occasions (e.g., in a

May 13, 1969 room conversation with Allen Ginsberg), and seems to

acknowledge at least some of these traditional assertions. Aside from such

references, the most reliable source is Srila Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami's

account given in his Saranga-rangada commentary on Bilvamangala

Thakura's Krsna-karnamrta (hopefully, that’s a forthcoming BBT title).

 

To loosely give the gist of that passage (1.1):

 

Once there was a South Indian brahmana named Bilvamangala, a learned and expert

poet living on the western bank of the Krsnavenva river. Impelled by some

karmic predisposition, he became exceedingly attached to a prostitute named

Cintamani, who was a resident on the eastern bank, and whose knowledge of music

eclipsed that of many Kinnaris. On a dark, rainy night, the desires lying in

his heart were awakened by the deep rumbling of the thunderclouds, he set out

from his home as if oblivious to the countless obstacles on the way to her

place. He crossed the river by holding onto a corpse, only to arrive at a

locked door, her house gate. As the residents hadn’t heard him shouting

in that storm, he wandered hither and thither. Grabbing hold of a black

snake’s tail protruding from a hole in the wall, he jumped over, but he

fell unconcious when he fell into the moat on the other side.

Then she and her friends saw him, by the illumination of the lightning. Saying,

‘Oh, how terrible!’ and bringing him [inside,] she tended him

carefully.Thereafter, hearing his report about how he made it there, she was

shocked. Fairly repulsed, she told him: ‘Though you know all the

scriptures, who but a fool would kill himself so with the paltry aim of

relishing this tasteless transformation of material elements--i.e., my body?

Alas, shame on me--I who am so sinful that I’ve exploited and cheated

many men of their heart’s treasures through so much feigned love. If

only you had such attachment to Lord Sri Krsna, what would you not attain? As

for myself, beginning from tomorrow, giving up everything and worshipping Sri

Krsna is my sole concern.’ Considering this, she wanted to spend that

night hearing, along with her friends, about Sri Krsna with Sri Radha,

and sang songs about the Rasa dance, bower pastimes, and so on. Hearing her

words, Bilvamangala also became disgusted, deriding himself. Thinking,

‘Starting tomorrow, after giving up everything, the worship of Bhagavan

is my sole concern,’ he too stayed up. Simply by hearing that singing,

his immemorial dormant love of Godhead was awakened, and now he considered

Radha-kanta his dearmost--billions of times more dear than his own life.

 

At dawn, he paid respects to Cintamani, and by that very path along the same

river he crossed the night before, he approached the best of the Vaisnavas,

Somagiri. Submitting his tale to him, he accepted the holy Gopala-raja mantra.

Merely having accepted the mantra, his love of God awakened ecstasy such as

trembling, tears, and standing of bodily hairs on end. Although he was eager to

go to Sri Vrndavana, he remained there for some days in order to serve his

spiritual master.Even then, he composed books full of descriptions of Sri

Krsna, His pastimes, and so on. Seeing this, his spiritual master dubbed him,

“Lila-suka” (the Sukadeva Gosvami of describing Krsna’s

pastimes). Therein, he was carried away, and became a renunciate of his own

accord. After that, due to extreme eagerness, he communicated his desire to his

spiritual master and set out for Sri Vrndavana.

 

While travelling along one road after another, he at first prayed for a display

of the excellence of the Lord’s various pastimes. Having fallen into the

waves of longing born of the current of love, he felt empty, and was eager for

such a manifestation. When he arrived in the Mathura district--becoming

consumed by longing produced out of the ocean of love of God, and restless for

a display of the Lord’s various pastimes, he beseeched the Lord for such

a vision. Thereafter, coming to Mathura itself, he took his inner vision as a

direct revelation. Then he entered Vrndavana; seeing the Lord directly, and

describing Him with his words and thoughts, whatever he said in his ecstasy was

all written down then and there by the Vaisnavas accompanying him, and has thus

become well-established. After that, he remained in Vrndavana for some days.

Later, [he] entered into personal pastimes with Krsna. Thus [his] renown

among all people has come down through guru-parampara.

 

To my knowledge, the above is the first account of Bilvamangala Thakura’s

life given by our acaryas, but it doesn’t include many of the details

that have accumulated since the early 17th century. It’s reasonable to

assume that much of what was added later is inauthentic. How to know

what’s “the full story” and what’s doubtful? Normally,

the best policy is to accept whatever one’s bonafide spirutal master says

about it. That said, the fact that even Srila Prabhupada has told the story in

slightly different ways on different occasions gives me the impression that he

wasn’t too concerned about all the technical details.

 

I hope this is helpful.

 

 

Your humble servant,

 

Mukunda Datta dasa