Proof of Bipin Bihari Goswami's position

[Guest guest]

Nayana-ranjana dasa,

 

Thanks for your researched and well presented info on Bipin

Bihari Goswami's position. Very useful.

 

ys

 

ada

 

> > If there was any other evidence of a strain in the

> > relationship, then this could be taken as further evidence,

> > but by itself it really tells us nothing conclusively.

>

> I just want to put my two pennies in this discussion about

> Bipin Bihari Goswami. There are many historical evidences of a

> major strain in the relationship between Bhaktivinode Thakura

> & Bipin Bihari Goswami which can be considered as conclusive

> evidence of the Bipin Bihari Goswami's position. I will give a

> few:

>

> (1) With the help of Jagannatha dasa Babaji, Bhaktivinode

> Thakura was able to discover the place of Sri Caitanya

> Mahaprabhu's appearance.

> Simultaneously it was declared that the so-called Yogapitha at

> Navadvipa on the other side of the Ganges was false. Many

> caste goswamis objected to the site at Sri Mayapur being the

> original site. Bipin Bihari Goswami at that time rejected

> Bhaktivinoda's preaching in a small newspaper of his own

> called Gauranga-sevaka Patrika in 1919. One could say at this

> point-that at the very least they did not see eye to eye or

> that their feelings for placing distance in their relationship

> was mutual-indeed a difficult relationship to maintain between

> "guru and disciple." (The Gaurangasevaka Patrika and article

> available at Caitanya Research Institute, Calcutta)

>

> (2) We do not find any association of Bhaktivinode Thakura

> with Bipin Bihari Goswami except for short time in Narail,

> East Bengal and this does not include any reference to the

> latter instructing Bhaktivinode in the matter of pure

> devotional service.

>

> (3) In 1911 there was an famous assembly of scholars held in

> Medinpur (Bengal) wherein the topic of debate was to be

> "Brahmana and Vaisnavas." Bipin Bihari Goswami was present at

> that assembly and, as already known, he would side with the

> brahmana community in the platform that brahmana Vaisnavas

> were automatically superior to non-brahmnana Vaisnavas, due to

> a brahmana being born in a higher caste. Bhaktivinode Thakura

> was also invited to attend that assembly. The conflict between

> he and Bipin Bihari was destined. Bhaktivinoda Thakura - not

> wanting to take a position of confronting & attempting to

> defeat his "diksha guru" in a public forum declined to attend

> the meeting on the pleaa of bad health. In his place he sent

> Sarasvati Thakura (age 37) to represent the Gaudiya Vaisnava

> Siddhanta in the line of Sri Rupa & Raghunatha dasa Goswami,

> as per the teachings of Mahaprabhu. We all know what happened

> in the meeting.

>

> (4) It is clear also in studying the life of Bhaktivinoda that

> he did not imbibe any of the conceptions of Bipin Bihari

> Goswami. BVT stressed on the chanting on the Holy Names in

> contrary to the stress on siddha-pranali given by BBG.

>

> (5)In later years Sarasvati Thakura reinitiated (hari-nama,

> mantra-diksha & sannyasa) a prominent disciple of Bipin Bihari

> Goswami, who became known as Bhaktivivek Bharati Maharaja.

>

> (6) There are some points which may not be proved directly

> like for instance it is known that Bipin Bihari mixed very

> freely with the degraded sections of Bengal society and

> associated with anti-Vedic philosophers like the Brahma

> Samaja. Even after his return to Vaisnavism he continued bad

> habits like smoking etc. - thus Sarasvati Thakura, who was

> himself very strict in this principles, saw this as a sign of

> lower Vaisnava adhikari (kanishtha adhikari), although

> Bhaktivinoda Thakura remained unspoken on the issue.

>

> (7) Bhaktivinoda Thakura did for sometime show formal respect

> to Bipin Bihari Goswami. But when the Goswami disrespected

> Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami by thinking that he can give

> blessings to Raghunatha dasa, the prayojana-acarya, because

> Raghunatha dasa was from a "lower caste", the Thakura

> distanced himself more from Bipin Bihari Goswami.

>

> Your servant,

> Nayana-ranjana dasa