So-called Proof of Bipin Bihari Goswami's position

June 17, 1999

Dear Govinda Nandini Mataji,

Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada!

Since writing my previous response I have come across a quote from one of

the books of HH Sridhara Maharaja of the Gaudiya Math. It is taken from a

transcription of one of his lectures or conversations. Sorry I don't have

the exact reference, but someone may find it and post it. Here it is:

> While staying at Radha kunda, Sarasvati Thakura heard that Bipin Bihari

> Goswami, the apparent guru of Bhaktivinoda Thakura, had said, "We are fit

> to offer benedictions to Raghunatha Dasa Goswami. We are residents of

> Vrindavana and born in brahmana families." He said this on the strength

> of a prayer Raghunatha Dasa had composed, asking for the benediction of

> the Brijbasis and the brahmanas. From the external point of view, this

> may have seemed fitting, especially as Raghunatha Das appeared in a

> non-brahmana family. But when Sarasvati Thakura heard this statement, he

> started fasting in silent protest--though he continued to treat Bihari

> Goswami respectfully. He continued his fast for several days until some

> devotees entreated Bipin Bihari Goswami to apologize. After Sarasvati

> Thakura had broken his fast, Kunja Bihari asked him why he had taken the

> matter so seriously, and Sarasvati Thakura replied, "I have come to

> Vrindavana in a car, accepting the honor of an acarya. If I accept honor

> as an acarya I must act as an acarya and uphold the dignity of our

> sampradaya. This man is under the control of lust, anger and greed, and

> he wants to benedict Raghunatha Dasa, the guru of the entire world! If I

> were a simple babaji, I could have let it pass. But the position of

> acarya brings with it responsibilities I cannot ignore."

This story appears to be allegorical. Bipin Bihari Goswami disappeared in

1919, just about the same year that Saraswati Thakur was starting his

preaching mission from a single temple in Calcutta with a few followers.

>From looking through the biographies we have of Saraswati Thakur it doesn't

appear that he went to Vrindaban in a car as an acarya before 1926, the year

he established his first temple in Vrindaban.

Your servant, Bhaktarupa Das

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