Understanding the Writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode

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UNDERSTANDING THE WRITINGS

OF THAKUR BHAKTIVINODE by---

Prabhupada Srila Bhaktisiddhanta

Saraswati Thakur

We avail of the opportunity offered

by the anniversary celebrations

of the advent of Thakur

Bhaktivinode to reflect on the right

method of obtaining those benefits

that have been made accessible

to humanity by the

grace of this great devotee of

Krishna. Thakur Bhaktivinode has been specifically

kind to those unfortunate persons who are

engrossed in mental speculation of all kinds. This

is the prevalent malady of the present age. The

other ācāryas who appeared before Thakur

Bhaktivinode did not address their discourses so

directly to the empiric thinkers. They had been

more merciful to those who are naturally disposed

to listen to discourses on the Absolute without

being dissuaded by the specious arguments of the

avowed opponents of Godhead.

... That day is not far distant when the priceless

volumes penned by Thakur Bhaktivinode

will be reverently translated, by the recipients

of his grace, into all the languages of the world.

The writings of Thakur Bhaktivinode provide

the golden bridge by which the mental

speculationist can safely cross the raging waters

of fruitless empiric controversies that trouble the

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powers of the pure devotee of Godhead. His

words have to be received from the lips of a pure

devotee. If his words are listened from the lips of

a non-devotee they will certainly deceive. If his

works are studied in the light of one’s own

worldly experience, their meaning will refuse to

disclose itself to such readers. His works belong

to the class of the eternal revealed literature of

the world and must be approached for their right

understanding through their exposition by the

pure devotee. If no help from the pure devotee is

sought, the works of Thakur Bhaktivinode will

be grossly misunderstood by the readers. The

attentive reader of those works will find that he

is always directed to throw himself upon the

mercy of the pure devotee if he is not to remain

unwarrantably self-satisfied by the deluding results

of his wrong method of study.

... In order to be put on the track of the absolute,

listening to the words of the pure

devotee is absolutely necessary. The spoken

word of the absolute is the absolute. It is only

the absolute Who can give Himself away to

the constituents of His power. The absolute

appears to the listening ear of the conditioned

soul in the form of the name on the lips of the

sadhu. This is the key to the whole position.

... Thakur Bhaktivinode’s greatest gift to the

world consists in this; that he has brought about

the appearance of those pure devotees who are,

at present, carrying on the movement of unalloyed

devotion to the feet of Sri Krishna by their

own whole time spiritual service of the divinity. ...

Those who pretend to recognize the divine mission

of Thakur Bhaktivinode without aspiring to

the unconditional service of those pure souls who

really follow the teachings of the Thakur by the

method enjoined by the scriptures and explained

by Thakur Bhaktivinode in a way that is so eminently

suited to the requirements of the sophisticated

mentality of the present age, only deceive

themselves and their willing victims by their hypocritical

professions and performances. These persons

must not be confounded with the bona-fide

members of the flock.

— Excerpted from an article titled, “Thakur Bhaktivinode”. Published in

The Harmonist, December 1931, vol. XXIX No.6.