11 glories of Bhaktivinoda Thakur based on the acronym BHAKTIVINODA

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated using AI and may contain occasional errors or inaccuracies.

Here Seek the blessings of all the Vaishnavas so that I can speak something worthwhile For the glorification of the Lord and the purification of my heart So here Parikshit Maharaj after being The recipient of an unwarranted curse Has decided not to retaliate not to defend but to surrender to the will of the Lord And Prabhupada explains in the purport that we are all Implicated in this complicated world by which we commit sins even if It is unintentional and that is why It is very difficult To actually stay pure in this world What is the way to become pure? Prabhupada explains two things the last line of the shloka munivrato mukta samastha sangaha mukta samastha sangaha means that When we give up materialistic association that enables us to give up committing further sins Many of us are devotees who have given up materialistic association, but still we are impelled towards sins because In our mind the impressions of our past materialistic association are still there But when we give up that mukta samastha sangaha then The further sinful reactions sinful actions will stop And munivrato the vows of a sage. What is that vow? He says dadhau mukunda angaring ananya bhavo.
He gave himself to The lotus feet of the lord As bhaktivinoda thakur says amara nahi to ami my dear lord. I am no longer mine. I am your property So in this way by constant remembrance of the lord, whatever past sins we may have committed we become purified of that And here there’s a very Cherished verse for vaishnavas where the lord says Lord the bhagavatam proclaimed that if somebody is Surrendered to the lotus feet of the lord then even if Vikarmaya chod patitam kathanchit that I chance kathanchit if somebody commits some sinful activities also then Duno tisarvam rudhi sannivishtaha the lord from within the heart cleanses such a person So parikshit maharaj has decided to dedicate himself utterly Without without any distraction ananya bhava for the satisfaction of the lord By absorbing himself in a vow of hearing for seven days without eating and sleeping Certainly it is a great inspiration for all the generations of devotees to come to see parikshit maharaj’s dedication In hearing the message and is absorbing himself The sacrifice of life is glorious even more glorious is the life of sacrifice Yes If Like it happened in the history of his con some places some bandits attacked And the dts and some devotees came in the way and they laid down their life and they went back to godhead.
It’s glorious It’s very inspiring the sacrifice of life Even more glorious are those devotees Who throughout their life day after day? sacrifice on the altar of service guru and krishna The material desires the ego the conditionings the ambitions separate from the lord and Continue to unflinchingly serve the lord Parikshit maharaj of course did both his life itself for the sacrifice and at the end now he is doing the sacrifice of life So today is the disappearance day of shila bhakta vinod thakur who exemplifies the life of sacrifice There are many Many vital reasons why we discuss the glories of the great vaishnavacharyas. So I will mention five of them here First and foremost The glories of the devotees are very pleasing for the lord Even more than discussing his own glories The lord becomes most pleased if we discuss the glories of his devotees just like if you praise the father he’s happy But if you praise the son before the father the fathers are jumping in joy So similarly we can very easily please the lord By glorifying his great devotees and the pleasure of the lord automatically means what? The lord will purify our heart and the lord becomes pleased he reveals himself more Just as if a wealthy person is pleased He may give something in charity, but the lord is pleased. He gives the best gift, which is he himself He manifests himself in our heart when he becomes pleased with our service and that is the greatest gift that you can give because that Attraction to the lord is a solution to all problems that will take us back home back to god So first is for the pleasure of the lord and for the purification of our heart Secondly we also When we hear about the great vaishnavacharyas and their life and we see the historicity Historicity of the vaishnav tradition the word historicity means historical authenticity That means we see that this is In the material world, especially in kalyuga in the modern times Often as devotees we feel we are in a minority There are so many people who are materialistic and we are such a few small group of people practising but then when we see That there are there are so many people throughout the history for millions of years Practising the path of pure devotional service the historicity itself gives us a tremendous faith That it’s not that something strange I am doing.
It’s something glorious that I am doing and not only that further when we hear about the Vaishnavacharyas life themselves we understand their glory then we Start I Start taking pride in identifying with them rather than identifying with our materialistic connections Actually, we cannot give up pride fully either. We have to have material pride just like a worldly person No, okay. I am working in so and so company.
I am working in so and so organisation That is the sense of identity and pride that they get But as devotees that pride will bind us in the cycle of birth and death But if you feel proud, yes, I am coming in the gauri vaishnav sampradaya where there’s so many great acharyas so many glorious personalities That identification is actually an identification with krishna and that identification will lift us up So by hearing about the glories we want to connect ourselves more with them We are not shy to identify ourselves with them. We are proud not because we are great, but we are connected with the great Not only that when we hear about the glories of the Vaishnavacharyas Then we feel inspired to take shelter of them to pray for their mercy And by praying for their mercy we get their mercy and this way we advance so that’s why we hear the glories to be able to pray wholeheartedly and lastly when we further hear about their lives and See the struggles and sacrifices that they went through to pass on through the ravages of time the sacred message of god consciousness We feel grateful to receive it and we become recommitted to share it with others So by sharing by seeing their struggles, we will become inspired in our struggles our struggles internally Against Arunarathas and our struggles externally against the worldly situations So therefore it is very important for us to discuss The glories of the great Vaishnavacharyas so today we’ll make a humble attempt to Talk in brief about the infinite glories of Bhaktivinoda Thakur So I Tried to make this in terms of a acronym based on his name So we’ll try to see how much we can discuss in the allocated time So a pure devotee often be materialistic people think that Spiritualist means he’s good for nothing. He’s lazy.
He does not do anything Bhaktivinoda Thakur is the antithesis of this idea So the pure devotee’s characteristic as described by Jeeva Rupa Goswami in the Bhaktivinoda Samarath Sindhu is avyarthakalatvam. He will not waste a single moment That is the hallmark of Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s life. So B is busy Now Lalit Prasad his son When Bhaktivinoda Thakur was living in Jagannath Puri wrote down His daily schedule.
It’s very amazing So he would sleep generally by 7.30 to 8 and wake up by 10 o’clock 10 to 4 every day he would write He would write either in English or in Bengali or even in Sanskrit some things he wrote And then from 4 to 4.30, he would take a little rest 4.30 again, he would start he would he would wake up and then he would after washing and cleaning himself he would start his chanting and Till 6.30 he would chant he would always chant with his beads in his bag and never show the beads and 6.30 He would start reading He would start answering letters 6.30 to 7.30. Whatever letters he had He would answer those letters 7.30. He would read different literatures They and ponder over different religious questions 8.30 He would receive guests if there were any guests or if there were none He would continue his study and while studying he would pace up and down in his veranda Pondering over questions sometimes talking to himself as if preaching to an invisible person to Stimulate a thought process by which he would write the coming night At 9.30, he would again take rest for 15 minutes 9.45 he would wake up and take breakfast which was also fixed one quart of half a quart of milk two chapatis and A little sabji and then 9.55 he would don his dress He would wear the dress of a magistrate and then the personal train for him would come and he would go to the court and 10 to 1 he would work and even his His colleagues would be astounded by his capacity to work What would take others at least half an hour to decide the cases he would decide in five minutes and Writing the judgement would take others 10-15 minutes. He would write a detailed judgement in two minutes So every day in three hours, he would hear between 30 to 50 cases while others finished only 10 cases And then one o’clock he would return back to his home in his carriage Take bath take lunch and two o’clock. He would return back and two to five again.
He would continue his hearing Hearing of the cases and giving the judgement five o’clock. He would come back and if there were any preaching engagements, he would go out or he would write commentaries he would state his commentaries into a to a person who would return to his dictation a night down or he would receive his visitors if any would come and At 7.30, he would take his dinner, which was also fixed two chapatis milk and half a quart of milk and little fruit And he would take rest So with this he kept a pocket watch and he always was on time and on perfect schedule So that was Bhaktivinod Thakur and that was how Prabhupada writes Prabhupada speaks in a very amazing lecture in on his disappearance day He says that that is the beauty of the life of Bhaktivinod Thakur that although he had very heavy responsibilities in his Office. A magistrate is not a very light job and he had heavy responsibilities at home.
He had ten children, but in spite of that You know he preached and he established almost something like 5,000 centres all over Bengal and Orissa where he would be just small small namhat centres where People would practise the teachings of Lord Chaitanya. Not only that He wrote over a hundred books So he says this is certainly not possible for any ordinary materialistic person But Bhaktivinod Thakur was empowered by the Lord and that’s how he was able to do it Now, of course the empowerment by the Lord doesn’t mean that the devotee doesn’t have to struggle, doesn’t have to endeavour Because of his regulation he could channelise the empowerment of the Lord and utilise it to do constructive service for the Lord’s mission So that was busy. H is humble We see Bhaktivinod Thakur Was From the material point of view and the spiritual point of view highly respectable the material point of view A judge is a magistrate is a very respectable position and from the spiritual point of view.
He was such an exalted soul that renunciates Would come and hear his classes. We know Gaurakshotra Babaji was a Was a Babaji, he was renunciate and Bhaktivinod Thakur was a grahastha But he would come and hear from him and take in his and eventually took a diksha from him So, although he was so exalted materially and spiritually and Bhaktivinod Thakur was respected in all of at that time Bengal, Orissa, Bihar All these three states because he had travelled during his service to different places. So although there was not a trace of vanity in him The Amrit Bazaar Patrika, which is the major newspaper in those days of the eastern part of India Wrote an article on 6 April 1894 that Kedarnath Dutta Babu Kedarnath Dutta who was earlier The magistrate and who has now taken voluntary retirement has decided that To build the temple in Navadweep Dham for which he has founded the Gaur Vishnupriya Trust He himself will be going to the house of Every citizen of Bengal and ask for charity So then the article write that if Babu Kedarnath actually carries out his resolve We hope that any Hindu who is fortunate enough to have The feet of a devout bhakta like Babu Kedarnath Dutta to grace their house Will not refuse to contribute his bit to this glorious cause So this humility was noted even in the newspaper.
Not only that we see his humility in the way he writes his songs Amara Jeevana Sada Pape Radha Nahi Ko Punne Ralesh That is the glory of a devotee that When he realises the glory of the Lord he feels himself insignificant The material the worshipper of the Lord or Devata or the demigod with materialistic consciousness He thinks yes, this particular duty is great, and I am also great But actual devotion means the Lord is great, and I am insignificant and that is what we see Heartbreaking when we see actually the kind of humility is expressing So That was Bhaktivinod Thakur and A is Acharya And the editor of the Amrit Bazaar Patrika when he heard about Bhaktivinod Thakur, he came to interview him for his newspaper that here is a magistrate and here he is doing such spiritual work There is a Shishir Kumar Ghosh and after that he wrote an article Big article in the newspaper, and he wrote I have not met the six Goswamis But after meeting Bhaktivinod Thakur, I feel he is a seventh Goswami. That is how he got the title Seventh Goswami So and that is the title of the book biography by Rupilas Prabhu of Bhaktivinod Thakur So he was so regulated so sense control so devoted and dedicated That even a worldly person could not but applaud his amazing character in life That is the Acharya. Acharya means that by his behaviour even if somebody doesn’t understand or Practise the philosophy that that Acharya is teaching just by seeing his life the person becomes amazed inspired transformed That was Bhaktivinod Thakur So he was Acharya also in the sense that He preached, you know Acharya means one who lives and one who preaches So Bhaktivinod Thakur was a vigorous preacher and he would preach and No, no wherever he went his government job would take him to different place and wherever he would go He would there would be a revival of pure devotional service as per the teachings of Lord Chaitanya And as Acharya it was he who Established systematised the Worship in Jagannath temple when he was made the in charge of the Jagannath temple by the British government He was Acharya also in the sense that he Initiated the word Acharya means three things first is that one who behaves Second is one who teaches and third is one who initiates So in all the three senses So he also initiated many many people and he made them into his disciples and in this way he continued the Tree that Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, tree of Lord Chaitanya Premakalpataru So further we don’t have time so I’m going quickly.
K is kind-hearted Bhaktivinod Thakur Was such a person that anybody who would come to ask him for help would never go away disappointed and Whenever a person who has met him once would go to meet him actually That person would always go with a smile because he knew I am going to meet a well-wisher a friend so that was the warmth of his personality and after Bhaktivinod Thakur departed the people of Bengal in that part they established a Bhaktivinod Thakur memorial committee and they said we should do research in his life and write his biography and Three different people MN and scholars at that time who wrote his biography So they were all touched by his kind-heartedness. He was completely Non-envious of anyone and he would never speak a harsh word He would never correct anyone unless that person he was completely confident that that person was at fault and the several people Who eventually he corrected they always felt purified and uplifted never Dejected or rejected by his correction So that was his kind-heartedness, you know Advaita Sarbhutana Maitra Karuna evaj It’s amazing how Bhaktivinod Thakur could relate with all kinds of people and befriend them and through that friendship lift them up to Krishna’s lotus feet So we’ll talk later about his very special relationship with the Englishman So And then he was talented Bhaktivinod Thakur Was as I mentioned so talented so materially competent that he would excel all the other judges in their work But not only was he materially talented professionally, but he was talented with respect to his learning he He had he wrote over a hundred books he was a Very good poet On one side is a philosopher. He’s a poet.
He was a singer he would compose his songs and he would sing those songs and he would attract people to Krishna’s lotus feet and actually as a Very multifaceted personality he is Intelligent such that any topic he would take up practically would not forget it anything and he would analyse it thoroughly and And present it those of you who have read Bhaktivinod Vani Vaibhav will find the depth of his understanding Of philosophy Bhaktivinod Vani Vaibhav for your information is a book which is a compilation of questions and answers with Bhaktivinod Thakur and Many deep and vital principles of devotional service are conveyed through the very easily approachable means of question answers by Bhaktivinod Thakur further Bhaktivinod Thakur was I said I is Intellectual right from his childhood. He wrote his first book at the age of 12 That was called Harikatha. His second book.
He wrote at the age of 13 or Kumbha Nikumbha Yuddha and He by the time he was 18 years old. He had mastered four languages now six languages. He had mastered Sanskrit English Oriya Bengali Persian and Arabic So he could speak fluently in all these languages He had memorised sections of the Puranas and Upanishads and he could quote them at will Not only that when required in debate, he could quote entire sections from the Bible and Quran he had a prodigious memory and He would write in such a way that The issue there would be no question left when a person starts reading his writing the practically All the possible questions that a person may have about that Bhaktivinod Thakur has already anticipated them and answered them So there was at that time a Prominent intellectual Who wrote this Vande Mataram, Mankindra Chatterjee Mankindra Chatterjee, so he he wrote a book on Krishna and he Heard that this Babu Kedarnath Dutta is also a Krishna Bhakta.
He was pleasantly surprised because at that time The Krishna Bhakti had fallen into disrepute Because we know Sakalene Hamhata Yogo Nashtah Parantapa So after Lord Chaitanya there was upsurge of devotion in both Bengal, Orissa on this side and Vrindavan on the other side where the Goswamis were there, but after that When the Mughals came and desecrated Vrindavan, then over there the Bhakti became unmanifested Then Vishwanath Chakra Thakur and Baldev Dayavishan came and they rejuvenated it all Of course at that time, at the time of the Goswamis only, most of their associate Narottam Das Thakur, Shyamanand Pandit were told to go to Bengal and Orissa and they were preaching over there and they were doing very Powerful preaching, but a lot of upper Sampradayas started coming in. Bhaktivinod Thakur made a list of 12 upper Sampradayas Those who would take the name of Lord Chaitanya, but they would teach deviant teachings and especially these people would imitate the Rashtriya love of Lord Krishna and in this way Vaishnavism or devotion to Krishna had become synonymous with immorality and That’s why if at all there was any respectability for Vedic spirituality that was for the impersonalistic version of spirituality there was absolutely no respect for the Vaishnava version. So it was in such a circumstance that Bhaktivinod Thakur came And Bhaktivinod Thakur preached in such a way that he brought back respectability.
How did he do that? He used his position as a magistrate for that purpose as a magistrate actually from for a Vaishnava to serve a Yavana, Mleccha Yavana is actually very degrading, but a devotee doesn’t see these material considerations He was just thinking what is it that will bring respectability to the Vaishnava Sampradaya. So he saw that by connecting himself with the British government and the British Raj which was respectable among the intelligent people at that time this He would be able to bring back respectability. So this Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, he gave his book to Bhaktivinod Thakur He says can you review it and give me some inputs.
So it was all showing Krishna as a metaphorical personality and totally speculative So after the meeting Bhaktivinod Thakur said I would like to talk with you after reading the book he said and then they talked for four days together and After four days Bankim Chandra Chatterjee reviewed the whole book completely, changed it and in the mainstream literature written about Krishna Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s is the first book which does not treat Krishna as a mythological metaphorical personality But not only an historical personality, but as a supreme personality So actually we see the influence of Bhaktivinod Thakur to make another intellectual change his opinion And it is not just a passing opinion. It is an opinion which he has written in a book To make him change that is not easy, but that was the power of Bhaktivinod Thakur’s intelligence and that had a profound influence Not only at his times, but from his times onwards So V is visionary Bhaktivinod Thakur was a visionary in the literal sense that he had many many visions The most famous of his visions was when he was searching for the birthplace of Lord Chaitanya he had analysed the Acharya’s writings. He had studied the Cartographic maps.
He had talked with the elderly residents, and he was sure that the place which was claimed to be as Yogapit was not Yogapit. But where was it? So initially those people who were making a money by calling their particular place as Yogapit, they said this is the Yogapit And eventually when Bhaktivinod Thakur proved that this is not the Yogapit, they said Oh, Yogapit has got buried underwater So Bhaktivinod Thakur thought about it. It is a mother Ganga will never deprive The world of the mercy of the place where Lord Chaitanya has appeared.
He was praying and one day was on his terrace and suddenly He saw a great effulgence on the other side of the Ganga And he is wondering what it is And the next morning when he went over he saw that was a land belonging to some Muslims, but curiously enough There was Tulsi luxuriantly growing over there It was very interesting because the Muslims never take care of Tulsi and Tulsi doesn’t grow luxuriantly unless somebody takes care of it But because Tulsi was marking the place of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s appearance So that was one of his most wonderful and vital contributions that he rediscovered the place of appearance of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu So he discovered it around 1890 and in 1895 He established the temple over there the Gauravishnupriya temple. Of course the temple which is there now in Yogapit That is a bigger temple that is constructed by Bhakti Sudhan Saraswatha Thakur who also constructed a Small site temple for Bhakti Vinod Thakur at the same place, which we see now when we go to Yogapit So he also had the vision of the Adbhut Mandir that magnificent structure that would glorify Lord Chaitanya, would depict the universe and Which Prabhupada and his successors are now working To fulfil but apart from that he was a visionary Also in the sense that he envisioned how the preaching would spread all over the world He was the first person Who seriously contemplated and activated the process of Sending the message of Lord Chaitanya all over the world It was he who wrote the book Lord Chaitanya and his teachings His life and precepts and send it copies all over the world and an eminent scholar From Germany came to meet Bhakti Vinod Thakur and said you are saying that this church He used the word church and this church of universal love For God will spread all over the world. How will this happen? He says yes, it will soon happen a powerful commander will come and make it happen.
So he made a prediction We know that when will that day come when people from all over the world will come and practise Krishna Consciousness Chant the names of Jai Satchinandana Gaurahari Jai Satchinandana Gaurahari Therein he was a visionary envisioned the preaching of Krishna Consciousness spreading all over the world And I was innovative He was extremely innovative in his preaching. How is that? We’ll see various different aspects first is with respect to his books Bhakti Vinod Thakur was the first person to bring about a dialogue between Vedic philosophy and Western philosophy with the dialogue being written by a Vedic Acharya. There are many Western scholars who had done such a thing before but he was the first person and His books he compared he had already actually Bhakti Vinod Thakur he manifested his Leela in such a way that Earlier he was agnostic where he did not reveal his his divine identity.
At that time he read practically all the Western philosophy and then after reading the Western philosophy finally he He thought that I should read about Lord Chaitanya. He had heard about Lord Chaitanya and he was attracted in his childhood But the followers of Lord Chaitanya at that time disillusioned him and he thought they will probably not have any philosophy What is the use of reading? So then when he decided let me find out more about Lord Chaitanya. He was mystically attracted so He had to search for six years to get a copy of Chaitanya Charita Amrit.
It becomes so obscure Although it is a philosophical as in the biographical masterpiece is not available only when he got it He understood that among all the teachings that I have studied Bhakti, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings are the highest He felt I was born and brought up in Bengal and I have read literature from all over the world But now I am reading the literature of the Lord who appeared in Bengal and that is the highest So actually this was the Lord’s arrangement by which because he had read all the Western philosophers And then he read Lord Chaitanya and he by his own personal realisation and understanding was convinced about the superiority of Lord Chaitanya So he became the most competent person to Explain the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy and its superiority over the Western philosophy His one particular book Chaitanya Shiksha Amrit That is an amazing book in which he takes one by one the Western philosophers just like Prabhupada has done dialectic spiritualism And of course dialectic spiritualism is little more little informal in the sense that is conversation But Chaitanya Shiksha Amrit is more formal, more serious He takes one by one the philosophies and points out the deficiencies and he points out how the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy is superior At the same time he also had to adopt certain unconventional strategies Because the intellectual hostility To pure devotional service was so much at that time That if he had taught as Krishna is the supreme personality and he had relationship with Gopis which are transcendental No, he would just have been rejected by the intellectual community So he wrote a particular book called Krishna Samhita in which he Presents Krishna consciousness in a way that the modern mind can appreciate so Krishna Samhita is a book like a bridge So in Krishna Samhita he does certain things which No other Acharya can do but what he does is he talks about the Vedic philosophy in terms Which the Western people can understand and then gradually by gaining their faith in his other books He gives the complete Vedic philosophy. So in that sense he was very innovative in his presentation of the philosophy So that was for the Western people But for the Bengali people itself the Bengali and Odiya people they had all these sahaja tendencies so for them he presented that same philosophy through Vaishnava songs and There were all these sahaja groups they would corrupt the philosophy but they would present it in attractive songs and people would get attracted and They would just sing that so he he presented the pure philosophy in in Terms of simple songs which would help the common people to Actually glorify the Lord in a way that they could easily relate to and relish and in this way They were able to take to the path of pure devotional service So actually this is what we see in Maharashtra Tukaram Maharaj did and that’s what Bhaktivinod Thakur did over there on a much much bigger scale in one sense So his Vaishnava songs are his lasting legacy for all of us Most of us have not read Bhaktivinod Thakur’s books, but we have all sung his songs So in this way, we are all Experiencing and relishing the legacy that he has left for us He was also innovative in the sense that he was the first Acharya to bring organisation into the Gaudiya Vaishya Sampradaya. Organisation means systematic preaching So, we know he created the structure with the Namahat, the marketplace of the holy name and with that he actually preached.
He created a structure and the highest person in that That hierarchy is organisational and the top person is the president or the chief executive officer or whatever So here the highest person was called the Bhangi, the sweeper Why? Because he’s sweeping the hearts of the people, Cheto Darpanamal. That is the most difficult thing to do But that hierarchy was there, but it was a transcendental hierarchy with transcendental nomenclature So he created that and much of the preaching even today in Bengal is going on as per the model which Bhaktivinod Thakur has set up. So in this way, he created organisation and Prabhupada before he departed He said that the Krishna Consciousness movement was spread by organisational intelligence So Prabhupada writes that the Krishna Consciousness movement in its pure form was restarted by Bhaktivinod Thakur Restarted by Bhaktivinod Thakur And of course Bhaktivinod Thakur was non-compromising Although he was kind-hearted, although he was very gentle and loving but as unflinching in preaching the message of the absolute truth His position was very unique.
As I said the British government now they Wanted some Hindu in their administration who would control the Hindus So for example, there was as we know Bishak Sen who was pretending to be God and he was doing immoral and dangerous things this Bishak Sen was a Was a very peculiar personality He claimed that he was an avatar of Mahavishnu Who has in he was asked where in the scriptures is it said? He said no, this is an emergency avatar That’s why because I have come to this world to save the great land of India from the oppressive Raj of the British So in this way, he can combine the idea of his divinity with the patriotic feelings prevalent at that time And there are two other people over there who are also claiming to be Vishnu So but he became more popular. So he adopted them. He said you become Brahma you become Shiva So Brahma Vishnu and Shiva incarnated to save India from British Raj So that was their idea now because they were Making patriotic sounds they became very popular among the people and also they all had mystic powers By which they could cure sick people and show some miracles So because the common people were with them the British government could not touch them And the British government Decided to engage Bhaktivinod Thakur Bhaktivinod Thakur had his own plan His plan was how can his plan in exposing Vishak Sen was how can an ordinary Jeeva claim to be God and Distract ordinary people from the worship of the real God to himself.
That is the greatest offence So Bhaktivinod Thakur He had his hideout in The forest where people would go to him and Bhaktivinod Thakur went there and a person was a mystic. Oh Babu Kedarnath You are welcome. I was knowing that you are going to come.
A person like you is very useful for me. When I become the king of India, I will make you the Prime Minister of India So Bhaktivinod Thakur just laughed and he said You are not going to become the king you are going to go to the prison now He says I am Jagannath. I am God Oh, if you are Jagannath, then why have you left your temple? Why are you staying? Homeless in a jungle like this.
He says There is no Jagannath in the temple. There is just wood over there. Bhaktivinod Thakur got angry.
He said catch him Arrest him. He had come. Actually he wanted the policeman to come with him but the policeman was afraid to go So they got hundred policemen to arrest one person So they brought a hundred policemen and they went to catch him and he made sparks from his body and everybody came frightened And they fled.
So Bhaktivinod Thakur went and caught him himself and handcuffed him. He says do you not know who I am? I will destroy you. He said I know who you are Bhaktivinod Thakur said and caught him And they brought a bullock cart and put him in the bullock cart, tied him up And they went back and as he was going he was cursing and threatening just see what will happen to you He says and finally actually all this was happening in front of his followers So when they caught him, when Bhaktivinod Thakur caught him, then the other policeman came and caught him So he did not want to be disgraced in front of his followers.
So he said, okay, okay You are my Bhakta and I am the Bhakta Vatsal Lord. So if you want me to go to jail, I will come with you So Bhaktivinod Thakur said we will say who is what. Come.
Bhaktivinod Thakur caught him And they took him to the jail and in the jail he started fasting He abstained from water and food so that he could get mystic power And then actually at that time this created a very great uproar among the common people Bhaktivinod Thakur became unpopular among the people and the people the followers of the of this Bishak Sen They they inflamed the masses and all of them together They started doing morchas. So when the court hearing was going on outside the common people outside they were doing morchas He says how can you arrest such a great person? You know, he’s an incarnation of God and they were actually condemning Bhaktivinod Thakur So we see that it could have been so easy. Bhaktivinod Thakur just wanted to be popular He could just have said okay arrest him.
What do I have to do with him? We see that Prabhupada was also ready to court unpopularity To expose people who are claiming to be God in the mundane vision They might be respectable but in the spiritual point of view Despite all the social service that they are doing despite all the miracle that they’re showing their claim to be God makes them Very sinful So on the third day Bhaktivinod Thakur’s daughter Got terribly sick. Actually the hearing was going on and they said just go and see Bishak Sen What is happening at your home and his daughter had severe fever and she was on the verge of death And his wife begged him you leave him alone Now, otherwise our daughter will die Bhaktivinod Thakur was firm. He said let all of us die, but I will not let this wretch who claims to be God to escape Then the court judgement went for many days and last day that I believe it was 18th day He used all his mystic power He was doing the fasting and he was trying to actually attack Bhaktivinod Thakur But Bhaktivinod Thakur was protected by the Lord and That’s why he first attacked his daughter by his mystic power Now finally on the 18th, they used all his mystic power and when Bhaktivinod Thakur got up He couldn’t get up.
He had severe chest pain. He couldn’t even move his hands and legs, but he was determined so actually they got a stretcher and a stretcher they took him to the Carriage and the stretcher lying down he went to the court and somehow They took him in the stretcher to the court seat and he sat down over there and he was hearing and at that time One of the British officers over there, Bhaktivinod Thakur indicated to him and He understood that all the mystic power of this yogi is kept in his hair So as this he was going for the hearing, they caught him from behind and shaved him up And as soon as he shaved him up Yogi was looking very erect and sort of effulgent. He just crumbled completely And he crumbled and he became completely weak Outside all these morchas were going on, condemning Bhaktivinod Thakur, but when he collapsed completely He had been fasting for all this day That was the only mystic power that was holding him and he had kept it reserved, stored in his hair.
That was cut off He lost, crumbled. Then the people understood that he is not God. He is just a yogi and he has lost his yogic power then they all, then Bhaktivinod Thakur gave the judgement and he was put in jail and He died in the jail itself because he was disgraced and he had lost all his power and then the people understood That actually Bhaktivinod Thakur was doing a great service for them and they were doing a disservice But Bhaktivinod Thakur was always non-compromising Similarly the British government put him in charge of the Jagannath temple so that The king of Jagannath at that time was embezzling the treasury of Jagannath He was using the treasury for his own royal luxury and They put him in charge and he made all strict timings for worship.
He disciplined all the Pandas and then when there was no treasury there He proved that the king had Embezzled the treasury so he told the king either We’ll put you in jail or from now on from your royal treasury you have to sponsor the Chappan Bhog of Jagannath So he chose the second option to save himself from the jail, but because he was the second option His treasury started depleting And he got wild he wanted to kill Bhaktivinod Thakur But because Bhaktivinod Thakur was in the government and the king was like under the government at that time He couldn’t do that. So he performed a Shiva Mahayagyam and he employed hundred Brahmins to offer Ahuti and it was a seven-day Yagya performed by hundred Brahmins at the end of which Avatar would come and they would go and attack and kill Bhaktivinod Thakur. The news went to Bhaktivinod Thakur and Bhaktivinod Thakur Was fearless.
He took shelter of the Shrimad Bhagavatam and the seventh day the final Ahuti was given and The moment when Bhaktivinod Thakur was supposed to die the king’s own prince fell down dead What happened is the Avatar came and tried to go and kill Bhaktivinod Thakur But Bhaktivinod Thakur was protected by Lord Vishnu. The Avatar went back and killed the person who performed the Yagya on him So he was unflinching Non-compromising and the Lord protected him And then Bhaktivinod Thakur was an opportunist. He took every opportunity.
It’s very amazing as I mentioned earlier You know, he took employment in the British government so that he could give respectability and he was such a good magistrate that when that Wherever he wanted transfer, you know, he wanted to he actually sometimes we have to take leave from our jobs to go for Yatras But when he wanted to go to Dham, he would just get transferred to that Dham And if the government would say that no, we cannot transfer you there, he said I resign. No, no, we want you there You go wherever you want, but you stay in our government Like that he went to he was in Krishnagarh. Then he was in Puri.
Then he was near Vrindavan and So for him actually his employment was just an excuse for Spreading the mission, rejuvenating and spreading the mission of Lord Chaitanya and of course when he saw that he was ageing and still he wanted to preach Then he exemplified how dharma viruddho bhuteshu kamo smibhara darshaba. He prayed to the Lord, my dear Lord Please send a son of Lord Vishnu, ray of Vishnu and then the great Acharya Bhaktasiddhanta Saraswati Thakur appeared so There are two ways to preach. One is that we go and make conditioned souls into devotees Other is we get devotees from other places to be born in our families so Bhaktivinoda Thakur took this and he brought the great Acharya Bhaktasiddhanta Thakur into this world And of course D is his devotion.
Right from his childhood when he was a small child his grandfather was a great devotee and by the association of his grandfather, he was very attracted to devotional service and One day his mother told him that when you go to the fields, there may be ghosts. So you chant the name of Ram So he said from that day the name of Ram never left my tongue. Constantly he would be chanting from childhood itself the name of Ram And afterwards when he re-manifested his devotion, then he himself built the temple of Gaurav Vaishnupriya in 1895 and then he wrote so many books, preached to so many people and in 1906 he took Babaji Vaas He decided that.
No, he retired from his life and as he started living, he took on the Vaish of a Babaji Vaish and started living like that. In 1910 He went into nirjan bhajan. 1906-1910 also he was meeting people and instructing them.
But in 1910-1912, in material vision He told that I have got epilepsy So that you avoid the association of materialistic people. And what was his mood? His mood was that the Lord Chaitanya has come to give the holy name and Flood the whole world with love of God. So if by my intense chanting of the holy names I can manifest, I can make the Lord manifest His holy name, that holy name will act as a magnet and attract conditioned souls from all over to come to Navadvipaham, Ayodhya.
And for four years, he was constantly chanting There is that name plate. There is that plate. Some of you may have seen it.
What he wrote at that time The holy name is the conclusion of the Vedas. The holy name is the purpose of tapasya. The holy name is the food, water and Everything for a sadhaka.
The holy name is the be-all and end-all. It’s an amazing glorification. When you read that, it appears there is nothing other than the holy name in the world.
And that time he would blindfold himself and put himself in a small cabin and he would just fervently chant, chant, chant, chant. And in this way Just as we have Parishad Maharaj Absorbed in Krishna, he left this world. Bhaktivinoda Thakur also departed on this very day 84 years ago in 1914 He returned back to his eternal constitutional position as Kamal Manjari in the spiritual world So we can pray to Bhaktivinoda Thakur that he give us Inspiration, dedication to receive the gifts that he has given and share it with the world.
So we’ll conclude with the pranam mantra of Bhaktivinoda Thakur Namo Bhaktivinodaya Satchidananda Namine Satchidananda Namine Gaurashakti Swaroopaya Gaurashakti Swaroopaya Roopanuga Varayate Roopanuga Varayate Shila Bhaktivinoda Thakur Ki Shila Bhaktivinoda Thakur Ki Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki Grantharaj Srimad Bhagavatam Ki Shila Prabhupada Ki Shila Prabhupada Ki Gaurabhakta Vrindaki Itai Gaur Premanande So we continue with the six elements after him