Bhakisiddhanta – Pioneer in using institution for outreach

On this sacred occasion let’s briefly meditate on one of his many contributions he was the first person in our tradition to implement an institutional structure for giving widespread forum for spreading Gaudiya Vaishnavism in a widespread way Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself never started any organization he did not even appoint any successors Gaudiya Vaishnavism was very widespread at his time also by his personal effulgence and his charisma Now Rupa Goswami and after Jiva Goswami they envisioned the Vishwa Vaishnava Rajya Sabha as a forum for sharing Gaudiya Vaishnavism but it never was a properly institutionalized structure so in terms of institutional theory Gaudiya Vaishnavism was a soft institutional structure where people were just aligned according to doctrine but not much institutional sort of control was there so the first Acharya who encountered modernity within our Gaudiya Vaishnav tradition was Bhaktivinod Thakur and he envisioned an elaborate structure for the Namahatta for the shock of the holy name but again he was extremely busy writing his books, doing his professional responsibilities as a magistrate and also in his family responsibilities he actually did not implement this it was Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur who for the first time implemented institutionalization in the movement by the time of Shri Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur the Christian missionaries in India had gained enormous influence by changing their strategy from confrontation to education earlier they had been confronting and denigrating Hindu rituals but they found that Hindus were not getting too affected and converted by that so they went into education and they had a structure they started convent schools but along with that they started structure even for sharing Christianity through their institutional mechanism so Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur adopted that in fact before Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur there were impersonalist monks also who adopted that Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur brought it into Gaudiya Vaishnavism and through that he did phenomenal preaching Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur actually if we see he preached for just about 18 years 1919 he took sanyas and before that his preaching was limited in 1905 even when Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur was there Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur initiated his first disciple with the blessings of his father and his spiritual master both but after he took sanyas thereafter his mission started vigorously and in just 18 years at a time when India was caught in the passion of the independence movement so at that time to actually share spiritual message and inspire people to practice spirituality was extremely challenging but Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur did that and he established 64 centers in India and one center in Rangoon in Burma, one center in Dhaka in Bangladesh and one center in Hamburg in Germany Hamburg center was small but still it was a phenomenal amount of outreach he did of course Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur was not oblivious to the dangers of institutionalization and towards the end of his life he gave a strong lecture talking about how Putana came appearing like a nurse but her intention was to suck away the life of Krishna or rather to poison Krishna so he said similarly the institutional structure should actually be nourishing the spirit of devotion it should not poison the spirit of devotion and he emphasized what will ensure that the institution strengthens rather than weakens the missionary outreach he said that is the attitude of selfless service to the extent the devotees especially those who get positions and powers within an institution to the extent they remember that the position and power is not the goal to the extent they remember that devotion and sharing devotion is the goal to that extent institution will remain a powerful and effective tool for sharing Gaudiya Vaishnavism and as we are all a part of the Krishna Consciousness movement which we have got from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Thakur through his illustrious disciple Srila Prabhupada we can also meditate on not just the gift of the institution that he gave but also the purpose of that gift and indeed the purpose of life itself and by seeking his blessings on this holy day for keeping that spirit of selfless service alive and active in our hearts we can also benefit from the institution and share the benefit of Krishna Consciousness