Bhaktisiddhanta S T appearance – Faithfulness to tradition includes faithfulness to the tradition’s flexibility

Whose values have been so on the sacred occasion of the appearance day of Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Swaisthakur let’s contemplate on one of his distinctive contributions which illustrates the dynamism of parampara of tradition many people think that to be faithful to a tradition means to be to do things exactly the way they have been done in the past that is certainly one understanding of tradition but if you look back at tradition historically we will see that tradition itself is not something which is static which is always the same tradition itself keeps changing constantly not in terms of its central core but in terms of its periphery the way in which it expresses itself and connects with people and attracts people and benefits people so the benefit comes from the central potency being made available accessible relevant and relishable for the people so tradition also has flexibility as a part of it and faithfulness to the tradition includes faithfulness to the flexibility to the tradition also if one is faithful only to the unchangeability or the rigidity of the tradition then one is actually not being faithful to the complete tradition by being faithful only to the unchangeability of the tradition one may well become unfaithful to the flexibility of the tradition and if one becomes unfaithful to the flexibility of the tradition, then one is faithful to the tradition itself.
So it requires an Acharya to understand what is the essence and how that essence is to be presented at different times. Now in the case of Shri Bhaktisanth Thakur, he was a revolutionary Acharya in practically every sense of the word and he did not fear taking up positions that were unpopular if they were what were required for spreading Krishna’s message properly. So for example, Bhaktisanth Thakur, when he was preaching, he found that there were several Gauriya Vaishnavas who were preaching in their own way but their preaching was not working out to be effective in terms of conveying the pure Suddhanta properly.
So he did not hesitate to point out the flaws in their understandings as compared to the understandings which were given in the scriptures. So in this, he was much more radical than was his father and grand spiritual master Bhaktivinod Thakur. Bhaktivinod Thakur reclaimed the Gauriya tradition and brought it respectability because of his respectable Bhadraloka position in society.
But once that respectability had been brought, then after that vibrancy and potency needed to be brought and that required shaking up things. So Bhaktisanth Thakur was ready to do that and to do whatever it takes to ensure that Gauriya Vaishnavism had the necessary respectability. So what exactly was required and what exactly did he do? That itself would become a not just a subject of whole class but even a whole book and actually to talk about the glories of Acharyas like Bhaktisanth Thakur, even a book would not be enough.
But suffice it to say that he radically altered the form so that it could become more appealing and effective to people. One of the things he did was to introduce the Sannyas Ashram. It was not exactly to introduce, actually it was to reintroduce because Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu himself had taken Sannyas and Sannyas is definitely an integral part of the overall Gauriya Vaishnav tradition in terms of its founder itself taking it.
But thereafter because the Goswamis had been considered outcasts due to their having served the Mlecchas, so in conservative Indian society they would not have been given Sannyas and that’s why it was decided that they would not disrupt that social order and they would not take Sannyas but they decided to take Babaji Vesh and because the Goswamis took Babaji Vesh, therefore most of the Gauriya Vaishnavas considering the Goswamis to be their foremost leaders did not want to do something different, something which might be misunderstood to be higher than theirs and take Sannyas. So because the Goswamis took Babaji Vesh, so subsequent Goswamis, subsequent Vaishnavas, Gauriya Vaishnavas who took Sannyas, who renounced the world, on renouncing the world they did not accept Sannyas Ashram, they accepted Babaji Vesh. But unfortunately due to the many wrong things which the Babajis were doing, wearing the garb of Babaji but doing illicit activities, because of that the Babaji Vesh had fallen to disrepute, whereas because of the Mayavadis preaching and Sannyas Ashram and bringing respectability to the Sannyas Ashram, Sannyas Ashram itself was considered respectable increasingly by mainstream in the society and even by the world which started becoming familiar with the glory of Vedic wisdom or Hindu wisdom as it was thinking it to be.
So now, Bhaktishanth Thakur therefore reintroduced Sannyas and if we see his preaching was quite vibrant about this point. Bhaktivinod Thakur lived as a Grihastha and then eventually in the later stage of his life he took Babaji Vesh and then he was living as a Grihastha. He focused primarily on encouraging devotees to people to live respectable Grihastha lives and although he had a healthy respect for the Babajis especially those Babajis were practicing properly and he fostered that respect among others whom he came in contact with but still he himself did not strongly recommend the Sannyas Ashram.
So now we may say that Bhaktishanth Thakur, a disciple or a grand disciple is supposed to follow the spiritual master. So how is it that somebody can do something which the spiritual master or grand spiritual master has not done or not mentioned also. So none of the predecessors or Acharyas or Sannyasis, none of them had endorsed Sannyas.
So we have to understand that ultimately sharing Krishna consciousness in this world is like fighting a war and when a war is to be fought the ground reality has to always be considered while deciding the right strategy. If one does not consider the ground reality then one ends up doing something which will not be effective in winning the war. That means if a warrior is fighting a war and that warrior is just repeating some formula which has been used by an army elsewhere.
It’s not likely that that formula will lead to success because wars are not necessarily fought in identical situations. So the general has to be experienced enough and the soldiers have to respect and trust the general enough so that they will know so that they will follow general and the general comes up with a strategy that is appropriate for fighting in that particular war. So the Acharya is like that general and then seeing the circumstance the Acharya comes up with the right way of presenting the message so that the forces of illusion can be curbed and countered.
So Bhaktishanth Thakur in this sense he was quite flexible. Many of the things which Bhaktivinod Thakur had done, Bhaktivinod Thakur had for example focused a good amount of his time on preaching about the advanced stages of Gaudiya Vaishnavism about Raga Marga although he himself did not practice it in the latest days of his life but he did talk about it. Bhaktivinod Thakur however saw that that Marga was likely to be misutilized and therefore he said that this is definitely true and it is exalted but it is not for us and we have to be very cautious if we try to adopt that Marga right away we may get ourselves into trouble.
So he said that that is a integral part of our tradition but that has to be put aside. You cannot use it right away and in this way he brought coherence, he brought balance, he brought relevance and potency to the tradition by doing what was required, what was best for sharing its message and that’s how he was able to affect people. Krishnasambandhanigyanadaineprabhavenamaha and our own Shila Prabhupada followed in the footsteps of Shila Bhaktivinod Thakur and he followed in the footsteps in the sense that not only did he have that same missionary spirit, not only did he have that same tremendous compassion for people but he also had that understanding of flexibility and we see that Shila Prabhupada also did things according to what was necessary.
Bhakti Sanjh Thakur would often preach in shirt pant and he told his disciples when they went abroad, you go in shirt pant. But Prabhupada did things differently. Now he himself went to dhoti kurta and he expected, he taught his disciples to wear dhoti kurta.
Now why was that? The way it worked out historically, Prabhupada went at a time when the counterculture was there and people were ready and eager to try out new things and try out radically new things and wearing dhoti kurta, dhoti was like wearing a blanket around one’s leg, was quite a radical thing for people to do and Prabhupada insisted on that and he was proud of the disciples doing that and he achieved success. Bhakti Sanjh Thakur would wear dhoti kurta. In fact, would wear shirt pant also.
In fact, he would wear even silken clothes, quite opulent clothes, as a sannyasi, stitched clothes which the ordinary sannyasis are not expected to wear. So we see that, we see Bhakti Sanjh Thakur himself was a magistrate and he would wear the garb of magistrate when he would go as a magistrate for work. So the point is that the dress is important but at the same time it’s not all important.
So Shri Prabhupada in one sense did not do what his spiritual master did. Shri Bhakti Sanjh Thakur would never have pictures on his books but Prabhupada had pictures on his books and he considered them a very important part of the content of his books. Why was that? Because he felt that those pictures would bring a visual appeal that would not, that was, that would be lost if the pictures were not there and a visual appeal would increase the comprehensibility and accessibility of the message for the people.
So he in fact encouraged all the artists to draw pictures and he expected his books to have pictures within them. So we see that in the Acharya’s life there is this dynamism which is a response to the social situations but did not respond that is shaped by social situation. There is a response that is shaped by the super soul in the heart and that super soul in the heart guides the Acharya to preserve the essence while at the same time to shape the periphery in a way that will appeal to the people around those, around him in those times.
So on the appearance day of Acharya like this, we can pray to them for their mercy so that we receive the gift, that precious gift that they have given us and that we use this gift for its supreme perfection, that we use it to develop love for Krishna and to share that love for Krishna with others.