2006 About the Birthplace of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, Birnagar

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami about the birthplace of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura - Birnagar in 2006.

Jayapatākā Swami: Well, Śrīla Prabhupāda told us that Lalitā Prasāda Ṭhākura, who was the brother of his spiritual master oṁ viṣṇupāda Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, it was… became strained at a certain time, there was. And they parted ways. Otherwise, for a while they were together. So Śrīla Prabhupāda made a courtesy call to see him. I had been sent to go there ahead of time to find out the situation with Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s birthplace. Because he was living in a place called Dvādaśa Mandira at Birnagar. And this is called Dvādaśa Mandir, because there are twelve Śiva temples, all very little, small, beautiful little temples lined up in a row – and that is mean, you get the (name) Dvādaśa Mandir. And Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura spent a good section of his childhood there. There is a tree (under which), mango tree under which he was seated. It’s a very beautiful place. And so went to see... So I had initially talked with Lalitā Prasāda Ṭhākura and he was… He was agreeable that ISKCON could do something. So then Prabhupāda went there and discussed it with him and it looked like they were going to give us... He had a big, I don’t know exactly what the acreage is, maybe it’s like 25 acres of land and maybe they will give us about half of it, where we could have a temple and do something for Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s birthplace, which was on the side of a little pukur, a little water reservoir. And, but the actual birthplace was a small little temple, where the door was broken off and it was an ill repair. And Prabhupāda was probably crying when he saw that. So initially it seemed that things were working out. And then Prabhupāda went a second time to kind of finalize everything. And Lalitā Ṭhākura, he is a very pure soul. He was like 97-years-old at that time, if not 98. I think he lived to be 101, 102. And he would chant all the day. He would just be chanting nonstop. There were Deities upstairs on the second floor. And he had a library of all kinds of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura books. And there was he had some disciples. And one of his more intimate disciples was a very elderly lady, maybe in her sixties or seventies, was called Bhakti Mā. And it was very impressive to see someone from a whole other era, like another a century ago, you know. And he explained his own history that he had... He was a lifelong brahmacārī never married. He was working for the government till he was maybe in his fifties as a… I forget, which was the employment, something more like a clerical, whitecollar thing with the government and then he retired. And so now he is... Then he… And he was… but even throughout his life, he was doing sādhana-bhakti. It was nice to know that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had more than one child that was active. And he actually had a lot of disciples. So he was doing the Nāma-haṭṭa preaching in Bangladesh and different parts of Bengal. But in a particular area, there was some disciple called Śacīnanda, or Śacīdānanda… Śacīnanda, I think, who was actively preaching in the villages. This was kind of the backdrop. And then he was sitting in this little room on his bed, and he didn’t move. At this age, he didn’t move much. Even he was bathed in his bed. I think he went to the bathroom in his bed. And they would (inaudible) that even though he would go to the toilet there, it smelled like roses, which is not the normal.

Interviewer: Are you experienced that?

Jayapatākā Swami: I experienced. There was no bad smell in the room. I can’t say firsthand you know, but of course, with every person like that, they are surrounded by different people.

And I think that his initial information was as he had agreed with Prabhupāda to do something jointly. But some of his followers had insisted that shouldn’t give it. That is the impression I got. And the second time, when Prabhupāda went there, were driving on the way to Calcutta, and from Māyāpur, it’s about an hour drive from Māyāpur. Then Prabhupāda was given a seat and he was discussing about the developing, the birthplace of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. But this time there was a different mood. And it was indicated that they weren’t agreeable now to giving a part or portion or to have an agreement with ISKCON. And it was obviously they didn’t have the capacity. They do some village preaching. They were enthusiastic in his presence to do some things, but it wasn’t. They didn’t have the capacity or the wherewithal to. Actually develop the birthplace of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. So the Prabhupāda became very impatient. He became very upset that Bhaktivinoda was so great that he deserves to have really such a wonderful facility, a wonderful monument for his greatness. And Prabhupāda had talked about a library, a display, an exhibition, an āśrama, preaching facility, and fixed up his birthplace temple, but also everything was being canceled with no recent, no recent given. Okay, if they could do it, was one thing. So then Prabhupāda, he suddenly became very intense, in a very loud voice, he was saying, “Isn’t it sinful? Isn’t it sinful if somebody can develop the birthplace of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, but you are not allowing,” or was it the opposite? “Isn’t it sinful that you cannot do it? That somebody cannot develop? That if somebody cannot develop the birthplace of Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and they won’t let anyone else, who could develop do it, isn’t that sinful?” And that was quite a few years now. So the question was, they could, they had it, but they couldn’t do it. We could do it, but they didn’t want to let us. So then nothing is going to happen. It’s going to stay status quo. It’s going to stay in undeveloped state. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, still to this day is worse rundown than what it was then. And Prabhupāda repeated this about four or five times, very loudly, almost, I won’t say shouting, but I would say just maybe one level below that, very intensely, loudly declaring, asking as a question. And then nobody said anything. Then he walked out. As he went out, then he turned and there was a few of us, secretaries and assistants, and he said, “Because I asked as a question, there was not an offense.” He was kind. He was talking to someone, brother, godbrother or something, his own spiritual master. But he was put in a situation where Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura… and his point of view was being offended and therefore, he thought he had a right. He said, “I expressed!” He had a right to question it. And by questioning it wasn’t an offense. If he had accused like, you are a nonsense, you are… You didn’t get, you, whatever, something like that would have been offensive, basically. Question, “Isn’t it offensive? Isn’t it offensive? Isn’t it sinful?” So that was an interesting understanding about how somebody can inquire, even if it’s very intensively, but it’s not technically an offense.