mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Om namo bhagavate vāsudevaya!
Om namo bhagavate vāsudevaya!
Om namo bhagavate vāsudevaya!

Srimad-Bhagavatam, 1.2.7

vāsudeve agavati
bhakti-yogaḥ prayojitaḥ
janayaty āśu vairāgyaṁ
jñānaṁ ca yad ahaitukam

Translation

By rendering devotional service unto the Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, one immediately acquires causeless knowledge and detachment from the world.

Purport: Those who consider devotional service to the Supreme Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa to be something like material emotional affairs may argue that in the revealed scriptures, sacrifice, charity, austerity, knowledge, mystic powers and similar other processes of transcendental realization are recommended. According to them, bhakti, or the devotional service of the Lord, is meant for those who cannot perform the high-grade activities. Generally it is said that the bhakti cult is meant for the śūdras, vaiśyas and the less intelligent woman class. But that is not the actual fact. The bhakti cult is the topmost of all transcendental activities, and therefore it is simultaneously sublime and easy. It is sublime for the pure devotees who are serious about getting in contact with the Supreme Lord, and it is easy for the neophytes who are just on the threshold of the house of bhakti. To achieve the contact of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, is a great science, and it is open for all living beings, including the śūdras, vaiśyas, women and even those lower than the lowborn śūdras, so what to speak of the high-class men like the qualified brāhmaṇas and the great self-realized kings. The other high-grade activities designated as sacrifice, charity, austerity, etc., are all corollary factors following the pure and scientific bhakti cult.

The principles of knowledge and detachment are two important factors on the path of transcendental realization. The whole spiritual process leads to perfect knowledge of everything material and spiritual, and the results of such perfect knowledge are that one becomes detached from material affection and becomes attached to spiritual activities. Becoming detached from material things does not mean becoming inert altogether, as men with a poor fund of knowledge think. Naiṣkarma means not undertaking activities that will produce good or bad effects. Negation does not mean negation of the positive. Negation of the nonessentials does not mean negation of the essential. Similarly, detachment from material forms does not mean nullifying the positive form. The bhakti cult is meant for realization of the positive form. When the positive form is realized, the negative forms are automatically eliminated. Therefore, with the development of the bhakti cult, with the application of positive service to the positive form, one naturally becomes detached from inferior things, and he becomes attached to superior things. Similarly, the bhakti cult, being the supermost occupation of the living being, leads him out of material sense enjoyment. That is the sign of a pure devotee. He is not a fool, nor is he engaged in the inferior energies, nor does he have material values. This is not possible by dry reasoning. It actually happens by the grace of the Almighty. In conclusion, one who is a pure devotee has all other good qualities, namely knowledge, detachment, etc., but one who has only knowledge or detachment is not necessarily well acquainted with the principles of the bhakti cult. Bhakti is the supermost occupation of the human being.”

* * *

Jayapatākā Swami: So this is a very important verse. Śrīla Prabhupāda based his preaching on these verses. By engaging the devotees around the world in devotional service, they automatically develop spiritual knowledge and detachment.

So today, is the appearance day of His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. He was born in a very rich family and he got educated in English and Bengali. So he was able to take up different projects from different books, in English. So he wanted to spread Lord Caitanya’s movement all over the world. At first, as he saw that the Vaiṣṇava dharma of Śrī Caitanya had fallen to disrepute, because of different apasampradāyas, or each claiming to be the bona fide Caitanya followers. But they were doing various immoral acts, and they did not have proper philosophy, I don’t want to go into the details. But they all had some very wrong ideas.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was trying to find a copy of the Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta. But he could not find it. That was how the movement of Lord Caitanya had fallen into such disrepute. So Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he finally understood that the pure movement of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was actually what fulfills all this verse in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Engage people in pure devotee service of Lord Kṛṣṇa, Lord Govinda and thus people naturally develop transcendental knowledge and detachment from worldliness. So Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, he decided not to do business because in business, people have to, a certain extent cheat and lie. At first, he started to be a schoolteacher. Because he thought that it was an ideal idea to maintain his family, he got married when he was 12 years old. Then he quickly became the headmaster of various schools, and he wrote some books in Odisha, on all the holy places in Odisha, in English, and so on. So he was the headmaster in Midnapore and different parts of Odisha. And somehow the British decided to hire him as a member of the Indian Administrative Services, and he became the first administrator of the Jagannātha Purī temple. At that time, he and his wife prayed to Lord Jagannātha, they could have a ray of Viṣṇu, they could have a pure devotee as their son. And Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he was born to them and they gave him the name Bimalaprasada. Since all the Jagannātha prasad is offered to Bimalā devī, and then to the public. So when Jagannātha’s Ratha came in front of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s house, it stopped. So, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s wife came out with the baby, and offered him at the lotus feet of Lord Jagannātha. So then Lord Jagannātha’s garland fell over the baby.

So like this, he wanted to find out what was the actual birthplace of Lord Caitanya. So he was transferred to Nadia district, and he took up his residence in Svarūpagañja. Then from there he would go every day by horse buggy to Krishna Nagar. In those days the magistrates were simultaneously administrative and judicial. He would go and would try cases, and he would also see to the administration. So, apparently, he did the cases very quickly and none of his cases were overturned in the High Court, because he followed the law very meticulously. At the same time, then he was trying to locate where the actual birthplace of Lord Caitanya was - then he saw a light from Śrī Māyāpur. And he realized that that was the birthplace of Lord Caitanya. Because it is said that Lord Caitanya’s kīrtana would disturb the Chand Kazi. And the Chand Kazi’s place was known, that was in Bamana Pukur. It is about a km away. So it was reasonable that the kīrtana of Lord Caitanya, the sound could reach a kilometer. Some people were saying that the birthplace is in the present town of Navadvīpa. That is about 4 or 5 km. Not reasonable that the sound would reach the Chand Kazi. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura took Jagannātha dāsa bābājī, in a basket on his head, and he went to the place where he had seen the light. He asked the local people, “What is this place?” They said that, “This place is cursed! Whatever we grow, simply tulasī comes up. Eggplant, tomato nothing grows only tulasī.” Then he walked to the Tulasī forest with Jagannātha dāsa bābājī on his head. At a certain point, Jagannātha dāsa bābājī was 113 years old, he was very old, his eyes were kept open with match sticks, he could hardly walk. So he was being carried on a basket. At a particular point, he started jumping up, “Haribol! Haribol!” So like a transcendental  guide [inaudible word], he revealed the exact place of Lord Caitanya’s appearance and they called it Yoga-piṭhā, the place where the Lord touched the earth from the spiritual world. So Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura since he was a magistrate, he didn’t want to take big donations, because people may use it as some kind of a bribe. So he only would take one rupee from each person. Of course, at that time a rupee was bit more valuable, but still it was a very modest amount. So he went to 30,000 people and collect one rupee each, to build the first facility at the birthplace. And built a grass hut of Jagannātha Miśra and Śacīmātā.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura he organized his life very systematically. Every day, he would give certain amount of time for his family, he would do his appointments, he would chant his japa, write his books, write songs, meet devotees. He had everything scheduled when he would do what. When you see his time-scheduling, you see that, he beats all the modern time management gurus! His time was unbelievably perfect.

So he also established the preaching movement. At that time, he had recognized that Lord Nityānanda had started the Nāmahaṭṭa. And that had fallen by the wayside. So he restarted the Nāmahaṭṭa. That we have written a book called Godruma Kalpāṭavī, which has details of some of the principles of Nāmahaṭṭa. So Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had established his Nāmahaṭṭa all over Bengal and Odisha. It was also mentioned by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura. But he established 64 Gauḍīya Maṭhas. He mentioned the Nāmahaṭṭa, but we did not find much remnants of Nāmahaṭṭa. I found two prapanna-āśramas in south Bengal, and those were originally established by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. So taking the blessings of Śrīla Prabhupāda, and his godbrothers, we re-restarted the Nāmahaṭṭa. So right now, we have all over the world, about 10,000 Nāmahaṭṭas. I don’t have the exact number. And then from the urban Nāmahaṭṭa, we started the Bhakti-vṛkṣa groups, which are like small Nāmahaṭṭas in the urban areas. So in this way Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had written many books. He wrote the Life and Teachings of Lord Caitanya. He sent that to different places like Canada, Australia. I also saw a copy at the McGill university. He had made the Bhakti Kuṭīr in Purī, and we are very fortunate that we got that, we are renting it form the Bengal Government.

I heard that when Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was a magistrate in the Nadia district, he oversaw a particular competition where different students of different schools were doing athletic competitions. So he had to do many things on behalf of the Government. In his spare time, he would be researching the books of Lord Caitanya and preaching. So in this way, we see in this verse by engaging in the devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, one immediately achieves causeless knowledge and detachment from the world. So His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, taking the inspiration from Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, his Guru Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, he spread the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement all over the world, teaching the people to engage in devotional service to Kṛṣṇa.

So Śrīla Prabhupāda went to Bir Nagar and said that we should do something at the birthplace of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. At that time his guru’s brother, Lalitā Prasāda was present. So he discussed with him and initially there was some agreement that they would jointly do something to develop the birthplace. But the committee, or the advisory they cancelled. So then Śrīla Prabhupāda became very impatient. Then he asked, “Isn’t it sinful? You cannot develop the birthplace of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and then you don’t cooperate with the people who can develop it? So is it not sinful?” Because he took Lalitā Prasāda, the brother of his guru, he took him as his guru-varga. But he said, “I asked a question. A question is not offensive. I didn’t say, ‘you are sinful.’ I just asked a question, ‘isn’t it sinful?’” So like that Prabhupāda was instructing us how we should be respectful, but if we see anything illogical, we can ask questions. So, that birthplace is a little developed from what it was, but there is still much more that can be done. And considering that Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was such a great visionary, we should glorify him in an eloquent manner. When Śrīla Prabhupāda saw, the Gauḍīya Maṭha, Yoga-Piṭhā, when they erected a temple of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura on the entrance way, Śrīla Prabhupāda said they are keeping Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura as a darbān. He should be given a very big temple, a big position, not at the doorway, a little temple. Anyway, Śrīla Prabhupāda had a very great appreciation for Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. And we were happy to visit the temple of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura in Godrumadvīpa. Also the Surabhi-kuñja. And today we are having the SGVA meeting on Zoom, Sārasvata Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Association. That we have this morning from 9.30 to 12.30. So I am very happy that all the Gauḍīya Maṭhas and all the ISKCON are gathering to glorify His Divine Grace Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura.

So the basis of our Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement is the desire of His Divine Grace Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. He predicted which is written in the Bhaktivinoda Vāṇī Vaibhava that one day it will happen when the kīrtana of Lord Caitanya will be in Russia, France and London, in Americas. And people will be chanting, “Jaya Śacīnandana! Jaya Śacīnandana!” with karatālas and mṛdaṅgas. He also predicted that foreigners will come from overseas and participate in the Navadvīpa parikramā. And that they would join with the Indian parikramā party and embrace them and chant, “Jaya Śacīnandana!” Without considering any caste consciousness or any material distinction. And seeing that he wrote that during the British time when the British were looking down on the Indians, that it was something inconceivable. But he had this vision, and he was seeing how the different religions have locked themselves in a fortress like a sectarian fort. Somehow, they didn’t understand that there is only one God, and that there may be different ways of serving Him, approaching Him. So he was a true visionary and revolutionary, to see how the different religions of the world could cooperate together on the basis of theism. And still we are yet to achieve that. Although there are different attempts at interfaith programs. So, his establishing of the true philosophy of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, changed the whole system. And that was further propagated by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, and then by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, who brought it all over the world.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura said, that someone would come, and he would easily travel from one continent to another and spread the movement of Lord Caitanya. At that time there was no idea of planes, and the way you could travel from one continent to another was only by ship. That was not very fast. So he said that someone would come and he would easily go from one continent to another. So it seems that he was predicting the coming of Śrīla Prabhupāda. At that time when we had the airplanes, so he visited different continents. He went to every continent in the world. He went to Australia, all over Europe, all over Asia, all over Africa, Latin America, America, Canada, and Japan everywhere. So he travelled around the world 12 to 14 times. And this is all predicted by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. That someone would come and do this service. So on this day of his appearance we are very happy to be observing, and that is depicting in this verse of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam by engaging in the pure devotional service to Kṛṣṇa, one naturally develops knowledge and detachment from the material world. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Are there any questions?

Cidānanda Nimāi dāsa: Hare Kṛṣṇa Gurudev! We have a humble clarification. How can we practically adopt time management following in the footsteps of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, knowing well that our mind is not willing to stay in a single place?

Jayapatākā Swami: Just like Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, we have to make our devotional service as our priority. Because as a gṛhastha, he had to give time for everything. He had to do his work, had to guide his family, had to do some service, had to do some japa, he wrote his books. According to your services, your make a time schedule and stick to you. That was the example shown by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, He did not space out. He stuck to his program.

Question: While preaching to smārta-brāhmaṇas often times it becomes difficult to make them unlearn and learn newly, the teachings of Lord Caitanya. How should we practically deal with such challenges? – Gaurāṅga Prasāda dāsa.

Jayapatākā Swami: You see, smārtas have a very partial understanding of the Vedas. And many smārtas who met the disciples of Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura, and others. Actually, the Vedas are very clear. That we should do devotional service. Somehow, they never see those verses and they don’t actually have answers to these questions, which come up. So by knowing the śāstras you can defeat the smārtas. Today they all believe in the śāstra, but they don’t know about devotional service. So if you know the śāstra, you can show how the Bhagavad-gītā, the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, the different Vedas, how bhakti is most important.

Just like Pārvatī in I think it was the Śiva Purāṇa asked Lord Śiva, “What is the best worship?” Sometimes we don’t use these verses from other Purāṇas. But the smārtas they are very attached to these  different Purāṇas. Sometimes we can say this message like what Lord Śiva said: ārādhanānāṁ sarveṣāṁ viṣṇor ārādhanaṁ param - of all types of worship, Viṣṇu worship is the best, with one exception, tasmāt parataraṁ devī tadīyānāṁ samarcanam -  those objects, persons, connected to Viṣṇu, worship of them is more beneficial. So today, worshiping Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura may be more beneficial. Because Lord Kṛṣṇa is very pleased, when you worship His devotees. We recently observed the Rādhāṣṭamī, and She is very dear to Kṛṣṇa by worshipping Her, we please Kṛṣṇa more.

Sujitendriya dāsa: Very humbly want to ask, what would Śrīla Prabhupāda comment if he saw that hundreds of people are walking with shoes to Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Bhajan Kuṭīr “Bhakti Kuṭīr” which has turned into a restaurant?

Jayapatākā Swami: Interesting question. On the first floor, there is a temple of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa and Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. Everyone leaves their shoes and goes up. In the temple, no one wears shoes. But it is an interesting point. To maintain the temple, they have a restaurant of kṛṣṇa-prasādam. So I don’t know if they take off their shoes or not. But it is an interesting point.

Thank you very much. Hare Kṛṣṇa!

Today I want to mention that our dear godsister, Ramādevī dāsī, she left her body this morning at 3.30 am. She had a terminal cancer. Somehow, I was very fortunate, I went to see her by Zoom last night. We were very hopeful that she would recover. Her oxygen assimilation was going down, but a machine to help her was coming from Kolkata. I don’t know what happened, but she left her body last night at 3.30 am, in the auspicious brāhma-muhūrta. So we will have some smṛti-sabhā for her after some days. And they are supposed to announce the final rites. Hare Kṛṣṇa!