20161217 Evening Lecture BSST Disappearance Day

20161217 Evening Lecture BSST Disappearance Day

Gurumaharaj: 

nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhutale

srimate bhaktivedanta-swamin iti namine……….nama om vishnu-padaya krishna-preshthaya bhutale

srimate bhaktivedanta-swamin iti namine (repeated by devotees)

namas te saraswate deve gaura-vani-pracharine

nirvishesha shunyavadi pashchatya desha tarine…….namas te saraswate deve gaura-vani-pracharine

nirvishesha shunyavadi pashchatya desha tarine (repeated by devotees)

sri krsna caitanya prabhu nityananda

sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda……sri krsna caitanya prabhu nityananda

sri advaita gadadhara srivasadi-gaura-bhakta-vrnda (repeated by devotees)

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare…..Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare (repeated by devotees)

Mukam Karoti Vacalam

Pangum Langhayate Girim

Yat Kripa Tamaham Vande

Sri Gurum Dina Tarinam

Paramananda Madhavam

Sri Caitanya Isvaram

Hari Om Tatsat

Namo om visnupadaya Krishnaprestaya bhutale, srimate bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Iti namine.

Today is the disappearance day of Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur. We observe the disappearance day and the appearance day. On the appearance day it’s all about rejoicing and remembering all the glories about guru. On the disappearance day it is a mix of rejoicing in separation. To rejoice that the Lord has taken his devotee back to Him, and remembering all his good activities.

Then we also feel separation because we are deprived of his association. So also on the disappearance day it is natural to think about the other spiritual masters. One time Srila Prabhupada was in Mayapur on the disappearance day of Srila Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur, and he was mentioning how Jagannath Das Babaji was coming to Mayapur, and how he was glorifying the mercy of Lord Caitanya in Mayapur, and how he was carried on the head by Bhakti Vinod Thakur. That time he was over a 110 years old, and he could not walk, not very far at least. There was a place where Bhakti Vinod Thakur had seen a light, and he was sure that that place was the place of birth of Lord Caitanya. He saw, across the jalangi river. So that was about a mile away. So we didn’t know the exact location. He asked the local farmers about the place, and the muslim farmer said, “Oh, that’s a hopeless place. Whatever you grow just Tulasi comes up. You put egg plant, raddish, sag, whatever you put, only Tulasi comes up. Useless  place.”

So Bhaktivinod Thakur was sure that this must be the birth place of Lord Caitanya, but which was the exact place? That was about a six acre which was tulasi. So he walked back and forth, carrying Jagannath Das Babaji on his head. When they got to one location Jagannath Das Babaji started to jump up and down, saying, “Hari Bol… Hari Bol…. Hari bol..” …“Hari Bol… Hari Bol…. Hari bol..” (repeated by devotees). Although he couldn’t walk, he was jumping up and down.

Hari Bol… Hari Bol (everyone)

So in this way they found, this is the place, this is the place of Lord Caitanya’s appearance. The Prabhupada described how Gaura Kishore Babaji came to Nabadwip, and how Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur made a temple there. Bhaktivinod Thakur made the small temple, and Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur made the large temple. So he described all the ways that Srila Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur tried to propagate Lord Caitanya’s birth place, and the Prabhupada mentioned that he was also trying to do something to develop Mayapur Dham, and then he said that he was very grateful to those who were helping him, and then Prabhupada choked up and began to cry. That was on the disappearance day of Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur.

So Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur appeared in Jagannath Puri. Bhaktivinod Thakur prayed, his wife prayed to Jagannath to have a pure devotee as his son. So Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur was sent down from the spiritual world to establish Krishna Consciousness in the world, and he had all the symptoms of a maha purush. His hands went down to the knees, ajana labhito bhujo, and he had three marks on his neck like a conchshell. He was born with his umbilical cord around his neck like a brahman thread, and there are some quotations in the sastras that says that one person will come and unite all the sampradayas, and that person would be born in Jagannath Puri. So in his Caitanya Math, he has his four sampradayas.

In the Padma Purana it says that unless you achieve mantras from one of these four sampradayas your mantra would be nisphala. So he was a great scholar and was given the name Siddhantha Saraswati. He was a brahmachari his whole life, he never married, and for some time he studied all the scriptures, and he was a great astrologer, astronomer, you know… he started to preach and expand the bhakti movement. At that time there were many apasampradaya deviant groups, and he came and he was preaching against these groups. That was one group called the Jat Gosai, and they claimed hereditary rights on all of Lord Caitanya’s movement, and he taught that everybody has a right to get Lord Caitanyas mercy, not just with that Jat Gosai.

So the Jat Gosai had some special diety. They would charge money to go in a see it. He said better to be a sweeper than to make money showing deities. He was very outspoken and one time an assembled brahamas invited Bhaktivinod Thakur to speak, but he was busy, so he sent his son instead, and he spoke on the twelve qualities of brahmana. The brahmanas were very happy to hear this, but then he told them the 30 qualities of a vaisnava. They have all the twelve qualities of the brahmanas, and they have the quality of love of Krishna. So that frustrated the brahmana.

So then the brahmana started saying how the six goswamis were not all born as brahmanas. So that’s why some of them were not bonafide. So on this offense, Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur had defeated them, and then he went back to Nabadwip Dham. So they had another big assembly, and they were so offensive so that they even said that Lord Caitanya was not an avatar, and so Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thaku went to that place, called a new assembly, and they defeated the arguments of the Jat Gosai and established without a doubt that Lord Caitanya was an avatar of Krishna.

So two years after Gaura Kishore Babaji left this world, then Bhaktisiddantha Saraswati Thakur took sanyas from the world, and he took sanyas with saffron clothe. It was a custom at that time for followers of Lord Caitanya to take Babaji, to become paramahansas, but he wanted to establish the duties of the followers of Lord Caitanya was to preach. So he made many disciples and he established 64 mathas. So his preaching was very attractive to the intelligentsia. At the same time he gave second initiation to people born in other gotras. By doing that he established Krishna Conscious movement around the world, and he sent Prabhupada and many of his followers to the West. Prabhuapda was successful.

One time he was taking the parikrama party around Nabadwip Dham, and when he reached Nabadwip dham, some of the apasampraya’s were so angry with him that they threw bricks on him on the rooftops. So …37.00-11 (inaudible)… to take him out of the place, but at that time Keshava Maharaj … took Bhaktisiddantha maharaj to Nabadwip dham.

I have some friends in the muslim village. Some of them saw Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur when they were children. They said, he would give out sweets, would walk around the Iskcon village, and many of the local muslims gave land to the temple. So he was both friends with the muslims and the ghoses. So we have in Mayapur- the yadavs, the ghoses and the muslims. Call the Yadavs in other places but in Mayapur they call them ghosh. There are others, but they are in minorities. Devanaths and others.

So one time the Samadhi of Gaura Kishore Das Babaji was being destroyed by the Ganges flooding. So he was the diskha guru of Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur. So he came to claim the bones of Gaura Kishore Das babaji, but the local people, the jat gosais and other sampradays protested. So they said that they belong to Nabadwip.

So when the British came they built a railway on the side of the river. So that place became known as Nabadwip, but Nabadwip was actually 32 miles, and the birth place of Lord Caitanya is at the eastern side of the Ganges, but anyway they were protesting saying, “You cannot take it.”

So Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur said, “He is a great Vairagi.”, and he did tapasya. He was a pure devotee. So who of you had not had any illicit sex in the last one year?, come forward, six months?,  three months… one months?.... one fourth night? … one week?... three days?... one by one they all left. So the took the deity and now  the Samadhi temple is in Caitanya Math.

One day he was walking. He was looking at the moon, and all the disciples wondered, “Why is he looking at the moon?”, so then he turned at the disciples, he told them that the people who live in the moon are materialistic, they have become bahirmukh, so we have to go there and preach.”…. Hari bol (everyone). He was not of this world.

He published many books. He had a daily newspaper. So he wanted that the devotees go out and distribute books. It’s also very significant that he disappeared during the Christmas December Marathon. He called the book publishing the Brihad Mridanga. So we should also distribute books during this December Marathon thinking of Srila Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur.

So there are many things we can say about Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur. I just gave a slight glimpse. He was a truly great soul. Any questions?

Question: Can you tell about the major two, three qualities of Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur that we can focus on.

Gurumaharaj: So we asked Prabhupada to tell us something about Bhaktisiddhantha Saraswati Thakur. Srila Prabhupada said, “What I can I say? He was a Vaikuntha man.” His qualities were completely Vaikuntha qualities. He had established that utility was the principle. He knew how to establish that preaching is the essence, and also preached according to time, place and circumstance. One time during the annakut they made a huge mountain of rice. Then a dog came in and ate of the mountain.

But no one would eat because the ate, and he went out and he said, “really?”

“Yes, a dog has eaten.”

“Where?”

“In this place?”

“Right here?”

“yes, right here.”

He went up, took a … and ate it… mahaparasade govinde… (laughter)

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Transcribed by: Sadanananda Krishnaprem Das (JPS)

Date: 22/02/2017.