Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura Disappearance Day

Fasting times

Fast till noon

Famous bhajans written by Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura

Temples to visit

1. Surabhi Kunj, Godruma Dvīpa, near Mayapur- Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura performed his bhajana in this place.

2. Sukhada Kunj, Godruma Dvīpa, near Mayapur – Residence of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura. His Samādhi, along with Gaurakiśora dāsa Bābājī’s bhajan kutir can be seen here.

The Life of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura (1838-1914) is a prominent preceptor ācārya in our succession of spiritual masters and disciples coming from Lord Kṛṣṇa. He was a pioneering spiritual leader, a householder, a magistrate working in colonial India under the British rule, a prolific preacher, writer, and poet. He wrote volumes of books reintroducing the pure teachings of Lord Caitanya at a time when those teachings had practically become lost. He composed hundreds of devotional songs glorifying Krishna to uplift the consciousness of the suffering people of this world. He corresponded with philosophers, theologians, leaders, scholars, and professors of his time and sent books, including The Life and Precepts of Lord Caitanya, to university libraries in foreign countries, planting the seeds for a worldwide movement of Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura discovered and excavated the birthplace of Lord Caitanya. Along with his devoted wife, Bhagavati Devī, he raised ten children, including the illustrious Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, who would become a great spiritual leader in his own time and the spiritual master of ISKCON's founder- ācārya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedānta Swāmi Prabhupāda.

In 1896, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura took the position of deputy register with the power of a deputy collector and deputy magistrate in the district of Chapara. He later moved to Jagannātha Purī and was also assigned to manage the Jagannātha Purī temple.

In the year 1908 Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura took the external dress of a Bābājī, signifying one who devotes the remainder of his life to solitary devotional practices, especially chanting the holy names. For the first two years he would travel between Calcutta and Puri and was still writing books. In 1910 Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura shut himself away from the world and entered samādhi, claiming paralysis. He devoted the remainder of his years to solitary bhajana, meditation, prayer and chanting Lord Kṛṣṇa 's holy names. On June 23, 1914, just before noon at Jagannātha Purī, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura left his body.

Punishing Biṣakiṣeṇa

In Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s life we find that he personified the description of a Vaiṣṇava as one who is soft as a rose, yet hard as a thunderbolt. Although he was generally kind and sympathetic, he gave no quarter to dishonesty in the name of religion. One event in his life which took place while he was in Orissa is an indication of this. In 1871, a member of the khandait caste and the Atibāṛī sect named Biṣakiṣeṇa who had gained some mystic powers through yogic practices proclaimed himself to be an incarnation of Mahā-Viṣṇu. He was staying with his acolytes at the edge of the jungle near the town of Bhuvaneśvara. He announced that on the 14th of Caitra, he would reveal a four-armed form and destroy all the foreigners, restoring the true religion.

Through his mystic powers, he had been able to cure incurable diseases and these powers had won for him a large following. One day he announced that on the full-moon day he would perform the rāsa-līlā and invited the girls of a nearby village to come and join him. The Chaudhuris of the bhṛṅgāra clan found that he had polluted their womenfolk and went to complain en-masse to the district commissioner, Ravenshaw. The Commissioner gave the task of investigating the matter to Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura, who went personally into the jungle to meet with Biṣakiṣeṇa. Biṣakiṣeṇa told Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura that he was the living Mahā-Viṣṇu and that Jagannātha Deva was nothing but a lifeless wooden statue. He tried in various ways to flatter Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and to win him over. When he saw that Biṣakiṣeṇa had no intention of stopping his efforts to deceive the people, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had him arrested and brought back to Purī.

Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura proceeded to investigate the background of Biṣekiṣaṇa by going to many villages and Buddhist vihāras in the Khandagiri area of Purī district. After accumulating a mass of evidence showing the extent to which this yogī was cheating people, he had him brought to court. While the case was being heard, the yogī used his mystic power to cause Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura and his family to be attacked by various illnesses, to intimidate him, but without success. Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura was determined to see Biṣakiṣeṇa punished for conspiracy to rebellion and gave him a sentence of one and a half years. Biṣakiṣeṇa went for 21 days without food or drink and then left his body.

Once, as he looked out from his window across the river towards the birthplace of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura had a vision that people from all nations would soon come together there in harmony through the blissful chanting of the holy names of Kṛṣṇa.

Establishing the birthplace of Caitanya Mahāprabhu

During his stay at Krishnanagar, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura used to go to Navadvīpa and search for the birthsite of Sri Caitanya Mahāprabhu. One night he was sitting on the roof of the Rani dharmashāla in Navadvīpa chanting on his prayer beads when he spotted a tāl tree next to a building that gave off a remarkable effulgence. He went to the Krishnanagar library, where he began to study old manuscripts of Caitanya-bhāgavata and Navadvīpa dhāma Parikramā, and some old maps of Nadia. He went to the village of Ballaladibhi and spoke with the elderly people, uncovering facts about modern-day Navadvīpa. Eventually he discovered that the place he had seen from the dharmashāla rooftop was in fact the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahāprabhu. This was confirmed by Srila Jagannātha dāsa Bābājī, the head of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava community in Nadia.

Teachings and learnings from Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s life

1. Aspiring devotees owe a significant debt to Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura for charting the course and laying the foundation for the modern-day Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and instructing how to move forward in basic aspect of devotional service as well as to the most advanced.

2. As a Gṛhastha, and a Paramahaṁsa, Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is showing us by example how to organize and conduct one’s life. He gives instructions that give us faith in the practice of chanting the holy names of Lord.

3. Great souls such as Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura have deep humility and a sense of them being fallen, even though we understand they are liberated soul. They come and exhibit dainya (humility), considering themselves fallen, and are utterly dependent on the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

4. Woven in Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s bhajans, are practical tenets of bhakti. In his bhajan Rādha Kṛṣṇa bol bol, he is telling people that we are being sucked in by māya and are drowning here. If we don’t take to devotional service our life becomes useless. When we become a servant of Kṛṣṇa, there will be no more distress for us. He is bringing all the teachings of Lord Caitanya in songs and presenting it to the world to sing and remember it.

5. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura outlined everything and gave a clear path so that anyone can follow Caitanya Mahāprabhu and become established as an eternal associate of Lord by the method passed down by him.