Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur || Stories from his house || Prashant Mukund Prabhu

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur || Stories from his house || Prashant Mukund Prabhu

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s transcendental identity is revealed to the members of his spiritual family. He is the best of the followers of Rupa Manjari who is the leader of Lalita Sakhi’s entourage. Lalita Sakhi is the foremost of Radharani’s eight girlfriends. In various places in his own writings, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur has indicated this divine identity:

yugala-sevaya, shri-rasa-mandale, niyukta kara amay
lalita-sakhira, ayogya-kinkari, vinoda dhariche pay

Bhaktivinoda holds your feet and asks you to engage this unworthy servant of Lalita Sakhi in the service of the Divine Couple while they are performing the rasa-lila.
(Kalyana-kalpataru)

In the song Siddhi-lalasa in his Gita-mala, also, Bhaktivinoda Thakur gives his eternal spiritual identity as Kamala Manjari, the servant of Sri Rupa Manjari. Her kunja is in the bower of Lalita, Vrajananda-sukhada-kuïja, where she sets the standard of worship to the Divine Couple.

varane tariit, vasa taravali, kamala-maïjari nama
sarie baro varsha, vayas satata, svananda-sukhada dhama

My bodily hue is like that of lightning and I wear a sari the colour of a clear night sky sprinkled with stars. I am twelve and a half years old and I live in Svananda-sukhada-kuïja.

The need for Bhaktivinoda’s appearance

After the disappearance of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Svarupa Damodar, Ramananda Raya and the Six Goswamis, Srinivas Acharya, Narottama Das and Shyamananda Prabhu, a dark age descended on the world of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. Those unable to understand the transcendental purity of Mahaprabhu’s religion of love started numerous heretical sects or apasampradayas. Totarama Das Babaji named thirteen such heretical sects:

aul, baul, kartabhaja, neria, daravesha, sain
sahajiya, sakhibheki, smarta, jata-gosaïi
atibarii, curiadhari, gauranga-nagari
tota kahe ei teror sanga nahi kari

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur’s family history

Just as the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna’s highest perfection is in his human activities in a human form, so similarly his eternal associates also act in human-like ways when they descend to the worldly platform for the benefit of the fallen living entities. Even though they appear to be ordinary human beings, they are in fact never touched by the illusory nature and always remain transcendental to it. They may be situated in householder life, but they are never entangled in material sensual desires like an ordinary conditioned soul because of their deep attachment and love for the Lord. They are simply engaged in a pastime whereby they imitate the activities of the rest of mankind for the sake of exchanging with them for the purposes of benefitting them. Those who have surrendered with sincerity to Vishnu and the Vaishnavas are able to recognize the non-material character of these personalities.

The King Adishura invited Brahmins and other upper class Hindus to Bengal, amongst whom was the kayastha Purushottam. His seventh and eighth generation descendants were Sri Vinayaka and Narayan who became government ministers. The fifteenth generation descendant was Mahaprabhu’s contemporary, Raja Krishnananda Datta. He was a devotee of Krishna and Nityananda Prabhu came to stay in his home with his entourage and bestowed profuse blessings on him. Descendents of Krishnananda Datta include Govindasharana Datta who founded the village of Govindapura. Kalighata, Sutanuti and Govindapura are the three villages which later became Calcutta.

Govindasharana Datta’s grandson was Ramachandra. His grandson was Madana Mohana Datta, who donated Calcutta’s Heduwa Pukur to the municipality for public use. He also spent a great deal of his personal wealth in 1774 to build steps at Gaya’s Pretashila Tirtha and the Candranatha mountain. Madana Mohana Datta’s grandson was Rajavallabha Datta, whose son Anandacandra Datta was very religious and detached from material life. Anandacandra married Jaganmohini Devi, the daughter of the celebrated zamindar of Ula village in Nadia district, Ishvaracandra Mustaufi.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur accepted Anandacandra Datta and Jaganmohini Devi as his parents and appeared in Ula-Birnagar in the home of his maternal grandfather. It was the 352nd year after the birth of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sunday, Sept. 2, 1838; the tithi was Shukla Trayodashi of Bhadra. His parents gave him the name Kedaranatha.

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