As soon as he came home, he was engaged in devotional service and preaching activities. And mainly, of course, he preached by writing books. So, he wrote over a hundred books in his life. And that he did mainly during the night, when everyone else was asleep. Just like Srila Prabhupada, he spent most of the hours in the night writing these wonderful books. Maybe you can name some of his books? What are his most famous books?
Q: Jaiva-dharma.
A: Jaiva-dharma, yeah, that is considered his main.
Q: Saranagati.
A: Śaraṇāgati is one, also book.
Q: Harinama-cintamani.
A: Yeah, Harināma-cintāmaṇi.
Q: Tattva-viveka.
A: Tattva-viveka, okay, I don't even know.
Q: Bhajana-rahasya.
A: Bhajana-rahasya, yeah, that's one. The different songbooks like Gītamālā, Kalyāṇa-kalpataru I think you also spoke, and Caitanya-śikṣāmṛta is also one book, and many other books. And he appeared as we heard this morning, who were there this morning? Who were there? You were there, you were there. Dasavatar d spoke at length about this time when he appeared, which was a very degraded time. It was a dark time in Gaudiya history. So, the teachings of Lord Caitanya had almost been lost, and so many apasampradāyas misrepresented Gaudiya Vaisnavism. They were claiming to be Vaisnavas, but they were misrepresenting the teachings and they were also doing all kinds of immoral activities. So, Vaisnavism had fallen into disrepute. It was not very highly regarded. And the word Vaisnava was a bad word. So, it was a very precarious situation actually. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakura appeared to set things right and to again re-establish Vaisnavism in its full glory. So, there were all these apasampradāyas, and then also, that was one part of it, and then there were the Britishers. And they also did everything they could to undermine the people's faith in the Vedas. And there were all these indologists, they were actually Christians, missionaries, and their whole purpose of studying, they learned Sanskrit, they studied the Vedas, but their whole purpose was to discredit the Vedic teachings and to actually undermine the Hindus' faith in their own scriptures and their faith in their own practices. So, it was very demonic actually. And they studied the Vedas and then they but then they presented it as very primitive, superstitious, and something very not at all advanced, so to say. So, people lost faith. Many people, they lost faith in the Vedas and like that. But Bhaktivinoda through his writing and his example and his preaching, he reversed this situation completely. So, that was his glory. So, something about his life. He appeared in 1838 and his name was Kedaranatha Datta. And he appeared actually in a very wealthy family in Birnagar, Nadia. They were like aristocratic people, but they were not Vaisnavas. They were Saktas, worshippers of goddess Durga. And it's also interesting, as he is very relevant because he was a person working in the material world, as a gṛhastha, like that, but still very fixed in devotional service, managed to accomplish so much. He was also, it's also relevant for us because he was not, so to say, born a Vaisnava, like Bhaktisiddhanta and Prabhupada, they appeared in Vaisnava families. He became a devotee, so to say, much later in life. So, he didn't understand the teachings of Gaudiya Vaisnavism from his childhood, or not even in his youth actually. But later on. And he also didn't follow the principles. He was not even a vegetarian in his early life. He didn't, he didn't know. But, when he was two years old, he was extraordinary. When he was two years old, he spoke his first poem. Two years old, he already composed a poem. Probably he didn't write it, but he spoke it. And when he was six years old, he had mastered Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. He knew them thoroughly and he could explain, he knew all the details. He could lecture about, six years old. And when he was nine years, then he made a lot of research into astrology, and he became very well-versed in astrology. But then at one point, he kind of gave it up and he thought that this is not really what I want to get into. And from that time, he started instead with spiritual books, to study religion and like that. When he was 12 years old, he started writing books, his first book he started when he was 12 years old. And at that time, he was also married with a girl who was five years old, as was the custom in those days, child marriage. Of course, they didn't live together, but he was married. But at this time, or a little bit earlier when he was 11, his father actually died, and the family lost all its wealth. So, they became suddenly poor. And then a few calamities. Some of his siblings also died, and there was this cholera epidemic in their village, and so many people died, many of his relatives died, so he had to face a lot of hardship suddenly. So, that made him also more philosophical, and he became more and more into religion and philosophy. And they had a servant in their family, who was a devotee. And there was some, near their village, this probably happened a little earlier, there was some tree where a ghost lived. And the children, they were very fascinated about this ghost. And they used to go there sometimes, but they were afraid. And then Kedaranatha spoke with his servant about this ghost, and the servant said to him, "Don't worry, if you just chant Rama, Rama, Rama, no ghost will disturb you, you don't have to fear them at all." So, he was very curious, so he went to this tree, and he was just chanting Rama, Rama, Rama, and nothing happened. So, he says in his biography that from that day on, he never stopped chanting the Lord's name. That was the beginning of his dedication to the holy name. I don't know, because it didn't say, but that was in his childhood. So, he was not so old. And he said, "I became fearless of ghosts also from that day, and like these kind of things." And, of course, later in his life, he had to fight so many tantriks and mystics and yogis and people with mystic powers, but he was fearless and he had learned, if you just depend on Krsna or Rama, then you have nothing to fear. So, later on, he went to the English school, to some very prestigious, very highly prestigious school where he studied very deeply many subjects. And he was very interested in religion. So, he studied the Bible thoroughly, he studied the Koran thoroughly, and he studied different philosophers, Western philosophers, Eastern philosophers, Sankaracarya, and he became vastly learned in all these things. So, he was, before he got into Vaisnavism actually, he knew all the major religions and their major philosophers and everything. And he was always searching, he was deeply searching for the truth actually. And when he was 18 years old, he wrote his first big book, which was called The Poriade. It was about an emperor or a king called Porus, who fought with Alexander the Great. And it was a big work with many volumes. So, he wrote that when he was 18 years old. And he became very famous. He wrote many articles, he gave many lectures in different places, and all the learned people and the academia, they had great respect for him. He became a teacher. That was his first job. And then later on, he became a magistrate, working for the British government. And at one point, he came in contact with Vaisnavas, and he heard from them the pastimes of Lord Caitanya. And he became very anxious to learn more about Vaisnavism. And he was looking for Caitanya-caritāmṛta, but it was not to be found. I don't know how, it was out of print or rare, this scripture was very rare. So, it took him eight years to find it. But finally, he found it and he went deep into studying it. And he says in his biography that the first time he read it, he gained very much appreciation of Lord Caitanya, that he was a great, saintly person. But that was his first impression. Then he read it the second time, and then he gained appreciation for his philosophy. But he still couldn't understand why Lord Caitanya worshipped Krsna, this immoral god who was, because he had this, came from this background somehow that... And so then he read it the third time. And then somehow, by the mercy of Lord Krsna, everything was revealed to him. And he just completely, everything was just revealed and he was in ecstasy. He understood that this is the highest theology there is, and Lord Caitanya is none other than the Supreme Lord, and Krsna is the Supreme Lord. So, he was... From that time on, he became a Vaisnava, and he was totally convinced that this is the essence of religion, this is the peak of all the religious scriptures. And then he studied also, not only Caitanya-caritāmṛta, but also Bhāgavatam, Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu, and so many of the different Vaisnava scriptures. And then at this time, it said that there were so many, there were many religions, of course, many religious groups, and they were having different arguments and there was a lot of friction between them. So, at one point, he was invited to give a talk to different somehow try to pacify this dissension, discord. And then he talked, and this was then written down and became a book, which is called The Bhagavat: Its Philosophy, Ethics, and Theology. And this book, or this lecture, really established what true Sanātana-dharma is. And since that time, he became just completely immersed in trying to re-establish the pure Sanātana-dharma on the basis of Srimad-Bhāgavatam. And he started writing all the time. He just wrote and wrote, and he wrote his books in such a way to make it accessible, this philosophy, for modern people and Western people even, very logically, very systematically. So, he had this idea that he wanted to just present these teachings for the broad public in a way that they could understand. So, that was how he became a Vaisnava. Actually, there was one more interesting thing I heard, that he had a grandfather who was a Vaisnava, but he was not living with the family, he was living far away. And at one point, his grandfather sent him a message, "My days are now counted, I will soon leave this world, please come to," I forgot where he was living. So, he made a journey there, and he came to his grandfather, and he was surprised to see him, he was in very good health, seemed very, no problem at all. But he said to him, "I will very soon leave this world, and before I leave, I want to tell you that you will one day become a very great Vaisnava." This was before he started to study the scriptures, and when he became, I think he was 20 at that time. "And when you become 27 years old, then whatever you're doing then, that you will continue to do for the rest of your life." So, that was the time when he actually became absorbed in Vaisnavism and studying the scriptures and started to preach. And then when his grandfather had said that, suddenly he just left his body. So, kind of mystical. He was an astrologer actually, this grandfather, he was very learned, so he could understand that his time was soon going to end. Yes, so he, let's see here... He was then the High Court judge, the district magistrate. And he worked, his schedule was like this, that he would take rest at 8:00 in the evening, and at 10:00 he would wake up, just two hours sleep. And then he would write from 10:00 to 4:00. We have all heard this schedule, but we just need to remind ourselves every year. It's just incredible. He wrote for six hours in the night. And at 4:00 a.m. he took rest half an hour, until 4:30. After the whole six hours of writing. Then at 4:30, he would chant japa until 7:00 a.m., two and a half hours. At 7:00 a.m. to 7:30, correspondence, he would answer letters. 7:30 to 9:30, three hours, he would study the śāstras every day, three hours. And then 9:30 to 10:00 a.m., a bath and prasādam, half liter milk, two chapatis, and fruits. Then from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., court duties. Then he came home at 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m., one hour free time, he refreshed himself. And from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. again he was in the court. So, it was, I think, seven hours then all together. And then he came home at 5:00 and for two hours, until 7:00, he translated Sanskrit texts into Bengali, different śāstras he wanted to make them available in Bengali language. And from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., bath, prasādam, and then he went to bed. So, sleep was two and a half to three hours, writing eight and a half hours, japa and study five and a half hours, and work six hours, it says here. Actually, that was when he was working in Puri as a district magistrate. Yeah, he was in different places. He was both in Bengal, and later on, he went to Puri and became the district magistrate there. And at that time also, they asked him to be the superintendent of the Jagannatha temple. And it had become very, how to say, it was not strict anymore, it was not clean, everything was very bad. But he re-established everything very properly. All the offerings on time, and the cleanliness standard, all the standards became very pakka again. He managed to just change the whole situation. So, he had so many responsibilities, and then he had ten children also, at least ten children, sometimes it says more. So, amazing personality. So, his three major achievements are that he wrote all these books, hundred authorized spiritual books. And then he discovered the appearance place of Lord Caitanya, we heard this morning, with the help of Jagannatha dasa Babaji Maharaja. And he introduced so many preaching innovations, besides his books, like Nama-hatta, for example. He introduced, actually he took leave from his work in the 1890s, he took two years leave. And then he was just completely focused on expanding this Nama-hatta preaching. And he wrote a book about the whole program, that he wanted all these groups with different people who had different names, and to spread systematically Lord Caitanya's movement throughout the villages in Bengal. And he worked, and he created many, many of these groups, and he himself, he traveled around to inspire all these groups, and also to inspire them to continue and create new groups, and just to create a network of preaching activities throughout Bengal. So, that he did also. And he was a very fearless person. There were so many avatars and cheaters and people like that, who he had to expose, thank you. And, one is very famous about Bisakisena, or Bisakisen, I don't know how you pronounce it. Some say Bisakisena, some say Bisakisen. What is the time? Do we speak about it? It is interesting to hear every year, although we hear it every year, but I think it is such a special story. So, there was this person in Puri. He was living in the jungles outside Jagannatha Puri, at the same time that Bhaktivinoda Thakura was there. And he was claiming to be Maha-Visnu, and he had two servants or two associates, and they were Lord Siva and Lord Brahma. And he had so many followers, he had mystic powers, he was very powerful yogi, and he could heal people, he could sit in fire and then come out unharmed, he could read people's minds, and he was extremely powerful, he had these mystic powers. But then, so many people were just, they were just fooled by him and thought that he was God, he was an incarnation, as he said himself. But then he started to take, order people to send their wives to him. He said, "I'm Krsna, I'm the Supreme Lord and I have my rasa-līlā, so you should send your, you should send me ladies." And many people sent him ladies. And then he engaged in very gross, immoral activities with these ladies. So, the people started actually complaining against him, and they went to the British government and lodged a complaint against him. But they didn't know what to do, they were actually afraid of him, because he was so powerful. So, they gave the case to Bhaktivinoda Thakura to take care, to deal with it. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he decided he wanted to go and see this yogi. So, he went there one evening with a lot of police constables. And when he came, as soon as he came there, this person, he said, "I know who you are. You are Kedaranatha Datta." And then he started telling him exactly his name, his relatives, all the details of his life, and all the people, all his relatives, to impress him that he knew everything. "And why have you come here?" he asked. "I have come to see you," said Bhaktivinoda. "Yes, so then please sit down and I will tell you everything." So, then he started to say, "I'm Maha-Visnu, I've come from the Milk Ocean, I have descended from the Ocean of Milk, and I have come to destroy the Britishers, and to liberate India from the foreigners. And, yeah, something like this." And then he started to flatter, he knew actually Bhaktivinoda Thakura was a very powerful person, so he started to flatter him, and said, "When I have kicked out all the British people, I will make you the governor of Orissa." And like that. But, of course, Bhaktivinoda Thakura was not at all impressed by this yogi. And, then Bhaktivinoda actually asked him, "If you are the Supreme Lord, then why don't you come to Puri, where Lord Jagannatha is, the Lord of the universe, why don't you reside in Jagannatha Puri?" So, then he said, "Ah, this Jagannatha, he is just a piece of wood. I'm the Supreme Lord." And then Bhaktivinoda Thakura became very, very angry, and he said, "You are just an insignificant jīva, and a jīva can never become God. So many people like you, they tried, like Hiranyakasipu and Sisupala and Dantavakra and all these demons, Ravana, and they were all destroyed because they offended the Supreme Lord."
So, then he understood that he needed some more evidence to arrest this person. So, he left him, and then he went to the nearby villages, and he investigated the case, and he interviewed so many people about this yogi. And they all told, many told him, "Oh yes, he is God, we are worshipping him, he is the Supreme Lord," but also many people, they actually told that this person, he is engaging in so many immoral activities and he is taking our ladies and he is doing so many, so many crazy things, "So, if he is God, how is he acting so immorally?"
And Bhaktivinoda, he could completely understand that this is a complete cheater, and he has to be stopped. So, the next day, he went there with a hundred armed constables, police constables, to arrest this yogi. And he was sitting there with his followers, and when they came, again they had this discussion, and he tried to convince Bhaktivinoda Thakura that he is the Supreme Lord, and he kind of displayed all his mystic powers. He brought some sick people, they came up, very sick people. One person, he was stabbed with a sword, and he had this terrible wound, bleeding and he was dying. And this yogi, he just manifested some ashes in his hands and he put it on the wound and he just instantly became healed and he just walked away and worshipped him. And many other people were sick, they came and he healed them all. But Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he was not impressed. He knew these yogis and their powers. And finally, he said, "I must arrest you. I have come, the government has ordered me to arrest you. You please come with me now to Puri."
And then he became furious and he said, "I'm the Supreme Lord, I will not, nobody will tell me what to do. And if you dare to just try to touch me, I will destroy you, I will destroy the whole universe," was threatening like that. And then he started to shake his head and then flames came from his hair, and his, he looked at them and his eyes became completely red and sparks came from his eyes. So, the police, they became very, very afraid. He was so powerful. So, Bhaktivinoda, he himself, he went in front and he spoke with him and tried to convince him that you have to come with us. Finally, he ordered a bullock cart, and at one point, this yogi just understood that he has to go with them, so he went on the bullock cart and he said, "Yes, yes, okay, because you are a devotee and I have said in Bhagavad-gītā that I will always protect the word of my devotee, so I will follow you because you're my devotee. But just wait and see what will happen," something like this. So, then they took him to Jagannatha Puri. And there, people were waiting outside this court when they came there. All his followers had gathered, they were like thousands of people, and they were protesting and they were creating a great commotion, and they were demanding that you have to let him free, he is the Supreme Lord, this is an offense, we will all suffer for this. They were very upset. But Bhaktivinoda, he just took him and he put him in some kind of temporary prison, they locked him up with a lot of guards guarding him, and then the court case began. It was an 18-day case before they could solve it. And during this time, this yogi, he didn't eat anything, he didn't sleep, and, yeah, he didn't eat, drink, or sleep for three weeks, or 18 days it was, two and a half weeks. But he was completely fit, completely active, speaking, arguing, all this. And, as you know, at one point in this, he said to Bhaktivinoda Thakura, "If you don't stop this, if you don't let me go, I will cause you, I will destroy both you and your family." And that day, when he came home, his daughter, who was like seven, eight years old, she was very, very sick, dying from a very high fever. And many others in his family, they became sick. And it was very, very dangerous, and the school in Jagannatha Puri burned down, where all the children, had burned down, and many other inauspicious things happened in Puri. And his wife, she became afraid, Bhagavati Devi, so she pleaded with him, "Please just okay, he is a cheater, but just let him go, don't let our family die." But Bhaktivinoda just said, "Let us all die, but this person must be stopped." And then he said, "Anyway, Krsna will protect us," he had full faith. So, somehow, his daughter, she survived, she became well. But then on the last day of the court trial, on the 17th day, he again threatened Bhaktivinoda, "If you don't let me go, I will destroy you, you will not survive this." And then when he came home that day, he got severe pain in his chest. It was a very, was like deadly pains. And it became worse and worse through the night. And then in the morning, that day when he was supposed to judge him, he was so weak, he couldn't go, he couldn't even go to the court. So, they had to carry him in a palanquin, but he was so determined, nothing would stop him. He was just, he had to stop this cheater. So, he went, and he wrote the doom, sentence, so he sentenced him. And he was sentenced to prison and to hard physical labor. And when he went out from the court, then somebody had read that his powers were stored in his hair, so they took a big scissor and suddenly jumped on him from behind when he was not expecting it, and they cut his hairs, and then suddenly he just fell down like a piece of cloth with no, all his powers just left him. And everyone could see that he was a cheater. And all his followers immediately realized that he was a cheater, and they condemned him. And immediately, this pain in Bhaktivinoda Thakura's chest, it went away. And so, the whole thing was solved, and that was the story of Bisakisena. And then later on, he died, or he actually, he took poison, he was sentenced to prison, he took poison and he killed himself. So, and many other people like that, he had to stop, other so-called incarnations. And, so this was his, he was so courageous, he was just completely depending on Krsna, and fearless in his duties. And what else? He also made three predictions. The first one was that a personality will soon appear, and he will travel all over the world to spread the teachings of Lord Caitanya, so he predicted the appearance of Srila Prabhupada. And his second prediction was, "Very soon the chanting of harināma saṅkīrtana will be spread all over the world. Oh, when will that day come, when people from America, England, France, Germany, Russia will take up kartālas and mṛdaṅgas and chant Hare Krsna in their towns?" And the third, "When will that day come when the foreigners will come to Sri Dham Mayapur and join with the Bengali Vaisnavas and chant, 'Jaya Sacinandana, Jaya Sacinandana'? When will that day be?"
And we know that Prabhupada, he said, "We should take it that Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was the seed of the Krsna consciousness movement in its pure form." He actually envisioned the preaching that this would, of course, Lord Caitanya also predicted it, but he had the vision that this would spread, and he also, as we know, sent his own teachings, his little, let's see, what was it called? He sent Śrī Gaurāṅga-līlā-smaraṇa-maṅgala-stotra, which had the 47-page English introduction Lord Chaitanya, His Life and Precepts. He sent it in the same year as Prabhupada was born to McGill University and also to other places in Europe and America. So, he predicted that Prabhupada would come. And Bhaktisiddhanta also tried, he sent his other, some disciples to the West. And then Prabhupada finally made the dream come true, so to say. And his preaching was, he, his writings, he established the philosophy very soundly. And he also, in his personal example, he was like a perfect example of a Vaisnava, who was extremely humble, despite his accomplishments. But he was such a great Vaisnava, he had this prestigious job, and he was extremely intelligent and learned, so he always remained very, very humble. And everyone just loved him, of course, he had some enemies also, like those who were opposed, opposing him, but everyone just loved him because he had such a wonderful character. He never said anything that would hurt another person, unless it was a cheater. And he was just friendly to all, always humble, always respectful to everyone. This is just a small quote: "You should always absorb your mind in attentively chanting Krsna's glories. By performing Krsna kīrtana, you will gain mastery over the mind. Give up all false, false pride. Always think yourself to be worthless, destitute, lower and more humble than straw in the street. Practice forgiveness like a tree, giving up all violence toward all other living beings. You should maintain them. Throughout your life, you should never give anxiety to others, but do good for them, make them happy and forget about your own happiness." So, that was how he lived his life, and he is asking us to do the same. So, if one develops this kind of Vaisnava character, then, of course, that is the real proof of our philosophy, if devotees become like he was, the perfect example. And that's ultimately what people, what convinces people about the philosophy when they see that people actually embody these teachings in their life and in their character. So, what I, three things that kind of stuck in my mind about Bhaktivinoda Thakura, which I think is very wonderful and relevant to meditate upon, what we can learn from his life, is that he was so courageous, fearless, in his preaching. He just completely depended on Krsna. As Prabhupada once sent to Jayananda, "Preach boldly and depend on the holy name." So, he was just completely depending on Krsna and the holy name and he had no fears in even in confronting people like this mystic yogi. So, he was fearless and he was also humble, like a straw in the street, despite all these wonderful achievements and qualifications. So, humility, fearlessness, and then this quality of never wasting even a second outside Krsna's service. He always worked with, he always had his watch, and was always like a work on a schedule. And like it said, avyarthatvam, like one of the symptoms of an advanced Vaisnava, they never want to waste any time without being engaged in Krsna's service, and he was really the embodiment of that quality. So, these are three qualities that are very much in, he showed to the maximum extent, and we can pray to him to also develop these qualities to some extent. And, yes, so, all glories to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. What should we do now?
Q: Guru-vandana.
A: Singing Guru-vandana, yeah. Maybe someone has to, wants to add something about him, and his accomplishments and his preaching.
Q: He also had a wonderful son.
A: Yes, that was really one of his great accomplishments, that he had Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati as his son, yes.
Q: And his wife, Bhagavati, she had 14 children.
A: 14 children.
Q: Bhaktisiddhanta and then...
A: Two, two, two, two, two, we must remember. Bisakisena said he was the third, that scripture should go around the world.
Q: He was strongly, established the first, was for her husband.
A: Yeah.
Q: And in his last years, he was a gṛhastha all his life, and until he became around 70, then he renounced everything and he went to, was it Puri or I forgot, but he became, he took babaji. So, he was just chanting, he was just sitting in one place and chanting day and night, for some years until he left this world in, I think it was 1914. So, that was the end of his life, he just completely immersed himself in chanting, and nothing else.
A: He also took dīkṣā from Vipin Vihari Goswami, and śikṣā from Jagannatha dasa Babaji.
Q: And there's this story about Vipin Vihari, I think you told it last year, that at one point, once when Bhaktivinoda Thakura went to visit him, he, he put his, he was bowing down to him and this Vipin Vihari put his foot on his head to bless him.
A: But actually, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, of course, was a much more elevated soul than his guru. So, and Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, he was present, and he became very upset.
Q: More than he was indeed.
A: Yeah, he was a child then, yeah. And then his father went out, and then he chastised this Vipin Vihari, that, "You have no idea who my father is, he is an eternal nitya-siddha, and you think you're so elevated to put your feet on his head? You should apologize," something like this he said.
Q: And then this guru complained to Bhaktivinoda Thakura that, "Your son is very bold, on the border of being impudent."
A: And then he told, somehow he heard, I think he told him the story, or, yeah, I think so. But then Bhaktivinoda Thakura, he was very proud of his son, but he, he understood the whole situation, the real situation. Okay, what happens now?
Q: Kirtana.
A: Singing Guru-vandana, yeah.
Q: Somebody can put some incense in there.
A: And, yeah...
śrī-guru-caraṇa-padma, kevala-bhakti-sadma,
vando mui sāvadhāna mate
jāhāra prasāde bhāi, e bhava toriyā jāi,
kṛṣṇa-prāpti hoy jāhā ha'te
guru-mukha-padma-vākya, cittete koriyā aikya,
ār nā koriho mane āśā
śrī-guru-caraṇe rati, ei se uttama-gati,
je prasāde pūre sarva āśā