Nama Hatta Talk—Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s Disappearance Day

Giriraj Swami: Five hundred years ago, Lord Krishna Himself came again in the form of Sri Krishna Chaitanya, in the form of a devotee, to show us how to be devotees. Five thousand years ago when Krishna came in His original form He instructed in the Bhagavad-gītā, man-manā bhava mad-bhakto: “Always think of Me and become My devotee.” But how to always think of Krsna and become His devotee was shown personally by Sri Krishna Chaitanya. He quoted one verse from the Bṛhan-nāradīya Purāṇa (38.126):

harer nāma harer nāma

harer nāmaiva kevalam

kalau nāsty eva nāsty eva

nāsty eva gatir anyathā

“One should chant the holy name, chant the holy name, chant the holy name of Hari, Krishna. There is no other way, no other way, no other way for success in the present age of Kali.”

He also desired and predicted: pṛthivīte āche yata nagarādi grāma sarvatra pracāra haibe mora nām, that the chanting of the holy name of Krishna would be propagated in every town and village of the world. So this desire and prediction was made at a time when no one could really imagine or even believe how it could happen. 

In the 1800s Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura began the effort to spread the holy name of Krishna to countries outside India. He wrote a small book in English called Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: His Life and Precepts, and he dispatched that book to libraries throughout the world. In recent years disciples of Srila Prabhupada had found copies of that book in libraries, in McGill University in Canada—in different libraries—even in Australia. He also yearned for the day that the devotees of India or Bengal would be united with devotees from different countries like England, America, Japan, Russia in the holy land of Mayapur, Navadvipa, and together chant the holy names of Krishna.

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was a very powerful spiritual master, acharya. After the disappearance of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and His associates, many unscrupulous people who claimed to be followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu introduced many concocted philosophies and practices and even illicit activities to the extent that people in Bengal, if they heard the name “Vaishnava,” they had a very bad impression, very bad impression. They thought Vaishnava means some person with loose character who dons the garb of a saintly person and engages in all sorts of activities. So in this situation Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura came forward and he presented the true understanding of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and he spoke very openly against the deviant groups who had perverted or distorted the pure teaching of Mahaprabhu and pure practices. 

He had many projects although he was a householder and had many children, one of whom was Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and he was a magistrate, a very high position in the British rule of India, the highest position that an Indian could hold and such positions were very rarely held by Indians. So he had very great responsibilities in the government service and he had a lot of family, but still his main interest was Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the saṅkīrtana movement. He would rise early in the morning and he would chant. He did everything—wrote books, just slept a little at night—and he had such a tremendous impact on the people of mainly Bengal and Orissa and including the intelligentsia who were just coming in touch with modern ideas from the West that the true mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was revived and people accepted it and the deviant groups were pushed back. They lost a lot of their influence.

So, having undertaken such a tremendous responsibility and having executed it so successfully but still being surrounded by so many forces that had interests in covering the true purpose of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu because of their own personal interests, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was at a loss who would carry forward his mission, and he prayed to Krishna to send someone, to send one of His own associates from the spiritual realm into the material world to continue the work of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. And it is understood that the appearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura was the answer to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s prayers. 

There are many incidents from Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura’s early life that indicate that he was that person sent by Krishna. When he was just a baby, during the Ratha-yatra ceremony in Puri, Bhaktivinoda Thakura was posted in Puri and as part of his duties was the superintendent of the Jagannatha temple. So during the Ratha-yatra festival the chariot halted in front of Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s home and his wife, Bhagavati devi took the opportunity being his wife to carry the baby up onto the chariot. When she did so a garland of Lord Jagannatha fell down onto the baby as a blessing.

He understood his father’s mission and worked with him together to fulfill it. His father initiated him into the chanting of the holy name, the Hare Krishna maha-mantra, but according to etiquette and there is good reason, a father does not actually give dīkṣā to his son. So Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura instructed Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura to approach Srila Gaurakishora dasa Babaji who is great mahā-bhāgavata, liberated soul, self-realized soul, for dīkṣā. But Srila Gaurakishora dasa Babaji Maharaja was very renounced and he was not interested in accepting disciples. He just wanted to immerse himself in the chanting of the holy names and hearing of scripture and he didn’t want to take responsibility for having disciples. 

But still, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati approached him and at first Gaurakishora dasa Babaji Maharaja avoided him. He said that he would have to ask Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. So some time passed and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati returned to him and asked him, “Did you speak to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu?” He said, “Oh no, I am sorry, I forgot.” So then after some time Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati returned again and again asked and Gaurakishora dasa Babaji Maharaja said, “Well, He hasn’t given permission.” So then Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati quoted a line from a song by his father, by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, addressed to the Vaishnava, karuna na hoile: “If you are not merciful to me”; kāṇḍīya kāṇḍīya: “I will simply weep”; prana na rakhibo ara: “and I will not be able to maintain my life.” So when Gaurakishora dasa Babaji Maharaja understood how sincere and serious Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati was, he accepted him as a disciple, his only disciple.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati undertook a vow to chant one billion holy names of Krishna which he would achieve by chanting three hundred thousand a day. That is a lot of japa. For us, Srila Prabhupada has fixed the minimum number of sixteen rounds per day and that takes most devotees around two hours a day, but if one is experienced and proficient, he can chant faster, but two hours a day, maybe an hour and half. So that is for sixteen rounds. Four times sixteen rounds is sixty-four rounds. That is considered one lakh of names. At our rate that would be eight hours a day. And three times sixty-four rounds, that would be three hundred thousand, and at our rate that would be twenty-four hours a day, but I think they were proficient. But it is a lot of rounds. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura constructed a thatched hut and he would live very simply in that hut and chant day and night. It was just a thatched hut, not very strong, and if it would rain, water would seep through the roof. He would just put up an umbrella and continue, “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare/ Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.”

To complete this vow doing three lakh a day every day, so three hundred thousand a day, thirty days in a month, it took him more than nine years. But even then he would go out. Although his main occupation was chanting, still he would go out to preach. He would accompany his father to important programs and he did a lot.

There was one program in particular because one of the groups that had a stranglehold on many of the people in Bengal was the caste brahmans. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura spoke very openly against them because they asserted their rights to their exclusive right to perform rituals and so on, on the basis of birth without being qualified. So, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura preached quite openly on the subject and of course there was a reaction from the brahmans. Then a big meeting was scheduled to be held on the topic of brahmans and Vaishnavas. 

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura was himself not born in a brahman family and obviously his son was not either. Now this raises an interesting question because Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, being a ray of Vishnu, being an associate of Krishna, being sent to the material world by the supreme will to preach, Krishna could have arranged for him to take birth in any family, in the highest class of brahman family with all the qualifications, but Krishna did not arrange that. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura explains that the reason the Lord does not do that although obviously He could, is that if the pure devotee took birth only in a high class brahman family and with all the advantages of education, culture, wealth, and so on, then ordinary people would feel discouraged. They would think, “Oh, I didn’t take birth in a brahman family, I didn’t have this advantage, I didn’t have that advantage. What is the hope for me?” So these great souls take birth in a variety of families to show us the example that anyone in any condition can become Krishna conscious to give us hope that we also can be Krishna conscious. You don’t have to be born in a brahman family for example.

Just on the eve of this major meeting to be held on this topic. . . it was like that, that the brahmans had their own meeting in which one after the other speakers came forward and gave their version that you have to be born brahman to be considered a brahman and so on. So to counter their propaganda another meeting was arranged in which Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura would be the featured speaker. But on the eve of the program Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura fell ill, very ill, and so he sent his son, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. Many of the caste brahmans came to the meeting. When they heard that Bhaktivinoda Thakura was not coming, they were overjoyed. They thought, “Oh, without him, we will be able to just walk over all these people. We’ll trounce them.” So they were elated. A lot of them came. The organizers weren’t even sure whether they should let them in because they were afraid that they might disturb the meeting, but Srila Sarasvati Thakura said, “No, let them in, receive them as honored guests.” So they came in. They were striding around as if they were the victors before the match had even begun.

Eventually it became time for Srila Sarasvati Thakura to speak and he began. . . he was brilliant. So he began by quoting various statements about the exalted position of brahmans from scripture. So the caste brahmans in the audience were very pleased. They were delighted, “Wow! We don’t even have to say it ourselves. He is saying it and he is saying it better than we could say it ourselves.” They thought, “Wow! It couldn’t be better.” And then Srila Sarasvati Thakura began to quote verses from the scripture about the position of Vaishnavas that Vaishnavas are even higher than brahmans. It doesn’t matter in what kind of family one is born, but if one accepts the Vaishnava principles he rises to a position even higher than that of a brahman. The brahmans in the audience were completely overwhelmed. They thought, “There is no way that we can defeat this person because he is so brilliant and he supports everything he says with scripture. There is no way we can defeat him.” So, most of them absconded, you can say. 

So then Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura felt assured that his mission is in capable hands with his son and his son will continue his cause. So, Sarasvati Thakura, he began to preach. He was fearless and very open in his criticism of anything that was false. Of course we receive the same message from Srila Prabhupada, but Sarasvati Thakura was a prodigious writer. Srila Prabhupada was too in terms of scripture, but Sarasvati Thakura wrote and spoke on many contemporary topics including the topic of how to present the message of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura. In one statement he said that, “There are people who think that you should only say positive things, but not negative things. . .” So Srila Sarasvati Thakura, he discusses this very topic and he says that it is imperative to speak both positively about the truth and negatively about anything that is false because in Kali-yuga there is so much false propaganda we have to be very clear. There cannot be any ambiguity in our message. We have to be very clear that this is right and this is wrong. [quote here]

Another thing about Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura is that although he was so austere and so rigid, so strict with himself, but when it came to preaching, he was ready to spend any amount of money and do anything. But Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura had a limousine. It was a limousine back in the 1930s. And he dressed very nicely. He would have his dhoti on but he dressed very nicely. Again, as quoted in Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Vaibhava, he said that, “We will (referring to the Britishers and aristocracy in general) dress better than they do. We will ride in better cars than they do. We will live in better buildings than they do. We will have better furniture than they do. And then they will listen to us otherwise they wouldn’t take heed of us at all.” So that was part of his strategy.

He used all means to broadcast the message of Krishna. He owned boats. He had disciples go out on boats. He had the limousine. He had them make dioramas, exhibits which at the time was the state of the art. He had exhibitions, just huge. And then he built a big marble temple, Bhag Bazaar Gaudiya Matha on the banks of the Ganges. The procession that brought the Deities from the rented place they had to the new temple was huge. There are photographs of it. The streets were lined for miles with people. I don’t know how many, hundreds of thousands, maybe a million people, lined the streets. It was just really huge. 

Thousands of people were coming forward to become his disciples. He was a tremendously powerful and successful preacher. He just fearlessly spoke the truth. Successful as he was, he also had enemies because he himself was the enemy of falsehood and so people who were thriving on falsehood, they became his enemy. There are many incidents. One, I won’t go into detail, people attacked him and his party. They were doing Navadvip parikramā. The caste brahmans, it turned out they actually hired guṇḍās or thugs and they let loose with a volley of stones and boulders on the party. They really wanted to take Sarasvati Thakura’s life. There were many attempts on his life. But one of the disciples very cleverly exchanged his dress for Sarasvati Thakura’s dress. So Sarasvati Thakura wasn’t dressed as a sannyasi. It was terrible. It looked like a massacre but fortunately no one was killed but a lot of people were injured quite seriously and had to be taken to the hospital. 

So it was the darkest moment, but then what happened is eventually it came out that this attack was organized and financed by the caste Gosvamis and so popular opinion even in the intelligent class turned against the caste brahmans because how could they do such a thing. The superintendent of police in the district was sacked, was removed from his position. His replacement was ordered that hence forward whenever Sarasvati Thakura and his party come for parikramā, they should get full police protection. Later someone asked Sarasvati Thakura whether he would like to press charges against the culprits and he said, “No, they have done a service. Without them how could we have appeared on the front page of all the newspapers like we did?” He was like that. Although he was the enemy of falsehood but he was the well-wisher of everyone even people who were inimical to him.

In spite of his tremendous purity and potency and success as a preacher, there were disconcerting signs within his own institution and some of his leading disciples were becoming materially infected. There was so much opulence, so much facility, so much fame, so much respect, some of them became distracted. Instead of realizing that all of this was meant for the service of the Lord just to help bring people to the Lord, they started to enjoy the respect, the honor, the facility, the opulence. Srila Sarasvati Thakura spoke very strongly, he made rules that the limousine should only be used for preaching, and he tried to curb their materialistic tendencies. Of course he had many sincere disciples—there is no question—but some of the leading disciples did become materially affected. Who knows, maybe they had material motives from before they came. So he became very distressed by this fact. He continued his activities with full enthusiasm, he continued to travel, preach, he was successful wherever he went, but still he was disturbed within himself that some of his leading disciples had become so mundane.

Then ultimately at the age of sixty-two his health declined. He made some statements to indicate that he would be leaving. Of course the signs were there in his health. He was in Puri which is a wonderful holy place. Not only holy place but warm place in December compared to Calcutta. But somehow in that very weakened condition he wanted to return to Calcutta. So the disciples arranged for him to travel by train. There was one poignant young boy, one of the sons of one of the devotees in Orissa, young boy, he wanted to offer obeisances to Sarasvati Thakura, and his father said, “Yes, you offer your obeisances. This may be the last time you see him.” 

And in Calcutta the disciples brought all the best physicians and one in particular, he was advising Sarasvati Thakura, “You have to rest more. You can’t speak so much.” And Sarasvati Thakura proceeded to preach to him for two or three hours about the purpose of human life. Basically he felt if he can’t speak about Krishna, what’s the use of living? We are only here on this planet for the sake of broadcasting the glories of Krishna.

After midnight on December, 31st, he left this world. Then his disciples took his body to Mayapur and they established his samadhi in Mayapur. He was such a huge figure. That is another thing, the year before in January of 1935, the governor of Bengal, Sri John Anderson visited Mayapur. That was a really big thing because they were the rulers—Britishers—and he was just one of the natives, but he came. It was very significant. So it was declared a public day of mourning in Bengal and the mayor gave a very nice talk about Sarasvati Thakura after he left. His final instructions are also very powerful. So this is what the mayor of Calcutta said:

[Talk by mayor]

So that void, that was a big void, there was no one like him. Practically there was no one like him before and there was certainly no one like him afterwards. But then in 1965 his humble grihastha disciple, Abhay Caranaravinda dasa who was later awarded sannyasa by Bhakti Prajnana Kesava Gosvami Maharaja, he got on a steamer from Calcutta, came to New York, and began the Krishna consciousness movement in the West, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and he embodied the teachings and the spirit and the potency of his guru maharaja, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and he fulfilled that desire of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura that the holy name of Sri Krishna, Sri Krishna Chaitanya be propagated in every town and village of the world. 

So it is continuing. But it is not easy to preach in Kali-yuga. Srila Sarasvati Thakura had many enemies. Srila Prabhupada also did and Prabhupada said, “Big preaching means big enemies.” If you just stay at home or you just say, “I am alright, you are alright. I am okay, you are okay, everything is okay,” we are not going to make many enemies, but we are not going to have much effect either. In fact Srila Sarasvati Thakura had a Bengali phrase that is basically, “You keep quiet and I keep quiet,” like, “I don’t disturb you, you don’t disturb me.” But that was not his mood and that is not Srila Prabhupada’s mood and that should not be our mood.