Appearance of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur.
Excerpt form a lecture by HH Radhanath Swami Maharaj
Submitted by Manoj.
We're celebrating today the most auspicious occasion of the appearance of that illustrious, most glorified personality who is the spiritual master of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Who upon their first meeting impregnated within Srila Prabhupada's heart the instruction to take the teachings of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu and spread them all over the world in the English language.
We have assembled here today to humble ourselves to worship the lotus feet of His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Parivakraja acarya Sri Srimad Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupada.
Srila Prabhupada explains how in this age of Kali yuga people become very much overcome by the modes of passion and ignorance. Advaita Acarya, that great avatar of
Krishna, Maha Vishnu, descended into this world to give everyone the chance to perfect their lives in unalloyed devotional service. But
He saw the people were so addicted to sinful activities. People were so much contaminated by mayavad and impersonal conceptions of vedic knowledge. Even people who were known as pundits and pious people were worshipping various gods and goddesses for material benedictions. There was no talk about devotion to Krishna. There was no where heard about the chanting of the holy name, which is the only means of deliverance for the age of Kali.
Upon seeing the desperate condition of humanity, He felt himself incapable of helping them. So he went to the bank of Ganga with a vow to cause the supreme personality of Godhead, Krishna, to
personally descend, for only He could deliver the fallen souls.
So with loud cries, worshipping the Shalagram Shila with Ganga water and Tulasi leaves, He called out for Krishna to come and give His causeless supreme Mercy to this world. In reciprocation to his prayers, the most merciful and munificient of all avatars descended. Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu kicked out all misconceptions and established the ultimate truth of pure unalloyed devotional service, establishing Krishna as a person and every living entitiy as His eternal servant. And the only verifiable means of purifying our heart is the congregational chanting of the holy names of Krishna - Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
After Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu disappeared from this world, He entrusted the dignity of His teachings to the six Gosvamis of Vrndavana. Srila Prabhupada explains from the six Gosvamis Narottam Das Thakur, Shyamananda Pandit, and Srinivas Acarya. And soon after that Visvanath Cakravarti Thakur and others. And as in this world, by nature, everything deteriorates. The Lord has to appear again and again personally Himself or through His servitors to re-establish the principles of religion - paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam, dharma-samsthapanarthaya sambhavami yuge yuge.
So as the time went on the pure teachings of Lord Gauranga Mahaprabhu, which is the real true hope for the deliverance for all living entities to return to the eternal constitutional position of the spiritual world, became corrupted, deteriorated by unscrupulous people. Srila Prabhupada explains
that by the time the 19th century came, the teachings of Mahaprabhu could not even be respected by learned people, because there was so many debauchery and concoction in the name of His teachings.
So Krishna sent one of His pure divine representatives, Srila Thakur Bhaktivinod, to re-establish the sanctitiy of the pure teachings of that Golden Avatar who descended to deliver the yuga dharma to everyone.
Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur was terribly disturbed to see what was going on in the name of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's mission. He saw all these deviating so called sampradayas, which were nothing more than concocted sects. He wrote a book listing 13 apa sampradayas. All having different ways of interpreting Lord Caitanya's teaching and justifying materialistic, egoistic pursuits. Some were misconceiving Lord Caitanya's very nature. Some were justifying illicit sex. Some were justifying placing caste by birth in front rather than qualification. Bhaktivinod Thakur revealed the truth and exposed the non-sense of these illicit sects through preaching, literature, propaganda, through poems, and beautiful songs, he re-established the true teachings of Lord Caitanya again as the six Gosvamis had revealed.
But like Advaita Acarya, he felt incapable. The world had fallen into a real mess and the only hope for the world, Lord Caitanya's mission, was also in a mess. Out of his deep sublime compassion in the mood of Advaita Acarya, he prayed to Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, to send His own personal associated, A Ray of Vishnu, to descend into this world to help establish the real teachings of Lord Caitanya and help to spread it through out the whole world.
It was Thakur Bhaktivinod's desire, his dream, that people from America, Russia, from Africa, from Europe, from all parts of India would gather all together in Mayapur and with arms raised chant and dance the glories of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Nityananda prabhu to the beautiful kirtan of the holy name - Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare.
Krishna will always fulfill the heart-felt prayers of His surrendered devotees. Bhaktivinod Thakur was the district magistrate of Jagannath Puri and he was also given the charge of the Jagannath temple because there was so much corruption and un-regulation there. It was in the holy land of Jagannath puri that the compassionate prayer of Bhaktivinod Thakur was fulfilled. We are celebrating that event today. Today is the anniversary of appearance of the Ray of Vishnu. The intimate associate of Radha Krishna, in the form of Gauranga Mahaprabhu.
It was on this day the Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur appeared in Sri Jagannath puri as the son of Bhaktivinod Thakur and his beloved chaste wife, Bhagavati devi dasi. He was named by his father Bimala Prasad. From his early childhood, he was exhibiting the symptoms of the illustrious person that Krishna would reveal him to be throughout his life.
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