Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati
Goswami Thakur Prabhupad
Pranam mantras
nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chhinna-vichchhinna-kartri
vibudha-bahula-mrgya-mukti-mohanta-datri
sithilita-vidhi-ragaradhya-radhesa-dhani
vilasatu hrdi nityam bhakti-siddhanta-vani
“May the demolisher of the entire world of illusion,
the finisher of the intellectuals’ mad pursuit of liberation,
the carrier of love based on properly adjusted regulation
for Śrī Rādhā’s worshippable Lord,
the message of Śrī Bhakti Siddhānta,
play within our hearts eternally.”
sri-siddhanta-sarasvatiti vidito gaudiya-gurv-anvaye
bhato bhanuriva prabhata-gagane yo gaura-sankirtanaih
mayavada-timingilodara-gatan uddhrtya jivaniman
krsna-prema-sudhabdhi-gahana-sukham pradat prabhum tam bhaje
“I serve my lord, who is known as Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur. Within the Gaudiya sampradaya’s lineage of Gurus, he shines like the sun in the morning sky. Through the sankirtan of Sriman Mahaprabhu he rescues the souls engulfed within the belly of the timingila of illusionism and bestows upon them the ecstasy of swimming in the nectarean ocean of divine love for Krsna.”
A brief biography
Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad, the disciple of Srila Gaura Kisor Das Babaji Maharaj, was the Guru of both Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Maharaj and Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad.
Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Prabhupad preached that Gaudiya Math stood for the dignity of the entire human race by teaching wholesale surrender to the absolute good. Especially active in the field of publishing transcendental literature, his erudition was profoundly commanding and elaborate. He revolutionised Krishna conscious preaching by giving preference to pure devotional qualifications over lineage, and it was he who set the precedent of Vaisnava tridanda-sannyas [the renounced order of devotional life] in accordance with the injunctions of the revealed scriptures.
In a poem describing the descending divine succession of the Brahma–Madhva–Gaudiya sampradaya, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad wrote:
sri-krsna-chaitanya radha-krsna nahe anya
rupanuga janera jivana
“Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is none other than Sri Sri Radha and Krishna, the life and soul of the followers of Srila Rupa Goswami.”
To exemplify this sublime ideal, Srila Bhakti Siddhanta established sixty-four Gaudiya Maths in India in the 1930’s, and all through he embraced the line of worship of Lord Chaitanya as nondifferent from Sri Sri Radha-Krishna.
The deep sense of urgency he felt to propagate the divine teachings of Lord Chaitanya for the benefit of the suffering world of misconception is exemplified in the indomitable conviction of his statement: “If fire burns the whole world, do not waste time trying to put it out. All necessities can be met only by serving Krishna.”
Glorification by Srila Sridhar Maharaj
Although outwardly he was like a lion, inwardly he was very, very sweet, yet it could be traced only in his internal sweetness. Outwardly, the way of love was worshipped by him with grandeur, awe, and reverence, but his object was the simple and beautiful divine love of Vrndavan, and his temperament in establishing that in the world was just like a lion’s. After his departure I described his life in one sloka:
nikhila-bhuvana-maya-chinna-vicchinna-kartri
vibudha-bahula-mrgya-mukti-mohanta-dhatri
sithilita-vidhi-ragaradhya-radhesa-dhani
vilasatu hrdi nityam bhakti-siddhanta-vani
“With his first step, he vigorously cut asunder the whole plane of exploitation, and with his second, he put a stop to all the calculations of the different scholars with their different conceptions of salvation, liberated stages. With his third step, he minimised the hardness and stiffness of the rules and regulations of calculative devotional service, by a touch of the divine love: crossing Vaikuntha, he gave us the worship of Sri Sri Radha-Govinda.”
Calculation, the rules and regulations, awe, reverence, all these things are minimised, checked, slackened with the softness of Vrndavan within, and with the hardness of a devastator without, he created havoc in the materialistic world, fighting with one and all. Single-handedly fighting against the whole world, and cutting asunder everything—that was his external attitude. And his second attitude was to put a stop to all scholarly researchers and doctorates of different departments, and to stop their boasting research; and third, to minimise, to slacken the grandeur of the worship of Narayan.
He caused the domain of love to descend into this plane with the service of Radha-Govinda, establishing the flow of divine love from the heart as all-in-all. With that, we come to serve our object of worship, and he represented the service of Radha-Govinda as the highest attainment. That was his history.
The real existence of Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad is in bhakti-siddhanta-vani, his divine teachings. May that bhakti-siddhanta-vani dance eternally within the core of your heart.