Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur's Inconceivable Pastimes
BY: ROCANA DASA
Jul 30, CANADA (SUN) — Commentary on the Svalikhita-jivani series.
It was with a certain degree of hesitation that we chose to publish the Svalikhita-jivani series, comprised of His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur's autobiographical account of his life up until his retirement, the final chapter of which is dated June 21, 1896. As readers will have noted from today's segment, content of this and some previous chapters have the potential to disturb the minds of many readers.
Those who are familiar with my personal writings will understand that I have taken a position wherein I'm presenting Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur as the first of three successive nitya-siddha representatives of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, deputed by Him to fulfill his prophecy of spreading Krsna consciousness throughout the world. It seems appropriate to offer my view of how one should understand the content of the Thakur's autobiography in the context of the pastimes of the nitya-siddha Sampradaya Acarya.
This lifetime account was written in Srila Bhaktivinoda's own handwriting, in Bengali. It was translated by an old friend of mine, Sukavak dasa, originally from Toronto. I don't doubt that the translation is accurate, and therefore conclude that there's no getting around the fact that in his extreme honesty, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur mentions that at various points in his life, he was eating fish and meat.
Of course, the devotees today would, at best, consider this type of practice to be abhorrent, especially as it goes against the standards we have been given by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Thakur and His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur, as well as their presentation of their predecessor Acarya, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur. We chant bhajans written by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur and we have explicitly been taught to respect him as being a pure devotee, if not a Sampradaya Acarya.
In order to approach this whole question of Srila Bhaktivinoda's pastimes, one should first of all understand the context in which his life unfolded. This segment of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur's life took place in the 1800's, in a society that was part of the British Empire. Srila Bhaktivinoda was a magistrate and clerk in their administration, and obviously had to operate in their social system. Krsna consciousness was not at all prevalent in Bengali society at that time. In fact, it is by the mercy of Srila Bhaktivinoda that we enjoy the understanding of Krsna consciousness today, and benefit from our connection to the pure Sampradaya.
When considering Srila Bhaktivinoda's practice of eating meat, I consider a morning walk conversation wherein a devotee asked our Srila Prabhupada about Lord Ramacandra being depicted in the Ramayana as eating meat. It's also pointed out that Bhima, one of the five Pandavas, ate meat. Srila Prabhupada's response -- which was quite swift and in somewhat of a chastising mood -- was that Ramacandra can eat the whole universe, let alone meat. But in the temples where they worship Lord Ramacandra, they never offer Him meat because. That's what the great Acaryas instructed.
It's the great Acaryas who understand these incarnations of the Lord, and they're the ones who determine how God is to be worshipped in his various Forms and incarnations. They don't emphasize the particular incident where Ramacandra apparently ate meat. Srila Prabhupada didn't deny that this passage exists, or that Lord Rama eat meat. He simply said that we should not try to imitate that aspect of His pastimes - or any aspect of His pastimes. We can't float stones on the water, nor do even a fraction of the miraculous things he displayed.
In another morning walk, the devotees were asking Srila Prabhupada about his Spiritual Master, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati, and how strict he was. They also mentioned Srila Bhaktivinoda, and Srila Prabhupada laughingly said, 'Oh, he wasn't that strict, like Srila Bhaktisiddhanta'. And neither was Srila Prabhupada's father very strict. Srila Prabhupada obviously didn't take it that seriously, that they didn't all exhibit the same kinds of symptoms, or set the same kinds of examples that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati did. In fact, Srila Prabhupada said that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta was so strict that he would even chastise his father, Srila Bhaktivinoda. Srila Prabhupada said that he himself was simply an imitator of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati.
We also have to keep in mind that the Svalikhita-jivani is actually a long letter written to his son, Lalita Prasada. As history tells it, in due course Lalita Prasada became a real adversary to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati. In fact, he started a separate movement that is considered asiddhantic, and criticized Srila Bhaktisiddhanta extensively. So we should consider how that plays into our understanding this particular circumstance with Srila Bhaktivinoda's meat eating. Who knows whether Srila Bhaktivinoda intended that his letter to his son be published and made into a book? He might also have been trying to send a direct message to Lalita Prasada, it's hard to tell. Svalikhita-jivani is certainly a very unusual, honest depiction of a great Sampradaya Acarya's early life. How Lalita Prasada - or any of us, for that matter - choose to interpret this information is up the utmost importance. After all, love is always tested. This candid written narrative might simply have been designed by the father as a test for the son. And as history shows, the son failed the test. Whether or not his publication of this auti-biographical letter was part of the failure, we can't know.
As was the case with Srila Prabhupada, most of the teachings that we now hold up as being on the highest level were manifest in the latter part of his life. Similarly, this particular era of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur's lila was 45 years before he left the planet. We should also keep in mind that we don't normally get this kind of glimpse of early lifetime pastimes of great Acaryas. For instance, when Rupa and Sanatana Goswami were working for a Muslim Zamindar prior to their meeting Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we have no information about what their lifestyle was in the context of their eating practices. It could well have been that they were also eating meat. We don't know because it hasn't been described for us, at least not to my knowledge, and we don't really care. All we care for is the writings of these pure devotees, and the unalloyed siddhanta these exalted individuals mercifully left for us.
The trend that we are now experiencing in the society of Krsna consciousness is the move to becoming more of a religion than a spiritual movement. This is symptomized by the fact that we're putting more and more stress on the sadhana practices, ceremonies and festivals, and less emphasis on really studying and appreciating our siddhanta and ensuring that the siddhanta remains perfectly intact, without any alterations. And such alterations are certainly taking place. Our siddhanta is ultimately the most absolute aspect of our whole Sampradaya, and we put on the highest level the teachings of the Six Goswamis, the teachings of Krsna from Bhagavad-gita, the teachings of Sukadev Goswami in Srimad-Bhagavatam, and the teachings of Srila Prabhupada. We must pay attention to the fact that the actual practices or the sadhana aspects of what was taking place in every one of these siddhantic presentations throughout our Sampradaya's history was not primarily emphasized by any of the Sampradaya Acaryas. It was the siddhanta that they focused on.
We hear, of course, about the pastimes of the Goswamis in Vrindavan and their very austere and transcendental activities, but we're warned by our most recent Sampradaya Acaryas, and particularly Srila Prabhupada, not to try and imitate them. We cannot imitate Haridas Thakur, but should just try to follow his suggested sadhana practices. And to obtain that level of sadhana in this lifetime and maintain it has proven to be very challenging. But saying that, Srila Prabhupada emphasized far more than anything else that we should be very, very careful about not changing the siddhanta.
Going back to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur and his contribution to the most recent lila of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, we find that he clearly established the siddhanta that we now follow, and which Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati embraced and amplified, and which Srila Prabhupada practically applied to the world. So even though we have this rare opportunity afforded to us due to the unusual circumstance of Srila Bhaktivinoda laying out his life, without any editing, we should be very careful to not find any offense there. We cannot compare our meager pastimes to his glorious pastimes. If any of the gurus of today were to be as honest as Srila Bhaktivinoda in depicting their early life prior to coming in contact with Srila Prabhupada, the meat-eating and debauchery would be thousands of times worse. To whatever degree Srila Bhaktivinoda engaged in eating fish or goat, it is undoubtedly miniscule compared to the vast majority of devotees today.
In my Sampradaya Acarya theme, and especially the focus on the most recent, Srila Prabhupada, there are many, many aspects of Srila Prabhupada's life that he chose to reveal that also have the potential to disturb the mind of neophyte personalities who are trying to wrap their intelligence around the fact that he is a nitya-siddha maha-bhagavata, and that his early pastimes do not necessarily appear to indicate that he was, in fact, born a pure devotee. Of course, the sample principle applies to Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, and it's far harder for us to understand his life considering that it transpired hundreds of years ago, compared to Srila Prabhupada's recent manifest lila.
One of the main tasks or missions set out by the great Acaryas is to make sure that we, as conditioned souls, are given an opportunity to very clearly understand who is God. And in our context, the two incarnations of God that we particularly need to understand are Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Krsna. In both lilas there is much that needs to be explained by a Sampradaya Acarya, because it can easily be misinterpreted by mundane, envious conditioned souls. We all know about some of the envious explanations of the pastimes of Krsna, especially in the context of these two incarnations. So the same applies to the lives and pastimes of the Sampradaya Acaryas.
I don't claim to be advanced enough to give an absolute or definitive explanation of who Srila Prabhupada is, what to speak of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta or Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakurs, but we have to adopt the same principle as we were taught by these same Acaryas and as it applies to the incarnations of Krsna -- beginning with the idea that they're inconceivable, that they're always all pure good, and one should never think of them as common persons or any of their activities as being anything but intrinsically transcendental. Nor should we compare them to any ordinary person.
I only pray to these great Acaryas that someday I'll become purified enough to appreciate them much more than I do now. The particular excerpts in question Svalikhita-jivani certainly don't affect me or reduce my appreciation or respect for Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur in any way at all. It doesn't change my mind as it pertains to accepting Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur as a nitya-siddha Sampradaya Acarya. In the same way, the presentation of our Srila Prabhupada in Satsvarupa's Lilamrta does not reduce my appreciation for Srila Prabhupada, although it certainly has the potential to bewilder the minds of uninformed readers.
