Tirobhav of Srila Gadadhara Pandit & Srila Bhakti Vinoda Thakur | HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj | ISKCON Chennai | 25 June 2025 |
Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur, the root of spreading Krsna consciousness in modern world:
So, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur of course is the father of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, also a great devotee. So, Bhaktivinoda Thakur is also responsible for reviving the Gaudiya Sampradaya. Of course, Gaudiya Sampradaya was there since Caitanya Mahaprabhu and we have many great Acharyas, writers such as Rupa, Sanatana and Jiva Goswami. Later on, we have Baladeva Vidyabhusana and Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakur. After that point, of course, maybe even before that, before Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakur, the movement began to weaken slightly and of course there are so many social influences and the entry of the British into India, etc. So that by the time of Bhaktivinoda Thakur, the British had established themselves as a government and as a culture within India. And that of course was also in Bengal.
So, as a result, we find that the Sampradaya of Lord Caitanya, though still present, was not well known and often misunderstood. It does not mean that the teachings were completely lost, but they were not widely understood by the public or the intelligents. So, the state was such that Bhaktivinoda Thakur himself was not really aware of the teachings of Lord Caitanya till sometime after he had matured. Of course, nowadays in Bengal, probably from childhood, you know something about Lord Caitanya. At that time, yes, maybe they know the name of Caitanya Mahaprabhu but Bhaktivinoda Thakur, though he was very learned, had not really studied his statements or the scriptures such as Caitanya-caritamrta or the works of the Gosvamis. So, when he actually began to seriously study these works, after studying so many other things including Upanishads and Western philosophy, etc. and the present, let’s say, philosophies current in India, then he was very surprised to see how Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s explanations of the scripture were superior to anything else. And he became very enthusiastic to spread this throughout the world.
So in other words, among the people of Bengal and of India, the real teachings of Lord Caitanya had somewhat become covered over or lost and nobody really knew. And of course, in place of that, we get something else which was quite prominent, which we call the Sahajiyas. So there were many groups practicing many strange things, that mixing Bhakti with Tantra, etc. So, these movements were also, let’s say, well known and also quite disrespected. So in this way, the movement of Lord Caitanya also got disrespected by many people as being quite improper and immoral.
So, with that background, Bhaktivinoda Thakur began studying the works of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and his followers and then he concluded that this is actually something quite different from what common people understand about Lord Caitanya. So he began to propagate the teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu to the public. He was in a fortunate position because he was very literate, he had a very good education, he had knowledge of Sanskrit and Bengali and English. And thus, he had access to all sorts of knowledge and scriptures, etc. He was also aware of, because of his education, he was aware of Western philosophy and religion. So he had a very wide background upon which to preach. He also began to preach, of course, the philosophy of the teachings of Lord Caitanya, but he was preaching to the people of that time, who were quite different from the people 400 years before, that is Lord Caitanya’s time, and quite different from the people from 200 years before. So, what was the difference? Of course, after the Muslims, then the British came. And the British established a whole different culture and tried to persuade people that English learning culture, religion, philosophy, etc. was superior to that of anything in India. And many intelligent Indians, they began to believe this, and they took it up and they became well placed in the British government. And so, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, he became a magistrate and so many other Indians took up civil service under the British. And why they got that? Because they had been educated according to British standards. And they got all the British knowledge, scientific knowledge, religion, philosophy, everything. So that, of course, many got, say, contaminated by that.
Fortunately, Bhaktivinoda Thakur, he was very open-minded and yes, he would study it seriously, but then he began to study the philosophy in India, the different darshanas of India and then he began to study the works of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and his followers. So, with that very wide background, he was able to not only understand the superiority of Lord Caitanya’s teachings in relation to other teachings of India, like Advaita and Sankhya and Yoga, etc. but also in relation to other cultures and religions of the world. So, therefore, his preaching and his writings often reflect this. So, if we look at a work like Jaiva Dharma or Caitanya Siksamrta particularly, then we will see that he approaches, for instance, Islam and he has a little bit of explanation of Islam and other common elements in the Islamic theology with the philosophy of Lord Caitanya. He also, of course, relates Bhakti to Karma, Karma Yoga, Karma Kanda, etc., Varnashrama etc. and he gives a nice explanation of how Dharma and Bhakti are related. And he explains that nicely in Jaiva Dharma.
He understood there were differing conceptions of the conclusion of the Veda. You know, followers of Karma, Smarthas, etc. and as opposed to the Vaishnava philosophy. So, he explained very nicely the relationship between these different beliefs and practices, at the same time coming to the proper conclusion. And he did all of this in a very analytical way which had not previously been done. And why he did this is because he was preaching to the people of that day who had been largely educated by the British and they were somewhat skeptical of everything, so therefore he used logical arguments and logical explanations to convince them of the place of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings. So, this was a very new approach. If we look at the Gosvamis and even Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakur, they do not refer to outside influences, more or less, ok, we are going to reject Jain, Buddhist, whatever they don’t even mention Christianity or other philosophers. At most they will combine themselves to Sankhya, Karma mimamsa, Vedanta of Shankaracharya, Yoga philosophy, etc. not even too much of that, and also reject that. So the scope was a little more limited, they didn’t examine too much other philosophies and whatever and show the relationship. And they largely concentrated simply on explaining the verses of Bhagavatam, Bhagavad Gita, etc. and giving the Vaishnava meaning of all the concepts and words.
Bhaktivinoda Thakur, however, did not concentrate so much upon simply explaining words and verses, etc. but rather took the general conclusions of Lord Caitanya’s philosophy and explained how these were superior to, within India, the concepts of Advaita and Sankhya and Yoga, etc. and also superior to other religions of the world. Why he did this, of course, is because his audience was very familiar with all these things, many had been even converted to Christianity, many didn’t want to accept Christianity, but they started changing the Vedas a little bit to make it a little more suitable for the modern world etc., reinterpret Vedas in terms of modern British thinking or whatever. So, therefore he approached scripture in a little bit of a different way and related it to other types of knowledge. So that was quite convincing to many people and he got a good following, though he was busy in his job of magistrate and whatever, he did spend a lot of time studying and writing. And out of that he produced many, many great works which are still available and studied today.
Of course, the other contribution was that among his sons, some became Vaishnavas and of course, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, his son began preaching very vigorously and he established the Gaudiya Math and through that, Srila Prabhupada began to accept and spread the teachings of Lord Caitanya. And so, our founder Acharya, Srila Prabhupada, he accepted Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur’s teachings in order to spread the mission and later on, he took Diksha from him and he continued throughout his life, to work on behalf of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement according to the instructions of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur. So, in that way, the influence of Bhaktivinoda Thakur became quite profound and deep.
Bhaktivinoda Thakur himself, because he was working a lot and he had a huge family, 11 children or something, he couldn’t devote full time, so he had to work and support his family, etc. until old age and then he did retire. But he concentrated on the writing aspect. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur took those teachings and then, of course, he did not get married, he became a sannyasi and he established an organization to propagate the teachings of Lord Caitanya and whatever Bhaktivinoda Thakur had imparted to him.
So, the teachings of Bhaktivinoda Thakur became, I would say, practical, practically applied by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur establishing an organization, the Gaudiya Math to spread the teachings of Lord Caitanya everywhere. So, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, of course, also was remarkable because he established, in a very short period of time, temples all around India, so that was quite remarkable, in such a short period of time. And if we look at the time he preached, it was a very difficult time. It was the time between the First World War and the Second World War, it was the time of the Great Depression in America, time of, you know, disturbance in India, the British, there was famines, there was sickness, etc. and then, of course, finally there was the Second World War after that, so, of course, Bhaktisiddhanta disappeared by then, but so much turmoil was there plus, the Indians didn’t like the British and the nationalist movement began and even when Prabhupada, he was the first , you know one of the nationalist and then he was convinced by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur to become more interested in preaching Lord Caitanya’s philosophy. So there’s a lot of confusion.
Just materially speaking, when India at that time when Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur was preaching so there was, you know, political problem, material problems whatever, ideologies were all confused. But, in spite of that, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur managed to spread all over India at that time, so then we have temple in Chennai, temple in Bombay, in Delhi all these are major cities had Matts established under him. So he also did very, very great contribution and in also a very short period of time, it was not a long extensive period, very, very short period of time. And we see the same in Srila Prabhupada, his preaching period was not that long, maybe 12 years, 13 years within that period, he established so much around the world. So it all began with Bhaktivinoda Thakur and his revival of Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement. So he established a very, very good foundation. He wrote some works in English, to appeal to the modern people of India at that time. He wrote some works in Sanskrit to appeal to the more, let’s say, scholarly traditional people who were used to works in Sanskrit and he wrote some works in Bengali. And he also experimented, he had poetic works many, many poetic works and verse. He had, of course, simple explanations of things, he also made some works into stories, like Jaiva Dharma it’s in a story format, and he also made a short novel or whatever about two persons actually in Bengal who become devotees and then one goes off to Vrindavan, etc. It’s called Prema Pradipa. So that’s the full story actually, most of it’s a story, it’s like a little novel. So he experimented in different forms.
So he wrote poetry, prose, stories, etc. in Sanskrit, English, and Bengali to communicate to different types of people. But, of course, the basis of this was, his firm conviction in the teachings of Caitanya Mahaprabhu as the essence of, not just the Vedas but the essential formula for everybody in the world. So he went beyond simply saying India and Vedas, he wanted to preach to the whole world and that, of course, was carried on by Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur and Srila Prabhupada later on. So he was the root of this spreading of Krishna consciousness in the modern world.
The unique role of Gadhadhara Pandit in Caitanya Lila:
Of course, Gadadhara Pandita, we don’t have too much knowledge about him. We have some descriptions in the Caitanya Caritamrita and a few other works. And when Caitanya Mahaprabhu was in Navadvipa, Gadadhara Pandita was also there. Later on, when Caitanya Mahaprabhu took Sannyasa then Gadadhara Pandita stayed with Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri. So, he was a constant companion of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He did not go with Lord Caitanya when Lord Caitanya travelled to South India. He also did not go with Lord Caitanya when Lord Caitanya went to Vrindavan. But other than that, he stayed with Lord Caitanya when he was in Puri.
At the beginning of Caitanya Caritamrita, there is a description of the Pancha Tattva. So the Pancha Tattva is of course, Lord Caitanya and four other followers who are very prominent in Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. And of course, they also established Paramparas. So, from Advaita Acharya, and Nityananda, and Gadadhara and Srivasa Pandita, we do have some Guru Paramparas. So the Gadadhara Pandit of course is explained that he is actually the Hladini shakti of Supreme Lord. So, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna and Gadadhara Pandita is Radha. And of course, Nityananda is Balarama.
In the pastimes of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Caitanya Mahaprabhu hides his aspect as the Supreme Lord. Whenever he reveals great powers, it is privately. For instance, in Krishna’s pastimes, He reveals universal form to Arjuna, but other people also could see. He also revealed the universal form to Duryodhana. Of course, Lord Caitanya revealed his universal form to Advaita Acharya, but that was very private, no one else could see. So, though Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna and Krishna is most powerful, Lord Caitanya does not show his powers. So similarly, his followers like Nityananda, and Advaita Acharya and Gadadhara Pandita, do not show their powers. So, Caitanya Mahaprabhu does not act like Krishna and have Rasalila. And thus, though Gadadhara is Radharani, we don’t see pastimes of Gadadhara and Caitanya Mahaprabhu like we see pastimes of Radha and Krishna. However, if we look very closely in some of the pastimes, we can see how Caitanya Mahaprabhu and his relationship with Gadadhara is similar to that of Radha and Krishna. Gadadhara Pandita was always an intimate servant of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. But of course, everything is somewhat covered over.
In any case, whatever Radharani expresses is very very hidden in the pastimes of Gadadhara Pandita. But what we can see is that a great devotion. Of all the people of Nabadwip, the only one who stayed constantly with Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri was Gadadhara Pandita. So, Advaita Acharya, Nityananda, Srivasa Pandita, they stayed in Bengal. But Gadadhara Pandita stayed with Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Puri. So just as Radharani is completely devoted to Krishna, Gadadhara Pandita was completely devoted to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Simultaneously, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is playing the role of a devotee. So therefore, Lord Caitanya himself acts in relation to Krishna like a devotee of Krishna. So therefore, the relationship between Gadadhara Pandita and Caitanya Mahaprabhu is a little bit different from that of Radha and Krishna, at least externally. So, throughout his life, he was devoted to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. After Caitanya Mahaprabhu disappeared, shortly after then Gadadhara Pandita disappeared.
So, in Bhagavatam, we are reading about the disappearance of Krishna and the Yadus and finally the Pandavas. So, similarly, Caitanya Mahaprabhu disappeared and then we find the disappearance of Gadadhara Pandita, and Nityananda, and Advaita Acharya and all the others. Like the pastimes of Krishna, pastimes of Caitanya Mahaprabhu are eternal. And thus, in the spiritual world, we have Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the other members of the Panchatattva. Even then, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is distinct from Krishna. So, Caitanya Mahaprabhu is covered over and he has the mood of Radha. And then all the other devotees also act in a similar way.
Even during and after Lord Caitanya’s pastimes, some devotees began to worship Lord Caitanya like Krishna. Of course, maybe we can say nothing wrong with that. But then they began to express themselves just like the Gopis in relation to Krishna. So, they regarded themselves like the Gopis and not with Krishna, but with Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So, of course, this is also expressed even by some great devotees like Lochan Das Thakur. So, if you read his works like Caitanya Mangala, we will see verses there in which he is praising Lord Caitanya and he got the set of it of being like a Gopi in relation to Lord Caitanya. Sometimes it is not directly expressed, but there is a lot of verses dedicated to the women of Navadvip having ecstatic love for Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So later on, Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur did not really approve of that type of thing, it’s called the Gauranganagari movement and he kind of rejected that as not being the true mood.
So, though Caitanya Mahaprabhu is Krishna and Gadadhara Pandita is Radha, the relationship in the pastimes of Lord Caitanya is not really external. But because he is non-different from Krishna, and we expect to have all these different types of relationships which are similar to relationships with Krishna.
Hare Krsna !
Q & A
1.) Thank you Maharaj. So is it the proper understanding that when the devotees worship Caitanya Mahaprabhu as a devotee of Krishna is more pleasing to him than treating him as the Supreme Lord himself.
For persons practicing sadhana as with Krishna we do have an elementary understanding.
Yes, he is God just like Krishna is God. So we definitely distinguish him from Jivas. When we worship of course with that understanding, there is we could say a slight mood of Aishwarya.
But of course we know in worshipping Krishna though that may be present – Aishwarya mood present, it is somewhat different from the Aishwarya mood for Vishnu. So like with Krishna so with Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Of course Caitanya Mahaprabhu is a step further [Laughs]. So not only he hides his Aishwarya but he has the mood as Lord Caitanya of being the devotee of Krishna. So of course Krishna is called the human-like avatar. Lord Caitanya is even more human-like [Laughs]. So the devotees of Lord Caitanya also treat him in that way.
2.) Maharaj, we know that Thakur Bhakti Vinod is titled as the seventh Goswami. While we understand there are so many exalted Vaishnavas came after the six Goswamis, what is significantly making Thakur Bhakti Vinod as the seventh Goswami?
What is the origin of that term ? Was it Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur ? We don’t know [Laughs]. So Bhakti Vinod Thakur himself didn’t use the term. Prabhupada also didn’t use the term. So maybe Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur used the term. I’m not familiar with it. However, if we look at his literary contribution, he was quite prolific.
3.) Maharaj, you also mentioned that in some occasions Gaura Gadadhar is similar to that of Radha Krishna. I request you to help us understand Maharaj, similar to that of Radha Krishna, Gaura Gadadhar relationship ?
Yes we do have deities of Gaura Gadadhar which is say the equivalent of Radha and Krishna. So of course and people can worship those deities. At the same time, as I said because the pastimes are somewhat covered, it’s not exactly the same. Devotees who are absorbed in worship of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Gadadhar of course then they can worship them and meditate on their past times in Navadvip and puri.
4.) Gadadhar pandit is Srimati Radharani. So how he is not following Caitanya Mahaprabhu while he was touring South India and Vrindavan?
So of course we cannot understand the mind of Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So of course Gadadhar wanted to follow Caitanya Mahaprabhu everywhere, but then in these cases he forbid him. Near the end of Caitanya Caritamrta we see how Gadadhar Pandit wanted to follow Caitanya Mahaprabhu as he left and Prataparudra was arranging for him different encampments as he moved north or whatever and then Lord Caitanya told Gadadhar Pandit to go back. So we can also understand this is a form of Vipralambha. Just as Krishna left Vrindavan and all the Gopis, so sometimes Caitanya Mahaprabhu leaves.
5.) Hare Krishna Maharaj, Bhakti Vinod Thakur’s sons, Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati, we know that, but what about any other sons?
One of the other sons, Lalit Prasad was also a great devotee and he stayed in this Veer Nagar. Even now they bought some land and they’re building a small temple there also in commemoration of Bhakti Vinod Thakur who also lived there. So he had many sons, one of them became quite a prominent devotee. He also did some preaching work. But he strongly disagreed with Bhakti Siddhanta [Laughs] Thakur’s preaching method [Laughs].
6.) Was Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu naughty?
When he was a child, of course, we have descriptions a little bit in Caitanya Caritamrta, more in Chaitanya Bhagavat. So when he was a child, he was something like Krishna. Just as Krishna would break pots and steal yogurt etc and harass all of the houses, so Caitanya Mahaprabhu as a child also would harass the various elders and play jokes.
7.) While Hladini is for Gadadhar Pandit, who is representing Samvit and Sandhini?
So Sandhini in the spiritual world is ultimately under Balarama. So in Lord Caitanya’s pastimes, we can say Nityananda. And Samvit seems to be under Krishna himself.
8.) With Madhurya Rasa being the topmost Rasa, how Mahaprabhu has given this highest taste to Kali Yuga? How do we understand this?
So Caitanya Mahaprabhu is considered Maha vadanya or most compassionate, because his nature is to give out Madhurya rasa freely to the people of Kali Yuga. So that is one of his main qualities.
9.) Were the songs composed by Sri Jayadeva Goswami in Gita Govinda, were along with this raga and thala?
Well in the present editions, you look at it, it has raga and thala for each section. But whether that was originally what Jayadeva put it there, I don’t know [Laughs]. But in one of the commentaries, then he actually explains each of the ragas and the thalas also.
Devotees: Srila Gadhadhara Pandit Ki.. Jai !! Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur Ki.. jai!!! HH Bhanu Swami Maharaj ki Jai!!