Today is the Appearance Day of His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur. He came to this world by the sincere cry of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, to re-establish Krsna consciousness, the highest understanding, and recognition of the spiritual domain.
Even though he was a learned man both materially and spiritually, he always emphasised that material education or just being knowledgeable in sastra is not that important, what matters is devotion to Krsna. And when speaking about his Guru, Srila Gaurakisora Das Babaji Maharaj, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur would always say that his Guru, being illiterate, was more learned than him. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur was never afraid to fight Mayavadis or Smarthana Brahmanas to glorify the auspicious position of a Vaishnava. He said that everybody has the right to become a devotee of Krsna; there is no consideration of caste systems.
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur made for himself the main goal to spread Krsna consciousness all around India and the world. He started this and granted this mission to our founder-acarya, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada. Due to their mercy, we can now hear about Sri Krsna, read the holy scriptures in any language, and follow the devotional path. They granted everyone a chance to become a devotee.
Once during an evening walk, he was gazing at the moon for a long time, while his disciples were wondering, why was he looking at the moon like this. Then he replied to his disciples that the moon planet is degrading, therefore all of us have to go there to preach. In this way, he planted the spirit of preaching in everyone’s hearts. As his spiritual grandchildren, we have to follow this, to spread the value of Krsna consciousness so it may flourish using every possible means.
When in Nabadwip and Vrindavan, people were criticizing Gaudiya Vaishnavas for considering Lord Caitanya as the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he organized a special lecture in Nabadwip and boldly quoted from different scriptures to establish Lord Caitanya as the Yuga Avatar, after which no one could speak anything against Him.
Our founder-acarya, Srila Prabhupada said that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur had descended from the spiritual world to preach to us, he is a Vaikuntha Man. He asked devotees to print books, distribute books and he even wanted to take off the marbles from the Bagbazar temples, to sell them and print books with that money. He always ordered his disciples to stay together, preach in cooperation. So it is very important to follow this, especially when for us now it is a very easy thing to do. We should distribute the books and connect with people through Bhakti-vriksha and Nama-hatta programs.
What more can we learn from the life of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur? He was a child of a great vaishnava, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, who raised him in an exemplary way. Being a 7-year-old child, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur could memorize each sloka of the ‘Bhagavad-Gita’, and even gave a commentary on it. When he was 13 years old, his father gave him a Tulasi japa mala that he had received from Jagannath Puri and Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur taught him the Hare Krsna Maha-Mantra and Nrisimha Mantra. At 16 years of age, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur started an organization called ‘The August Assembly’ in his school, where he and his friends would only speak about Bhakti, the devotional service. Of course, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur is an auspicious soul who always stays liberated, but by his life, he showed that any vaishnava who raises a child can and should implement the seed of devotion in their children’s heart. Our Bhakti Kids program is always there to help you with that.
The three final instructions of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur were: 1) do not try to be a hero, simply try to be a speck in the hands of the spiritual master; 2) always take shelter of Hari Naam & Hari Katha; 3) beware of disunity. The last one, disunity, is the biggest enemy of any community and we, CDM, are eager to do everything that we can to protect our ISKCON from it.
On this very auspicious day let us pray at the dust of his divine lotus feet, to receive his blessings to stay together, improve and preach the glories of the Lord throughout the world.
