The Lord Sends Assistance

Now that the great pioneering work had been established, another enlightened personage was needed to carry it on. Bhaktivinoda prayed fervently to Lord Caitanya to send someone. (We are reminded of how, four hundred years earlier, Sri Advaita Prabhu, foreseeing a hellish growth of materialism and irreligion, had similarly prayed for the advent of Lord Caitanya Himself.) Another prophesy was then penned by Thakura Bhaktivinoda: "A personality will soon appear to preach the teachings of Lord Caitanya and move unrestrictedly over the whole world with His message."

On February 6, 1874, while Bhaktivinoda was serving in Puri as manager of the Jagannatha temple, a son was born to him. At the moment of birth, when the infant was taken from his mother, the child's umbilical cord was draped around his neck and across his chest, appearing like the thread brahmanas wear after their initiation. Everyone was very impressed with this sign. During the annual Rathayatra festival, six months later, in July, the massive holy cart in which Lord Jagannatha, a form of Krsna, is pulled by thousands of devotees came to a sudden stop just outside Bhaktivinoda's house. While the crowd was trying to get the cart moving again, Bhaktivinoda's wife took the opportunity to have her new son blessed by Lord Jagannatha. She rushed out of her house with the baby and placed him high on the cart at the lotus feet of the Lord. At that very moment, a huge flower garland worn by Lord Jagannatha fell down, encircling the infant. Bhaktivinoda, overjoyed, then understood that his own son was Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's answer to his prayers. That son would later be known as Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura.

As the child grew up, Bhaktivinoda eagerly gave him transcendental instruction. Thus at the age of only seven years, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura had committed to memory the entire Bhagavad-gita and could even explain the meaning of its verses. Once, the young boy took a mango from the room of the family Deity and ate it. Bhaktivinoda reprimanded his son, explaining that to eat food meant to be offered to the Lord was an offense. Bhaktisiddhanta resolved on the spot never again to eat a mango, and he kept this vow throughout his life, despite the mango's being perhaps the world's most tasty fruit. At the age of ten, Bhaktivinoda Thakura initiated his son with the Hare Krsna mantra.

As a student, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati distinguished himself in mathematics, history, philosophy and Vedic astronomy. He wrote scholarly articles and treatises, edited two monthly magazines and started a cultural association, as well as a tol, or school, to teach astronomy. He was offered, but declined, a chair at Calcutta University. Throughout this time, he attended and participated in his father's Visva Vaisnava Raj Sabha.

Bhaktivinoda wanted his son to be initiated with the essential Gayatri mantra. Because it is not customary for one's own father to perform this ceremony, he instructed Bhaktisiddhanta to approach Srila Gaurakisora dasa Babaji Maharaja, an important saint of Navadvipa, which is near Sridhama Mayapur: At first Gaurakisora seemed to the young man a very unlikely choice for a spiritual master. He was living an extremely secluded and ascetic life, he had no disciples, and he was even illiterate. So Bhaktisiddhanta apparently did not take his father's instructions to heart. But Bhaktivinoda Thakura could understand that Gaurakisora dasa was a great teacher in the preceptorial disciplic succession. He was renunciation personified (vairagya-mūrti) and was always merged in the elevated state of spiritual separation from Krsna known as vipralambha. Finally, in 1901, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura surrendered himself, and Gaurakisora duly accepted him as his only disciple.

In 1911 Bhaktivinoda Thakura was invited to address the All-India conference of Panḍitas. Unable to attend because of illness, he sent Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati to speak in his place. The lecture was entitled "Truth Regarding the Comparative Position Between a Brahmana and a Vaisnava." It was received as a work of genius and was the highlight of the conference. By 1913 Bhaktisiddhanta had established his first printing press, the Bhagavata Press in Krishnanagar, solely for printing his writings. He then wrote the first of his many famous Bengali commentaries, which include his "Anubhasya" on Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, his "Anuvrtti" on the Upadesamrta, and a commentary on Srimad Bhagavad-gita.