Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja

(Several excerpts in this section have been selected from various sources such as (1) Ācārya Kesarī Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī–His Life and Teachings, (2) Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s Śrī Prabandhāvalī, and (3) a lecture given by Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja on December 12th, 1998, the appearance day of Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja.)

(The following section consists of the words of Śrīla Gurudeva himself. The title ‘Gurudeva’ here refers to his gurudeva, and our Parama-gurudeva, Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī.)

Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja took birth in a respected religious family in the village of Pilajaṅga in Khulnā district, east Bengal, on December 23, 1921. His father’s name was Śrī Satiśacandra Ghoṣa and his mother’s name was Śrīmatī Bhagavatī-devī. Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Kuśala Nṛsiṃha Mahārāja was his paternal uncle in his previous āśrama.

His mother was a disciple of the founder-ācārya of the world-wide Gauḍīya Maṭha, Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Prabhupāda. His father, Śrī Satiśacandra Ghoṣa, obtained harināma and dīkṣā from worshipable Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, and was an ideal gṛhastha-bhakta and received the name Śrī Sarveśvara Dāsādhikarī after receiving dīkṣā.

Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s childhood name was Santoṣa, and he was the second amongst four brothers. During his childhood, he was educated in the local primary school. From his infancy, he was very patient, peaceful, religious and intelligent, and was always top of his class. He had a remarkable memory, and after hearing any verse or particular subject only once, he would never forget it in his whole life.

Once, after the head teacher left the school for another post, the new head teacher came into the classroom for the first time, and asked Santoṣa (later Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja) to read from a certain portion of the text book they were studying. Santoṣa, the leading student in the school, simply remained silent. The new head teacher became annoyed and demanded to know why Santoṣa was not picking up the book to read as he had been instructed. Another pupil spoke up and explained to the new teacher that Santoṣa had already memorised the whole book and therefore did not need to consult it. Incredulous, the teacher asked Santoṣa if this were true, and Santoṣa humbly replied that he knew by heart any book that he had ever read. Picking up a book that the class had studied previously, the teacher opened it at random and asked Santoṣa to recite what was written on a certain page. To his astonishment, Santoṣa was able to recite it flawlessly.

On March 2, 1931, Śrīmatī Bhagavatī-devī brought her son Santoṣa with her to take part in Śrī Navadvīpa-dhāma parikramā. After dhāma-parikramā, she entrusted her dear son to the hands of the manager of the maṭha, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī^[1]. From then on, he lived in the maṭha under Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Prabhu’s care.

In those early days, the modern sewage system hardly existed in India, and the toilets in the maṭha consisted simply of holes in the earth with large clay pots inside. Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja would daily take those pots on his head and carry them away to empty them in an appropriate place outside the maṭha. He had no mundane ego and there was no trace of anger in him.

Śrīla Prabhupāda Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura had established an educational institute in Māyāpura called the Śrī Bhaktivinoda Institute. The headmaster was Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktipradīpa Tīrtha Mahārāja and the manager was Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī. Śrī Vinoda-bihārī enrolled the young Santoṣa in this school. Daily, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī gave him some verses from Śrī Gauḍīya-kaṇṭhahāra, Bhagavad-gītā and Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam to memorize. For each verse he memorized, he got a piece of sugar candy. every day he would memorize four or five or even twenty verses and quote them perfectly. After a short time he memorized all the verses of Śrī Gauḍīya-kaṇṭhahāra, and many from the Gītā and Bhāgavatam. In time, the members of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava society considered him to be an encyclopedia of verses.

When Śrīla Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, was lecturing, he would sometimes forget a śloka, and Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja would always supply it from memory. Once, when we went to Assam for preaching, Gurudeva (Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja) boldly declared that the mouths of the people there who ate meat and fish were like the drains and sewers. The members of one of the sects there were virtually prepared to stone us and challenged us: “Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is a recent personality and Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta is also a modern literature. Is Caitanya Mahāprabhu even mentioned in the Vedas, or is there any evidence that he is Bhagavān?” Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī replied that there were thousands of examples, and he then told Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja to present the evidence. Śrīla Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja had a notebook containg some 40 or 50 statements from the Vedic literature that Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was Bhagavān. He gave this to Śrīpāda Bhaktivedānta Trivikrama Gosvāmī Mahārāja, who on his guru’s order loudly recited the ślokas from different scriptures one after the other as evidence. The rockthrowing and chaos that the challengers had tried to spread in the audience finally came to an end. In the middle of the mayhem, Parama-gurudeva said fearlessly, “We sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs are not afraid of death. We are followers of Prahlāda Mahārāja and Haridāsa Ṭhākura.” Their fearlessness was discussed everywhere in the area for many days.

(In the section that follows, the title Śrīla Gurudeva refers to the author’s śikṣā-guru, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja.)

In 1936, Jagad-guru Śrīla Prabhupāda (Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura) gave Santoṣa harināma. His name now became Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī. He studied at school, and also swept the temple and the bhajana-kuṭīras of the Vaiṣṇavas every day and brought them water. Before prasāda time, he would set out the seats, plates and other necessities for prasāda-sevā, and afterwards he would clean the area. He was also engaged in gathering fruit, flowers, leaves, vegetables and so on from the garden in the maṭha. He was engaged in many other services as well.

As a young person, Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī was very shy. He was a brahmacārī for his whole life, and was endowed with all the good qualities befitting a Vaiṣṇava. When Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja asked him to give class, Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī would meekly shy away and be silent. In his earlier years, he did not like to go out with the other brahmacārīs to beg alms, or out for preaching engagements. He did not like to speak to outsiders, except for children. He had a sweet relationship with them and would tell them many stories. They would treat him like a friend, and flock all around him to hear him speak. He would also teach them verses and give them sweet mahā-prasāda. That is why they loved him so much.

At first, he had such a load of service at the temple that he did not like to go out for preaching. Later on, though, after Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja ordered him to preach, he developed such a taste for it that he could go on for hours and hours without stop. His preaching was a grand success.

When jagad-guru Śrīla Prabhupāda disappeared from this world, Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha entered a dark period. The society became divided over who the next ācārya would be. Ananta Vāsudeva was nominated (although not by Prabhupāda Sarasvatī Ṭhākura), but in time it was seen that he was not qualified. Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja immediately advised that this person be rejected, and all the senior Vaiṣṇavas followed this advice. When this happened, those who were opposed to Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja formed a conspiracy, and accused him and those godbrothers who were with him of murder.

The accused devotees, numbering about twenty, were seized and thrown into jail. When the police came to arrest all the devotees in the temple, they left Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī, seeing that he was a boy of only fifteen years old. Other godbrothers who were sympathetic to Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja nevertheless became fearful and went away, leaving the imprisoned devotees with no one to plead their case except Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī. Thus, he had to take care of the whole temple by himself. Besides this, he had to engage lawyers on behalf of the devotees in prison, and provide the lawyers with all the information they needed. He was also obliged to attend lengthy court sessions to answer the questions of the prosecuting lawyers. In addition to all this, the responsibility to provide prasāda for all the imprisoned devotees now fell squarely on his head. However, in order for him to cook, it was necessary for him to have dīkṣā. In the jail, Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, who had never given dīkṣā-mantras to anyone before, gave Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī the mantras through the prison bars. On top of all his other duties, Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī cooked for all the devotees twice a day, carrying prasāda and water to the prison all by himself.

Eventually, it was discovered that the so-called ‘murder’ victim had in fact died by accident when he fell from a tree. All the Vaiṣṇavas were immediately released from jail, and the judge officially apologized to them.

Thereafter, Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī went with pūjyapāda Śrī

Bhaktidayita Mādhava Mahārāja and pūjyapāda Śrī Bhaktibudeva Srauti Mahārāja to preach in different parts of Bengal. In 1940, after the establishment of Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti and Śrī Devānanda Gauḍīya Maṭha, Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja again asked Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī to stay with him. They travelled to many places together, all over Bengal and also to all the major pilgrimage places of India. Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī served as Parama-gurudeva’s secretary. This took place a few years prior to Śrī Gaura Nārāyaṇa’s holy pilgrimages with Paramagurudeva.

Later, Parama-gurudeva engaged Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī exclusively in the publication department. In 1948, when the publishing of Śrī Gauḍīya Patrikā^[2] started, the whole responsibility of the publication was given to him. even though others were acknowledged as editor, printer and publisher, he was actually the backbone in accomplishing all these tasks.

On one occasion, a printing press caught his hand, crushed it and badly mutilated his fingers. When Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja saw what had happened, he began to weep, and immediately arranged for a car to take them both to a hospital in Kolkata. They did not return for four or five days. Miraculously, despite the seriousness of the injury, Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī’s hand healed completely, to the extent that no one would ever guess what had happened unless they knew already. even the missing part of his finger grew back completely.

Our Śrīla Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja, remembers, “I directly saw how Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja was ready to give his life for his gurudeva, and I understood how my gurudeva would feel indebted to Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja for his service. When Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s hand was caught in the printing press, Śrīla Guru Mahārāja (Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja) wept, and travelled with Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja to the hospital in Kolkata. When you see śrī guru crying for his disciple, you can understand that his affection towards that disciple is very deep.”

Sajjana-sevaka Brahmacārī would also cook for the Vaiṣṇavas every day. Having done this, he would clean the whole kitchen area and the area where the Vaiṣṇavas would honour prasāda. He would sprinkle the area with water, sweep it and lay out banana leaves along with pieces of lemon, salt and cups of water. He would then serve prasāda to all the devotees, and when they had finished, he would clean the whole area again and wash all the pots.

Śrīla Gurudeva, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja, affectionately remembers, “Being with Guru Mahārāja, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja and I used to work in the kitchen and engage in many other services. We used to clean the pots in those days, and also write sometimes. We worked at the printing press, publishing Guru Mahārāja’s books, and we also travelled with Guru Mahārāja when he went to various places for preaching. We were engaged in so much service.”

At Śrī Gaura Pūrṇimā, 1952, in Śrīdhāma Navadvīpa, Sajjanasevaka Brahmacārī was given sannyāsa by the mercy of Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja. From then on, he became known as Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Mahārāja. Besides all his other duties, his Guru Mahārāja sent him to preach śuddha-bhakti in many places of Bengal.

By Parama-gurudeva’s instruction, and under his expert guidance, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja took great pains to publish Śrīmad Bhagavad-gītā (with Śrī Baladeva Vidyābhuṣaṇa’s commentary), Jaiva-dharma, Prema-pradīpa, Prabandhāvalī, Śaraṇāgatī, Navadvīpa-bhāva-taraṅga, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu–His Life and Precepts, Śrī Caitanya Śikṣāmṛta, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu kī Śikṣā, Śrī Dāmodarāṣṭakam and other Vaiṣṇava literature.

In 1968, after Parama-gurudeva Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja entered aprakaṭa-līlā, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja was posted as the President and Ācārya of Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti. He was expert in bhakti-siddhānta, famous for his tolerance and always absorbed in bhajana. He was endowed with all the qualities befitting an exalted Vaiṣṇava. He was especially known for his preaching and guru-niṣṭhā.

Later on, he edited many more books on bhakti. He preached in all the villages of West Bengal and Assam, establishing new preaching centres of Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti in Śrīdhāma Purī; Tura in Meghalaya; and in other places such as Dhubadi, Gauhati, Silcar, and so forth in Assam.

Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja was very grave, quiet and tolerant. He never enjoyed praise from others for his vast erudition in scriptural knowledge. If he saw faults in others, he would never say anything about them, as if he were taking poison and digesting it. He was very eager to preach the instructions of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and never wasted time in mundane activities such as faultfinding.

In the early morning of Gaura Tṛtīya, in the year 2004, my beloved dīkṣā-guru, Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja left this world and entered into nitya-līlā.

Śrīla Gurudeva says, “I pray to Śrīla Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja that he will mercifully allow me to ever remain as his shadow, thereby enabling me to always follow him. I consider him to be my śikṣā-guru, because since the day I joined the mission, he gave me whatever I required with great affection.”

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Our beloved parama-gurudeva Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja’s brahmacārī name.

[2]:

The Samiti’s monthly journal.