.png)
SRILA BHAKTI HRDAYA VANA (BON) GOSVAMI MAHARAJ
01
The Prabhupāda
(from the book
"Viśuddha Caitanya-vāṇī")
"During the time Śrīla Prabhupāda was considering sending a few of his disciples to foreign countries to spread the message of Śrīman Mahāprabhu, he met with Śrī Rabindranath Tagore, the world-renowned author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, to inquire about his visit to the West to receive the Nobel Prize. Śrīla Prabhupāda enquired, “In your opinion, to which Western country should our Gauḍīya Maṭha preachers first be sent to spread the message of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu?” Śrī Rabindranath Tagore replied, “None. It is unadvisable to send preachers to any western countries at this moment. Many unscrupulous people who earlier visited these places to prech Vedic dharma have tarnished the image of Indian saints. As a result, the people of the Western countries have lost faith in sādhus.” After further discussion on the matter, Śrīla Prabhupāda briefly introduced him to the ideology of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, which is the doctrine of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas. Śrī Rabindranath Tagore, being captivated and moved by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s presentation of Gauḍīya philosophy, said, “It is only if you yourself visit the Western countries that great success in preaching will be assured. Everybody will certainly greet you with honor.” Śrīla Prabhupāda replied, “I will send persons who are just as qualified as me.”
"Out of his natural renunciation, Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Hṛdaya Vana Gosvāmī Mahārāja never wore footwear for years during his stay in the maṭha. Once, his spiritual master, Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda, wanted to send him abroad to preach the mission of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Śrīla Prabhupāda asked his disciple Śrī Kuñja-bihārī Vidyābhūṣaṇa Prabhu (later known as Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Vilāsa Tīrtha Gosvāmī Mahārāja after accepting sannyāsa) to go to Kolkata and buy the most expensive pair of shoes available for Śrīla Vana Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Śrī Kuñja-bihārī Vidyābhūṣaṇa Prabhu purchased a pair for thirty-two rupees—a very expensive amount at that time—from Kolkata and brought them to the maṭha. Śrīla Prabhupāda told him, “Give these shoes to Vana Mahārāja and ask him to come see me while wearing them.”
After Śrī Kuñja-bihārī Vidyābhūṣaṇa Prabhu told Śrīla Vana Gosvāmī Mahārāja about Śrīla Prabhupāda’s desire, Śrīla Vana Gosvāmī Mahārāja wore the shoes and went before Śrīla Prabhupāda. Upon seeing him wearing the shoes, Śrīla Prabhupāda said, “Today your vairāgya (renunciation) has been perfected, because you renounced even your renunciation for the most superior objective— the service of Śrīman Mahaprabhu.” To accept everything favorable for the service of Bhagavān and His devotees while rejecting everything unfavorable for that service is the true definition of yukta-vairāgya."
.png){kind=small}
02
ISKCON Prabhupāda
"Regarding the book list: "Lord Gauranga" by S.K. Ghose and Veder Panchaya by Bon Maharaj are useless and you may not get them."
"So these rascals, Godbrothers, they are envious that... what he has written, Bon Mahārāja? Just see what kind of men they are. They are not even ordinary human being. They are envious of me, and what to speak of make a judgment by estimation? They're envious."
[...]
"Why he should be envious? He should be, rather, very much enthused that, "This single man is keeping Kṛṣṇa all over the world." And everyone is deriding. Even Gandhi is killing Kṛṣṇa. Dr. Radhakrishnan is killing. Their only business is to kill Kṛṣṇa. He is also doing that, our this Bon Mahārāja. He never speaks of Kṛṣṇa. His rascal, that Institute of Indian Philosophy, nobody goes to urine there. We see practically. And our temple is always filled up, five hundred men. And he is trying for the last forty years. He is simply planning, "This will be playground. This will be this ground. This will be this ground." And it is becoming jungle. Still, he is so envious, black snake. So one circular letter should be issued to all our center that, "Any... Bon Mahārāja or anyone, his representative, should not be received." They are envious."
"They came for some money or some reputation, or "England-returned." The Bon Mahārāja, this Vivekananda, and all, all these rascals who are coming, that's all. They come for some money and woman, some prestigious position, the material things. For prestigious position, for money, for women, means it is all material. They have no spiritual idea."
"For the present, you may know that this gentleman is very much materially ambitious. He wants to utilize Krishna Consciousness for his material name and fame. [...] He was first deputed by my Guru Maharaj, along with our late God Brother, Bhakti Pradip Tirtha Maharaj, to open a missionary center in London, and they stayed there for 3 years, but didn't make any appreciable advance. Except that spent enormous money of my Guru Maharaj, and later on they were called back to India. So that is a great history; it is not possible to say everything in this letter, but for the present, be satisfied with these words, and later we shall talk more and more. On the whole, you may know that he is not a liberated person, and therefore, he cannot initiate any person to Krishna Consciousness. It requires special spiritual benediction from higher authorities."
"Prabhupāda: [...] Actually this Vivekananda rascal, what he has done? What is his contribution?
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: You always add on "rascal" whenever you mention his name.
Prabhupāda: No, no, what he has done? He has ruined the Vedic culture.
Hari-śauri: Completely misrepresented it.
Prabhupāda: And the Bon Mahārāja is his follower. He's in name a disciple of Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī, but he's a servant of Vivekananda.
Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: He's very similar to him.
Prabhupāda: He's a great appreciator of Vivekananda. He has put in his curriculum Vivekananda philosophy, Gandhi philosophy. Rascal, what philosophy they have got?
Hari-śauri: He mentioned all the nonsense people. He put a circular out, he mentioned Rama Tirtha, Vivekananda, all these nonsense.
Prabhupāda: Now I am convinced he's a rascal. He's nothing but a great rascal.
03
Śrī Śhyām Das Bābā
"To stop confusion created through misinformation
Gauḍīya-goṣṭhī-patiḥ Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda Paramahaṁsa Jagad-guru many times said that “If my giving pratiṣṭhā (appreciation) to others can give me golden opportunity to preach Gaura Vāṇī big way, then I am ready to do so.”
Even very often he used to say that “I can come down to any level for the actual preaching of Gaura Vāṇī.”
This is called Rādhā dāsya.
Maybe our honorable Swami Mahārāja could not understand the divine technique of preaching of Gaura Vāṇī adopted by Śrīla Bhakti Hṛdaya Vana Gosvāmī Mahārāja–the great Gauḍīya mission preacher–which was approved by Śrīla Prabhupāda and to whom Śrīla Prabhupāda gave Raganuga Bhajan Paddhati, so without realizing he started criticizing Śrīla Vana Gosvāmī Mahārāja in a very crude language (please check Swami Mahārāja’s comments about Vana Mahārāja and Vivekananda on section 2).
Can you justify all those remarks passed by our honorable Swami Mahārāja?
Oh! Dear honorable Swami Mahārāja, your attention, please! If you are always ready to sacrifice your Gurudeva (Śrīla Prabhupāda) and his divine loving mission (Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha) together with all of his sincere followers to protect your self-interest (lābha-pūjā-pratiṣṭhā), then what can be left with you in your spiritual life? All gone. Then!
Śrīla Prabhupāda used to say that “He–who is going to claim that ‘I am a great Vaiṣṇava’, then be sure that he is a branded avaiṣṇava.”
