Born in a Khandite (arguably, vaisya) family at the end of the 17th century in a village nearby Remuna in the district of Balasore, Orissa, a boy of extreme sharp intellect and an exceptional talent for logical reasoning would later on by the blessings of our most beloved deity, Sri Govinda deva, become known as Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana, the author of ‘Sri Govinda bhasya’, the treatise that established gaudiya vaisnavism as a bona fide school of vedanta.
In his childhood, he studied grammar, nyaya, alankara, etc. in a traditional pathasala on the bank of the Chilka lake.
Having quickly mastered all the different subjects, he left for pilgrimage, in search of a guru who could impart to him the real import of the Vedic knowledge. In Mysore he eventually came in contact with a sannyasi from the Madhva sampradaya who strongly preached to him the tattvavada, convincing him not only to accept Madhvacarya’s siddhanta, but also to renounce the world and preach it.
Concluding his studies of the Vedas, Vedanta and the Sarva-mula of Madhvacarya, the young sadhu left for Jagannatha Puri, where he challenged and defeated all the opponent scholars present there in very intense debates on sastra.
By the divine providence, one day he attended a lecture given by a foremost disciple of the gaudiya vaisnava acarya, Srila Rasikananda, called Sri Radha-damodara. The lecture was on the famous treatise written by Srila Jiva Gosvami- the Six Sandarbhas. After several days hearing the sweet topics about Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s acintya-bhedabheda-tattva in such impressive and logical exposition, Baladeva surrendered himself unto Srila Radha-damodara requesting him to be accepted as a disciple and fully taught the gaudiya philosophy.
Taking up the simple dress of a gaudiya vaisnava mendicant, he was given the name ‘Ekanti Govinda dasa’. Being surcharged by the taste of the philosophy expounded by the six Gosvamis of Vrndavana – Rupa, Sanatana, Gopala, Jiva, Raghunatha dasa and Raghunatha Bhatta – he left for Vrndavana to dedicate his life to Lord Caitanya’s mission. At that time, the leader of the gaudiya vaisnava community was Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti, who being pleased with Ekanti Govinda dasa, taught him Srimad Bhagavatam and other vaisnava scriptures.
The Jaipur episode
Meanwhile, a series of historical incidents that were to take place would give Ekanti the opportunity to serve His beloved Lord to his best capacity, changing the very history of the gaudiya vaisnavism. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu had given three main orders to the six Gosvamis of Vrndavana- to write books on philosophy extensively quoting from the sruti and smrti to corroborate the acintya-bhedabheda siddhanta; to excavate Vrndavana in order to recover the lost sites of the pastimes of Bhagavan Sri Krsna and to establish temples for His worship. It is said that the great grand-son of Lord Krsna, Vajranabha, had carved three deities in an attempt to depict the Lord. They were called Govinda, Madana-mohana and Gopinatha. Govindaji was found by Srila Rupa Gosvami, who in 1590 installed Him in the most gorgeous temple ever built in north India, sponsored by Man Singh from Rajasthan. Madana-mohana was found by Srila Sanatana Gosvami and in 1580 installed in a temple built by a rich merchant on the Aditya Tila hill, by the bank of the Yamuna. Gopinatha was found by a disciple of Gadadhara Pandita called Paramananda Bhattacarya, who entrusted Him to his disciple Madhu Pandita. Unfortunately, the time came when the Moghul ruler, Aurangzeb, took the power and started his persecutions against Hinduism. In 1669 he gave an open order to his army to destroy all the main Hindu temples and deities within his domain. Under this threat, the vaisnava leaders in Vrndavana decided to appeal to the Rajputs of Rajasthan. With mutual cooperation, it was decided that the deities should be moved to Rajasthan. In 1670, the troops of Aurangzeb mercilessly desecrated the main temples in Vrndavana, but could not find anyone inside them. After moving from one place to another, Govindaji finally settled under the care of Maharaja Jai Singh, nearby the present Jaipur city. It happened that at that time the Ramanandi sampradaya, a branch of the Sri Ramanuja sampradaya founded by Sri Ramananda in north India, was in charge of the worship there, enjoying the favor of the king. The arrival of Govindaji and His gaudiya priests was a threat to the status of the Ramanandis. In an attempt to keep their prestige and royal favor, they plotted against them by raising doubts about the credibility of the gaudiya sampradaya on the following grounds:
1) They did not seem to be connected to a bona fide parampara in terms of philosophical affiliation, since they lacked a commentary on the Vedanta Sutra.
2) According to the standard of the Sri vaisnavas, Lord Narayana is the original form of God and the source of all incarnations, and therefore He should be worshiped first. The gaudiyas, however, were worshipping Govinda before Narayana.
3) The ramanandis considered the worship of Srimati Radharani as unprecendented and irregular, and therefore they objected and even removed Her from the altar, thus separating Her from Govindaji.
Upon being requested, the mahanta of Sri Gopinatha temple, Shyam Charan Sharma, wrote a letter in reply to their challenges quoting from several scriptures to substantiate Lord Caitanya’s position as the Supreme Lord Krsna Himself and founder of the gaudiya vaisnava sampradaya. However, the ramanandis remained adamant. They quoted a verse said to belong to the Padma Purana:
sri-brahma-rudra-sanaka vaisnavah ksiti-pavanah
catvaras te kalau bhavya hy utkale purusottamat
“In kali-yuga, four vaisnava disciplic successions will emerge from Jagannatha Puri and purify the whole world: Sri-sampradaya, Brahma-sampradaya, Rudra-sampradaya and Kumara-sampradaya.”
With basis on this verse they were not ready to accept any sampradaya not proceeding from these four- Sri, Brahma, Rudra and the Kumaras- represented by their respective acaryas – Ramanuja, Madhva, Visnu Svami and Nimbarka. The gaudiyas had to go to Vrndavana to appeal to the senior most learned scholar at that time- Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti . Upon hearing that Radha and Govinda were split he started laughing and commented that this must be an amorous quarrel. Our acarya was in advanced age and would not be able to personally go to Jaipur to face the opponents, but he was convinced that Ekanti Govinda dasa was the right person to solve the case. Once in Jaipur, Ekanti presented himself to the king and the ramanandis for a debate. Upon seeing the boy in his early twenties and dressed like a vaisnava mendicant, they looked at him in disbelief. Without hesitation, he started substantiating the authenticity of the gaudiya sampradaya as a bona fide branch of the Madhva sampradaya, although remarkable philosophical divergences made each of them unique. But then which commentary on the Brahma-sutra do the gaudiyas follow? In reply to this, Ekanti explained that Sri Caitanya preached the study of Srimad Bhagavatam, this being the natural commentary on Vedanta written by the author himself, Sri Vyasadeva, as corroborated by the Garuda Purana:
artho ‘yam brahma-sutranam bharatartha-vinirnayah
gayatri-bhasya-rupo ‘sau vedartha-paribrmhitah
“Srimad-Bhagavatam is the meaning of the Vedanta-sutra and the purport of the Maha-bharata. It is the commentary on the Brahma-gayatri and it is fully expanded with all Vedic knowledge.”
So being, what need there should be of another commentary? This argument was not at all appealing to the panditas in the royal court, who demanded a Brahma-sutra commentary to accept the credibility of the gaudiya sampradaya, otherwise they should get ready to give up the worship of Govindaji and leave Jaipur. Being a staunch devotee of the Lord and fully relying on His mercy, Ekanti boldly affirmed that all he needed were some days to write down a full fledge commentary on the Vedanta-sutra. Before the assembly, the king accepted the proposal and requested him to present as soon as possible commentaries on Brahma-sutra, ten Upanisads and Bhagavad-gita. Ekanti went to see His beloved Govindaji and explained the whole situation for Him. In a dream, He appeared to him and assured him that there was no need to worry about anything, for He Himself would be dictating the whole commentary in his dreams. And it so happened, after which the commentary is called ‘Govinda-bhasya’. This was described by Baladeva himself at the end of the book:
vidya-rupam bhusanam me pradaya
khyatim ninye tena yo mam udarah
sri-govindah svapna-nirdista-bhasyo
radha-bandhur bandhurangah sa jiyat
“All glories to the graceful and handsome Lord Govinda, who is
the dear friend of Sri Radha, who kindly gave me the name
Vidyabhusana, and Who spoke this commentary to me in dreams”.
There is divergence regarding how long it took him to write it down; some say seven days, some say one month. In any case, after a short period of time, Baladeva presented his commentary before the assembly of scholars in the court and defeated all possible objections raised by them, thus establishing the gaudiya vaisnava philosophy as bona fide as that of the other vaisnava sampradayas. He also substantiated that Lord Govinda is the original form of Lord Narayana and that Srimati Radharani is His eternal consort. Being fully satisfied with his presentation, Jai Singh Maharaja awarded him the title ‘vidyabhusana’ (adorned with knowledge). The ramanandis requested him to initiate them in the gaudiya sampradaya, but Ekanti refused explaining that they were already initiated in a bona fide vaisnava sampradaya and it would be an insult to Sri Ramanujacarya to reinitiate them. Back to Vrndavana, Baladeva became the leader of the vaisnava community and kept on writing. The following is a partial list of the works attributed to him:
Complete works attributed to Baladeva Vidyabhusana:
- Isopanisad; (Krishnadas Baba), (Sarasvata Gaudiya Mission), (Shyam Lal,3 comm.), (Bhaktivinoda)
- Aisvarya-kadambini; (Haridas Shastri), (Haridas das)
- Kavya-kaustubha; (Haridas das), (Haridas Shastri)
- Gopala-tapany-upanisad-bhasya; (Haridas das)
- Candraloka-tika, (supposedly lost)
- Chandah-kaustubha-tika; (Haridas das), (Haridas Shastri), (Vrindavan Research Inst.)
- Tattva-dipika (manuscript)
- Tattva-sandarbha-tika; (Harinam Press), (Haridas Shastri), (Nityasvarupa), (Jadavpur), (Acyuta-grantha-mala), (Krishnachandra Bhagavataratna), (Shyam Lal)
Commentary on five other Sandarbhas; (supposedly lost)
- Nataka-candrika-tika; (supposedly lost)
- Pada-kaustubha, (unpublished manuscript)
- Prameya-ratnavali; (Haridas Shastri), (Gokul Chandra Goswami), (Sanskrit Parisad), (Kanai Lal), (Gaudiya Math), (Gour Krishna Goswami)
- Brahma-sutra-karika-bhasya, (manuscript)
- Bhagavad-gita (gita-bhusana); (Krishnadas Baba), (Gaudiya Mission), (Vidyananda), (Kasinatha S. Agase and Baba S. Phadake)
- Laghu-bhagavatamrta-tika (saranga-rangada); (Haribhakta das), (Ramanarayana Vidyaratna), (Venkatesh Press), (Atul Krishna Gosvami), (Gaurasundar Bhagavata)
- Visnu-sahasra-nama-tika (nama-sudhartha); (Krishnadas Baba)
- Vedanta-sutra-Govinda-bhasya; (Sarasvata-Gaudiya Mission), (Harinam Press), (Krishnadas Baba), (Shyam Lal Goswami), (Krishnagopal Bhakta)
- Vedanta-sutra-suksma-tika; (Sarasvata-Gaudiya Mission), (Shyam Lal Goswami)
- Vedanta-syamantaka; (Haridas Shastri), (Umesh Chandra Bhattacharya, Lahore), (Kalidasnath), (Nalinikant Gosvami), (Pancavati, Nasik), (Shyam Lal Goswami), (Sri Vrindavan/Gourkrishna?)
- Vyakarana-kaumudi; (unpublished manuscript)
- Srimad-bhagavata-bhasya (vaisnavanandini); prathama skandha, (Haridas das);
dasama skandha (Krishna-Shankar Shastri, incomplete), (Nityasvarupa/Manindra Bahadur)
- Syamananda-sataka-tika, (Haridas das), (Gopala-Govindananda Goswami)
- Sahitya-kaumudi; (Haridas Shastri),(Rastriya Sanskrit Samstham),(NirnayaSagar Press)
- Siddhanta-darpana; (Haridas das), (Gaudiya Math), (Sajjana-tosani)
- Siddhanta-ratna; (Krishnadas Baba), (Gopinath Kaviraj), (Shyam Lal Goswami), (Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti), (Adimohana Goswami), (Gaurasundar Bhagavata)
- Stava-mala-tika; (Nirnaya Sagar Press), (Ramanarayana Vidyaratna)
Books wrongly attributed to BV:
Krsna-bhavanamrta-tika, (Krsnadeva Sarvabhauma)
Gupta-dhama-chatra, (Kanai Lal)
Gopala-campu-tika, (Viracandra Gosvami)
Padyavali-tika (rasika-rangada), (Viracandra Gosvami)
Bala-tosani, (Hare Krsna acarya)
Samsaya-satini, (Raghunandana Gosvami)
Sadananda-vidhayini-tika , (Vrndavana Cakravarti)
Stavavali-kasika, (Vangesvara Vidyabhusana)
Baladeva Vidyabhusana.
Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana (Sri Govinda Dasa) appeared in the 1600’s near Remuna, Orissa. In his youth, he mastered Sanskrit grammar, poetry, and logic. After carefully studying the commentries of Sankara and Madhva he took initiation in the Tattva-vadi disciplic succession of Sripad Madhvacarya. Baladeva Vidyabhusana became a dig vijaya pandit (conqueror of all opponents) and began visiting the holy places. Wherever he went he defeated the local sages, scholars, and sannyasis.
In Jagannatha Puri, he learned the superexcellent philosophy of Sri Krishna Chaitanya from Sri Radha-Damodara Goswami, and took initiation after converting to Gaudiya Vaishnavism. In Vrindavana, he studied Shrimad Bhagavatam under Srila Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and worshiped Radha-Syamasundara.
In 1706 A.D. Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura sent him to Gulta (near Jaipur,Rajasthan) to uphold the credibility of Mahaprabhu’s movement. The local Ramanandis (a branch of Sri Vaishnavas) were claiming that the Bengali Vaishnavas had no right to worship Govindaji because they had no commentary on the Vedanta-sutra.
Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana commentary on Vedanta Sutra “Govinda-Bhasya”.
Lord Govindaji Himself directly revealed the Govinda-bhasya (a Vaishnava commentary on Vedanta) to Baladeva Vidyabhusana. Using it, Baladeva solidly established Gaudiya Vaishnavism as an independent philosophy. He also reinstated the Bengali Vaishnavas in Govindaji’s service in Jaipura. Govinda-bhasya is the only bhakti commentary on Vedanta-sutra.
Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana was a niskincana-parama bhagavata, fully-renounced topmost Devotee of Lord Krishna. His more than twenty-four books and commentaries have helped thousands of Vaishnavas understand the sublime philosophy of Krishna consciousness and the intimate writings of the six Goswamis. Since he was devoid of false prestige, he never wrote about his birth, parents, lineage, personal life. According to Sri Bhaktivinoda Thakura in Navadvipa-dhama mahatyam, in Chaitanya lila Baladeva Vidyabhusana is Sri Gopinatha Acarya, the brother-in-law of Sri Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. In Vraja he serves as Sri Radha’s eternal maidservant Ratnavali Devi.
His guru
Radha Damodara Gosvami
NM
———- Forwarded message ———
From: HariKatha <harikatha@harikatha.com>
Date: Sat, Jun 19, 2021 at 7:06 AM
Subject: DISAPPEARANCE DAY OF SRI BALADEVA VIDYUBHUSANA
To: <studioeffe@gmail.com>
View this email in your browser Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja
Disappearance Day of Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana
[This year, 2021, the disappearance day of Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana is on June 20. Please accept the following captivating, inspiring, ever-fresh lecture on his glories, given by Srila Gurudeva in June of 1998:]
Today is the disappearance day of Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana – one of the most elevated acaryas in our disciplic succession. Today is also the birthday of Srimati Gangamata Gosvamini, and it is also the very day that the Ganges River came to this world. Three holy days are here. In India, in all our Mathas (temples), there will be a very big festival of harikatha for these prominent leaders in devotion to Sri Krsna.
Baladeva Vidyabhusana was born in Orissa, near Puri, in a place called Chilka Lake. He was very brilliant, and in his boyhood he learned all vyakarana (Sanskrit grammar) as well as the Vedas, Upanisads and all other scriptures. He wanted especially to read and study Vedanta. He read Sri Sankaracarya’s explanation of Vedanta, but he was not satisfied and wanted to study more. Therefore, he went to South India, to a place called Udupi, where he studied all the commentaries on Vedanta, like the Sri-bhasya of Sri Ramanuja, the Parijata-Saurabha-bhasya of Sri Nimbaditya, more of the Sariraka-bhasya of Sri Sankaracarya, the Sarvajna-Sukti-bhasya of Sri Visnusvami, the Brhad-bhasya and Anubhasya of Sri Madhvacarya, and the Bhaskara-bhasya of Sri BhaskaraAcarya. He became very learned, and after that he returned to his homeland with a desire to conquer the entire world – to free it of misunderstandings in philosophical tattva.
He went to Jagannatha Puri, and he thought, “Previously, Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya and many others like him have been here, so there must be so many learned persons in their line. I will conquer and defeat them.” At that time there was a Gaudiya-Vaisnava present, named Radha-Damodara Prabhu, who was in the line of, and just after, Syamananda Prabhu, Rasikananda Prabhu, and Nayananda Prabhu. Radha-Damodara Prabhu was a very good scholar. He was very learned, but he kept all his knowledge hidden. He was a very simple person, always chanting and remembering in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Srila Rupa Gosvami. One day Baladeva Vidyabhusana came to defeat him, but when he heard all his siddhanta (conclusive truths) he thought, “I am very insignificant and I do not know anything in front of him. I am like a baby, a small baby.” He at once surrendered to the lotus feet of Radha-Damodara and took initiation from him.
After that he went to Vrndavana and took shelter of his siksa-guru, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, and he totally surrendered to him. There he read all of Srila Jiva Gosvami’s Six Sandarbhas: Tattva-sandarbha, Paramatma-sandharbha, Bhagavat-sandarbha, Krsna-sandarbha, Bhakti-sandarbha, and Prtti-sandarbha.
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura had taken ksetra-sannyasa. Ksetra-sannyasa means that one lives either in Vraja-dhama, Navadvipa-dhama or Jagannatha Puri-dhama and takes a vow: “I will not leave this place.” Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura had taken ksetra-sannyasa in Vrndavana-dhama. He had decided, “I will never go out of Vrndavana.” Gradually, he reached the old age of one-hundred years, and at that time there was some quarrel:
Some of the members of the Ramanuja Sampradaya, which propounds vaidhi-bhakti and varnasrama dharma, challenged, “How is it that Srimati Radhika, although not married to Krsna, always sits with Krsna? It is illegal.” That was the first question. Second: “There is no mention of the name Radhika in Srimad-Bhagavatam or in any other sastra.” And third: “The Gaudiya Vaisnavas are not in any Vaisnavas ampradaya. There are only four sampradayas: Sri-Laksmi-sampradaya, Brahma-sampradaya, Rudra-sampradaya and Sanaka-sampradaya. In Kali-yuga there are four prominent acaryas: Ramanuja in the Sri-sampradaya, Madhvacarya in the Brahma-sampradaya, Visnusvami in the Rudra-sampradaya and Nimbaditya in the Sanaka-sampradaya. From where did these Gaudiya Vaisnavas recently come? We don’t accept them. They have no commentary on Vedanta-sutra, so we cannot accept that they know siddhanta. We cannot accept their philosophical conclusions.”
The King of Jaipura requested Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura to come, but he denied their request. He ordered his disciple Baladeva Vidyabhusana Prabhu to go in his stead. Baladeva Vidyabhusana Prabhu went there, together with another prominent disciple of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, and defeated all. He quoted many Puranas, Vedas, Upanisads and the Srimad-Bhagavatam, proving that Srimati Radhika and Lord Sri Krsna are always together. Radhika is Krsna’s potency or power – They cannot be separated.
Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana quoted a story from Srila Jayadeva Gosvami’s Gita-govinda that showed how Radhika was married to Krsna. He also quoted the history from Srimad Bhagavatam wherein Lord Brahma stole all the cowherd boys and calves, and Krsna Himself became exact duplicates of all the boys. According to the Bhagavatam, that year Gargacarya announced that all the cowherd men should give in their daughters in marriage, because it was a very auspicious year. In that year, therefore, all the daughters were married to all the sons of the cowherd men. Actually, though, because the young cowherd boys were Krsna Himself, all the girls were married to Krsna.
Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana Prabhu presented some verses from Srimad-Bhagavatam:
anayaradhitonunam
bhagavanharirisvarah
yan no vihayagovindah
prito yam anayadrahah
[“Certainly this particular gopi has perfectly worshiped the all-powerful Personality of Godhead, Govinda, since He was so pleased with Her that He abandoned the rest of us and brought Her to a secluded place.” (Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.30.28)]
There are so many verses substantiating the truth of Sri Sri Radha and Krsna. Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana Prabhu quoted them all, and he proved that Radhika is Sri Krsna’s own power – for Them there is no need to marry. The followers of the Ramanuja-sampradaya accepted these arguments. They were bound to accept; they were defeated.
The opposing party then said, “You have no bona fide Vaisnava sampradaya.” Baladeva Vidyabhusana then proved the Gaudiya Vaisnavas are in the line of Sri Madhvacarya. Sri Laksmipati Tirtha, who gave diksa to Sri Nityananda Prabhu, was a disciple of Sri Madhvacarya. Sri Madhavendra Puripada, the grand spiritual master of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, was also a disciple of this Laksmipati Tirtha.
The followers of the Ramanuja-sampradaya challenged, “Laksmipati Tirtha was ‘Tirtha’ and Madhavendra Puri was ‘Puri.’ How did this difference come?
Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana clearly explained that one cannot decide a person’s disciplic succession on the basis of sannyasa. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was initiated by Sri Isvari Puripada at Gaya, and in Vaisnava siddhanta He followed Isvara Puripada. He did not follow Kesava Bharati, who gave Him sannyasa. The Guru is he who initiates by mantra-harinama and diksa-mantra. Sri Isvara Puripada gave Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu the gopal-mantra, and Mahaprabhu followed Vaisnava religion according to the mood of Isvara Puripada, in the line of Madhavendra Puripada.
In the same way, although Srila Madhavendra Puri received sannyasa from someone else, he was initiated into the gopal-mantra by Sri Laksmipati Tirtha. There was a householder devotee at that time, who took sannyasa from someone in the Sankara-sampradaya, just as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu did. Like Mahaprabhu, he was Vaisnava, not a mayavadi. That Vaisnava was named Visnu Puri, and he had been initiated in the Madhva-sampradaya. Madhavendra Puri took sannyasa from that Puri – from Visnu Puri. In this way, Gaudiya Vaisnavas are part of the Madhva-sampradaya.
Nowadays, there is a similar friction in Vrndavana and Navadvipa. One party is saying, “We, Gaudiya Vaisnavas, are not under any Vaisnava sampradaya. We are fully independent. Why should Caitanya Mahaprabhu take shelter of any other sampradaya? He is Krsna Himself.”
This argument is not correct. Sri Krsna accepted Sandipani Muni and Lord Ramacandra accepted Vasistha as their Gurus. The duty of a sampradaya-guru is not the job of Lord Krsna. Sampradayas are established by His powers and associates. Laksmi, Brahma, Visnusvami and Nimbaditya all are His associates. If Krsna were the head of the sampradaya, it would be called Krsna-sampradaya or Narayana-sampradaya – not Brahma-sampradaya. The names of all the sampradayas refer to the names of devotees: Sri-sampradaya, Brahma-sampradaya, Ramanuja-sampradaya and Madhva-sampradaya.
Nowadays, that party says that Gaudiya Vaisnavas are a separate and fully independent sampradaya. But Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Jiva Gosvami, and before that Srila Gopala-bhatta Gosvami and Sri Kavi-karnapura, have accepted the Madhva-sampradaya. So we must also accept the Madhva-sampradaya, as Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana has written in his books.
That party says that Baladeva Vidyabhusana went to Udupi, the place of Madhvacarya, and that he accepted the Madhva-sampradaya. They say his initiation was in the Madhva-sampradaya. They say that he later came in the association of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, but he never accepted GaudiyaVaisnavism, and that is why he said that Gaudiya Vaisnavas are in the Madhva line.
This idea is totally wrong. If Baladeva Vidyabhusana was not in our Gaudiya Vaisnava line, how could he have explained all the sandarbhas of Srila Jiva Gosvami? He accepted Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as non-different from Sri Krsna. All his books are in our line – in the line of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura. He also explained Srila Rupa Gosvami’s Laghu-bhagavatamrta, as well all the books of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura and the other books of Srila Rupa Gosvami. He was a Rupanuga Vaisnava.
If Srila Baladeva Vidyabhusana had not been present at that time, our Gaudiya Vaisnava identity would have disappeared from this world. He established all the principles and philosophy established by Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He is a true Gaudiya Vaisnava.
For about one hundred years, Smartas have been raising this question, but Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddanta Sarasvati Thakura and all other great acaryas have defeated all their arguments. Our Guru Maharaja has very boldly written a book about this. I want to publish it, with so many notes and explanations. Very soon I will publish it. [This book was later published under the name Prabandha-Panchakam.]
So Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana prabhu is a very prominent person in our line. There are so many more things to tell; but time is going to be over, so I’m ending here. Copyright © 2021 Gaudiya Vedanta Publications, All rights reserved.
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