SRILA BHAKTISIDDHANTA SARASVATI GOSWAMI MAHARAJA INTRODUCTION FOR THE BOOK ON BHAKTISIDDHANTA Sarasvati THAKURA During the late '70's and '80's, preaching duties in Bengal now and then broughtme in contact with direct disciples of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and also with disciples of his disciples. From them I heard stories and teachings of Sarasvati Thakura. Hearing little bits here and there, my heart filled with wonder, and also pride on being connected with such a powerful transcendental personality. My eagerness to hear more increased. From my very beginning days in Krsna consciousness I--and surely all others in ISKCON also--was attracted by the personality of Saraswati Thakura. I would often look up at the big painting of him on the wall of our Bury Place (London) temple. It was as if his serious gaze came down directly from Goloka Vrindavana. He was known as "singha-guru"--a spiritual master as fearsome to non-devotees as a lion. Who would not be impressed on hearing of his austerity, learning, strictness, and above all his unflinching devotion to the lotus feet of Sri-Sri Gaura-Nitai and Sri-Sri Radha-Krsna, and his uncompromising, determined preaching of Their glories? Our own glorious spiritual master, His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Srila Prabhupada, was another transcendental "superman." Srila Prabhupada was utterly surrendered at the lotus feet of his guru, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and always considered himself a humble servant of his spiritual master. Those of unbiased mind understand both to be empowered acaryas, saktyavesa-avataras. By his unbreakable bond of devotion to Srila Saraswati Thakura, Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada has, by initiating us, linked us also eternally to his spiritual master. After the disappearance of our beloved Srila Prabhupada, Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami wrote the "Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita." Gradually more books revealing the lives of Srila Prabhupada and other previous acaryas are being rendered in English. Devotees are hungry for such literature. We conditioned souls need to associate with great devotees, either first-hand by personal contact or by hearing of their pastimes. The acaryas give us inspiration, instruction and hope. Srila Prabhupada was the first acarya in history about whom so much biographical detail has been recorded. It is a great loss to the world that such records have not been kept about other great devotees in the past. Anything a pure devotee of Krsna does and says is important for us poor conditioned souls who are simply trying to run along behind in their footsteps. This is especially true of those great acaryas who come to this world with the specific purpose of saving the conditioned souls. Thinking like this, I considered that much could still be preserved about Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Prabhupada from his still remaining disciples. I often considered collecting whatever information I could from these disciples, but put off the idea many times. After all, Srila Prabhupada had warned us against mixing intimately with his Godbrothers. Also, as an insignificant member of the vaisnava community, I felt it presumptuous to take up personally such an important project, which would entail approaching such senior vaisnavas as my spiritual master's Godbrothers. I think it was towards the end of 1988 when I had gradually built up my courage and decided to take up this project. I considered that no-one else was likely to do it, and that the work should be taken up immediately. The number of Saraswati Thakura's disciples still present was already much diminished. Very soon it was going to be zero. At that time Srila Bhakti Raksaka Sridhara Maharaja, who could have revealed oceans of nectarean pastimes, was incapacitated and was hardly speaking to anyone. Shortly thereafter, he passed away from this world. So I missed the opportunity of interviewing him. At least three biographies of Saraswati Thakura have been written in Bengali (which I have a good working knowledge of) and one in Oriya. One of them, translated into English and published by the Caitanya Matha, was used as the basis of Rupa Vilasa Prabhu's "A Ray of Vishnu." Unfortunately, the book on which "A Ray of Vishnu" is based is incomplete, biased and slanted. The three biographies of Sarasvati Thakura in Bengali were written by the followers of different parties, after the split in the Gaudiya Matha. All were written with party feelings. They were not objective. For instance, in the book published by the Caitanya Matha, the names of some of the most famous of Saraswati Thakura's disciples were not even mentioned. Ananta Vasudeva, Sunderananda Vidyavinoda and others, were prominent associates of Sarasvati Thakura. But the infighting in the Gaudiya Matha was so bitter that opposing factions have literally tried to edit each other out of existence. Each party gives all credit to the spread of the Gaudiya Matha to their own leader. Another drawback of these biographies is lack of professional biographical style. They are mostly lists of statements such as: "he did this," "he went there," "he said that," "he gave a lecture," "he met such-and- such a person," etc. Even that it is valuable. What is lacking are intimate anecdotes which bring out the personality of the acarya. I took up the task of meeting the remaining disciples of Saraswati Thakura, being well aware of Prabhupada's warning about mixing intimately with his Godbrothers. I was determined not to be swayed by anything they might say. Several of our Guru Maharaja's godbrothers (Srila Prabhupada once referred to them as "my so-called godbrothers") seemed to have nothing better to do than to criticize Srila Prabhupada, his followers, and everything he did or said. Knowing that such persons would not be at all willing to help me (and probably not able to do so) I resolved that, having come in the presence of such persons, and having detected their attitude, I would not stay with them any longer than the time it took to get away from them. Notwithstanding such fears of unpleasant encounters, my search for disciples of Saraswati Thakura took me to different places in Bengal and Orissa and also to Vrindavana. Armed with a cassette recorder, I visited first of all different asramas of the Gaudiya Matha and related organizations. I was able to meet several elderly sannyasis and brahmacaris. Gradually I got to find out the whereabouts of the few remaining disciples of Saraswati Thakura. The search for his householder disciples led me to some remote places. I undertook a few long journeys with no-one to be found at the end of them. Most of the devotees approached were either not willing to speak, did not take me very seriously, or did not have much to say anyway, having had limited association with Saraswati Thakura. Curiously enough, those who were living in mathas, especially sannyasis, were generally the least willing to help. The householder devotees were usually more happy to receive me. It was my great good fortune to come across Sripad Joti Sekhara Prabhu. From the age of sixteen, he had been a brahmacari inthe Gaudiya Matha and had seen and heard much of Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura. After the break-up of Gaudiya Matha, he could, had he desired, have taken a prominent position in the Gaudiya Mission (one of the main factions). Instead, being disappointed with the infighting, he chose to leave the mission and live a quiet life as a householder. I met him at his residence in Cuttack, a city in Orissa. Cuttack was his birthplace and where he had grown up and gone to school. We sat together on the floor of his tiny thatched-roof temple at his home. Over several visits of several days each, he gradually revealed to me dozens of stories of Saraswati Thakura. Joti Shekhar Prabhu once told me, "You are like a train and I have got the goods. You will take the goods to the destination. For many years I was carrying these memories of Saraswati Thakura Sometimes I remembered them, but, due to being engaged in family affairs, I was mostly forgetting them. But now you have come, these things will not be lost. They will be revealed to the world." Joti Shekhar Prabhu and his family members were very kind to me. Joti Shekhar Prabhu reflected the kindness and affection which he had received from Saraswati Thakura. A Great Loss To The World Those who lives and achievements are extraordinary become natural subjects of biographies. There have been hundreds and thousands of biographies and autobiographies published about this world's great soldiers, politicians, revolutionaries, intellectuals and philosophers. However, the Vaisnavas (devotees of the Supreme Lord) know that the only biographical works of any real value are those of Krsna, His expansions, and His devotees. Every moment of every day that a maha-bhagavata Vaisnava appears in this world is full of transcendental meaning. However, it is not possible to record every minute detail of the activities of a Vaisnava. Krsnadasa Kaviraja Goswami has expressed similar feelings of inability in documenting the pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu: (possible qquotes:Antya 5 p.113, Ant 4 p.190, Madhya 6 p.304) The lives of great people (even those of the mundane world) are packed with interesting, instructive activity, incidents and dialogue. Others who come in contact with such special people also start to become special. We can practically experience in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, that the members of this society, having taken up the mission of the great acaryas, lead transcendentally fulfilled, exciting lives. Every day a new book could be compiled about theadventures of the members of ISKCON, especially of the front-line preachers.