Literary Imagination and the Chaitanya tradition

[sita]

Dear Gerard,
Hi, the only reason the writings in the book are not adding up to me is that as far as I know Lord Jagadbandu's body was never kept in secret in North India. Also he did not enter into seclusion in a room in Calcutta, his Gambira lila was in a room in Dakar, that is far from Calcutta.
Spending time at the holy shrine of Prabhu,s body was a most cherished experience.
It is beleived by all members of the Mahanama sampradaya that P.J. will wake up from his rest.
He was in his room in Gambira lila for 16 years and 8 month's after comming out of seclusion many people came to see him, the British were very intrested and many came to see him, It was 2 years after that he enterd a mystical state, which appears to be a death, from which he will wake up. That state is tied up to a prophecy of Lord Caitanya
" Prithibitey ache jata nagaradi gram,
Sarbatra prachar hobe mor nam "
I think you must know of this prophecy which tells that when Mahaprabhu's name is chanted in all town's and villages then there will be Mahaudharan or eternal liberation.
The chanting around Prabhu's body is holding the space, in that atmosphere, Mahaprabhu's Golden age is being conjured up, and the effect's at this time my be invisible to the world. Prabhu Jagadbandhu did most of his work in a hidden and mysterious way.
with thank's
Sita

[gerard]

Thanks, Sita-ji, for your nice reply. I can certainly understand that participating in that kirtan is a cherished experience!

Concerning the prophecy I am very cautious, I never really like prophecies as you can only find out they are correct when you don't need them anymore.

I don't understand what happened in that book. It contains eleven photographs of Ormond and that room and they clearly said it was Calcutta. Maybe they travelled so much they didn't know anymore where they were. And in Dakar (Dakka?) the people are also Bengali's.
(You might remember the American movie If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium).

[Deleted]

Jay Nitai,

Just to clarify few mis-information. The room of Prabhu JagatBandhu we are talking about in Kolkata is the place where he spent and preach Harinam Samkritana is for the downtrodden of the society in early age before his famous 16 years and 8 month's seclusion in cherishing Mahaprabhu's Gambhira Lila. He organised Harinam Samkirtan Party in Kolkata with his dear most childhood friend and follower my Grand Spiritual Father Sri RamDas Babaji.

Both of them hailed from Faridpur village near Dhaka in East Bengal. Sri Jagatbandhu was Friend, Philosopher and Guide of Sri Ram Das Babaji from his very childhood. By the strict rules laid down by Sri Phabhu JagatBandhu to his friend, Sri Ram Das Babaji got inspiration in the Bhajan Path by direct guidance of JagatBandhu. That time they used to live, roam togther ( before attracting to Prabhus own followers).

In that way Prabhu inspired RamDas Babaji to lived and travel many places with him throughout Bengal and Vrindavan. At the end Babaji Maharaj stayed with him in Kolkata in that area we are talking about till Babaji Maharaja accepted initiation from Sri RadhaRaman Charan Das Dev with Prabhu JagatBandhu's permission.


So the room we are talking about here is where Sri Jagatbandhu lived for the welfare of lower and neglected layer of then Bengali society. That room is very near to my Kolkata house and has been maintained for Prabhu's remembrance.

The place where Prabhu spent his secret 16 years 8 months is in East Bengal near dhakka which was last phase of Prabhus life. So these two place different, but both has almos equal importance.

SitaJi ,

you will find fascinating description of Prabhus childhood life with his deal friend Ram Das Babaji ( Prabhu used to call him affectionately as Rami
as he was not able to utter Radhika which was Babaji Mahasaya's pre Sannyas name) in Sri Ram Das Babaji's bengali biography "Charit Madhuri". You will be amzed to see these two beautiful boys past times in then East Bengal ( they were childhood friends since Babaji was 8 years old ).

Prabhu was so affectionate to his dear Rami that he even observed fasting in protest of possible efforts by Ram Das Babaji’s parent to take him back to Bengal from Vrindavan where these two friends were engaged in strict Bhajan in vrindavan during there very young days.


Some more information can be found on my pathbari website about biography of Sri Ram Das Babaji here ( www.nitaisundar.com/site/Main.html?pagename=BabajiMahasaya-Bio.html ) .

Here is few sample from PathBari's Nitaisundar.com.

He stayed for 9 months in Vrindavan. For thre months he accompanied BANDHUSUNDAR and rest six month was spent in meeting Sri VIJAYA KRISHNA GOSWAMI a second time, Sri Aswini Kr. Dutta who penned "Bhakti Yoga" and Hari Sundar Bhnuiya. During this time Babaji Mahasaya's father and mother came to Vrindavna, and while they were returning to Kashi  they took RAMDAS along with them. Upon hearing this BANDHUSUNDAR was so apprehensive that RAMDAS may join his family, he fasted for several days. Of course, RAMDAS came early from Kashi to Vrindavan. Under instruction from BANDHUSUNDAR, RAMDAS arrived at Calcutta in 1302 B.S ( May 1895). BANDHUSUNDAR has already informed his associates in Calcutta that he was bringing an excellent sapling of "Hari Naam" well nourished by the air and water of Vrindavan. It had become all proof, meaning the sapling Could weather the severest tests.

My great grand spiritual father Sri Radharaman Charan das Dev's Samadhi is in Navadwip in SamajBari asram opposite to Sri Bas Angan ( you will find information on the same website ).

For added information: Sri Ram Das Babaji was fortunate to received direct blessings and energy from three great Stalwart of Gaudiya Vaishnava society of that time.

1) from his childhood Sri JagatBandhu Sundar acted as his instructing Siksha and Bhajan Guru.
2) He got diksha and direct instruction to spread Harinam by his Sri GuruDeva Sri RadhaRaman Charan Das Dev.
3) He got direct spiritual energy from Sri VijaKrishna Goswami where by hearing Babaji Maharaja's mind blowing Kirtana maddened Prabhu Vijay Krishna jumped in the midst of Kirtan to crushingly embrace young Babaji Maharaja and infused his direct spiritual energy to Babaji's Maharaja's body.

So we have very well connected relationship from both of the lineage of Sri JagatBandhu Sundar and Vijaya Krishna Goswami.

Many famous disciples of Sri VijayaKrishna Prabhu like Sri Sachchidananda Swami , kuladananda Brahmachari et el used to pay regular visit to Babaji Maharaja.

Jay Nitai

[sita]

And that clears up the confusion about the room as long as the writing's pre date Prabhu,s entrance into his Gambira lila.
I can see that I am going to have so much intresting information to digest from joining this site, and for that I should like to thank every one.
Sita

[sita]

Dear Nitai,
I look forward to reading you'r edition of Sri Krishna, I think that will be revealing. It is such a beautiful book. What I am working on is the Sri Sri Bandhu Lila Tarangini, 10 chapters. I think you read Bengali, that would give a big advantage I depend on translations and any help from friends.
Bye
Sita.

[sita]

Dear Subrata,
Thank you for all the intresting information and the link to your Guruji's site. I read the Life history of Ram Das Babaji and you are right i was amazed, but i am also a little confused. Ram Das Babaji and Babaji Mahasaya they are the same person I think? In the 2 photos that are shown they do not look the same. I have seen the picture of Rama Dasa Babaji with out hair in many of the pilgramage shrines in India but I did not know about his life history and his pure devotion, many thanks for that.
About the mantra Japa Hare Krsna Hare Rama, why are some people opposed to it?
I was so intrested to see how so many holy places had been rediscoverd, why were these places forgotten after Mahaprabhu left?
It is written "Babaji Mahasaya concentrated on bringing back to life the long forgotten lilas of mahaprabhu through soul wrenching kirtans"
Can you say some thing of that process.
After the associates of Mahaprabhu left why was there a void,I have read about the dispute about Mahaprabhu's birth place, and also a struggle between different followers of Mahaprabhu about these things.
Every one excepts the divination of the 6 Gosvamis and their recovery of the holy sites in Vrindavan and they were to uncover places forgotten for thousands of years. In Mahaprabhus case it was only hundreds of years.
Of course the land in West Bengal is unstable and there is a lot of changes taking place.
sorry if i am so inquisitive. It is often difficult to get to the facts, which may only come with the blessings of Guru and Gauranga
faithfully
Sita

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Jan 19, 2009 11:39:42 GMT -6 Nitaidas said:

I saw some copies of a regular journal that was published by Nityasvarupa Brahmacari in the early years of the 20th century. He was a giant in the endeavor of publishing Caitanya Vaisnava literature. I noticed that his journal had a novel or novella serialized. I am not sure who the author was, but the subject was definitely CV. Then there is Premananda's Jim which he wrote in response to Kipling's Kim. That was serialized in his journal Light of India. I have some issues of that, but by no means the whole run. I might type in some parts of it to give the members of this forum a taste of what that was like. Jerry Carney thinks it may have been published as a whole at some point. If so, there seems to be no record of it left. I thought it might make a good project some day to try to publish it along with another piece of writing by Premananda, The Baba in the West, which is also serialized in his Light of India. These are some literary works that have a close relationship with the CV tradition. I am sure there are more out there. Prize.

Just came across this post in my surfing the waves of the Caitanya Symposium ocean 

Do you know the name of the journal by Nityasvarupa Brahmacari? I searched the British Library and came across only one entry titled 'Hayashirsha Pancaratram' but not sure if that is it.

I did find all the copies of Baba Premananda Bharati's magazines online and downloaded them all. Those links are here. 'The Baba in the West' sounds good. I'll have to check that out. 

Radhe Radhe!!

[Nitaidas]

Mar 3, 2020 0:14:24 GMT -6 Nityānanda dāsa said:

Jan 19, 2009 11:39:42 GMT -6 Nitaidas said:

I saw some copies of a regular journal that was published by Nityasvarupa Brahmacari in the early years of the 20th century. He was a giant in the endeavor of publishing Caitanya Vaisnava literature. I noticed that his journal had a novel or novella serialized. I am not sure who the author was, but the subject was definitely CV. Then there is Premananda's Jim which he wrote in response to Kipling's Kim. That was serialized in his journal Light of India. I have some issues of that, but by no means the whole run. I might type in some parts of it to give the members of this forum a taste of what that was like. Jerry Carney thinks it may have been published as a whole at some point. If so, there seems to be no record of it left. I thought it might make a good project some day to try to publish it along with another piece of writing by Premananda, The Baba in the West, which is also serialized in his Light of India. These are some literary works that have a close relationship with the CV tradition. I am sure there are more out there. Prize.

Just came across this post in my surfing the waves of the Caitanya Symposium ocean 

Do you know the name of the journal by Nityasvarupa Brahmacari? I searched the British Library and came across only one entry titled 'Hayashirsha Pancaratram' but not sure if that is it.

I did find all the copies of Baba Premananda Bharati's magazines online and downloaded them all. Those links are here. 'The Baba in the West' sounds good. I'll have to check that out. 

Radhe Radhe!!

I wish I could remember the name of the journal. I have a notebook around somewhere in which I may have written the names of his writings down. I will look for it. I did take notes way back then

Yes, thanks for finding the Premananda journal. I am glad it is available. The Hayashirsha Pancaratram would be a Vasinava agamic text that Nityasvarupa edited or had edited and published. His published works and those of his predecessor Ramanarayana Vidyaratna are the one's I know the least about. It would be great to recover those series of CV texts.

[Nityānanda dāsa]

Mar 3, 2020 14:54:25 GMT -6 Nitaidas said:

I wish I could remember the name of the journal. I have a notebook around somewhere in which I may have written the names of his writings down. I will look for it. I did take notes way back then

Yes, thanks for finding the Premananda journal. I am glad it is available. The Hayashirsha Pancaratram would be a Vasinava agamic text that Nityasvarupa edited or had edited and published. His published works and those of his predecessor Ramanarayana Vidyaratna are the one's I know the least about. It would be great to recover those series of CV texts.

If it was in the British Library, shouldn't it be searchable via one of their online catalogs? That is where I found the Hayashirsha Pancaratram. Maybe I just need to poke around some more?

[Nitaidas]

Mar 3, 2020 20:10:40 GMT -6 Nityānanda dāsa said:

Mar 3, 2020 14:54:25 GMT -6 Nitaidas said:

I wish I could remember the name of the journal. I have a notebook around somewhere in which I may have written the names of his writings down. I will look for it. I did take notes way back then

Yes, thanks for finding the Premananda journal. I am glad it is available. The Hayashirsha Pancaratram would be a Vasinava agamic text that Nityasvarupa edited or had edited and published. His published works and those of his predecessor Ramanarayana Vidyaratna are the one's I know the least about. It would be great to recover those series of CV texts.

If it was in the British Library, shouldn't it be searchable via one of their online catalogs? That is where I found the Hayashirsha Pancaratram. Maybe I just need to poke around some more?

There is (or was) a separate catalog for the old Indian works (the India Office Collection?) that had not been put into the BL online catalog. This was of course some ten or fifteen years ago. I sat in the reading room going through an old card catalog and then requesting books that I wanted to see. It would generally take them some time to bring them to me. I think that those books came from a separate location somewhere. One would think that in the intervening period those old treasures would have been added to the online catalog, but perhaps there is no perceived need among the BL administrators. Anyway, if it is not in the online catalog it does not mean that BL does not have it.