Srila Bhaktisiddhata Sarawati Thakur Prabhupada

I PRESENT A PHOTO OF THE BIRTHPLACE OF SRILA BHAKTISIDDHANTA SARASWATI THAKURA TO SRILA BHARATI MAHARAJA
November 8, 2012 at 2:04pm
From 1976 through 1980 I served Srila Prabhupada in the state of Orissa. First as the leader of the BBT Library Party for that state, and then as the co-director of the Bhubaneswar Temple Project with Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja. During this time I made frequent visits to Jagannath Puri. Whenever I was in Puri I used to see the house of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura on Grand Road. This was the house that Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura was born in. The house had been purchased by Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja who was Srila Prabhupada’s God Brother. Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja is the diksha and sannyas guru of Srila Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Maharaja and Srila Bhakti Vijnana Bharati Maharaja. I used to associate with some of Srila Madahava Maharajas Brahmachary disciples in Puri and I had a nice friendship with them.

In December of 1977 I held a Viraha Utsava festival for the disappearance of Srila Prabhupada in Jagannath Puri. ISKCON had no center there at the time. So I chose to hold it at the Purushottam Gaudiya Matha which is the Gaudiya Matha that Srila Saraswati Thakura established himself at Chatak Parvat in Puri. It was also the place from where Srila Saraswati Thakura wrote the final letter to Srila Prabhupada instructing him to preach Krishna Consciousness in the West. Finally it was also the only Gaudiya Matha that Srila Prabhupada visited when He went to Jagannath Puri in January 1977 for the last time.

It is customary to have a senior Vaishnava sannyasi chair the proceedings of such an important program. Srila Prabhupada had appointed Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja as the Chairman of the Gauda Mandala Bhumi Trust in 1977. Considering my friendship with his disciples and his appointment to the chairmanship of the Trust by Srila Prabhupada I decided to ask Srila Madhava Maharaja if he would kindly preside over the meeting. He was very gracious and agreed bringing Srila Tirtha Maharaja with him. Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja and I spoke first at the ceremony and then Srila Madhava Maharaja spoke. All of us glorified Srila Prabhupada and his accomplishments. We then served the hundreds of guests from all the various maths in Puri, Gaudiya and others, Lord Jagannath’s Mahaprasadam.

After a month or so Srila Madhava Maharaja had the grand opening celebration for Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura’s house on Grand Road. All of Srila Prabhupada’s God Brothers attended, Srila Krsna Das Babaji, Srila Von Maharaja, Srila Pramode Puri Maharaja and Srila Vaibhava Puri Maharaja, Srila Shanta Maharaja, and many others who are too numerous to mention. I also attended that fetival. During that time I asked if they were going to preserve the building especially the room where Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakura was born. I was informed that the building was to be taken down and a large temple and matha would be erected in its’ place.

Personally I thought that it was in the best interests of posterity that the room of Srila Saraswati Thakura in particular be preserved. However it was not my decision to make. So what I did do was the following. Later when my Grihastha god brother Jaya Gouranga came to visit me in Bhubaneswar I asked him if he would come with his camera and take some pictures of the house of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura so we would have them for posterity. He was glad to accommodate me and we went to Puri to take the photos. It was not until 2007 that I was able to retrieve the photos from Jaya Gouranga’s possession. I took the photo of Srila Saraswati Thakura’s birthplace and some photos of Bhubaneswar and brought them to a photo shop in Los Angeles and had High Resolution copies made of them to put on my computer.

While I was with Srila Bharati Maharaja in Chandigarh recently we were talking about the grand opening of the House of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura and I mentioned to him that I had a photograph of the room Srila Saraswati Thakura was born in on my computer. Srila Bharati Maharaja’s eyes lit up and he immediately asked me “Oh can you make a copy of it for me? I would like a copy.” I said “sure, I will be glad to make one for you.” That was on October 25 or 26th. It was not till today that I finally got the picture downloaded on a stick and brought it to the Photo Shop district here in Chandigarh to make the picture for him and placed it in a gold color frame.

When I returned from the photo shop Srila Bharati Maharaja was sitting with the devotees during the mid-morning darshan and I took some pictures which I posted earlier. While I was sitting there taking the last pictures of him with the devotees he gazed at me with this knowing look in his eyes and said “so where is the photograph you said you would give me?” Smiling broadly I pointed to my side bag and said “RIGHT HERE” He nodded and we arranged to move his chair to a place out of the sunlight so we could take photos of the event of me giving him the photo of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura’s Birthplace as a gift.

Below please see the photos and as a special gift to all of you who read this I have included the high resolution photo of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada’s birth room for all of you to download to your computer’s Hare Krishna.

Srila Bhaktiveinoda Thakura Ki Jaya, Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Ki Jaya, Srila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Ki Jaya, Srila Bhakti Dayita Madhava Maharaja Ki Jaya, Srila Bhakti Ballabha Tirtha Maharaja Ki Jaya, Srila Bhakti Vijnana Bharati Maharaja Ki Jaya, Srila Gour Govinda Maharaja Ki Jaya, Srila Bhaktivedanta Narayan Maharaja Ki Jaya,

Above written by Sripad Bhaktivedanta Bhagavat Maharaja