Stories from "The Life of Love" -- Meeting with Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati

Stories from "The Life of Love" -- Meeting with Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati
O.B.L. Kapoor

BHAKTISIDDHANTA SARASWATI (Vimala Prasada Babu)
Sri Radharaman Charan Das Dev ( Babaji Mahashaya)

One day Sri Vimala Prasada Dutt (Sri Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Mahashaya), the son of Sri Kedarnath Dutt (Sri Bhaktivinoda Thakura Mahashaya) came to the Math. It is not known whether Babaji Mahashaya had met him before or not, but he received him cordially and gave him an asana to sit on. They talked for sometime on various subjects, after which Vimala Prasada Babu asked, "How is it that among your disciples I see different kinds of bhava and vesh (dress) ?"

Babaji: None of them is my disciple. I myself could not become a disciple. I have only been wandering about to earn name and fame. How can I make anyone my disciple?

Vimala Babu: But they all introduce themselves as your disciples.

Babaji: That is due to their humility. They are all servants of Nityananda. As willed by Him they live here as my siksha-gurus.

Vimala Babu: Some of them have adopted sakhi-vesh. Have you asked them to do so?

Babaji: No, they have done so of their own.

Vimala Babu: Why don't you prevent them?

Babaji: I do not see anything wrong in it. Sometime ago there was some criticism against it. I consulted my Gurudeva. He said, "The essence of the teachings of the Goswamis is that in order to make one's bhava permanent one should wear the dress suited to it, speak and behave in a manner suited to it, and think about, meditate upon and do kirtan of the lila, that suits it.

Vimala Babu: Can you prove the necessity of this kind of vesh with reference to the shastras and can you cite any instance in which the associates or followers of Mahaprabhu have in the past worn this kind of vesh?

Babaji: The importance of vesh has been asserted by all the shastras. It is according to the shastras that the Brahmins wear the sacred thread, which is a sign of Brahminhood and is helpful in sadhana. Similarly, the orange colored clothes and the tridanda of a sannyasi, the rudraksha and lion's skin of a Shaiva, and the tilaka and kanthi of a Vaishnava are enjoined by the shastras. As for the associates of Mahaprabhu, many of them have put on vesh according to their bhava. Nityananda Prabhu, who had the bhava of Balarama, used to put on vesh appropriate to that bhava. Almost all of His associates, who had sakhya bhava, used to put on gopa-vesh (the dress of cowherds). Gadadhara Prabhu used to put on gopi-vesh. Abhirama Thakura used to carry a flute, which was appropriate to his sakhya-bhava. Lochanananda Das Thakura, Narahari Sarkar Thakura and. some other devotees of Srikhanda sometimes met Mahaprabhu in the vesh of nadiya-nagari , and sometimes went about in the vesh of the milkmaids of Vraja carrying pots of milk or curd.

Besides, have the shastras said anywhere that vesh according to bhava should not be adopted to convert bhava into svabhava? I think not. In this way, after talking with Baba Mahashaya on subjects relating to the principles and practices of Vaishnavism Vimala Prasada Babu left.