Sadguru Sri Sri Bijoy Krishna Goswami
A BRIEF LIFE SKETCH OF SADGURU SRI SRI BIJOY KRISHNA GOSWAMI
Almost five centuries ago a love incarnate god head Prabhu Adwaityacharya of Shantipur, traveled far and wide on foot with a burning desire to bring forth god Himself for the salvation of the mankind. He succeeded in his almost impossible task with the advent of Lord Krishna in the form of Sri Krishna Chaitanya who drenched India in the nectar of chanting god’s NAME. About three hundred years later a great devotee of Lord Krishna in the lineage of Prabhu Adwaitacharya took a dangerous vow to travel on DANDEE *1 from the same Shantipur to Jagannath Puri with a burning desire to get Lord Jagannath as his son. After a year’s penance when he reached the Lord’s temple at Puri in an emaciated and bleeding body, he heard Jagannath in a tranced state saying that he is coming to him as his son. A beacon of light came from Jagannath and entered into his bosom. He fainted in rapture. He was none but Bhagawat Acharya Ananda Kishore Goswami a great exponent of Bhagawat. He would go into trance quite often while listening to any discourses on Bhagawat) and God Sri Krishna’s ‘Leela’ descriptions. While listening to these descriptions sometimes blood oozed out of his eyes along with tears. One day he went into deep rapture during one of his discourse on Bhagawan (God Sri Krishna) from which he did not return to outer sense and relinquished his mortal frame on the very spot.
- Dandee is a kind of penance in which a pilgrim traverses a distance by prostrating on the ground with stretched forward arms and stands up again at the point where his palm’s touched the ground and prostrate again from that point, thus proceeding towards the temple two yards at a time.
Gosaiji’s Birth and Early Life
Lord Jagannath’s promise was fulfilled when a son was born to Ananda Kishore and Swarnamoyee in 2nd August 1841, whom they named Bijoy Krishna (Lord Krishna won by love). Alike other messiahs * who are born in peculiar situations Bijoy Krishna was born in a wild thicket of arum plants where his mother hid herself when a gang raided their house. Bijoy Krishna, the second son of Ananda Kishore and Swarnamoyee was quite different from others in his childhood. He would talk to the tutelary deity Shyam Sundar (Krishna), play ball game with Him and feed Him the milk meant for him. One day Bijoy refrained from taking food because Shyam Sundar did not return the ball thrown to Him. When every body failed to force him to take his dinner, his food was kept in the dining room. The mother also remained without food and slept. At the dead night Swarnamoyee heard a dialogue from the dining room. She woke up to find Bijoy was not in his bed. She heard Bijoy saying (to Shyam Sundar);”I was angry and vowed not to take food until you return my ball but why did you not take your dinner?”…. after a minute silence Bijoy replied,”Oh! You love me so much. Alright let us share the food, we both are hungry.” After some time when silence prevailed the mother entered the room to see that Bijoy was asleep on the floor and the dishes empty. She fainted.
" God Sri Krishna was born in a jail, Prince Buddha under a forest bush, Jesus in as stable,
Chaitanya under a Neem tree, RamKrishna beside a heap of ashes "
Gosai ji’s deeds of Kindness and compassion for others:
One day Bijoy’s friends told him that the landlord was beating a man for not paying the annual revenue. Bijoy rushed to the spot while his friends fled away and shouted furiously to the landlord “You are not a human being, you are a rogue. Had you been a human being you could not have treated another human being like a beast. “The landlord was known to be a notorious goon and everybody was scared of him. The man threw off his hunter and stared at the little boy with a burning eye and enquired from his body guards as to whom the boy was. Knowing that he was in the lineage of Prabhu Adwaitacharya he controlled his anger and asked the boy to come to his house. He said that he was stunned to see a little boy as he was dare to utter such strong words to him. Later when they met the landlord the landlord asked Bijoy,” How did you dare to scold me, didn’t you ever think of the dire consequences?” Bijoy said he knew nothing, someone spoke from within. It is said that the tyrant became softer to his subject henceforth.
His mother was a kindhearted lady. Her financial state dropped to low ebb after Ananda Kishore died. One day while she was coming home after a bath in the river Ganga she came across a sick prostitute begging for food and clothes. The mother asked to wait. She went home and packed up the only sari (garment) along with the meal she had kept for herself and sent it through Bijoy to the woman. Bijoy came to tears to see the kind- heartedness of her mother. Bijoy would henceforth often secretly give away his clothes and meager food to the needy and remain in worn out clothes without food. Bijoy’s mother in tears would praise him for his deeds and say, “Our well wishers will give us new clothes if they find us wearing torn ones, but there is nobody to help these wretched people. Shayam Sundar bless you my child!” Both would hug each other and weep.
Gosai Ji’s devotion and love as a Child:
One day a roaming monk on his way to Gangasagar for holy ablution took a day’s halt at Bijoy’s residence. The monk took out his ‘Shalgram’ (round stone as a symbol of Lord Narayana) and worshipped Him. Bijoy a small boy then, wanted to worship the way the guest was doing. To quiet down the boy the monk gave him a piece of stone and subsequently proceeded toward Gangasagar. On his return from the journey he came to Bijoy and asked him casually how his worship was going on. Bijoy fetched the piece of stone and worshipped it in front of the monk. The monk was surprised to see that bright aura of light started emitting out of the stone! Bijoy was in his meditation the monk called his mother and said, “This boy is going to be a great man in the years to come. In symbol worship, what took me long years to behold god’s luminous aura, this little child did the miracle within a few days and that too over a piece of stay stone!” He saluted Bijoy and went away.
In the local school he learnt his lessons within a short period of time as compared to other boys. However he was very mischievous in his boyhood. One day he wanted to ride a horse. He chose to ride the local Magistrate’s black horse. At night he along with his friend stole the horse from the stable and kept it tied to a tree near the bank of the river. In the early morning the caretaker reported the magistrate that the horse was missing. In the meantime Bijoy rode the horse from a horizontal branch of tree and started enjoying the ride on the sands. The police caught the horse along with Bijoy and brought before the Magistrate. The magistrate was amused to see that the handsome boy who did the mischief belonged to the Adwaityacharya family. "Why didn’t you tell me that you wanted to ride the horse?" he asked. The boy’s straight forward answer was, “You would not give me permission to ride.” The magistrate laughed loudly and said,” Alright henceforth whenever you want a ride, tell me, I shall ask my men to put the harness and bridle and let you have a joy ride. Without these riding is dangerous".
A pirate in guise of a fisherman lived in the outskirts of Shantipur. He was charmed at the personality of the little boy Bijoy who would often acted "BalKrishna Leela" (Lord Krishna’s childhood actions) along with other youngsters. One day when Bijoy along with her mother and other family members were coming home from a remote place on a boat, it took longer time than usual due to tides in the water and as the boat was sailing slowly it became dark. Suddenly a gang of pirates raided their boat. The young ladies were scared, the bodyguards took position. Suddenly Bijoy heard a known voice and came out of the shelter to find the leader who was none but the aforesaid man. Seeing his beloved Bijoy the leader fell down at his feet and cried,” Oh dadabhai pardon me! You saved me from committing a great blunder.” The pirate fled away with his gang immediately to be never seen henceforth. One day his elders were out of station. Bijoy a teenager then had joined Sanskrit College under the Calcutta University. An old lady came from a distant place and not finding any elder person in the house fell down at the feet of Bijoy and prayed for a Mantra that would free her from the bondage of recurring birth. Bijoy was shocked to see the blind faith of the lady and said,” I myself am not liberated mother. How can a blind show path to another blind.” The lady did not believe that anyone in the lineage of Prabhu Adwaityacharya couldn’t be a liberated soul. They only come down to earth to liberate others. She fell into tears that Bijoy deprived her. For Bijoy the lady represented the prevailing blind faith of the society and he himself was the representative of the hypocrisy. His heart revolted against the system. The whole night he couldn’t sleep.