Bhaktivinoda Thakur (, ) (2 September 1838 – 23 June 1914), born Kedarnath Datta (, ), was an Indian Hindu philosopher, guru and spiritual reformer of Gaudiya Vaishnavism who effected its resurgence in India in late 19th and early 20th century and was called by contemporary scholars as a Gaudiya Vaishnava leader of his time. He, along with his son Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, is also credited with initiating the propagation of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in the West and its global spread.
He tackled the task of reconciling Western reason and traditional belief, by accommodating both modern critical analysis and Hindu mysticism in his writings. Kedarnath's spiritual quest led him at the age of 29 to become a follower of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533). He dedicated himself to the study and practice of Chaitanya's teachings, emerging as a leader within the Chaitanya Vaishnava movement in Bengal.
In his later years Bhaktivinoda founded and conducted nama-hatta – a travelling preaching program that spread theology and practice of Chaitanya throughout rural and urban Bengal, by means of discourses, printed materials and Bengali songs of his own composition. He also opposed what he saw as apasampradayas, or numerous distortions of the original Chaitanya teachings. He is credited with the rediscovery of the lost site of Chaitanya's birth, in Mayapur near Nabadwip, which he commemorated with a prominent temple.
Bhaktivinoda Thakur led the spread of Chaitanya's teachings in the West, in 1880 sending copies of his works to Ralph Waldo Emerson in the United States and to Reinhold Rost in Europe.
The revival of Gaudiya Vaishnavism effected by Bhaktivinoda spawned one of India's preaching missions of the early 20th century, the Gaudiya Matha, headed by his son and spiritual heir, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati. Bhaktisiddhanta's disciple A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami (1896–1977) continued his guru Western mission when in 1966 in the United States he founded ISKCON, or the Hare Krishna movement, which then spread Gaudiya Vaishnavism globally.
Bengali Renaissance and the bhadralok Kedarnath Datta belonged to the kayastha community of Bengali intellectual gentry that lived during the Bengal Renaissance and attempted to rationalise their traditional Hindu beliefs and customs.
Kedarnath's birth in 1838 occurred during the period of the history of Bengal marked by the emergence and influence of the bhadralok community. The bhadralok, refers to "gentle or respectable people", was a class of Bengalis (Hindus), who served the British administration in occupations requiring Western education and proficiency in English and other languages. Exposed to and influenced by the Western values of the British, including the latter's condescending attitude towards cultural and religious traditions of India, the bhadralok started calling into question and reassessing the tenets of their own religion and customs. Their attempts to rationalise and modernise Hinduism in order to reconcile it with the Western outlook gave rise to a historical period called the Bengali Renaissance.
This trend led to a perception, both in India and in the West, of modern Hinduism as being equivalent to Advaita Vedanta, a conception of the divine as devoid of form and individuality that was hailed by its proponents as the "perennial philosophy" and "the mother of religions". As a result, the other schools of Hinduism, including bhakti, were gradually relegated in the minds of the Bengali Hindu middle-class to obscurity, and seen as a "reactionary and fossilized jumble of empty rituals and idolatrous practices."
Early period (1838–1858): student
Birth and childhood
Kedarnath was born on 2 September 1838 in the village of Ula (presently Birnagar) in Bengal, some north of modern-day Kolkata. Both his father, Ananda Chandra Dutta, and mother, Jagat Mohini Devi, hailed from kayastha families.
After a village schooling, he continued his education at Hindu College in Calcutta, where he acquainted himself with contemporary Western philosophy and theology. There he became a close associate of literary and intellectual figures of the Bengali Renaissance, such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, and Sisir Kumar Ghosh.' In his youth he spent time researching and comparing various religious and philosophical systems, both Indian and Western, with a view of finding among them a comprehensive, authentic and intellectually satisfying path. At 18, he began a teaching career in rural areas of Bengal and Orissa until he became an employee with the British Raj in the Judicial Service, from which he retired in 1894 as District Magistrate.
From the time of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (1486–1533), the paternal Datta lineage were Vaishnavas and counted among their ranks Krishnananda, an associate of Nityananda Prabhu. Kedarnath's mother, Jagan Mohini Devi (born Mitra), was a descendant of Rameshwar Mitra, a zamindar (landowner) of the 18th century. Kedarnath's great-grandfather (along with many other 18th century Dattas), Ramtanu Datta, converted to Shaktism and Durga-Kali worship. Kedaranath in his autobiography Svalikhita-jivani refers to his father, Anand Chandra Dutta, as a "straightforward, clean, religious man" and describes his mother as "a sober woman possessed of many unique qualities".
Kedarnath was the third of six children of Anand Chandra and Jagat Mohini, preceded by older brothers Abhaykali (died before Kedarnath's birth) and Kaliprasanna and followed by three younger siblings: sister Hemlata and brothers Haridas and Gauridas. Kedarnath evoked affection of his mother, who prayed for his survival.
Prior to his birth, financial circumstances had forced his parents to relocate from Calcutta to Ula, where he was born and grew up in the palace of his maternal grandfather, Ishwar Chandra Mustauphi, a landowner known for his generosity.
From the age of five, Kedarnath attended the village school in Ula. Later, when an English school opened there, he showed interest in the English language, attending the classes during lunch, that the headmaster of the school convinced Anand Chandra to let the boy study there. At the age of seven Kadarnath was transferred to another English school in Krishnanagar.
In the following years Kedarnath's family faced a series of calamities. All three of his brothers died of cholera, soon followed by their father, Anand Chandra. The financial situation of his widowed mother worsened as his maternal grandfather, Ishwar Chandra, incurred huge debts due to the oppressive Permanent Settlement Act and ended up bankrupt. In 1850, when Kedarnath was 12, in accordance with the upper-class Hindu customs Jagat Mohini married him to a five-year-old Shaymani Mitra of Ranaghat, hoping to sever Kedarnath's connection with the ill fate of his own family and replace it with the good karma of the in-laws. Soon after the wedding Ishwar Chandra died, leaving the responsibility for his troubled estate on the widow with two young children. Kedarnath recalls:
These hardships made Kedarnath question the meaning of life and ponder over reasons for human sufferings. He felt unconvinced by conventional explanations and started doubting the reality of the many Hindu gods and goddesses worshiped in village temples. Exposed to contradictory views ranging from religious beliefs to tantric practices, exorcism, superstitions and atheism, Kedarnath found himself in a state of disappointment and philosophical confusion. It was at that time that an encounter with an old woman who advised him to chant the name of Rama made an impact on him, planting the seed of the Vaishnava faith that he maintained throughout his life.
New challenges and responsibilities caused Kedarnath to visit Calcutta for the first time. The trip, further developed his curiosity for European life and customs. Back in Ula he continued struggling to maintain the property inherited from his grandfather. This took a toll on his education. Finally, in 1852 his maternal uncle, Kashiprasad Ghosh, a famous poet and newspaper editor, visited Ula and, impressed with the talented boy, convinced Jagat Mohini to send Kedarnath to Calcutta to further his studies. In November 1852, leaving his mother and sister behind in Ula, Kedarnath moved to Ghosh's house on Beadon Street in the middle of Calcutta.
Education in Calcutta Calcutta was a multicultural city, different from Kedarnath's experience. His maternal uncle Kashiprasad Ghosh, a graduate of the Hindu College of Calcutta, was a champion of Westernisation, the editor of the English-language Hindu Intelligencer, a journal which propagated the ideas of the bhadralok, and a patriotic poet praised even by the British.
Kedarnath stayed with Kashiprasad Ghosh until 1858 and became steeped in the lifestyle of the bhadralok and immersed in studying a range of Western philosophical, poetic, political, and religious texts. Kadarnath studied at the Hindu Charitable Institute between 1852 and 1856. There he met one of the bhadralok Hindu intellectuals of the time, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820–1891), who became his tutor, his mentor, and a lifelong friend.
While excelling in his studies, especially in the English language and writing, Kedarnath started writing his own poems and articles. Exposed to and influenced by the views of the acquaintances of Kashiprasad who frequented his home, Kristo Das Pal, Shambhu Mukhopadhyay, Baneshwar Vidyalankar, and others – Kedarnath started regularly contributing to the Hindu Intelligencer, critiquing contemporary social and political issues from a bhadralok viewpoint. Eventually, Kedarnath felt confident enough in his studies and in 1856 enrolled in the Hindu College (Calcutta) where for the next two years he continued his studies under Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in the company of remarkable classmates such as Keshub Chandra Sen, Nabagopal Mitra, and the elder brothers of Rabindranath Tagore: Satyendranath and Ganendranath. Becoming involved in the intellectual values of the bhadralok community, Kedarnath along with his classmates started taking public-speaking lessons from the British parliamentarian and abolitionist George Thompson (1804–1878). At the same time, Kedarnath published his first major literary work, a two-volume historical poem titled The Poriade, which earned him both a name as a poet and some income.
Kedarnath's health deteriorated due to poor drinking water and the challenging environment of Calcutta. He made regular visits to his mother and sister in Ula for recovery and convalescence. He was treated by a fakir physician of the leather worker caste who belonged to the heterodox Kartābhajā sect of Chaitanyite Vaishnavism. Kedarnath soon took initiation from the fakīr's guru who gave Kedarnath a Krishna mantra and encouraged him to become a vegetarian; later in life Kedarnath theologically criticised the Kartabhajas but acknowledged their influence in moving him towards Gaudiya Vaishnavism. However, when in 1856 an outbreak of cholera wiped out the whole village of Ula, killing his sister Hemlata and sparing his mother, Kedarnath took her along with his grandmother to Calcutta for good. The devastation of Ula marked a turning point in Kedarnath's attitude to life. He writes: