Bhaktivinoda Thakur (IAST: Bhakti-vinoda Ṭhākura, Bengali pronunciation: [bʱɔktibinodo tʰakur] ) (2 September 1838 – 23 June 1914), born Kedarnath Datta (Kedāra-nātha Datta, Bengali: [kedɔrnɔtʰ dɔtto]), 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's 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
Kedarnath was born on 2 September 1838 in the village of Ula (presently Birnagar) in Bengal, some 100 kilometres (62 miles) 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:
Everybody thought that my mother had a lot of money and jewelry, so no one would help. All her wealth was lost except for a few properties. There was so much debt and I was full of anxiety. I was unqualified to look after the affairs of the estate. My grandfather's house was huge. The guards were few and I was afraid of thieves at night so I had to give the guards bamboo sticks to carry.