Page 61 - SBV (English)

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Early Life

Advent

Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Gosvämé Prabhupäda appeared in this
world at 3:30 p.m. on 6 February 1874, the fifth day of the dark lunar fortnight
in the month of Govinda of the Gauòéya Vaiñëava calendar, corresponding to
the Bengali month of Mägha. He appeared in Puré, the site of the famous temple
of Lord Jagannätha and thus one of the holiest places in India, and where Lord
Caitanya had resided for eighteen years, absorbed in the highest ecstasies of Kåñëa
consciousness. Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté’s advent in Puré is particularly
significant in light of a statement in Padma Puräëa:
çré-brahma-rudra-sanakä vaiñëaväù kñiti-pävanäù
catväras te kalau bhävyä hy utkale puruñottamät
In Kali-yuga the four Vaiñëava sampradäyas, which are purifiers
of the earth, will appear in Puruñottama-kñetra, in Utkala
(Orissa).
He appeared in his parents’ rented home, which, due to their being pure
devotees, continually reverberated with saìkértana. It belonged to Çré Rämacandra
Arhya, a rich Calcutta businessman, who had built it on land leased from the
Dakñiëa Pärçva Maöha, and was situated on Grand Road, hardly a quarter of
a mile from Lord Jagannätha’s temple, just south of the landmark Näräyaëa
Chätä Maöha and close to the Jagannätha-vallabha Udyäna, a garden that had
been frequented by Lord Caitanya. At the child’s birth, the umbilical cord was
wrapped around his body like an upavéta, leaving a permanent mark. During
infancy his sizable brain made his head look unusually large in proportion to his
body.
Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté’s father was the palmary Vaiñëava äcärya
Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura, known in secular circles as Çré Kedäranätha Datta.
*
As an ideal äcärya in the gåhastha-äçrama, he oversaw an extensive family and

* Çréla Sarasvaté Öhäkura never considered Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura as an ordinary,
mundane father (see vol. 2, p. 204). Nonetheless, following the example of many Gauòéya
Maöha publications in referring to Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura, herein the word father
is also used conventionally. Certainly in a wholly transcendental sense, bhaktivinoda
eternally gives birth to bhaktisiddhänta.

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