Sri Narayan Das Bhakti Sadhukar

Sri Narayan Das Bhakti Sadhukar [Professor Nishi Kanta Sanyal, M. A.]

In a renowned Zemindar family of Varendra Brahmin caste at the village Korakdi in the district of Faridpur (Bengal), Shriyut Nisi Kanta Sanyal took his birth in the year 1884 A.D. He passed the Entrance Examination from Berhampore with scholarship and B.A. with honours and gold medal and stood second in M.A. in history. He served in Ravenshaw College at Cuttack (Orissa) as Professor of History and retired from the Government Service in the year 1937. He departed this life on 29th February 1940.

 Sri-Narayan-Das-Bhakti-Sadhukar


He possessed all the worldly fortunes, viz., pedigree, wealth, learning and health - any of which is sufficient to justify one's pride. Generally they stand in the way of living a real spiritual life but in him they were all harnessed to the whole-hearted service of the Lord. While a Professor at Cuttack he was attracted by the speeches of Tridandi Goswami Shrila Bhakti Pradipa Tirtha Maharaja of Shri Gaudiya Matha and came to Calcutta to drink deep in the holy nectar at the Fountain-Source. Here at Shri Bhaktivinoda Asana at 1.1, Ultadingi Junction Road, he had the good fortune to sit at the Lotus Feet of Shrila Ananta Vasudeva Brahmacari, now the spiritual head of the Gaudiya Mission and known as His Divine Grace Om Vishnupada Paramahamsa Parivrajakacaryavarya (108) Shri Shrimad Bhakti Prasada Puri Goswami Thakura, and hear his discourses continuously for seven days. All his doubts removed, his sincere soul saw the clear light of Truth and was initiated by Shri Shrimad Bhakti Siddhanta Sarasvati Goswami Prabhupada in the year 1925.

He lived an ideal spiritual life. His devotion to his Gurudeva and his god-brothers knew no bounds. Though outwardly a Grihastha, his inner life was an object lesson to many Sanyasi. He surrendered himself whole-heartedly to the service of his divine master. His learning, his pay, his position and all his virtues he placed at the disposal of Shrila Prabhupada to such an extent that during his parting benediction Shrila Prabhupada was pleased to remark that he was indebted to Shripada Narayanadasa Bhaktisudhakar Prabhu - the initiated name of Prof. Nisi Kanta Sanyal.

Prof. Sanyal wrote various treatises and translations on Gaudiya Vaishnava religion. His monumental work is "Shri Krishna Chaitanya", a book of international fame. There in Vol.1, he narrated the Lila of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu upto His initiation at Gaya. Under the editorship of his Gurudeva, he conducted "The Harmonist", a fortnightly journal in English, for several years. The present treatise, though covering only a few pages, gives in a succinct way the highest philosophy of Shri Krishna's amorous pastimes which has justly baffled the highest imagination of the empiricists and rationalists. This booklet, if read with the sincere reverence of an ardent seeker of Truth, will save him and many of his creed from self-annihilation and open their eyes to a New-World of ever-increasing usefulness and felicitation.

After the disappearance of Shrila Prabhupada, the great world teacher, on the first day of 1937, a crisis came upon the Gaudiya Mission, which called forth the best and the worst in the members thereof. Shripada Bhaktisudhakara Prabhu, a born thinker and writer, always felt the urge to write the succeeding volumes of his "Shri Krishna Chaitanya" and complete the work - a course, if adopted, would surely gain for him an everlasting fame. With the discerning eye of a brave soldier and an ardent devotee, he found the Mission-boat tossing on the high waves deserted by the helmsmen, and in a spirit of supreme sacrifice of all worldly considerations including fame, `the last infirmity of a noble mind', he volunteered his service and with a rare courage took his stand at the helm. He left his service at the college and steered the boat in troubled waters till his last breath with a zeal, sagacity and devotion unparalleled in modern times. True, he has not given us the "Shri Krishna Chaitanya after initiation", - let there grow in us a burning desire for a true approach of the Lord - but he has given us the richest treasure on this perverted world, - the living example, far more powerful than tons of precepts, of a true Sadhu which is the only royal road to a proper appreciation of the Lord. May his spirit of non-challenge in the face of violent antagonism and his most devoted cohesion, in the midst of constant whirlwind, to the Lotus Feet of His Divine Grace Om Vishnupada Paramahamsa Parivrajakacaryavarya (108) Shri Shrimad Bhakti Prasada Puri Goswami Thakura, the present spiritual head of the Gaudiya Mission, guide and encourage us, like an illuminating lighthouse, in our hours of peril and depression and lead us on to the harbour of the ever-joyous service of Shri Krishna.

Shri Gaudiya Math,

Baghbazar, Calcutta,

17th February 1941.

SAJJAN SUHRID DAS ADHIKARI

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