Gaura-kisora dasa babaji
Today is the disappearance day of Gaura-kisora dasa Babaji,who was the spiritual master of Srila Bhktisiddhanta Goswami, intimate student of Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur, and is an acharya in our line of disciplic succession, so we honor today him with this short sketch.
namo gaura-kisoraya sakshad-vairagya-murtaye
vipralambha-rasambhode padambujaya te namah
I offer my respectful obeisances unto Gaura-kisora dasa Babaji Maharaja [the spiritual master of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati], who is renunciation personified. He is always merged in a feeling of separation and intense love of Krishna.
In 1897 Gaura-kisora dasa Babaji came to Mayapur Navadwipa Dhama from Sri Vrndavana Dhama, where he was given the exalted title “Bhajananandi”. Seeing the transcendental behavior of Gaurakisora dasa Babaji, Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur used him as an example of nirapeksa (indifference), the symptom of an advanced renunciate.
Gaura-kisora dasa Babaji lived a life of humility and poverty, true attributes of a Vaisnava. He never accepted material goods from anyone, wearing discarded loincloths from corpses left on the bank of the Ganges. He begged for rice, soaking it in river water, and adding only salt and chilies. Accepting no favors, he remained fully detached from all possessions.
The Hare Krishna Movement 