From informal talks by Svami B.R.Sridhara (also published in 'Sermons of the Guardian of Devotion' Vol.2,Sri Caitanya Saraswat Math,1991):
Devotee: Did Your Grace ever have the darsana of Thakur Bhaktivinode?
B.R.Sridhara: No.He left the world in 1914,and I joined the mission in 1926,twelve years later.
Devotee: Perhaps you met other persons who had his contact?
B.R.Sridhara: There was one Parvvat Maharaj who lived next door to Bhaktivinoda Tahkur when he passed his old age in Godrum. Parvvat Maharaj said that there was only a partition wall between his house and Bhaktivinoda Thakur's.That was at Surabhi Kunja.From about three o'clock in the morning,Bhaktivinoda Thakur would rise and take the Name of Krsna,the Mahamantra,at the TOP OF HIS VOICE.Parvvat Maharaj describe it like this.As though calling someone from afar-with this spirit Bhaktivinoda Thakur would chant the Holy Name.That Maharaj was astonished to see such behaviour.There was a cement chair,and when Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur felt tired he took his seat and rested there awhile.
And then after some time he would again wander in the garden, chanting at the top of his voice,"Hare Krsna,Hare Krsna!"
With such animation in his voice he was calling-calling a person;with this spirit,and not in a formal way,by with a material hankering,he was calling for the Lord.
There was another thing I also heard about him from another source,Ram Gopal Vidyabhusana,an M.A. and Barrister-in-law.
Ram Gopal Vidyabhusana told me:
"Once we went to visit him.We had heard that a Government officer,an educated man,had become a Vaisnava Babaji.So we went to see him and someone amongst us asked him,'Please speak something about Krsna and Krsna-nama'.
After a moment,Bhaktivinoda Thakur then said,'Oh,you want to hear something about Krsna,you want?You want Krsna-nama?'In this way he continued for some time:'Krsna?You are so fortunate.You have come to hear Krsna-nama?'
Then the consequence of that enquiry had such an influence on his body and mind,that as it is written by him personally in his
own poem,'Sri-Nama-Mahatmya'."
That gentleman,Ram Gopal Vidyabhusana said:"I saw with my own eyes that all these symptoms were displayed in his body and mind,simply upon hearing our inquiry.Bhaktivinoda Thakur said, 'You are so fortunate,you have come to hear Krsna-nama from me?Krsna ! Krsna !' In this way,he entered into another domain,and so many symptoms and expressions appeared in his body and mind-convulsions,tears,all these things." I heard this from an eye-witness.
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jiva