Vaishnava Pada Das Babaji -

VAISHNAVA PADA DAS BABAJI, does anyone has his picture and bio?



Radhe!

Here he is walking behind Sri Anantadas Pandit Babaji, his Guru:

http://www.radhakund.com/18.10.03/DSC01888.JPG

This page on yugal kishora's website has more pics of the same parikrama:

http://www.radhakund.com/18.10.03/

I was told that he arrived at the Kunda when he was 14 years old, and immediately experienced an ectsatic swoon of some sort. His birth name is Vishvanatha Chakravarti, which means he is from a respected Bengali Chakravarti Brahmin family. He came to the Kunda with his widowed mother, who I had the honour of sharing a car with one day when she went to the doctor. Neither of them speak english, but VPdasji is very pleasant if you see him anywhere, he will give a warm shy smile. He is about 30 years old, and teaches Sanskrit at the RK Vidyalaya.

It is said that a few years ago there were some other senior devotees at the Kunda who made some politics against him. He was beaten. When later asked about his reaction to this, he said, 'The Vaishnavas were merciful to me by blessing me with their hands'. So it is said. Can anyone else confirm?

His mother is not widowed. Although divorce does not exist in Hindu society, many women at Radhakund live separated from their husbands because the husbands are not favorable to their bhajan. VP's father is alive. They are from the Nadiya district of W Bengal. Whether he came there at age 14 I doubt, this must have been in 1985. I lived at Radhakund from 1984 to 1989 and cannot remember having seen VP at that time. I would have noticed such a young boy doing bhajan. Perhaps he left Radhakunda shortly after he arrived there to study somewhere outside of Radhakunda....

Vaishnava Pada Das Babaji Maharaj
23.10.03 Radha Gopinath Mandir, Radhakund

Amazing devotee, I think He will be next after Gurudev.

There's a group of younger devotees who don't agree with some of the corruption going on at Radha Kund, and who desire to reform the place into a place of real bhajananandis again. They put together a rather outspoken letter that was sent to some of the less devotionally apt -- to put it politely -- people. For what I've heard, it featured a good selection of references about false vairagis and hell.

The letter caused a big uproar, and people began to hunt down the author. Vaishnava Pada Dasji, though he didn't personally write the letter, took the blame, and he was expelled from Radha Kund. After that, he spent two years engaged in intense bhajan in Varsana, in exile from Radha Kund. After two years Sri Ananta Das Babaji managed to get him back to Radha Kund.

He gained my full sympathy with this incident. Anyhow, enough with the ugly politics.

Nowadays he spends much time in the ashram at Kesi Ghat, a much more peaceful place than Radha Kund. Last time I was in Vraja, he was there, editing Baba's commentary on Krishna Karnamritam.