Jagad-guru Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda was a brilliant Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava ācārya. In a short time he spread Bhagavān’s holy name and the flow of pure bhakti, as preached and practised by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, over the length and breadth of India, and throughout the whole world as well. Fearlessly, he declared that a brāhmaṇa is not a brāhmaṇa if he does not worship the complete Spiritual Reality (brahma), Śrī Kṛṣṇa. One is not a jāti-gosvāmī, temple priest, gosvāmī or devotee if he is not performing bhajana with body, mind and words like Śrī Rūpa and the other six Gosvāmīs, and if he is not following the siddhānta of pure bhakti.
Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura preached that the arrangement of society in social orders, or varṇas, is based on people’s qualities rather than on their family lineage. This is the verdict of the Vedas, Upaniṣads, Bhagavad-gītā and other scriptures. The following and other verses offer irrefutable evidence of this conclusion:
(a) “cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ... – the fourfold system of social orders was created by Me according to divisions of quality (guṇa) and work (karma)” (Bhagavad-gītā 4.13).
(b) “yasya yal lakṣaṇaṁ proktaṁ puṁso varṇābhivyañjakam… – a person should be considered to belong to the social order whose characteristics he possesses, even if he has appeared in a different caste” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 7.11.35).
People became very attracted by Śrīla Prabhupāda’s fearless preaching of the truth. However, so-called brāhmaṇas who were devoid of knowledge and civilized behaviour, as well as corrupt caste gosvāmīs, became agitated. Unable to counteract his arguments, and having been repeatedly defeated in debates in religious assemblies, they now wanted to kill Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura.
In 1925, as in previous years, the sixteen krośa Śrī Navadvīpa-dhāma parikramā was held on the occasion of the appearance of Śrīman Mahāprabhu. Thousands of devoted pilgrims performed parikramā in an enormous saṅkīrtana party. Śrīla Prabhupāda went on foot in the parikramā while the deities of Śrī Śrī Guru-Gaurāṅga and Gāndharvikā-Giridhārī were borne on the back of an elephant. At one point, the parikramā party gathered in front of the temple of Prauḍhāmāyā in Kuliyā (Koladvīpa), and the devotees listened to Śrīla Prabhupāda relating the glories of Śrī Navadvīpa-dhāma. Just then, the so-called brāhmaṇas and caste gosvāmīs of Kuliyā-Navadvīpa attacked them with bricks, stones, hot water, soda bottles and other implements. The outrageous assault caused pandemonium. The pilgrims were running here and there to protect their lives, and no one cared for anyone else. The violent mob was searching for Śrīla Prabhupāda in order to kill him, but Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī immediately took him to a devotee’s house nearby for protection. There, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī quickly put on Śrīla Prabhupāda’s sannyāsa dress and took his daṇḍa, giving his own white clothes to Śrīla Prabhupāda to wear. Somehow he sent Śrīla Prabhupāda, undetected, to Śrī Dhāma Māyāpura in this ordinary dress. Meanwhile, the police arrived. Some time later, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī reached Māyāpura safely, still dressed as a sannyāsī.
The corrupt police suppressed news of this event, but Ānanda Bāzār, at that time a well-known magazine, published an account of the atrocity. The educated and respectable people were shocked to read and hear about this outrage. All the Vaiṣṇavas were amazed at Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī’s remarkable guru-niṣṭhā (steadfast faith and devotion to the spiritual master), and the incident was discussed everywhere. This is how Śrī Vinoda-bihārī fearlessly counteracted any injustice or atrocity that threatened Śrīla Prabhupāda or challenged his views.
Śrī Vinoda-bihārī’s behaviour in this incident calls to mind the guru-sevā of Śrī Rāmānujācārya’s dear disciple Śrī Kureśa. The Śaivite sampradāya dominated South India. When Śrī Rāmānujācārya used scriptural evidence to refute their inaccurate siddhānta, evil-minded Śaivaites became inflamed. The wicked Śaivite king invited Śrī Rāmānujācārya to a philosophical debate at Śrī Raṅgam, but this was really a ploy to kill him. Kureśa, who was devoted to his guru, heard a rumour of the plot. He exchanged his white clothes with his gurujī and arrived in the town escorted by the king’s soldiers, wearing Śrī Rāmānujācārya’s saffron dress and carrying his tridaṇḍa. The king and the people assumed that Kureśa was Rāmānujācārya. Kureśa stood alone against hundreds of learned Śaivites on the other side. A tumultuous debate ensued, in which the Śaivites were defeated.
Nevertheless, in accordance with his plan, the king proclaimed Kureśa’s defeat. He removed Kureśa’s eyes and then let him go. Kureśa did not utter even a single word. Wandering about, he reached a village far from that kingdom where, by good fortune, Śrī Rāmānujācārya was also present with his disciples. An extraordinary meeting took place between guru and disciple. Kureśa, the guru-sevaka and disciple, threw himself at his guru’s lotus feet, and by śrī guru’s mercy his eyesight was restored. As he lay in the lap of his gurudeva, crying out of love, Rāmānuja Ācārya wiped Kureśa’s tears with his own outer cloth and with the other hand blessed him to be free from fear. This same Kureśa later became Śrī Rāmānujācārya’s famous disciple Kureśācārya. He was a śruti-dhara (one who commits something to memory having heard it only once) and an ācārya expert in Śrī Rāmānujācārya’s philosophical conclusions of bhakti.
Similarly, guru-sevaka Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī, foremost among the disciples of Śrīla Prabhupāda, later became well-known by the name oṁ viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīmad Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja and preached the words of Śrī Gaurasundara all over the world, thus fulfilling Śrīla Prabhupāda’s innermost desire (mano-’bhīṣṭa). For such guru-sevā, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī’s name will be written in gold in the annals of the Sārasvata Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas.
Some Vaiṣṇavas say that the incident at Kuliyā was an excuse for Śrīla Prabhupāda to bestow upon his dear disciple the tridaṇḍa-sannyāsa dress, even though his formal sannyāsa ceremony was held later in Kaṭvā, after Śrīla Prabhupāda’s disappearance.
In March 1928, during Śrī Gaura-janmotsava, the 34th yearly session of the Śrī Navadvīpa-dhāma Pracāriṇī Sabhā (a devotional assembly) was held, with Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Prabhupāda as the chairman. Selected people were praised in this meeting for their different services in Śrī Maṭha, their preaching of bhakti and other tasks. At this meeting, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī was honoured for protecting the property of Śrīman Mahāprabhu, for the all-round development of Śrī Caitanya Maṭha, for his tireless hard work and endeavour, and for his intimate service in fulfilling Śrīla Prabhupāda’s innermost desire.
As manager of Śrī Caitanya Maṭha, Śrī Vinoda-bihārī Brahmacārī had two horses of excellent breed that he used to ride while managing the land. At that time he used to live in great pomp just for the sake of his service to the maṭha. In the midst of his devotional practices, he was also linked to many social welfare organizations. He was a member of the Nadiyā District Board, the Education and Finance Committee, the Kṛṣṇanagara Local Board, and the Union Board and Bench Court, and he was also the chairman of the Ṭhākura Bhaktivinoda Institute. He gave advice on various matters to the Divisional Commissioner, the District Judge and other highly posted persons. Everyone, from the highest to the lowest, had special respect for him.