All glories, All glories to the saptam goswami, the seventh gowami, Shrila Bhaktivinod Thakur, who reinstated the powerful surge of Pure devotional service which had slackened after the disappearance of Viswanath Chakravarti Thakur and his followers. Although materially highly educated and holding respectable government posts, he would always engage all his time, when he was not serving in his Post, in chanting the holy names of the Lord, studying the shastras and Writing books which are invaluable jems for all gaudiya vaishnavas. Bhaktivinod Thakur,who in his spiritual form is a maid servant of Shrimati Radharani named Kamala Manjari,authored about a hundred books in various languages, being a master in numerous languages such as Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, English, Urdu and others, which are full of Rasa tattva and explain, elaborate, complement, simplify and propogte the teachings of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his followers, the six goswamis and others. His unparalleled pure genius works such as Shri Harinaam Chintamani, Krishna samhita, Jaiva Dharma, Shri Chaitanya Shikshamrita, Bhajan Rahasya, Shridham Navadwip Mahatmaya and Prema Pradip are but a few titles written by this most merciful personality, the appearance of whom and whose causeless mercy upon all the fallen conditioned souls is the sole reason for our good fortune of being in this Krishna Conciousness Movement. It was he, who, through his prayers, brought Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Prabhupad to this world, who in turn instructed and inspired Shrila A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupad to preach in the western world and bring innumerable illusioned living entities to the shelter of the lotus feet of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Not only this, rather he also made a prediction of the appearance of a special personality who would preach Krishna Conciousness in the western world and he also predicted that in the near future, foreign nationals from all over the world would join the Bengali vaishnavas in Shridham Mayapur and sing the glories of Mahaprabhu together, and sure enough, with his mercy, these predictions were fulfilled by Shrila Prabhupad. His mercy upon Prabhupad and the entire preaching of Krishna Consciousness is such that in the year 1896, the very year that Abhay Charan De took birth, Shrila Thakur Bhaktivinod sent small booklets to some libraries in the west with a lengthy English introduction named, “Caitanya Manaprabhu, His life and precepts” and thus planted the seed of preaching in the west, which was later on nourished and brought to success by Shrila Prabhupad. Besides having written volumes upon volumes of treasure chests of Krishna bhakti in the from of his books, he also composed an estaunding number of Bhajans glorifying the vaishnavas and the Lord.

In this age of Kali, prayers are considered to be the most powerful, but alas, we lack even the ability to pray properly and therefore Thakur Bhaktivinod has given us gitavali, sharanagati, kalyan kalpataru and gitamala, which are a storehouse of prayerful bhajans describing every aspect of bhakti, from prayers to the lotus feet of the vaishnavas, glorification of Mahaprabhu, Gaura Gadadhar, Nityananda Prabhu, Radha Krishna, to bhajans based on the Shikshashtakam and explaining various other shlokas and tattvas described in the shastras. His contribution to the Vaishnava community, although unfathomable, includes another great benediction in the form of the excavation of the holy appearance place of Mahaprabhu, which was confirmed by Shrila Jagannath das Babaji maharaj, who was a renowned and respected vaishnava of the time and the shiksha guru of Bhaktivinod thakur, who although having taken intiation from Vipin Behari Goswami, was very close to Jaggannath das Babaji Maharaj. This great personality, whose mercy is of utmost importance for advancement in spiritual life, graced this trayodashi tithi in the month of Bhadra by choosing it as his most auspicious appearance day. And on this day we pray to his lotus feet to be blessed with Krishna bhakti.