Ananta Vasudeva

All Glories to Śrī Śrī Guru & Gaurāṅga!

Ananta Vāsudeva

(Excerpt from the article ‘Acintya-bheda-abheda’ by Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, which was first published in the ‘Gauḍīya Patrikā’ (a monthly of Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti), Gauḍīya Patrikā, issues of the Years 9 & 10 (1957–1958).

​Now, here we would like to provide some introduction about Ananta Vāsudeva— the third guru of Sundarānanda. Previously his name was Śrī Ananta-vāsa Basu (Bose). He belongs to the famous village named Vajra-yoginī in the Dhaka district of East Bengal. His father’s name is—Sriyuta Rādhā Govinda Dāsa Bābājī. Ananta Vāsudeva always introduces himself to everyone as the youngest son of this renunciate Bābājī. Due to the poor financial situation of Bābājī Mahāśaya, he arranged the education of Ananta-vāsa up to ‘I.A.’ by keeping him (Ananta-vāsa) at the house of a prominent sahajiyā and teacher of Pāli language—Mr. Amulya Caraṇa Vidyābhūṣaṇa.

​Afterwards, by some exclusive fortune, Ananta took shelter of the lotus feet of the Founder of the Gauḍīya Maṭha—Ācārya-kula-makuṭa-maṇi mukta-puruṣottama Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura. Śrīla Sarasvatī Ṭhākura by noticing the memory power of Ananta-vāsa, arranged his education up to B.A.

​After passing B.A., financially poor Ananta-vāsa, by the help of Kuñja-Bābu accepted a job in the post office at a very ordinary salary. After a few months, he, by the desire of Srila Prabhupāda, left the job to get engaged in the sevā of the Maṭha. Rādhā-Govinda Bābājī, his father, already had faith upon sahajiyā-dharma for a long time. By fate, Ananta-vāsa also during his education period, got the association of a fully matured (no. 1) sahajiyā like Amulya Bābu. If in an early age of youth, the poisonous seed of apa-sampradāya starts to sprout within one's heart, then to destroy that becomes quite impossible. We heard countless praises of this Amulya Vidyābhūṣaṇa from Ananta Vāsudeva. Maybe this was out of gratitude for having been raised on Amulya Bābu’s subsistence, or because Ananta-vāsa received the foundational core knowledge of the subject matter of dharma from him; whatever reason there may be, but Ananta-vāsa always reserved an exclusive faith upon Amulya Bābu.

As an influence of the limitless śāstra-jñāna and vāṇī—full of vīrya, absolutely powerful vāṇī of Jagat-guru Śrīla Prabhupāda—the venomous seed of sahajiyāism sprouted in Anantavāsa's heart could not grow further. But after the aprakaṭa-līlā of Śrīla Prabhupāda, the dormant smoldering fire started to burn blazingly in his (Ananta-vāsa’s) heart, to burn the pure ideology of flow of thought of the pure Mādhva Gauḍīya-Vaiṣṇava-Dharma. Those sahajiyās simply explaining those activities like material women association, etc., as the aprākṛta pārakīya madhura-rasa. Being inspired in a big way by this kind of flow of material thoughts, Ananta Vāsudeva developed endless prīti towards that end. 

Ananta-vāsa, after taking the shelter of Śrīla Prabhupāda, was known by the name Ananta Vāsudeva Brahmacārī. And he took the resolution of engaging himself in the sevā of Gurupādapadma up to the last moment of his life by maintaining naiṣṭhika-brahmacarya.

By being attracted towards the external vairāgya and erudite talent, those sevākas of Gauḍīya Maṭha appointed him as ācārya. It is next to impossible for a jīva—bound by māyā—to protect and preserve the dignity of the position of ācārya of those Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas. The same thing happened with Ananta Vāsudeva.

Vāsudeva by taking the advantage of the position of ācārya, used to give a lot of bhajana-related teachings to those wise women like Asīmā-Nīlimā, etc., who all took the shelter of Śrīla Prabhupāda. Later gradually, when people started discovering many unusual things about Vāsudeva, then to hide his own fault he played a trick of accepting sannyāsa, so naturally he wanted to hide his name ‘Ananta Vāsudeva’ by taking a new name ‘Śrī Bhakti Prasāda Purī’ by which he became famous  everywhere. By the [collective] endeavor of a few expert authors like Sundarānanda, etc., Ananta-vāsa became famous everywhere as a special personality. As a result of this, from the famous Nag family of the Dhaka district, an erudite woman (a B.A. student) became his disciple. Also to her, he used to give various secret bhajana-related teachings.

Needless to say, that this lady was fit in all ways, like—in terms of lineage (family caste), in terms of disposition, in terms of appearance, or in terms of qualities. This lady after receiving dīkṣā came to be known as 'Garimā.' Gradually in course of time, she attained some exclusive advancement (?) in bhajana from her Gurudeva and as a result of that she was forced by her relatives to marry Śrī Bhakti Prasāda Purī Mahārāja. After the marriage was successful at Allahabad, he, by leaving the guise of sannyāsa, the name of sannyāsa, etc., turned into Ananta-vāsa Basu again. Mr. Sundarānanda Vidyāvinoda, despite witnessing such an incident with his own eyes, but still to protect and preserve sahajiyā-dharma, he went on preaching this incident as a kind of idealism of Vaiṣṇava-dharma.