Very little is recorded about Srila Jagannatha Dasa Babaji's early years, and Vaishnava tradition itself does not claim to fill that gap. What has been kept is almost all about the extraordinary old age he lived to and the pastimes of that time, not the ordinary facts of a childhood. He is said to have been born into an aristocratic family in a village in the Tangail subdivision of the Mayamanasimha district of Bengal (in present-day Bangladesh). Even the year of his birth is disputed. Another devotional account places his appearance "sometime around 1750 A.D.," while other secondary biographies place it closer to 1800. The sources do not agree, and this page does not try to settle the difference. The short life-sketches that do survive all agree on one thing. They pass quickly over his birth and move on to the line of spiritual teachers that shaped him.
A Guru Lineage from Baladeva Vidyabhushana #
That lineage is recorded quite clearly, and more than one source confirms it independently. The great Gaudiya Vedanta commentator Srila Baladeva Vidyabhushana had an initiated disciple named Uddhava Dasa Babaji. Uddhava Dasa Babaji's own initiated disciple was Madhusudana Dasa Babaji, who lived at Suryakunda near Radhakunda in the Vraja area. Madhusudana Dasa Babaji's disciple, in turn, was Jagannatha Dasa Babaji himself, who accepted babaji initiation from him. So Jagannatha Dasa Babaji was only three links away from one of the most important philosophical authorities in the Gaudiya tradition. He took up the renounced life of a babaji, living on alms, at Suryakunda, in the intense devotional atmosphere of Vraja.
Vaishnava Sarvabhauma #
In time he became so widely respected across the Gaudiya Vaishnava community that he was given the title Vaishnava Sarvabhauma. It means literally "emperor among Vaishnavas," or chief of the Vaishnavas. This title of honour was not given for learned writings, since he is not known to have written anything himself. It was given for his deep, realised devotion, which the whole community had come, on its own, to recognise and bow to. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura himself is recorded as calling him the topmost general among Gaudiya Vaishnavas. This was high praise from a man who did not speak carelessly. He was also famous as a siddha-baba, a perfectly realised soul. At times he was known to chant the holy name continuously for three days and nights without sleep. Only afterward would he break his fast, with flat rice and yogurt.
The Long Years at Suryakunda and Vrindavana #
Jagannatha Dasa Babaji spent many years living and performing bhajan in Vrindavana and the holy places around it. It was his settled custom to divide his time between six months in Sri Nabadwip Dhama and six months in Vraja-mandala. Beyond the fact that he lived there and was known as "a perfect devotee," fairly little detailed story about these years survives. The specific, vividly remembered episodes of his life begin only in his extreme old age, when he had already been a recognised authority for decades. Most of them are preserved because his own disciples and associates saw them and told them again. The chief of these was his devoted servant Bihari Dasa. His installation of Deities at Suryakunda, and what happened to Them afterward, is told here, and his pivotal role in identifying the lost birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at Mayapur is told here.
When he was over a hundred years old, his body had become bent almost double. His attending disciples had to lift his eyelids before he could offer tulasi manjaris to his worshipable Deity of Sri Giriraja Govardhana. Even then, he continued to give the same instruction to any devotee who asked for his guidance on sadhana:
"The best time for chanting the holy name is from three o'clock in the morning until seven in the morning, and again from sunset until eleven o'clock at night. No serious-minded devotee should sleep during these hours, for Lord Shiva comes to inspect the devotees of his own worshipable Lord, Sri Krishna, at those times."
