Jagannatha Dasa Babaji's relationship with the Datta family lasted nearly two decades. It was first with Bhaktivinoda Thakura himself, and later with Bhaktivinoda's remarkable young son. Because of who that son would become, it is one of the most important personal connections in the whole modern history of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.
Meeting Bhaktivinoda Thakura, 1880 #
Bhaktivinoda Thakura first met Jagannatha Dasa Babaji in Vrindavana in 1880. At that meeting he received a great deal of instruction in hari-bhakti from the Babaji. The two met again some time later, when Jagannatha Dasa Babaji visited the Burdwan district in the month of Phalguna and stayed at the village of Amalajora. Bhaktivinoda Thakura also went there, using government business as his excuse, so that he could have the Babaji's association a second time. Jagannatha Dasa Babaji was greatly pleased to see Bhaktivinoda's clear enthusiasm for preaching the holy name. So he stayed at Amalajora for eleven days, performing kirtana and hari-katha day and night without a break. Bhaktivinoda later established his Prapanna-ashrama at that same village. In later years, when Jagannatha Dasa Babaji came to Calcutta, he would stay at Bhaktivinoda's own house on Manikatala Street. But he was deeply renounced by nature. So he accepted Bhaktivinoda's eager invitations to take prasadam there only now and then, never as a regular habit.
Calling on a Twelve-Year-Old Astronomer #
The more remarkable episode concerns Bhaktivinoda's son. When Bimala Prasad (the boy who would grow up to be Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura) was twelve years old, he had already become expert in jyotish-shastra, the science of Vedic astrology and astronomical calculation. His early brilliance is described in full on his own page. Hearing of this, Jagannatha Dasa Babaji called the boy to him. He asked Bimala Prasad to prepare a proper Vaishnava calendar, calculated according to correct astronomical siddhanta. It was to include the appearance and disappearance days of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's associates and of Vishnupriya Thakurani, and the festivals through the year. Bimala Prasad did as he was asked, and Jagannatha Dasa Babaji was clearly satisfied. The finished work became the basis of the Sri Nabadwip Panjika, the Vaishnava almanac still used across the Gaudiya community.
It is a small episode and easy to overlook. Accounts of his old age say that Jagannatha Dasa Babaji could barely open his eyes or walk without help in these years. Yet it was his personal initiative that first drew the future founder of the Gaudiya Math into public service. This was years before Bhaktisiddhanta's 1900 initiation from Srila Gaura Kishora Dasa Babaji. Most sources place Gaura Kishora Dasa Babaji himself within Jagannatha Dasa Babaji's own spiritual line, through his guru Bhagavata Dasa Babaji, though not every source agrees. Jagannatha Dasa Babaji's disciples and the rest of that lineage are covered on the next page.
