Vamsi Dasa Babaji did not stay at Navadvipa all the time. Several accounts describe long journeys during his life. The one recorded in most detail is a journey of roughly three months to Vrindavana, made when he was already in his eighties. It gives an unusually detailed picture of how he lived and travelled even in old age.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Departure | 24 February 1941 (12th of Phalguna, 1347 Bengali era), from Navadvipa |
| Route | Katwa, Bhagalpur, Gaya, Benares, Ayodhya, Prayag, Mathura, Vrindavana |
| Duration | About three months, returning in the month of Jyestha |
| Signature habit | Sitting under any peepal (bata) tree he found, taking it to be Krishna's Vamsi-vata |
| Later travels | Bengal (Ambika Kalna) and Odisha (Baleshvara, Puri), then northern India again, 1943-1944 |
Leaving Navadvipa #
He left Navadvipa on 24 February 1941, the 12th of Phalguna in the year 1347 of the Bengali calendar. He travelled by whatever means he could find: on foot, by ox-cart, and by rail in turns. His first stop was Katwa, where he stayed two days under a bata tree by the railway station. From there he went to Bhagalpur, and then to Gaya, where he spent three days on the bank of the Phalgu river. Wherever he found a peepal tree along the way, he would treat it as the Vamsi-vata of Vrindavana, the tree under which Krishna is said to have played His flute to call the gopis. Once he had settled beneath such a tree, it was reportedly very difficult to get him to move again.
Through Vraja-mandala #
From Gaya he continued to Benares, where he stayed on a boat near Dashashvamedha Ghat for three days. Then he went to Ayodhya on the Sarayu, and to the Triveni confluence at Prayag for ten days. After that he went on into Vraja itself. There he visited Mathura's Vishrama Ghat, the Vamsi-vata at Vrindavana, the banks of the Yamuna at Madhya-curia, the Govindaji temple, Kaliya-daha, a tamala tree at Nandagrama, and Pavana-sarovara. At the end he spent nine more days back at Vamsi-vata Ghat before turning home. Those who travelled with him remembered that his mood changed without warning. One moment he was singing about Krishna's lila, and the next he was glorifying Navadvipa-dhama. Sometimes he laughed, and sometimes he fell into long silences. In the temples he visited, he was often seen murmuring privately to the deities, as if revealing to Them some personal feeling that he could not share with anyone else. He returned to Navadvipa in the month of Jyestha, roughly three months after he had left.
An Unexpected Guest at Midnapore #
One story from these travels shows how far his reputation reached beyond Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's own immediate circle. His Divine Grace Bhaktidayita Madhava Goswami Maharaj, founder of the Chaitanya Gaudiya Math at Midnapore, once heard that Vamsi Dasa Babaji's party was passing through the city by ox-cart and sent a disciple to invite him to the math. Babaji Maharaj agreed to come. But the midday offering was made and still no one arrived, so Madhava Maharaj went out to look for him in person. He found that Babaji Maharaj had simply stopped at the first peepal tree he saw, decided it was the Vamsi-vata, and made camp there to feed his deities and his travelling companions. When Babaji Maharaj recognized Madhava Maharaj, he remembered his own long affection for Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura. He offered Madhava Maharaj sweet rice prasada with his own hands. It was a small gesture, but Madhava Maharaj is said to have remembered it fondly for years afterward.
Later Travels #
An old issue of the Gaudiya weekly magazine records further journeys from March 1943: to Ambika Kalna, Kharagpur, Baleshvara (Balasore), Soro, Bhadrak, Khurda Road, and Puri, then back through Gaya, Kashi (Benares), Saidpur, Patna, and Munger. Some retellings of this report say these journeys went on until 1947, but that cannot be right, because he returned to Majidpur in March 1944 and passed away there that July. At one point, devotees from his birthplace, Majidpur, invited him to visit. He agreed to go, though without much interest, remarking only that it was a place "which the Pandavas had neglected." Throughout these years, sadhus of the Gaudiya Matha are recorded as serving him a great deal on the road. This was so even though, at Navadvipa itself, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's own disciples kept a more formal distance from him.
