Vamsi Dasa Babaji did not stay put at Navadvipa. Several accounts describe extended travels through his life, and the most fully documented of these - a roughly three-month journey to Vrindavana undertaken when he was already in his eighties - gives an unusually detailed picture of how he moved through the world 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 | Odisha (Ambika Kalna, Baleshvara, Puri) and northern India again, 1943-1947 |
Leaving Navadvipa #
He left Navadvipa on 24 February 1941 - the 12th of Phalguna in the year 1347 of the Bengali calendar - travelling by whatever means presented itself: 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 to Bhagalpur, then 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, and once he had settled beneath one it was reportedly very difficult to get him to move again.
Through Vraja-mandala #
From Gaya he continued to Benares, staying on a boat near Dashashvamedha Ghat for three days; to Ayodhya on the Sarayu; to the Triveni confluence at Prayag for ten days; and on into Vraja itself - 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, Pavana-sarovara, and a final stretch of nine more days back at Vamsi-vata Ghat before turning home. Those who travelled with him remembered him moving between moods without warning - singing about Krishna's lila one moment, glorifying Navadvipa-dhama the next, sometimes laughing, sometimes falling into long silences, and often seen murmuring privately to the deities in temples he visited, disclosing what looked like some personal, unshareable sentiment. 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 after the midday offering had been made and no one arrived, Madhava Maharaj went out looking for him himself - and 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-standing affection for Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and offered him sweet rice prasada with his own hands - a small gesture, but one Madhava Maharaj is said to have recalled fondly for years afterward.
Later Travels #
An old issue of the Gaudiya weekly magazine records further journeys in the four years 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. At one point, devotees from his birthplace, Majidpur, invited him to visit; he went along with their enthusiasm without much enthusiasm of his own, remarking only that it was a place "which the Pandavas had neglected." Throughout these years, sadhus of the Gaudiya Matha are recorded as having rendered him considerable service on the road, even where Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's own disciples kept a more formal distance from him at Navadvipa itself.