According to vaisnava scriptures, the absolute truth of guru-tattva, guru is one without second. In order to prove this trust, during springtime in the year of 1876 (Bangla 1283, in the month of Chaitra), Lord Chaitanya brought one of his significant spiritual descendants, Srila Bhakti Pradip Tirtha Goswami Maharaj, in the family of Rajani Kanta Basu (father) and Srimati Vidhumukhi Devi (mother) at the village of Sandeep Hatia, district Noyakhali, in present-day Bangladesh. His parents kept his birth name as Sri Jagadish Chandra Basu. Since his childhood, he had extraordinary talent in every aspect, both academically and spiritually. He got a B.A. degree from Kolkata University and worked as a high school teacher.
On the 25th of March 1910, at the age of 34-years old, Sri Jagadish Chandra had the opportunity to meet with Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur, the reviver of Lord Chaitanya’s pure devotional path. Seeing Jagadish Chandra’s intelligence, humility and simplicity, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur gave him initiation within a short period of time. After the initiation ceremony, Srila Bhaktivinode Thakur gave him instructions to spread the loving message of Lord Chaitanya both locally and globally. At the time, he was not eligible to follow the instruction due to being bound by household life.
When, his wife physically expired, his goal was to fulfill his Gurudeva’s instructions to spread the loving message of Lord Chaitanya. In 1910, he met Srila Bimala Prasad who was later known as Prabhupada Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur (Srila Prabhupada).
On 23rd June 1914, Bhaktivinode Thakur physically disappeared in Kolkata. Before leaving, he again gave the same instructions to locally and globally spread the loving message of Lord Chaitanya. On the 1st of Nov 1920, Sri Jagadish was given sannyas initiation by Srila Prabhupada and received the name Srila Bhakti Pradip Tirtha Goswami Maharaj. After sannyas initiation, according to the instructions of Srila Prabhupada, he translated the Bhagavad Gita into the English language and published many other books. His spiritual talent was extremely attractive. Eventually, he received different spiritual titles from Srila Prabhupada such as Vidya Vinod, Bhakti Shastri and Sampradaya Vaibhav Acharya. .
On 18th of March 1933, in order to fulfill the last instructions of Bhaktivinode Thakur, Srila Prabhupada sent Srila Tirtha Goswami Maharaja to Europe along with Srila Bhakti Hridoy Bon Goswami Maharaj and Sri Samvidananda Das Prabhu.
In 1943, at the age of 67, Srila Tirtha Goswami Maharaj decided to perform solitary bhajan in Purusottam Math at Sri Jagganath Puri Dham. Under unavoidable circumstances, in the last two years of his life, Srila Bhakti Pradip Tirtha Goswami Maharaj was made Acharya of Gaudiya Mission. On the auspicious full moon day (Purnima) in the month of Agrahayana (Nov-Dec) in 1954, Srila Bhakti Pradip Tirtha Goswami Maharaj physically left us. In spirit, he is eternally teaching us Vaishnava etiquette such as simplicity, generosity, humility, tolerance, divinity, being free from material recognition and offering due respect to everyone. Through chanting Hare Krishna Mahamantra, these qualities will manifest in our chitta (consciousness, intelligence, heart and mind) allowing us to reach the ultimate goal of divinity.
