Divine Early Life:
On 19th March 1914 (Bengali calendar: 5 Caitra 1320) in Kanpur village, Howrah District, West Bengal, a spiritually significant baby was born in the Seth family. The child’s father was Purnachandra Seth and his mother was Kadambini Devi; they named their newly born baby boy, Madanamohana Seth. Since childhood, Madanamohana was spiritually inclined but without proper guidance, he was not properly directed. Due to family pressure, he was married at the age of 14 and his bride, Parulbala Devi, was nine years old. Although he did not have a formal education, Madanamohana was proficient in reading and writing in Bengali. When Madanamohana was 23 years old, his first child, a daughter, Reba, was born.
Madanamohana often used to come to Kolkata to buy goods for his business, which was situated in Polerhat/Mograhat, South 24-Parganas, West Bengal. One day in July 1936 at the age of 23, Madanamohana Seth was by the bank of the Ganges in Kolkata thinking to take a bath. There, he saw an attractive festival going on in a beautiful temple; it was the Bag Bazar Gaudiya Math. He entered the temple campus and after paying obeisance to the deities of Sri Sri Radha Krishna, he met Srila Sagar Maharaja, a sannyasi disciple of Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur. The entire temple atmosphere was so attractive to him and he felt that he was in the right place for practicing spirituality. Srila Sagar Maharaj inspired Madanamohana to wait and listen to Srila Prabhupada’s spiritual discourses.
Meeting Srila Prabhupada:
As soon as the youthful Madanamohana saw Srila Prabhupada, Madanamohana’s mind turned in another direction. He was captivated by Srila Prabhupada’s attractive form and hari-katha. Madanamohana had just stepped into the temple to visit the festival for a few hours but ended up staying for three days at the Gaudiya Math just to listen to Srila Prabhupada’s discourses. On the third day, Srila Prabhupada was giving initiations to some devotees. Srila Sagar Maharaja inspired Madanamohana to take initiation from Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada’s room was full of devotees who were aspiring to take initiation. Srila Prabhupada rejected many of the devotees and selected only a few to whom he would give initiation that day; one among the few was Madanamohana Seth. Srila Prabhupada gave Madanamohana harinama initiation and he was known from then onwards as Madanamohana Das Adhikari Prabhu.
After about four to five months, Srila Prabhupada physically passed away from this material world on 1st January 1937. According to the instruction of his Gurudeva, Madanamohana Prabhu used to wholeheartedly serve all of his godbrothers and Srila Prabhupada’s mission physically, financially, and mentally. Eventually, Madanamohana Prabhu became the father of eight daughters and three sons, and the grandfather of 26 grandchildren, one of whom is Srila Bhakti Bibudha Bodhayan Goswami Maharaja.
Every single one of Madanamohana Prabhu’s children and grandchildren became devotees of the Gaudiya Math and were duly initiated. Madanamohana Prabhu respected all of his godbrothers and saw them as being non-different from his Gurudeva; he used to say that all of his godbrothers were liberated personalities (jivana-Mukta-Purusha). Therefore, he took all of his grandchildren to all of his godbrothers without discrimination and his children chose their spiritual masters, accordingly. Whenever any Vaishnavas came to his village home, he used to serve them as if the Supreme Lord had come, seeing all the Vaishnavas as the Supreme Lord’s representatives.
His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami Thakur used to come to Madanamohana Prabhu’s village home every year. In order to spread the glories of his Gurudeva’s mission, Madanamohana Prabhu used to arrange pandal programs and home programs throughout the village wherein the visiting vaisnavas would give discourses; these discourses were broadcasted throughout the village using loudspeakers. Throughout his life, he showed us the principle of how a real devotional householder should be.
Towards his last years, Madanamohana Prabhu was addicted to his Gurudeva. If it didn’t rain, he would say, “This is the desire of Prabhupada.” If there is a loss in the business, he would say, “This is the desire of Prabhupada.” He saw everything happening as the desire of his Gurudeva. Even when Madanamohana Prabhu got a heart problem a few days before his physical departure, he said that it was the desire of Srila Prabhupada.
At 10:10 pm on Monday, 3rd April 2006 (Bengali Calendar: 20 Caitra 1412), a dark period dawned upon the whole Vaisnava community as one of the few remaining disciples of Srila Prabhupada, Madanamohana Prabhu, departed from this world while uttering the name of his Gurudeva, “Jaya Prabhupada. Jaya Prabhupada.” Madanamohana Prabhu’s entire life represents the principle of guru-nistha, having unshakably firm faith on the spiritual master.
