The Torch Bearer!

I am now in deep prayers and meditation for my ancestors as the year 2025 ends. The pain and the longing to free up the spirits of my ancestors have been very strong within my soul lately. This force was so compelling that I have arrived in Vrindavan, the seat of spirituality in India. Although the masses speak of the Hindu religion, at its deepest core has been the search for spirituality in South Asia overall.

Bhakti Pada Bon Maharaj, a young uncle of my father, showed us the way through continuous prayers, studies, and soul-searching thirsting for salvation. Despite coming from an orthodox family background, Bengalis from time immemorial have been open to studying under different religious institutions. His Holiness gained Christian education during his schooling in undivided Bengal during his time. He went on to complete a bachelor of science degree under the British colonial university system. His eldest brother, Kamaksha Charan Mukherjee, had to take up work in the auditor general’s office as a clerk to feed his large family and give them a decent life. Wars, famine, and struggles for freedom raged all around. Despite all that, the family led a disciplined and focused life, serving one another and serving the community during the puja celebrations and community feeding of the poor.

Bhaktipada Bon Maharaj went on to visit Europe and the US several times, giving lectures on the Vedas and participating in various religious discourses.

I found a rare picture of Bon Dadu which is very different to what is found in public domains.

His parents, Bramharshi Rajanikanta and Dakshinakali, were devotees of the supreme being and had attained the highest form of spiritual awakening in their lives. This was passed downed through the ancestral family line into the next generations to some extent. High thinking and simple living was the way to go in this life for all members of this special family. Leading a disciplined and frugal life was the way to go. Long hours during the daytime were spent in studying different fields of research and quiet contemplation.

Out of all of this large family extended over Bengal, Bihar and Orissa His holiness Bhaktipada Bon Maharaj continues to shine his light over his devotees. Unfortunately, his family members were not consecrated into this spiritual fold and did not participate in the 19th-century awakening of Krishna consciousness through Chaitanyadev Mahaprabhu. Their search for their highest self through the study of science confused them further, while worldly attainments did give more than adequate food and shelter. But all my uncles and aunts were disjointed spiritually speaking and groped in the darkness of material blessings alone.

Answering to the Almighty’s call in my life is all that really matters for me. Even though I have found it hard to impress this on my parents as I grew up.

What truly matters in one’s life is the desire to work out salvation in the present life. Man continues to search for peace and harmony within self first and foremost. Everything else is of a temporary nature in this life. There’s a much deeper reason why we are here on this earth.

Since we are born in a particular family and region with our innate attributes from our birth, we have to find our highest self working through our ancestry through studies, prayers, actions, and reflections in this life itself.

Those who have grown up in an undivided extended family or in a well-knit community will agree that it’s extremely important to go into our very roots in order to find our original selves through finding our true nature at the time of birth. This is where I am right now in Vrindaban, taking one hour at a time meditating on the committed and disciplined lives my father and my uncles lived.

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, we were a generation of postwar and post-partition children who somehow got looked over.

I guess it was nobody’s fault.

I find extreme peace and tranquility in my heart when I spend hours meditating on the word of God and seeking Divine guidance for all that I do each day. My spiritual life got deeply awakened when I committed to contributing to the betterment of India even in a very simple and small way while living out my daily life in 2001.

Bhaktipada Bon Maharaj’s continues to live among us as a dynastic legacy.