About Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati (IAST: Bhakti-siddhānta Sarasvatī Thakur (Prabhupada); Bengali: ভক্তিসিদ্ধান্ত সরস্বতী; Bengali: [bʱɔktisiddʱanto ʃɔrɔʃbɔti]; (6 February 1874 – 1 January 1937), born Bimala Prasad Datt (Bimalā Prasāda Datta, Bengali: [bimola prɔʃad dɔtto]), was a Gaudiya Vaishnava guru (spiritual master), Ācārya, and revivalist in early twentieth-century India, known to his followers as Śrīla Prabhupāda. Bimala Prasad was born in 1874 in Puri (then Bengal Presidency, now Odisha) in a Bengali Hindu Kayastha family as a son of Kedarnath Datta Bhaktivinoda Thakur, a Bengali Gaudiya Vaishnava philosopher and teacher. Bimala Prasad received Western and traditional Indian education from the late 1880s up until he graduated from Sanskrit College in 1895. His studies gradually gained him recognition from the bhadralok (Western-educated Hindu Bengali residents of colonial Calcutta), earning the title Siddhānta Sarasvatī ("the pinnacle of wisdom"). In 1900, Bimala Prasad was initiated into Gaudiya Vaishnavism from the Vaishnava ascetic Gaurakishora Dāsa Bābājī. In 1918, following the death of his father in 1914 and the death of his guru Gaurakishora Dāsa Bābājī the following year, Bimala Prasad accepted the Hindu formal order of asceticism (sannyasa) from a photograph of his guru and took the name Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupada. He started the first center of his institution in Calcutta, later known as the Gaudiya Math. It developed into a missionary and educational institution with branches in India and abroad, distributing books and hosting public programs. Bhaktisiddhanta opposed the non-dualistic interpretation of Hinduism, or Advaita, that had emerged as the prevalent strand of Hindu thought in India, seeking to promote Krishna-bhakti, which he regarded as its fulfillment and higher synthesis. He was critical of numerous Gaudiya Vaishnava lineages, describing them as apasampradayas – deviations from the original Gaudiya Vaishnavism taught in the 16th century by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his early successors. Additionally, he targeted what he alleged as casteism among "Smarta Brahmins". The mission initiated by Bhaktivinoda Thakur and developed by Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati was referred to as "the most powerful reformist movement" of Vaishnavism in Bengal of the 19th and early 20th century. In 1966 its offshoot, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known for extensively popularizing Gaudiya Vaishnavism outside of India, was founded by Bhaktisiddhanta's disciple A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami in New York City. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Prabhupāda was born Bimala Prasad at 3:30 pm on 6 February 1874 in Puri – a town in the Indian state of Orissa best known for its 12th-century Jagannath Temple. Later, reflecting on his first meeting with the guru, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati recalled: It was by providential dispensation that I was able fully to understand the language and practical side of devotion after I had met the practicing master
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.