His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupada’s magnanimity was nondifferent from Lord Caitanya’s. Srila Bhakti Vijay Sagar Goswami Maharaj was a spiritual descendant of Srila Prabhupada and Lord Caitanya. On Guru Purnima, Friday 6th July 1906 (22 Ashadh 1313), Srila Sagar Goswami Maharaj appeared in Khulna, Bangladesh. He was the only son of his parents; therefore, his parents, out of loving affection, named him Jitendranath, the conqueror of all the senses.
His father was Kartik Chandra Sarkar and his mother was Charulata Devi. Srila Prabhupada, in his discourses, often used to say, “I am not accepting any disciples. Rather, I am accepting gurus. Whoever practices spirituality are all my deliverers from the upcoming material dangers (vipada-uddharana-bandhava).” Jitendranath’s day of appearance (Guru Purnima) showed that he would be a guru in Mahaprabhu’s lineage. Once, when Jitendranath was a little boy, he saw a devotional drama called Vijay Vasanta. After that, he felt detachment from material life.
In order to pull Jitendranath out of his material life and give him entrance into renounced life, Lord Caitanya arranged a connection through one of his neighbors who was a disciple of Srila Prabhupada Bhaktisiddhanta. Once, Jitendranath asked his neighbor, “What is the use of taking vegetarian food?” So that devotee neighbor explained the benefit of accepting prasadam. When Jitendranath was 16 years old, he left home and came to Sridhama Mayapur under the lotus feet of his gurudeva, His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur. Srila Prabhupada was happy to see Jitendranath’s service mood, which was full of austerity. In a short period of time, Srila Prabhupada gave him harinam and mantra diksha and named him, Sri Yamalarjuna-bhanjana Brahmachari.
Yamalarjuna-bhanjana Brahmachari was soft, humble and enthusiastic by nature to serve all the vaishnavas. Therefore, everybody liked him. Srila Prabhupada also sent him in the preaching field under the guidance of senior sannyasis. All sannyasis liked his nature and engaged him in various services at various temples where he went. On January 1st 1937 at 5:30 am, Srila Prabhupada physically departed from Bag Bazar Gaudiya Math. Thereafter, Yamalarjuna-bhanjana Brahmachari felt so much separation.
While he was in separation, at that time Srila Prabhupada appeared in his dream and gave him an instruction – “Don’t feel insecure. I am always with you and all in spirit.” After the dream, Yamalarjuna-bhanjana Brahmachari again felt so much enthusiasm to spread the loving mission of Lord Caitanya under the shelter of Sri Caitanya Math (Adi-math). Yamalarjuna-bhanjana Prabhu visited almost all pilgrimage places in India and got so much inspiration to take sannyasa initiation.
In1948, Yamalarjuna-bhanjana Prabhu took sannyasa from Srila Bhakti Prakash Aranya Goswami Maharaj and got the name Tridandi Swami Bhakti Vijay Sagar Goswami Maharaj. After sannyasa initiation, Srila Sagar Goswami Maharaj established maths (preaching centers) in Durgapur and Asansol, West Bengal. Due to lack of assistance in running the two temples, he left the two temples without any hesitation and went to Caitanya Math, again. During his stay at Caitanya Math, he also established a temple on Godrumadvipa, Swarup Ganj but he felt that he was not eligible to run temples. Therefore, he offered his temple to his senior godbrother, His Divine Grace Srila Bhakti Vilas Tirtha Goswami Maharaj.
After a long time and after requests from many of his disciples, Srila Sagar Goswami Maharaj again established a temple in the name of Sri Rupanuga Gaudiya Math at Nandipara (Hospital More), Sridham Mayapur, Nadia. By nature, Maharaj was free of material belongings and attachments (nishkincan). If anyboy wanted to give him some financial support, he often used to say, “Too much opulence is the cause of our distress. Whenever I need any financial support, I will ask you.” Too much money in the hands of a renounced person is not favorable for practicing devotion as it increases material opulence.
Thus, Srila Sagar Goswami Maharaj used to refuse all the financial donations. Srila Sagar Goswami Maharaj used to attend all invitations from all the Mayapur temples. He used to attend all of the festivals of the temples in Mayapur with full humility. I have seen several times that he came to attend my spiritual master’s, His Divine Grace Bhakti Pramode Puri Goswami Thakur’s appearance day festival. He used to come to visit my spiritual master along with his disciples, many times; one of the disciples was Satya Bhagavat Prabhu (later known as Satya Bhagavat Das Babaji Maharaj).
Presently, Sripad Narottam Das Babaji Maharaj is running Sri Rupanuga Gaudiya Math, Mayapur under the guidance of Satya Bhagavat Das Babaji Maharaj. Srila Sagar Goswami Maharaj physically left all of us at 4:40 am on Saturday 18th May 2002 (3 Jyestha 1409) from his Mayapur temple, Sri Rupanuga Gaudiya Math. Srila Sagar Goswami Maharaj’s exemplary devotional practice teaches us to be soft and humble, to respect everyone, and to not be greedy for mundane wealth which is a most important quality to practice pure devotion. If anyone attentively reads Maharaj’s life history, one will definitely get inspiration for practicing pure devotion.