Introduction:

Shri Kumudbhandav Chattopadhayay was born in the year 1869 on the auspicious day of Lord Jaggannath’s Rathyatra. His father’s name was Shri Jaggannath and mother’s name was Shrimati Kadambini devi. He had his early education from the village school and then proceeded for higher education to a bigger town. He obtained scholarship and got admitted in Town school. He was 12 years old then. Later he started he started his college education at a place called Medinipur. After passing out with flying colors he went ahead to pursue B.A. from Calcuttta Metropolitan college. He used to send his scholarship amount home to his father and run his expenses by giving tuitions to other students. He completed his Hons in Sanskrit and pursued M.A. and law studies after.

Early Life:

His classmate Shri Pyarelal Ghosh was a Lawyer in High court at the time. He had been initiated by Gosaiji. One day, he went to visit Gosaiji with his friend and requested for Deeksha. Gosaiji asked him to get permission from his parents first. When Kumudbhandav went to visit his parents to seek their permission, his father asked him to get initiated by their Kulguru instead. Gosaiji was a sanyasi and hence he couldn’t get deeksha from him. He got restless and started to look for his guru everywhere but he couldn’t find anyone he liked. So he went to Gosaiji and requested again. Gosaiji told him to mention to his father that Agastya Sanyita is a book wherein all the steps of having a Sanyasi as guru are mentioned and there is no reason for any doubts. Kumudbhandav, did the same and this time his father didn’t say anything. Assuming his silence as agreement he went to Gosaiji for his initiation.

In the year 1896, he couldn’t appear for his M.A. exams. He saw his father’s financial crisis and decided to join as a Lecturer in City college. Along with this he finished his M.A. exams and also Law studies. He just couldn’t appear for the final Law exams.

His Interaction with Gosaiji:

He used to live in Harrison road in Calcutta and his house was very close to Gosaiji’s place. So he could hear all the morning keertan. Every evening he used to spend time with his Guruji. One day he sang for Gosaiji and listening to his song Gosaiji was very emotional and his eyes were filled with tears of joy.
In the year 1898, Calcutta was struck with plague. Kumudbhandav’s father asked him to come home. He took leave and went to visit his parents. When his leave was over he had to head back but he saw his father was very restless for him. This was his last meeting with his father. His father passed away after this visit.
After his father’s death he started teaching in Medinipur college. He used to visit “Mahaprabhu’s” temple everyday and met Khetramohan mahashayay one day. After this both of them got very close. They visited a lot spiritual places together like Kashi, Haridwar, Vrindavan and Puri dham.

Life in General:

Between the years 1905 to 1907, Kumudbhandav used to teach at Dwaf college in Calcutta. Those days every Sunday all the disciples of Gosaiji used to have Chaitanya Charitamrit path together. Shri Kumudbhandav mahshayay used perform the path. Gosaiji’s disciple Shri Rajkrishan Basu liked Shri Kumudbhandav’s path a lot. Kumudbhandav’s main duties were to perform path and participate in utsav etc.
In the year 1913, he started to translate Shrimad Bhagvad Geeta. When it was translated till Ninth “Skandh”, it was published. However, in 1914, because of world war II and because of paper shortage the work couldn’t be published.
In 1916, he participated in Shantipur utsav. Kumudbhandav’s duty was to perform Chaitanyacharitamrit path every day. He used to explain the meanings in such a simple language that all the masses were able to understand the ideas and easily.
Kumudbhandav was able to cut off the shackles of maya pretty early in his life. We get the proof of this when is second son Vijanbandhav was in death bed while he was pursuing his graduation in Sanskrit. He was very keen to receive initiation from his father. Just a few moments before dying Kumudbhandav told his son to say a few mantras and asked him to move ahead without any worry or fear.
Also when Kumudbhandav’s wife passed away he was very calm and stable. Just a few moments before his wife passed away Kumudbhandav sat for meditation and spent time worshipping god.

His thoughts on Meditation:

Kumudbhandav had a lot of interest in Sadhan and bhajan. He used practice those also with utmost discipline. After being initiated by Gosaiji he used to get up early and meditate for 3 to 4 hours every day. When on leave he used to meditate 5 to 6 hours at one go.
Kumudbhandav used to say Naam is not some words alone. Naam is full of power and consciousness. The way our heart keeps pumping blood similarly the naam goes on in our body after initiation, automatically. God lives inside the body of your Gurudev. He also said that religion is something which one can see, if they practice what their Guruji says. There is no reason to guess anything. He had practiced and witnessed it.
After getting initiated, Kumudbhandav, was blessed to have the vision of Kundalini Shakti in its chinmayi moorti form. The light emanating from the moorti touched his heart. While sitting in his asan he observed his body rising in the thin air and coming down in the prayer seat. This went on for the whole night. Next morning he narrated this incident to Gosaiji. Gosaiji was very happy and told him he was very lucky to get this vision and asked him to visit kalighat temple and bring sindoor from there. When Kumudbhandav got the sindoor for Gosaiji he put it in his matted hair.
In the year, 1946 he started giving initiation. A lot of people got initiated from him in the year 1948 in Kolkata. He gave his last initiation in the year 1954 during Rathyatra. His disciples had reached a number of over 500 by then.
Many disciples of Kumudbhandav were able to see him after he was no longer in his mortal frame. One of his disciples had lost her way and was crying. At the time Kumudbhandav appeared in the form of an old person and helped her to find her way and reach home.

Conclusion:

Kumudbhandav had an impeccable hold on the ancient religious scriptures in Sanskrit and his translation was superb. He was able to explain it to common men in simple languages and thus benefit everyone. He left for heavenly abode at the age of 87 in the year 1956 per English calendar.