Saint Bhakti Hridaya Bon Swami

Bhakti Hridaya Bon (Sanskrit: भक्ति हृदय वन, IAST: Bhakti Hṛdaya Vana), also known as Swami Bon (Baharpur, 23 March 1901 – Vrindavan, 7 July 1982), was a disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati and a guru in the Gaudiya Math following the philosophy of bhakti, specifically that of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Gaudiya Vaishnava theology. At the time of his death, he left behind thousands of Bengali disciples in India. Reference books on Bon's life include My First Year in England, On the path to Vaikuntha, Vaikunther Pathe (in Bengali), and Viraha-vedana (in Bengali). He is noted for his translation into English of Rupa Goswami's Sanskrit classic, Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu; as well as his educational activities in Vraja Mandala, considered a sacred area associated with Krishna, located between Delhi and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, India. Swami Bon was the rector of the Institute of Oriental Philosophy in Vrindavan, and founder of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Primary School in Nandagram, Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh. He initiated a few Westerners, such as Asim Krishna Das (Allan A. Shapiro); Lalitananda Bon (Richard Shaw Brown); and Vamana dasa (Walther Eidlitz), who was converted to Gaudiya Vaishnavism by meeting Sadananda in a religious gathering in India. Born Narendra Nath Mukherji in 1901 in Bengal to the Gaudiya Vaishnava Brahmana and Brahmarishi Rajanikanta, who was a Vedic scholar, Bon was a lifelong celibate and, as a brahmacari, he joined Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura and took initiation in the early 1900s. In 1924, at the age of 23, he was the third disciple to accept lifelong Tridanda Sannyasa from Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada and quickly became one of his leading preachers. He preached the message of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, delivering many lectures all over India, including at the Royal Albert Hall in Kolkata. He also established a new Gaudiya Math in Madras (now Chennai), and he organised successful theistic exhibitions in Kolkata and Dacca.