page_title: Bhaktivinoda Thakur
section_title: Government service (1866–1893)
hierarchical_section_title: Bhaktivinoda Thakur / Middle period (1858–1874): working years / Government service (1866–1893)
caption_attribution_description: English: A photo of Bhaktivinoda Thakur in his official dress as the magistrate, in late 1880s-early 1890s
context_page_description: Bhaktivinoda Thakur, born Kedarnath Datta, was a Hindu philosopher, guru and spiritual reformer of Gaudiya Vaishnavism who effected its resurgence in India in late 19th and early 20th century and was hailed by contemporary scholars as the most influential Gaudiya Vaishnava leader of his time. He is also credited, along with his son Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, with pioneering the propagation of Gaudiya Vaishnavism in the West and its eventual global spread.
  Kedarnath Datta was born on 2 September 1838 in the town of Birnagar, Bengal Presidency, in a traditional Hindu family of wealthy Bengali landlords. After a village schooling, he continued his education at Hindu College in Calcutta, where he acquainted himself with contemporary Western philosophy and theology. There he became a close associate of prominent literary and intellectual figures of the Bengal Renaissance, such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, and Sisir Kumar Ghosh. At 18, he began a teaching career in rural areas of Bengal and Orissa until he became an employee with the British Raj in the Judicial Service, from which he retired in 1894 as District Magistrate.
context_section_description: In February 1866 Kedarnath Datta received, with a friend's help, a position with the Registrar's office as a "Special Deputy Registrar of Assurances with Powers of a Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector" in Chhapra, Saran district of Bihar.  In colonial Bengal, a job at the executive government service, staffed mostly by the bhadralok (except for the topmost management tier occupied by the British), was the most coveted achievement that ensured one's financial security, social status and protected retirement. During the next twenty-eight years, Kedarnath rose through the ranks of civil service from sixth grade to second grade, which entailed wealth, respect and authority. Kedarnath gradually established himself with the British authorities as a trustworthy, responsible and efficient officer and a man of integrity. The course of his government service took him and his growing family to almost twenty different locations in Bihar, Bengal, and Orissa,  which allowed him to study different cultures, languages and religions. He also soon revealed himself as a linguistic savant, within a short time learning Urdu and Persian that were required for his government duties. He also mastered Sanskrit for his Vaishnava pursuits, enough to be able to read the Bhagavata Purana with traditional commentaries and to write his own Sanskrit poetry.
  While Kedarnath's health suffered from prolonged bouts of fever and colitis, he took advantage of the paid sick leave to visit Mathura and Vrindavana – sacred places for Gaudiya Vaishnavas.
  His interest in Caitanya Vaishnavism grew. He found a copy of Caitanya's biography Caitanya Caritamrita by Krishnadasa Kaviraja and a translation of Bhagavata Purana in 1868 after an eight-year search. He became increasingly appreciative of the philosophical sophistication and ethical purity of Caitanya's teaching but struggled to reconcile it with the prevalent perception of Krishna, Caitanya's worshipable God described in the Bhagavata Purana, as "basically a wrong-doer". He came to the conclusion that both faith and reason have their respective, mutually complementary places in religious experience, and neither can be ousted from it altogether. Kedarnath describes the transformation he went through while reading the long sought-after scripture:
  My first reading of Caitanya Caritamrita created some faith in Caitanya. On the second reading I understood that Caitanya was unequalled, but l doubted how such a good scholar with so high a level of prema could recommend the worship of Krishna, who had such a questionable character. I was amazed, and I thought about this in detail. Afterwards, I humbly prayed to God, "O Lord, please give me the understanding to know the secret of this matter." The mercy of God is without limit and so I soon understood. From then on I believed that Caitanya was God. I often spoke with many vairagis to understand Vaishnava dharma. From childhood the seeds of faith for Vaishnava dharma had been planted within my heart and now they had sprouted. I experienced anuraga (spiritual yearning) and day and night I read and thought about Krishna.
  Accepting Caitanya as the final goal of his intellectual and spiritual quest, Kedarnath soon started delivering public lectures on his teachings, culminating in his famous speech The Bhagavat: Its Philosophy, Ethics and Theology – his first public announcement of the newly found religious allegiance. In The Bhagavat, delivered in masterful English but directed at both the Western cultural conquest and the bhadralok it influenced,  Kedarantha attempted to reconcile modern thought and Vaishnava orthodoxy and to restore the Bhagavata to its preeminent position in Hindu philosophy. His newly found inspiration in the teachings of Caitanya and Bhagavata made Kedarnath receive his next job transfer to Jagannath Puri as a blessing – Puri was Caitanya's residence for most of his life, and the shelter of the principal Vaishnava shrine, the Temple of Jagannath.
caption: Kedarnath Datta in official magistrate dress, late 1880s
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