The Disappearance Day of Srila Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana

By editor - 6.6 2025

Srila Baladeva Vidyabhushana Prabhu appeared in a Khandaita family of Orissa (a farmer or mercantile class) in the early part of the eighteenth century. At an early age he set out for pilgrimage and study. He practised grammar and rhetoric under the guidance of a scholar near Chilka Lake. After studying nyaya (logic) with special efforts, he studied the Vedas for a long time. Later he studied Shankara and Madhva school of Vedanta very carefully. The king of Jaipur awarded the title “Vidyabhushana” to Baladeva. Before the argument, the opposing scholars promised that if Baladeva would defeat them, they would accept his discipleship wholeheartedly. When Baladeva won the contest, they desired to accept initiation from him but Baladeva was a humble Vaishnava and did not initiate them. Instead of this, he installed the deity of “Vijaya Gopala” and introduced a tradition of performing His arati first. He then left Jaipur and came back to Vrindavan.
In the Gauḍīya sampradāya commentary on the Brahma-sūtra was not given because Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam was considered thr commentary. This is the Gauḍīya-siddhānta, Gauḍīya-vaiṣṇava-siddhānta.
But sometimes back, in Jaipur, there was a challenge that, "The Gauḍīya sampradāya has no commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra." So he was very old at that time; so he authorized Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana that, "You do it." There was no need, but people are demanding, "Where is your commentary on the Vedānta-sūtra?" So Baladeva Vidyābhūṣana, with the order of Govindajī at Jaipur, he wrote the commentary on Brahma-sūtra. That name is Govinda-bhāṣya. So the Gauḍīya-Brahmā sampradāya, they have got also commentary on Brahma-sūtra.
>>> Ref. Srila Prabhupada’s Lecture BG 13.08-12 in Bombay on Sept 30, 1973