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ten children, including the illustrious Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati
Thakura, who would become a great spiritual leader in his own time
and the spiritual master of ISKCON's founder-acharya, His Divine
Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Above all, Bhaktivinoda Thakura taught devotion to Krishna by his
personal example. His life story, excerpted below, demonstrates a
tremendous amount of courage, character, and perseverance in the
face of many difficulties and gives hope to those of us who may be
wondering just how to find the time to serve Lord Sri Krishna, His
holy names, and His devotees in our ever so busy lives. In many
ways, aspiring devotees of Krishna today owe a significant debt to
Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura for charting the course and laying the
foundation for the modern-day Krishna consciousness movement.
Once, as he looked out from his window across the river towards
the birthplace of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Bhaktivinoda Thakura
had a vision that people from all nations would soon come together
there in harmony through the blissful chanting of the holy names of
Krishna, sankirtan.

His great-grand-disciple, Srila Prabhupada, who humbly and fear-
lessly spread Krishna consciousness to the far corners of the world,
thought it significant that he was born in 1896, the year the Thaku-
ra sent copies of The Life and Precepts of Lord Chaitanya to univer-
sities across the oceans.

Gaura Poornima Celebration:
It is explained in Srimad-Bhagavatam 1:3:28 that Lord Buddha ap-
peared at the beginning of Kali Yuga as the 21st incarnation of the
Lord. The final (22nd) incarnation described in that passage is Lord
Kalki, who is predicted to appear at the end of Kali Yuga. While not
described in this particular passage, elsewhere in Srimad-
Bhagavatam Lord Caitainya Mahaprabhu is predicted to appear near
the beginning of the Kali Yuga. In the seventh canto of Srimad-
Bhagavatam, Prahlada Maharaja directly hints at the hidden nature
of the Supreme Lord's appearance: