Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami

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February 6th, 2003, Thursday (Pancami)

 

Appearance day of Srila Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami

 

 

Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami is an eternal associate of Lord

Caitanya, and a main torchbearer of the disciplic succession in the line of

Lord Caitanya.

 

Regarding Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami's eternal identity, it is

stated in the Gaura-gannodesa-dipika (186]:

 

"In Krsna's pastimes in Vraja he is Rasa Manjari; other opinions

hold that he may be Rati-manjari or B*****mati."

 

Whatever may be his actual eternal identity one fact is

irreflitable: Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami is a stalwart amongst Lord

Caitanya's confidential associates, and he is very intimately associated

with the conjugal dealings between Srimati Radhika and Sri Krsna. This is

made obvious by the elevated qualities of his writings, such as Sri

Manah-siksa.

 

Appearing in this material world as the sole heir to the immense

wealth of the landowner brothers Hiranya and Govardhan Maziundar, Raghunatha

dasa Gosvami was treated like a prince and literally - fed with a golden

spoon. His father Govardhan and uncle Hiranya owned huge tracts of land in

the Hooghly District of what is now West Bengal. Their annual revenue five

centuries ago amounted to two million gold coins; its contemporary value

would be in the tens of millions of dollars. Yet, Raghunatha had no

fascination with the phenomenal world.

 

Raghunatha's childhood tutor was the famous scholar and devotee

Acarya Balarama Dab. Acarya Balarama was a favorite of Srila Haridasa

Thakura, who was appointed the acarya of chanting the holy name by Lord

Caitanya Himself. As a result, Haridasa Thakura made seasonal visits to

Acarya Balarama's house. It was on these occasions that the fortunate young

Raghunatha was able to associate with the purest of elevated devotees, Srila

Haridasa Thakura. Any association with a pure devotee, even for a moment,

creates immeasurable heaps of piety; what to speak of the direct personal

association and proper spiritual relationship young Raghunatha must have had

with Haridasa Thakura.

 

The greatest mark of his good fortune is that Raghunatha was

renounced and antipathetic towards this ephemeral material life from his

very childhood. So his encounters with the pure devotees of Krsna further

enhanced his yearnings for spiritual fulfillment. After these meetings with

Haridasa Thakura, where he heard intimate descriptions of Lord Sri

Caitanya's and Lord Nityanandats exquisite beauty and sublime pastimes, the

boy's longing to meet the Lords in person became uncontrollable. Yet how

could his parents allow him, their dynasty's only hope and inheritor, to

give up his unimaginable riches and become a renunciant?

 

Raghunatha was thus kept under strict surveillance to prevent him

from running away to join the lord. Yet at the first opportunity he managed

to evade the guards, going straight to Shantipur and the house of Advaita

Acarya. Soon afterward, Lord Caitanya came to Shantipur on His way to

Vrndavana after taking the sannyasa order of life. As soon as Lord Caitanya

saw the youthful Raghunatha prostrate before His lotus feet, He picked him

up and firmly embraced him, thus recognizing His eternal servitor. Tears of

ecstatic joy cascading down his cheeks, Raghunatha poured out his heart to

the lord - he wanted to leave home forever and accompany the Lord

everywhere.

 

The Supreme Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu advented Himself in the

guise of a devotee, not to impose His divine autocracy, but to teach the

world the meaning of true renunciation and devotion. He instructed young

Raghunatha not to become crazy, but to return home. By practicing the

process of surrender to the Lord within the heart, while maintaining normal

social dealings externally, one can easily attain the highest peffection -

love of Godhead - even in household life.

 

Lord Caitanya chose each of His personal associates to exemplify a

different aspect of devotional surrender and spontaneous service to the

Supreme Lord. Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami was to be His instrument to

broadcast the acme of Vaisnava renunciation. But first the Lord wanted to

stress the point that renunciation or detachment is not merely an extenal

criterion; it must be sincerely cultivated within the heart. Ostentatious

display of spiritual opulences is cheating religion, which ultimately

results in falldown from spiritual consciousness to material enjoyment.

 

Thus the Lord sent Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami back home to his

family. He had to wait for a few more years before he could renounce family

life and meet the Lord again. In this way, Lord Caitanya also demonstrated

that one cannot become His direct associate without first attaining the

mercy of Lord Nityananda. The unconqoerable Supreme Lord happily allows

Himseff to be shackled by the chains of His pure devotees' love for Him. He

willingly becomes His devotees' property, to be sold or given away to

whomever the devotees desire. So how could Raghunath or anyone for that

matter - attain Lord Caitanya's lotus feet directly? The scriptures state

that attaining the mercy of the Lord without first receiving the mercy of

the devotees is impossible. Therefore, at the famous Panihati (chipped rice

and yoghurt) festival, Lord Nityananda showered His causeless mercy upon

young Raghunatha, blessing him with the promise that his desires would reach

fullillment.

 

Meanwhile, Srila Raghunatha dasa's parents tried every means to keep

their only heir under constant vigil. They even married him to an

exquisitely beautiflil, rich and cultured young girl, hoping that Cupid's

arrow would dry up the ocean of Lord Caitanya's mercy in his heart.

Nevertheless, soon afeer Raghunatha found an appropriate moment and escaped

to Jagannatha Puri to take permanent shelter at Lord Caitanya's lotus feet.

 

In Jagamatha Puri, Lord Caitanya handed over young Raghunatha to the

care of His personal secretary, Srila Svarupa Damodara Gosvami. The Lord

asked Svarupa Damodara to keep Raghunatha as a son or servant. Here

Raghunatha dasa began to demonstrate the zenith of devotional renunciation.

By leaving behind his immeasurable wealth and young wife more beautiful than

a fairy queen he was already comfortable; but Raghunatha was not satisfied

with that.

 

The first five days in Puri he partook of the Lord's remnants, as

Lord Caitanya would come daily to visit Svarupa Damodara in the afternoons

and take Lord Jagannatha's prasadam there. This windfall of good fortune was

tncwe than Raghunatha had dared to imagine. But on the sixth afternoon

Raghunatha was absent. The devotees found him begging on the steps of the

Jagannatha temple, just standing without approaching anyone, depending

entirely upon Krsna for his needs. From this point on, Srila Raghunatha

exhibited more and more renunciation.

 

Chanting Krsna's name and discussing His transcendental pastimes,

Raghunatha filled his days and nights with krsna-katha. He hardly ate and

slept His heart stung with ecstatic pangs of separation from Krsna, and he

forgot about his bodily needs. Thinking begging also to be meditating on

bodily needs, he gave it up. Going to the back of the Jagannatha temple,

Raghunatha collected rejected prasadam from the drain of Lord Jagannatha's

kitchen, washed and cleansed it and later ate it with great relish.

 

What can worldly-minded people understand about Raghunatha's

renunciation and depending on the mercy of the Lord? To them, begging is

despicable. Can they fathom the heart of a pure devotee, understanding the

profound devotion that inspired Raghunatha dasa Gosvami to act in this way?

Although materialists may not understand, Lord Caitanya was very pleased

with Raghunatha, and gave him His own Govardhana-sila.

 

Raghunatha dasa Gosvami left Puri for Vrndavana once the Lord's

pastimes became unmanifest. He found his place of bhajana in Radha-kunda.

Here Raghunatha fully realized the exquisite dalliances of Srimati Radharani

and Sri Krsna Thus he saw the pastimes of the Lord enacted continuously

before his very eyes. Using his tears of ecstasy as ink, he wrote the

devotional poems Stavavali and Mukta-carita. His Sri Manah-siksa forms a

part of Stavavali.