Who is rupa goswami

Acting as our siksa-guru, Sri Govindaji directs us and gives us opportunities to serve Him. Srila Rupa Goswami entered samadhi in the year and his sacred body was entombed at this very site by his beloved disciple and nephew Jiva Goswami. Through his writings Srila Rupa Goswami chalked out the perfect spiritual path for all the followers of Lord Chaitanya down through the ages.

Rupa Goswami first met Lord Chaitanya at Ramakeli in , and along with his brothers Sanatana and Anupama, completely surrendered to the lotus feet of the Lord. At that time all three brothers were employed as important ministers in the Mohammedan government of Bengal under Hussain Shah.

Lord Chaitanya assured them that since they had surrendered to Krishna, they would soon be delivered and would be able to join the Sankirtan movement.

He wrote a large number of important books on the science of bhakti-yoga and after the disappearance of Lord Chaitanya in , Rupa Goswami became the leader of all the Gaudiya Vaisnavas in the world. After teaching Rupa all the important aspects of devotional service, the Lord sent him to Vrindavan to compile books on these very teachings. On arrival at a village named Satyabhamapur in Orissa, he had a dream that a beautiful woman appeared before him and asked him to write a separate drama about her.

The Lord confirmed that writing two dramas mixing the lilas of Vrindavan and Dwaraka was not proper as their was a vast difference between them. Lord Chaitanya as well as Ramananda Raya were delighted to read the early drafts of these two dramas, which were eventually called Vidagdha Madhava and Lalita Madhava respectively. These two works are considered by Gaudiya Vaisnavas to be the most important dramatic literatures in the Sanskrit language.

Rupa Goswami stayed ten months in Puri and received further instructions on devotional service from Lord Chaitanya. These great personalities become famous as the six Goswamis of Vrindavan. You are commenting using your WordPress.

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Notify me of new posts via email. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address:. Sign me up! Blog at WordPress. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here This passtime is very playful and one has to have guru-kripa to read the book 'Govinda Lilamrta' to relish the internal confidential lilas of Divine Couple and Their confidential sakhis.

Even Aindra Prabhu writes in his book how Rupa Manjari gives him in his vraja swarup seva of guarding the nikunj of Srimati Radharani. His responsibility was to not allow Krishna to come inside as He had gone on rendezvous with Chandravali, and thus came late and had distressed Radharani and Her sakhis.

Manjaris want nothing but the pleasure of Sri Radha. Their life itself is Sri Radha, hence they can only give vraja-prema-bhakti in topmost maha madhurya rasa. That is why even Mahaprabhu comes in Radha Dasya Bhav to cherish the mood of Radharani and serve Radharani at the same time You can read this to know more about the subject. It has been revamped recently and the samadhi area is a very nice place for any sincere devotee to sit and chant their rounds without any disturbance.

Srila Prabhupada often mentioned that while he was staying at Radha Damodar Mandir prior to leaving for the USA, he could feel the presence of Srila Rupa Goswami blessing and guiding him at all times, including while writing the Bhagavad Gita , Srimad Bhagavatam amongst other books. Once I was there at Ter Kadamba where Srila Rupa Goswami lived a major portion of his life and wrote pieces of literature including Updesamrta and the old baba there was kindly sharing with me the inner stories and secretes of Vraj Bhumi.

The conversation went on and on, and he mentioned that Srila Rupa Goswami is still there at his samadhi at Radha Damodar Mandir in Vrindavan and singing kirtan, while simultaneously playing mridanga for the pleasure of the Lord. Those who are kripa-patra object of mercy of Srila Rupa Goswami can see and listen to him leading this shudh-nama-kirtana , and they have been doing parikrama and bhajan at this temple for many years without anybody knowing much about them.

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None of these things is useful in attaining pure devotional service to Krishna. If not, one will end up being cut off from the devotional life and, remaining in the material world, whether in the higher or lower planets, will have to suffer its vagaries. There are twelve devotional sentiments. The five primary sentiments are those of peacefulness, servitude, friendship, parenthood, and erotic love.

The seven secondary sentiments are humor, astonishment, heroism, compassion, anger, disgust and fear. The secondary rasas act as supporting elements for the primary sentiments, coming and going when propitious circumstances arise. In his teachings to Rupa Goswami, Mahaprabhu established that of the five primary rasas, the divine sentiment of conjugal love is foremost.

The characteristics of santa-rasa abandonment of other desires and steady attachment to Krishna. Over and above these characteristics, the possessor of the serving mood has his service, the friend has an intimacy, while the parent has a sense of being the protector. The devotee in madhura-rasa has all these qualities with the addition of serving with her own body. Just as all the qualities of the other elements starting with the ether are added together to be united in earth, so are all the qualities of the other devotional moods united in the mood of erotic love.

Since all the sentiments are present in madhura-rasa, it is the best. After the Lord had instructed Rupa for ten days at Prayag, he prepared to leave for Benares. Rupa was eager to accompany him, but the Lord instructed him to go on to Vrindavan and that he could take the road through Bengal at some later date to see him in Puri. Then, he and Anupama set off in search of Sanatan, hoping to meet him somewhere along the Ganges.

However, by the time they reached Prayag, Sanatan had already left for Mathura by the main highway, so their paths did not cross. As the two brothers were travelling along the banks of the Ganges toward Bengal, Anupama departed for the eternal abode of Ramachandra. While in Vrindavan, Rupa had commenced writing a.

Travelling through Orissa on his way to Puri, he stopped overnight in a village named Satyabhamapura. There he had a dream in which Satyabhama appeared to him and told him to write a separate play in her honor. This was because of his great humility.

Though he had been born into a very respectable Brahmin family, he considered himself to be a mleccha due to his long association with the Muslim rulers of Bengal. Through Hari Das Thakur, the Lord taught forbearance. Through Rupa and Sanatan, he taught humility. Bhakti-ratnakara 1. The Lord then sat down with him and asked him for the latest news about him and Sanatan and they talked about these and other things.

On another day, Mahaprabhu came there with all of his entourage and Rupa paid obeisances to all of them. Mahaprabhu, out of affection for Rupa, had Advaita and Nityananda Prabhus give him their blessings. Krishna never abandons Vrindavan to go elsewhere. The verse, though seemingly having nothing to do with Krishna, put him in an ecstatic mood and he began to dance.

Other than Sri Svarupa Damodar Goswami, no one was able to understand the meaning of the verse. Then he went to take his bath in the ocean. In the meantime, Mahaprabhu came by and found the palm leaf and saw the verse written upon it. He was astonished to see that Rupa had had such a clear intuition into his innermost feelings.

O companion! Even so, my mind wishes for the forest by the banks of the Yamuna where the fifth note of his flute reverberated sweetly within my heart. The Lord took the verse and showed it to Svarupa Damodar, asking him to examine it for any possible faults.

One day, Rupa Goswami was busy writing Vidagdha Madhava. Mahaprabhu arrived unexpectedly and was impressed by his beautiful handwriting, comparing it to a string of pearls. He read the verse which Rupa had just finished composing, which was a glorification of the Holy Name:. Vidagdha Madhava 1. Then the Lord asked Rupa to read the tunde tandavini verse glorifying the Holy Name. But no one has ever written such a description of its sweetness!

He asked to hear the verse glorifying the object of his devotion which would appear at the beginning of the play. At first, Rupa was reluctant to recite his composition in front of the Lord, as it was indeed he who was the object of the mangala verse. However, when the Lord insisted that he recite, Rupa read his verse aloud. The verse is the second of the first act of Vidagdha-Madhava:.

The elevated, effulgent taste of sacred rapture is the wealth of devotional love; the Lord never gives it at any time; yet, out of his mercy in this age of quarrel, to distribute this treasure to the world, he has become incarnate in his golden form. When Ramananda Raya heard this extraordinary verse, drenched in love for the Lord, he began to praise Rupa Goswami with what seemed like a thousand tongues.

This is not poetry, it is a fountain of ambrosia. He has exactly followed the classical tradition in composing his play. My ears and mind are spinning with delight upon hearing them.

From Puri, Rupa returned to Gaudadesa to make arrangements for the equitable distribution of his accumulated wealth amongst his family, Brahmins and temples, and stayed there for nearly a year before going to Vrindavan for good.

In the meantime, Sanatan Goswami came to Puri via the Jharikhanda path and then returned by the same route to Vraja. When the two brothers met again, it had been more than a year since they had seen each other. These brothers have no fixed residence. They spend each night beneath a different tree in the forest, one night under one tree and the next under another. This is how they have given up all kinds of material enjoyments. They wrap themselves in a quilt and wear nothing but a piece of torn cloth, claiming only a waterpot for a possession.

They engage almost twenty-four hours daily in rendering service to the Lord by chanting the holy names of Krishna and discussing his pastimes or dancing in great jubilation. Sometimes they write transcendental works about divine aesthetics, and sometimes they listen to talks about Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu or spend their time thinking about the Lord. Other than these sixteen titles, Upadesamrta, Namstaka, Siddhanta-ratna and Kavya-kaustubha, etc.

When the Lord and Svarupa Damodar both ended their pastimes within this world, Raghunath became so saddened by their departure that he decided to come to Vrindavan to commit suicide by jumping off Govardhana after seeing Rupa and Sanatan one last time.

The two brothers were very affectionate to Raghunath, however, and would not allow him to kill himself. Rather, they adopted him as a third brother and kept him constantly by their side. When Mahaprabhu was in Benares, he stayed and ate at the home of Tapana Mishra, giving the young Raghunath the opportunity to render him service by cleaning his remnants and massaging his feet, etc. When he grew older, he went to see the Lord in Puri and stayed there for eight months. During this time he served Mahaprabhu by cooking various vegetable preparations which gave the Lord great satisfaction.

After this, the Lord ordered him to return to Benares to serve his aging parents, which Raghunath did for four years. Narahari describes the way that Govindaji appeared to Rupa in his Bhakti-ratnakara: Mahaprabhu had given four instructions to Rupa Goswami—he was to find the lost holy places in the dham, establish the service of a deity, to publish scriptures on pure devotional service, and to preach the love of the holy name.

Rupa Goswami carried out every one of these desires of the Lord to perfection. Rupa was worried about how he could establish deity worship, and started wandering through the villages and forests in the Vraja area in search of Govindaji, but without success.

After the failure of these efforts, he was sitting one day by the banks of the Yamuna, upset and burning up with intense feelings of separation from Krishna. Rupa Goswami was attracted by the charming voice and appearance of the Vrajavasi and told him everything that had been troubling him.

Every morning a cow goes there and joyfully gives him milk. Somehow or another, he was able to overcome his feelings of loss at having been unable to recognize Krishna and he went to the place that the Vrajavasi had indicated. Other residents of the village helped him dig at Goma Tila until they found the deity of Govindaji, more beautiful than a million Cupids.

Bhakti-ratnakara 2. In , the king of Amber, Raja Manasimha, repaired the existing structure and built additions to it, with the result that there stood an exquisite sandstone temple. It is said that the seven-story building was so high that the emperor Aurangzeb could see its pinnacle from his palace in Agra.

Out of envy, he destroyed the upper portion of the building. At around this time, Govindaji was moved first to Bharatpur and then later to Jaipur out of fear of Muslim iconoclasm, where he remains to this day. They are my religious practice, my worship.

They are my wealth, they are my ornament, the life of my life. They are my treasurehouse of sacred rapture, they are the fulfilment of my deepest wishes, they are my prescribed duty.