Srila Govinda Dasa Kaviraja

Introduction

Srila Govinda Dasa Kaviraja was a Bengali Vaishnava poet of the generation after Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own associates. He is remembered chiefly for a body of devotional padas (songs) on Radha and Krishna and on Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself. Of everything he wrote, one song has outlasted the rest: Bhajahu Re Mana. It is still sung in Gaudiya Vaishnava kirtana today, and Srila Prabhupada explained it at length in more than one purport. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita names him directly as "the famous Vaishnava poet," and he is remembered by the title Kaviraja. Srila Jiva Goswami gave him this title after reading his verse.

Chapter 1

Srikhanda, Family, and the Turn to Vaishnavism

A household of poets at Srikhanda, and a conversion from Durga worship, set the stage for Bengal's Bhajahu Re Mana.

Open as a separate page

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita is unusually specific about Govinda Dasa Kaviraja's family, more so than for many Vaishnava poets of his generation. This is because Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami pauses in his account of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's many followers to record exactly who this household was. The family's home was Srikhanda, a village near Katwa in what is now Bardhaman district. It was already one of Bengal's most important Vaishnava centers and home to the circle gathered around Narahari Sarkara Thakura. The same Srikhanda community appears elsewhere through Lochana Dasa Thakura's account of that circle, and through Raghunandana Thakura, a descendant of the Srikhanda elder Mukunda Dasa. Chaitanya-charitamrita even notes, in passing, that descendants of that same Srikhanda lineage were still living in the village generations after Govinda Dasa's own time. This small detail gives some sense of how settled and long-lasting this Vaishnava community was.

A Household of Poets #

Govinda Dasa Kaviraja's father was Chiranjiva, and his mother Sunanda. The couple's household stood in Srikhanda, even though Chiranjiva had earlier lived on the Ganges at Kumaranagara. Sunanda's own father, Damodara Sena Kaviraja, was also a poet. He is remembered as the author of a work called Sangita-Damodara. So by the time Govinda Dasa was born, poetry was already a kind of family inheritance on his mother's side. The Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika is a work that identifies Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's Bengali associates with their spiritual identities in Krishna's eternal pastimes. It names Chiranjiva himself as formerly Chandrika in Vrindavana. Beyond his name and where he lived, this is one of the few details Vaishnava tradition preserves about Govinda Dasa's father. Some accounts describe the family as belonging to Bengal's Vaidya community, the traditional caste of hereditary physicians. This fits a separate line elsewhere in Chaitanya-charitamrita. That line groups a "Govinda" together with two other men as "kavirajas, or physicians" among the followers of Nityananda Prabhu. But the text does not make clear whether that verse names our poet directly or a relative who shared his name and family trade. This gap is left open here, not settled by guessing.

Chiranjiva and Sunanda had two sons. The elder, Ramachandra Kaviraja, grew up to become one of the closest companions of Narottama Dasa Thakura. Their friendship is remembered as so close that later Vaishnava literature shows Narottama praying again and again for Ramachandra's company. The younger son was Govinda Dasa Kaviraja.

Leaving Durga Worship for Krishna #

Chaitanya-charitamrita records something unusual. Before either brother turned to Krishna bhakti, Govinda Dasa Kaviraja had been a shakta, a worshiper of the goddess Durga, not a Vaishnava by upbringing. That changed when both brothers took diksha from Shrinivasa Acharya. Shrinivasa Acharya was one of the generation of preachers whom Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own associates had sent to carry the teaching of the Six Goswamis of Vrindavana back into Bengal. That initiation must have meant a great deal for a family already known for its poetry on the mother's side. Within a single generation, a shakta household became the source of one of Gaudiya Vaishnavism's most lasting devotional songs.

Three Villages, One Life #

After his initiation, Govinda Dasa Kaviraja's life can be followed only through a short list of places, not through a connected story. The first is Srikhanda, where his family had settled. The next is Kumaranagara, on the bank of the Ganges, where his father had lived earlier. Finally there is Teliya Budhari, a village on the southern bank of the river Padma, where Chaitanya-charitamrita places him last. None of the available sources gives dates for these moves or explains why each one was made, whether for preaching work, family circumstances, or some other reason. His brother Ramachandra, by contrast, stayed close to Narottama Dasa Thakura. In Chaitanya-charitamrita's own description, Ramachandra remained "perpetually disinterested in family life," and he assisted directly in Shrinivasa Acharya and Narottama's preaching work. Once Govinda Dasa Kaviraja settled at Teliya Budhari, he turned instead toward composing kirtanas that would carry his name far beyond Srikhanda. That story is the subject of The Song That Reached Jiva Goswami.

Back to top

Chapter 2

The Song That Reached Jiva Goswami

A single pada sent to Vrindavana won Govinda Dasa Kaviraja his title, and a purport from Srila Prabhupada four centuries later.

Open as a separate page

Of all the songs Govinda Dasa Kaviraja wrote, one reached Vrindavana from Bengal in his own lifetime, and it has travelled far ever since. It begins bhajahu re mana, sri nanda-nandana abhaya-caranaravinda re, which means "O mind, just worship the lotus feet of the son of Nanda, which make one fearless." Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita records that after composing it, Govinda Dasa sent the song to Srila Jiva Goswami. By then Jiva Goswami was established in Vrindavana as one of the Six Goswamis who were setting Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's teaching in clear order. Jiva Goswami was so pleased with what he read that he wrote back. He urged Govinda Dasa to keep composing kirtanas of the same standard and to send them on to Vrindavana. Tradition holds that this exchange, and Jiva Goswami's clear regard for his poetic skill, earned Govinda Dasa the title Kaviraja, "king of poets."

What the Song Says #

Bhajahu Re Mana speaks, as its opening word suggests, to the poet's own mind, not directly to Krishna. This is unusual, and it gives the whole song a very personal feeling. Govinda Dasa pictures his mind worn out by years of chasing passing happiness. It has gone without sleep through cold and heat, wind and rain, wearing itself out in the service of "wicked and miserly men" for the smallest return. Again and again, he gives the tired mind one remedy. It should take shelter of the lotus feet of the son of Nanda. These feet are abhaya, fearless, because nothing that has once taken shelter there has anything left to fear. He also reminds his mind that it cannot do this training alone. It depends on durlabha manava-janama sat-sange, the rare human birth used in the association of saintly persons. The song closes on a personal note in the bhanita line, the line that names its author. There Govinda Dasa asks simply to hear Krishna's glories, chant them, remember them always, and offer his very self in service.

Srila Prabhupada's Two Purports #

Srila Prabhupada returned to this song more than once. In a purport recorded in San Francisco on 16 March 1967, he explained the wordplay in Govinda Dasa's own name, "Govinda, Krishna, and dasa means servant," and then went through the song's warning. The song warns that a human life spent chasing fear and passing pleasure, without the association of devotees, wastes the rarest chance a soul can be given. Five years later, in Los Angeles on 27 May 1972, he returned to the same pada. He explained why Govinda Dasa addresses Krishna as "Nanda-nandana" and not directly by name. Prabhupada explained that approaching the Lord through His relationship with a devotee pleases Him more than a plain, direct address. He then quoted a verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam. It describes how, for one who takes shelter of Krishna's lotus feet, every step in this material world is no longer dangerous. With that verse he made, in Sanskrit, the very same point that Govinda Dasa's Bengali pada had already made four centuries earlier: fix the mind at Krishna's feet, and there is nothing left to fear. Here an acharya giving purports came back to one sixteenth-century Bengali pada on two separate occasions, five years apart. This tells us something about how deeply this small song had settled into Gaudiya Vaishnava devotional life by the twentieth century.

An Honest Note on the Title Itself #

Kaviraja is not a title unique to Govinda Dasa. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami, the author of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita itself, carried the same title. In Bengali the word is also the ordinary term for a hereditary Ayurvedic physician. This fits, since some sources describe Govinda Dasa's own family as belonging to that profession (see Srikhanda, Family, and the Turn to Vaishnavism). Chaitanya-charitamrita itself uses the word in both senses in different places. Its account of Jiva Goswami's praise says that Govinda Dasa's title came from his poetry. But a separate verse elsewhere in the text uses "kavirajas" simply to mean physicians, when it counts members of his family circle among Nityananda Prabhu's followers. For Govinda Dasa Kaviraja himself, Chaitanya-charitamrita explains the title by his poetic excellence, as Jiva Goswami judged it. That explanation is followed here. But the word also carried a second meaning, linked to the family trade, and we have not tried to fully separate that meaning from the poetic one.

Back to top

Chapter 3

A Padavali Poet Among Giants

Where Govinda Dasa Kaviraja stands among Bengal's Vaishnava-pada poets, and why not every song signed Govinda Dasa is safely his.

Open as a separate page

Beyond Bhajahu Re Mana, Govinda Dasa Kaviraja is credited with two named collections, Sangita-Madhava and Gitamrta, and with a larger group of single padas that later collectors gathered under his name. Together these works place him in one clear literary movement, the Vaishnava padavali tradition. For centuries Bengal produced a great wealth of devotional lyric poems built around the love story of Radha and Krishna. This poetry grew most richly in the two centuries after Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own life. Historians of this poetry regularly name Govinda Dasa Kaviraja among its finest poets, together with Chandidasa, Jnanadasa Thakura, and the Maithili poet Vidyapati. Vidyapati's work came before the whole movement and strongly shaped it. These four poets are sometimes each linked with one main theme. Vidyapati is remembered for lyrics of separation, Chandidasa for love and union, and Jnanadasa for tender affection. Govinda Dasa Kaviraja is remembered above all for the lovers' secret meetings themselves, and the anxious feelings that surround them.

Writing in Vidyapati's Shadow #

Govinda Dasa Kaviraja composed mostly in Brajabuli. This was an artificial, courtly literary language that blended Bengali and Maithili. Vidyapati had made it popular among Vaishnava poets more than a century before him. Govinda Dasa is sometimes called Bengal's "second Vidyapati" because his verse took in that inheritance so fully. Some accounts hold that he traveled all the way to Bishphi, Vidyapati's own home village in the Madhubani region, to study and collect his work directly. Still, what he made from that inheritance was his own. Vidyapati's poetry dwells on separation, and Chandidasa's on union. But Govinda Dasa Kaviraja's padas are especially linked with the anxious, unsettled moments of the lovers' secret meetings, above all Radha's uneasiness at Krishna's restless, wandering ways. His influence lasted even longer than the padavali tradition itself. Centuries later, Rabindranath Tagore drew on this same Brajabuli style of Vaishnava padavali poetry, including Govinda Dasa Kaviraja's poems, when he composed his own early collection Bhanusimher Padavali.

Not Every "Govinda Dasa" Is This One #

There is a real difficulty in the old manuscripts of the padavali tradition. Several poets of this time signed their songs in the bhanita line with the name "Govinda Dasa" or a name close to it. Later compilers have not always agreed on which songs belong to which poet. The collection of devotional songs here shows the same difficulty openly, instead of hiding it. It keeps the songs that can be surely identified as Govinda Dasa Kaviraja's, Bhajahu Re Mana among them, as a small, separate set. A much larger group of songs about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own pastimes also carries a "Govinda Dasa" signature. But judging from their content, these songs seem to belong to a different poet with the same or a very similar name. Readers should also keep him separate from Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami, the author of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, and from Govinda Ghosh. Govinda Ghosh was one of the Ghosh brothers, hereditary kirtan singers who were personal associates of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. These are three different men with three different bodies of work. Only variations of one common name join them.

A Song Still Sung #

Some things remain uncertain about which padas belong to him. But there is no serious doubt that Govinda Dasa Kaviraja wrote Bhajahu Re Mana. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita names him directly. The song carries his own bhanita signature. And Srila Prabhupada treated the matter as settled when he gave purports on it in both 1967 and 1972 (see The Song That Reached Jiva Goswami). Four centuries ago, a household of Srikhanda poets sent a song to Vrindavana and received a title in return. Today, when Gaudiya Vaishnavas everywhere speak the name Govinda Dasa Kaviraja, that song is what they mean.

Back to top

Closing

Songs in the Vaishnava Song Book #

The Vaishnava Song Book carries 2 songs attributed to Srila Govinda Dasa Kaviraja; see the full author page here.