Long before he became known as the author of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami was simply a devoted young householder in the Bengal village of Jhamatpur, known for hosting sankirtana through the night at his own home. One such gathering, he tells us in his own book, was attended by Minaketana Rama Dasa, a servant of Sri Nityananda Prabhu whose ecstatic character was already well known among Vaishnavas of the area.
At a Glance
- Minaketana Rama Dasa was invited to an all-night sankirtana at Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami's home in Jhamatpur.
- His ecstatic symptoms were so intense that devotees who bowed before him were sometimes struck lightly with his flute or slapped.
- He rebuked the household's own pujari, Gunarnava Mishra, for failing to rise and greet him with respect.
- An argument afterward with Krishnadasa's brother led him to break his own flute in anguish and leave.
An Invitation to an All-Night Sankirtana #
Krishnadasa's household regularly held sankirtana through the night, and Minaketana came to one of these gatherings as an invited guest. His fame had already reached them. Vaishnavas who saw him seated in the courtyard, absorbed in emotional love, came forward on their own to bow at his feet. They were drawn by his visible state of spiritual absorption, not by any social standing he held.
Tears, Dancing, and the Marks of Ecstasy #
What followed was not a calm or dignified reception. In his joyful, unrestrained mood, Minaketana would sometimes climb onto the shoulder of a devotee who had just offered him obeisance. Sometimes he would strike a bowing devotee lightly with his flute or give him a gentle slap. The assembled Vaishnavas did not take these gestures as an insult. To them they were further evidence of a devotee lost entirely in love of Krishna and Nityananda Prabhu. Tears fell from his eyes in an unbroken stream. Chaitanya-charitamrita describes eruptions on parts of his body like those on kadamba flowers. One limb would tremble while another was stunned and still. These were the traditional symptoms of ecstatic devotion (ashta-sattvika-bhava), which a devotee cannot control. Gaudiya Vaishnava literature treats them as physical proof of a devotee's inner state. Whenever he shouted the name of Nityananda aloud, the whole gathering felt a wave of wonder pass through it.
"A Second Romaharshana Suta" #
One person present did not share in this reception. Sri Gunarnava Mishra, a respected brahmana who served as pujari of the Deity installed in Krishnadasa's house, remained absorbed in his temple duties and did not come forward to greet Minaketana when he entered the courtyard. Minaketana read this correctly as a lack of real regard for Nityananda Prabhu, whose servant he was, and rebuked Gunarnava Mishra publicly and sharply: "Here I find the second Romaharshana-suta, who did not stand to show honor when he saw Lord Balarama." Minaketana made this comparison on purpose, to make a sharp point. Romaharshana Suta was once seated on the vyasasana, reciting Srimad-Bhagavatam before an assembly of sages at Naimisharanya. When Lord Balarama himself entered, Romaharshana famously failed to rise. This was an act of pride, and he was later punished for it. Gunarnava Mishra, however, took no offense at the comparison and simply continued his service to the Deity. Srila Prabhupada's own purport to this verse notes this with approval. Because the priest was engaged in Krishna's service at that very moment, devotees did not, in the end, treat his failure to rise as a fault at all. Minaketana's fierce defense of Nityananda Prabhu's honor is likewise never faulted.
The Argument That Broke a Flute #
The festival's sharper result came at its close. As Minaketana prepared to leave, he fell into conversation with Krishnadasa's own brother, Shyamadasa. He discovered that Shyamadasa held firm faith in Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu but only the faintest regard for Nityananda Prabhu. Minaketana was unhappy at this. He broke his own flute in anger and left without another word. Krishnadasa did not shield his brother. Instead, he rebuked him in front of the gathering: Chaitanya and Nityananda, he insisted, are a single body appearing in two forms, and to have faith in one while doubting the other is worse than useless, like being satisfied with only half a hen. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami adds only that at that time his brother "fell down" (Chaitanya-charitamrita Adi 5.178). But the rebuke itself mattered far beyond this one evening. That same night, Nityananda Prabhu appeared to Krishnadasa in a dream. He was pleased especially by Krishnadasa's defense of the Lord's honor, and He told him to leave for Vrindavana. This episode of Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami's own life is already told in Early Life and the Call to Vrindavana. Minaketana Rama Dasa, the ecstatic servant at the center of this single Jhamatpur evening, does not appear again by name in Chaitanya-charitamrita's narrative. But the night he spent there began one of the best-known origin stories in the whole Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition.
