No known record gives the year of Prabodhananda Saraswati's disappearance from this world. This is a real gap in the record, and we should not try to guess the date. What has been preserved instead is the place. His samadhi stands today in Vrindavana behind Kaliya Ghat, near the kadamba tree associated with Krishna's punishing of the Kaliya serpent. The spot is one of the holy sites still visited by pilgrims who walk the parikrama path around the town. Even the disappearance of his nephew, Gopala Bhatta Goswami, is dated with some confidence to 1578. But Prabodhananda was the elder of the two, and his own passing has left no such record anywhere. This gap fits the same humility that led him, during his own lifetime, to ask that his activities be left out of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita altogether.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Year of disappearance | Not recorded in any known source |
| Samadhi | Vrindavana, behind Kaliya Ghat |
| Eternal identity | Tungavidya, one of Radha's eight principal sakhis (per Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika) |
| Disciple and heir | Gopala Bhatta Goswami |
| Verses still in use | Sri Nityanandastakam (songs section); verses of Chaitanya-chandramrita quoted in Srila Prabhupada's own lectures |
A Life Measured in Influence, Not Dates #
We can say with confidence that Prabodhananda Saraswati's influence reached far beyond his own lifetime, through his nephew and disciple, Gopala Bhatta Goswami. The Hari-bhakti-vilasa that Gopala Bhatta compiled is still the standard Gaudiya Vaishnava guide to deity worship and devotional conduct. It opens by naming Prabodhananda as its author's own guru. In his Sri Vaishnava training in South India, Prabodhananda had absorbed a tradition of careful and strict study of scripture. This training is widely credited with making the Hari-bhakti-vilasa so thorough in dealing with questions of Vaishnava practice. Through that same line, Prabodhananda's influence touches even the worship of Sri Radha Raman. This is the self-manifested Deity that Gopala Bhatta installed in Vrindavana, and His worship continues unbroken to this day. The place of Prabodhananda's own samadhi is also fitting. His most quoted verse compares the uncontrolled senses to a poisonous serpent whose fangs are pulled out by Mahaprabhu's mercy. Today he rests within sight of the very ghat where Krishna Himself once subdued the serpent Kaliya in the waters of the Yamuna.
Still Quoted, Still Sung #
More than four centuries later, Srila Prabhupada kept Prabodhananda's own words alive among his students. In many recorded lectures, in San Francisco, New Vrindaban and Gorakhpur among other places, Srila Prabhupada returned again and again to Prabodhananda's teaching that a preacher of Krishna consciousness should approach others with humility, not argument. He quoted the dante nidhaya trnakam verse from Chaitanya-chandramrita as a model for his own movement's preaching style. In this style one takes a straw in the mouth, which in Indian custom is a sign of genuine humility. One asks for a hearing instead of demanding one. That same humility marked Prabodhananda's own life as much as his teaching. He asked that his activities be left out of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. And the quiet end of his life is remembered only by the place of his samadhi, not by the date of his passing. His verses continue to be sung. The songs section preserves his Sri Nityanandastakam glorifying Nityananda Prabhu. Through this small but living link, a South Indian Sri Vaishnava scholar of five hundred years ago is still joined to devotees chanting the same words today.
