Life Among the Goswamis of Vrindavana

A few years after Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu returned from South India to Puri, Prabodhananda left Srirangam for good and settled at Kamyavana, one of the twelve sacred forests of Vraja near Mathura. There he lived the rest of his years as one who had renounced the world, devoted entirely to Radha-Govinda. He was absorbed in the most intimate teachings Mahaprabhu had given him during those four months at Srirangam. His young nephew, Gopala Bhatta, would later follow this same road to Vraja.

Guru to His Own Nephew #

Sri Gopala Bhatta Goswami's own biography records that he received his formal diksha initiation from his uncle Prabodhananda Sarasvati. It uses Srila Prabhupada's own words for this, and this account agrees with it fully. Before that formal initiation ever took place, Prabodhananda had already spent years teaching his young nephew Srimad-Bhagavatam and the other core texts of devotional life. When the initiation came, it was a formal ceremony. It simply confirmed a relationship of study and guidance that had begun much earlier in the household at Srirangam. The clearest written proof of this bond survives in the opening pages of the Hari-bhakti-vilasa itself. This is the great Gaudiya Vaishnava code of devotional conduct that Gopala Bhatta is remembered for compiling. Its second verse identifies its author as "the disciple of Prabodhananda who is dear to the Lord," and says that the book was compiled to please Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami.

Among the Goswamis #

Prabodhananda himself was highly respected among the Goswamis of Vrindavana. Kavi Karnapura's Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika is the traditional key that identifies the eternal spiritual forms of Mahaprabhu's associates. It names Prabodhananda as Tungavidya, one of the eight principal gopi-companions of Srimati Radharani. This shows how highly the Gaudiya tradition regards him among its own early leaders. Later Gaudiya histories describe him as a rasika acharya with no equal in his generation in describing the intimate pastimes of Radha and Krishna in the groves of Vraja. They record that he was handsome and dignified, skilled as a singer, dancer and poet, and full of overflowing affection for other devotees. All this left a deep impression on everyone who knew him. By the time his nephew reached Vraja, Prabodhananda was already an established figure among its devotees. So it was natural for him to introduce the newly-arrived Gopala Bhatta into that same circle, and especially into the close company of Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami. In this way he simply continued the guidance that had begun years earlier at Srirangam.

A Humility That Ran in the Family #

One small but meaningful story belongs here. Readers of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita sometimes ask a question. By every account, Mahaprabhu held Prabodhananda in the highest regard. So why is he barely mentioned anywhere in Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami's great work? The Bhakti-ratnakara gives the answer. It records that Prabodhananda himself, through Gopala Bhatta, asked that his own activities not be included in Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami's Chaitanya-charitamrita. It also records that Krishnadasa Kaviraja felt unable to refuse the request. Gopala Bhatta Goswami's own biography records the same humility in the nephew himself. He made an almost identical request, that his own name should appear only rarely in the same text. We may not know their exact reasons. But later Gaudiya writers have generally read this as a mark of unusually deep humility running through the whole family line, in uncle and nephew alike. What Prabodhananda left behind is found in his writings, not in the record of his own life. These writings are the subject of Literary Works and Radha-rasa-sudha-nidhi.