Back in Varanasi, Raghunatha did exactly as he had been told. He served his aging father and mother for the remaining years of their lives - by one account, roughly four more years - and in that time also carried out the Lord's other instruction, studying Srimad-Bhagavatam under a genuine Vaishnava rather than a professional reciter. Only after both his parents had passed away did he return to Jagannatha Puri to be with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu once more.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Between the two Puri visits | Served his aged, devotee parents at Varanasi until their passing |
| Length of second stay at Puri | Eight months |
| Gifts from Mahaprabhu | A tulasi garland worn by Lord Jagannatha (traditionally described as fourteen cubits long) and unspiced betel nut (pan) offered to Jagannatha |
| Final instruction | Go to Vrindavana; live under the care of Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami |
| How Raghunatha treated the gifts | Preserved them as worshipable, bound together and worn close to his heart |
A Second Eight Months #
As before, Raghunatha remained continuously at Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's side for eight months, and as before the Lord eventually gave him an order that would move him again. This time there was no talk of going home. "My dear Raghunatha," Mahaprabhu said, "on My order go to Vrindavana and live there under the care of Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis." It was, in effect, a graduation: Raghunatha had proven himself through two long stays at Puri, through years of quiet service to his parents, and through serious study of the Bhagavatam. Now he was being sent to the source.
A Garland Fourteen Cubits Long #
Before Raghunatha departed, Mahaprabhu gave him two treasures He had personally kept: unspiced betel that had been offered to the Jagannatha Deity, and a tulasi garland - by tradition some fourteen cubits in length - that Lord Jagannatha Himself had worn. Chaitanya-charitamrita says Raghunatha accepted these as his own worshipable object, taking the greatest care to preserve them, binding the garland and the prasadam together and wearing them close to his body whenever he was absorbed in remembering Krishna. Embracing him one last time, Mahaprabhu enlivened him with ecstatic love before letting him go.
The gift was not incidental. Every other instruction Mahaprabhu had given Raghunatha up to this point concerned discipline - celibacy, service to parents, careful study under a genuine Vaishnava. This final gift was different: a physical object, touched by Krishna's own Deity form, handed over at the exact moment Raghunatha was being sent away from the Lord's personal company for good. It gave him something to carry into a life that would otherwise consist mostly of separation, and Chaitanya-charitamrita's own language - that he treated it as his worshipable deity - suggests that Raghunatha understood the gift in exactly that spirit.
Arriving Where the Goswamis Had Already Begun #
Taking leave of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the devotees gathered around Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, Raghunatha Bhatta set out for Vrindavana and, on arriving, placed himself under the direct care of Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami. By the time he reached them, the two brothers had already spent years there carrying out Mahaprabhu's charge to recover Krishna's lost pastime-places and to give Gaudiya theology its first systematic scriptural foundation. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita also names two more Goswamis in the Vrindavana circle Raghunatha now joined - Gopala Bhatta Gosvami and Lokanatha dasa Gosvami - alongside a fellow disciple who would one day become his closest companion in name if not in relation: Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, who arrived at Vrindavana separately and settled, like him, beside Radha-kunda.
At Vrindavana, Raghunatha's assigned service was simple to describe and impossible to separate from who he was: reciting Srimad-Bhagavatam, daily, for Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami to hear. What that recitation actually sounded like, and why it became the single thing Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami is remembered for above everything else, fills The Voice That Recited Srimad-Bhagavatam.