Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita itself, written by Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami, does not directly describe how Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu disappeared. Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition has generally kept this silence out of reverence. It is not simply a gap in the history. What is clear is that Raghunatha Dasa stayed on at Jagannatha Puri afterward. He continued to serve under Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, who himself carried on the kirtana life of the Puri circle for some years more. When Svarupa Damodara in turn left this world, all accounts agree that Raghunatha's life at Puri became unbearable.
The Walk to Vrindavana #
Raghunatha Dasa had served at Puri for roughly sixteen years in all. Then he too set out for Vrindavana, arriving there in the early-to-mid 1540s according to most accounts. His grief on the journey was so overwhelming that he intended to see the lotus feet of Rupa and Sanatana in Vrindavana and then end his life by jumping from Govardhana Hill. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita itself records this intention (Adi-lila 10.94). It has long been a well-known part of how Vaishnavas tell Raghunatha Dasa's story.
Received by Rupa and Sanatana Goswami #
Whatever the exact circumstances, Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami received him at Vrindavana with clear affection. They were the ones who persuaded him to live instead of ending his grief by dying. As tradition remembers it, their reason was practical as well as kind. No one else was left who could tell the Vrajavasis what had actually happened during Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's eighteen years at Puri. Only Raghunatha had lived at the Lord's side through nearly all of them, under Svarupa Damodara's direct supervision. He agreed. For the rest of his life he spent several hours each day telling those Puri pastimes to the Vaishnavas of Vrindavana.
The Source Behind Chaitanya-charitamrita #
Among those who came to hear him was Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami. He arrived in Vrindavana in the following years and eventually accepted Raghunatha Dasa as his own initiating spiritual master. This relationship shaped Gaudiya Vaishnava literature very deeply. The Antya-lila of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita is the only major written record of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's final, most private years. Its close, personal details trace back to Raghunatha Dasa's own memory, and in places to his own earlier poem, the Gauranga-stava-kalpavrksa. This literary legacy, and the works Raghunatha Dasa himself wrote, are described more fully in Literary Works and the Stavavali.
Joining a Mission Already Under Way #
Raghunatha Dasa arrived, according to most accounts, somewhere in the early-to-mid 1540s. By then Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami had already spent years in Vrindavana doing the work Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had given them. They were recovering the lost sites of Krishna's pastimes and giving Gaudiya theology its first systematic foundation in scripture. Raghunatha Dasa brought something that neither of them could supply from their own experience. He carried a witness's memory of the Lord's last eighteen years, which were spent almost entirely outside Vraja, at Jagannatha Puri. In that sense his arrival did more than add something. It made the picture complete. With the two Goswamis' scholarship and Raghunatha Dasa's firsthand memory, the Vrindavana Vaishnava community now had as full a picture of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's life as anyone would ever be able to put together.
The Only Witness Who Remained #
What made Raghunatha Dasa's presence at Vrindavana so important was not so much his scholarship. It was the simple fact that no one else could take his place. Svarupa Damodara Gosvami, who had watched over Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's private life at Puri more closely than anyone, had died there without leaving behind a written account. Raghunatha Dasa was the one person who had lived through nearly all of those years at the Lord's side and could still describe them firsthand. Later, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami needed exactly that material for the Antya-lila of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. That is why the tradition points to Raghunatha Dasa as its original source.
Settling Beside Radha-kunda #
Raghunatha Dasa did not remain near Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami at the center of Vrindavana town. Instead he made his home beside Radha-kunda, the small lake a few miles away. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself was said to have identified this lake, during His own visit to Vraja, as the very spot where Radha and Krishna had once bathed together. For the next four decades Radha-kunda was the fixed center of his life, and the place connected with him more than any other. This is the subject of Bhajana at Radha-kunda.
