Raghunatha Dasa Goswami is not remembered as a philosopher who wrote long, orderly works, as Jiva Gosvami and Rupa Gosvami are. His writing is almost entirely devotional poetry. In it he speaks to his own heart. He does not argue for a point of view. Tradition honors him with the title prayojana-acharya, the teacher of life's ultimate goal. This is because his few, short works focus so single-mindedly on one subject. That subject is loving service to Radha and Krishna in Vraja, with no distraction and no compromise.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Stavavali | A collected anthology of his devotional poems and prayers |
| Manah-siksa | Twelve verses of "instructions to the mind," among the most quoted in Gaudiya Vaishnavism |
| Vilapa-kusumanjali | "An Offering of Flowers in Lamentation", prayers of separation addressed to Radha's sakhis |
| Dana-keli-cintamani | A short devotional drama on Krishna's toll-collecting pastime with the gopis |
| Mukta-caritra | A shorter devotional composition |
| Traditional title | Prayojana-acharya, teacher of life's ultimate goal |
Twelve Verses to a Restless Mind #
The best known of his works, Sri Manah-siksa, speaks directly to Raghunatha's own mind. It treats the mind as a stubborn friend who must be pleaded with, not commanded. Its opening verse begs the mind to give up its pride and give itself completely to the spiritual master, to Vraja and its residents, to the Vaishnavas, to the holy name, and to Radha and Krishna. The remaining verses continue in the same close, personal tone. One by one, they deal with the particular obstacles that stand between ordinary attachment and the love Raghunatha Dasa considered the only thing worth having. These obstacles are false pride, the appeal of impersonal liberation, and attachment to fame. Two of his shorter poems, this same Manah-siksa and the Govardhana-vasa-prarthana-dasaka, are still sung today.
An Offering of Flowers in Lamentation #
Where Manah-siksa instructs, Vilapa-kusumanjali simply weeps. It is a series of prayers addressed to the sakhis of Radha. It expresses a devotee's raw impatience and near-despair at being kept from Her service. Here Raghunatha Dasa states most plainly the theology his whole life had already shown. He says that service to Srimati Radharani, not even to Krishna directly, is the highest attainment available to a soul in Vraja. Centuries later, in Jaiva Dharma, Bhaktivinoda Thakura credited Raghunatha Dasa specifically with having shown the "esoteric method" of engaging in Radha-Krishna's loving service. That description fits the raw, unguarded tone of Vilapa-kusumanjali better than almost anything else Raghunatha Dasa wrote.
Dana-keli-cintamani and Mukta-caritra #
Besides these prayers from the heart, Raghunatha Dasa also wrote Dana-keli-cintamani (some later writers call it by other titles that refer to the same pastime). It is a short devotional drama built around Krishna's playful pretense of collecting a mock "toll" from the gopis as they carry milk and yogurt to market. Read on its surface, it is simply a charming scene of playful village teasing. Read as Gaudiya Vaishnava theology, the toll Krishna demands stands for the loving exchange devotees long to offer Him. The gopis' pretended resistance reflects the very hesitation Raghunatha Dasa spent his own life trying to overcome. The same man ate only spoiled rice at Puri, yet he could also write with such dramatic lightness. This says something about how much lay hidden behind his strict outward life. A shorter composition, Mukta-caritra, completes the small body of writing he left behind. He did not write nearly as much as Rupa Gosvami or Jiva Gosvami did. But his writings have influenced later Gaudiya devotional poetry far more than their small size would suggest.
A Play Written Just for Him #
Rupa Gosvami's own devotion to Raghunatha Dasa produced one more small work, almost by accident. When Raghunatha Dasa read Rupa Gosvami's drama Lalita-madhava, with its central theme of separation from Krishna, he was so overwhelmed by its mood that it seemed his very life was in danger. Seeing this, Rupa Gosvami wrote a short, light-hearted companion piece, Dana-keli-kaumudi. He exchanged it for his friend's copy of the heavier play, and Raghunatha Dasa became himself again almost at once. It is a small but telling example of how closely these Goswamis watched over one another's hearts.
Guru to the Author of Chaitanya-charitamrita #
However, Raghunatha Dasa's most important legacy may not be anything he wrote himself. It may be what he made possible for someone else. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami plainly named him as his own spiritual master in the closing lines of the Antya-lila of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. There he lists Raghunatha Dasa among those who gave him mercy: Govindadeva, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu, Advaita Acharya, Svarupa Damodara, Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami, and Jiva Gosvami. It was through their grace alone, he says, that the book could be written at all. Raghunatha Dasa spent years telling Mahaprabhu's Puri pastimes to the Vaishnavas of Vrindavana. Without those years, the most detailed record of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's final years might not exist in the form it does today.
