Srila Ramachandra Kaviraja

Srila Ramachandra Kaviraja belonged to the generation of Gaudiya Vaishnava saints who came directly after Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own associates had finished their work in Bengal and Vraja. We know more about him than about many others of that later generation. A few verses and a Prabhupada purport in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita leave no real doubt about his family and his guru. A much longer story preserved in Narahari Chakravarti Thakura's *Bhakti-ratnakara* fills in a vivid picture of his life around those basic facts. He was a Bengali physician-poet who gave up worldly comfort on his own wedding day. He became Shrinivasa Acharya's most devoted personal servant, and he earned the title "Kaviraja", king of poets, from Jiva Goswami himself in Vrindavana.

At a Glance

• Born into a Bengali family of physicians in Shrikhanda; raised for a time in Shakta worship, before his own initiation changed everything.
• Renounced the celebrations of his own wedding procession the moment he encountered Shrinivasa Acharya, and never really returned to household life.
• Traveled to Vrindavana, met Jiva Goswami and several of the Six Goswamis in person, and received the Kaviraja title after reciting his own poetry.
• Defended Narottama Dasa Thakura's mission in disguise as a village shopkeeper, when a rival party tried to discredit it.
• Died in Vrindavana after Shrinivasa Acharya's own disappearance, unable to bear separation from the Goswamis who had already passed on.

A Physician's Son Raised Among Shaktas #

Chiranjiva Sena, Ramachandra's father, belonged to Shrikhanda, a village in Bengal. In Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami names the devotees of this village directly: Mukunda, Narahari Sarakara, Raghunandana, and Chiranjiva himself. There Chiranjiva is described as "extremely learned", and his wife's conduct as "completely transcendental" (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi 11.92). Every year this same circle traveled to Puri for Ratha-yatra to see Mahaprabhu dance before Lord Jagannatha. Chiranjiva came from a family of physicians, and he had two sons. The elder was Ramachandra, and the younger was Govinda, who grew up to become the celebrated Vaishnava poet Govinda Dasa Kaviraja, author of Sangita-madhava and Gitamrita.

After their father's death, the brothers went to live with their maternal grandfather, Damodara Kaviraja. He was a real poet himself, but he was also a committed worshiper of Durga in the Shakta tradition. Under his influence, both boys grew up worshiping goddesses, who are personal forms of Krishna's external energy, instead of Krishna Himself. By early adulthood Ramachandra had made a name for himself as a practicing physician and an accomplished poet.

The Wedding Procession That Changed His Life #

All accounts agree that the turning point in Ramachandra's life came on the day of his own wedding. The page The Wedding Procession at Jajigram tells in full what happened: the procession that passed Shrinivasa Acharya's veranda at Jajigram, the sleepless night that followed, and the embrace at dawn. In short, one glimpse of Shrinivasa Acharya undid a lifetime of Shakta upbringing in a single day. Ramachandra returned that same night, fell at the Acharya's feet, and was initiated with the Radha-Krishna mantra. His Shakta relatives and neighbors did not accept this decision without protest, as that same page also describes.

Poet, Physician, and the Kaviraja Title #

Once initiated, Ramachandra asked permission to travel to Vrindavana, where his guru was then staying. On the way he passed through Gaya, Kashi, Prayaga and Mathura. This pilgrimage brought him face to face with Jiva Goswami, Gopala Bhatta Goswami, Lokanatha Goswami and Bhugarbha Goswami. It also took him to bathe at Radha-kunda and Shyama-kunda, where Raghunatha Dasa Goswami personally embraced him. There the Vaishnavas of Vraja, with Jiva Goswami at their head, heard him recite his own poetic compositions and gave him the title Kaviraja. This made him one of the eight kavirajas among Shrinivasa Acharya's disciples. In his purport to Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila 11.51, Srila Prabhupada confirms the same honor in far fewer words: "Srila Jiva Gosvami very much appreciated Sri Ramacandra Kaviraja's great devotion to Lord Krsna and therefore gave him the title Kaviraja." The full story of that journey is told on Pilgrimage to Vrindavana and the Kaviraja Title.

Ramachandra went on to write several works of his own: *Smarana-chamatkara* and *Smarana-darpana* (both concerned with meditative remembrance of Krishna's pastimes), *Siddhanta-chandrika*, and a biography of his own guru, *Shrinivasa Acharyera Jivana-charita*. None of these is widely available in English translation today. So we give here only their titles and subjects, as later Vaishnava tradition records them, and not their content in detail.

Best Friend of Narottama Dasa Thakura #

All available sources agree that Ramachandra's closest bond in this life was with Narottama Dasa Thakura. Srila Prabhupada's own purport calls this friendship "the most intimate" of Narottama's life. A party of caste-conscious brahmanas once set out to prove that Narottama Dasa Thakura was wrong to initiate brahmana disciples, since he was born a kayastha. Ramachandra personally stepped in, in disguise, to defend him. This episode is told in full on The Disguised Shopkeepers of Kumarapura. Narottama Dasa Thakura himself later preserved the memory of this friendship in a line from his *Prarthana*: "daya kara sri-acarya prabhu srinivasa, ramacandra sanga mage narottama dasa," "Be merciful, O Prabhu Shrinivasa Acharya! Narottama Dasa begs for the association of Ramachandra."

Final Years and Disappearance in Vrindavana #

Ramachandra was present at the great Kheturi festival organized by Narottama Dasa Thakura. Afterward he returned to Vrindavana a final time in the company of Shrinivasa Acharya. The story of that last journey, of his brother Govinda's conversion from Shakta worship, and of his own disappearance is told on Kheturi and the Return to Vrindavana. Sources do not agree on the exact date. One account places his disappearance on the third day of the dark fortnight of Pausha, another on Krishna-trayodashi of Magha. But every source agrees that he disappeared in Vrindavana, sometime after Shrinivasa Acharya's own disappearance. They also agree on the site of his samadhi, in the Dhira Samira grove of Vraja-mandala, directly beside his guru's.

Legacy in the Gaudiya Vaishnava Tradition #

The Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika identifies Ramachandra's eternal identity in Krishna's Vraja-lila as Karunamanjari, one of the gopis who assist Srimati Radharani (sources give the name variously as Karunamanjari and Karna-manjari). Almost every surviving detail about his life comes from two sources. The first is Chaitanya-charitamrita and its purports, which mention him in a sober, factual way. The second is the Bhakti-ratnakara, which preserves a far more detailed and more devotional account. In both, Ramachandra Kaviraja is remembered not so much for any single contribution to doctrine as for a quality that later Vaishnavas have always prized highly. That quality is total, unwavering friendship, first with his guru and then with Narottama Dasa Thakura. It was a friendship of the kind Narottama himself prayed his whole life to keep.