Before Rasikananda could become anyone's guru, he first had to find his own. The traditional account of how that happened is one of the best-loved episodes in his story. But first we must say something about the man who became his guru, Shyamananda Pandit. Shyamananda's own path to becoming a guru helps us understand Rasikananda's later mission.
Shyamananda Pandit's Own Path to Vrindavana #
Shyamananda Pandit was born Duhkhi Krishnadasa, the son of a family of milkmen in Bengal. He took his first initiation from a renounced devotee named Hridaya Chaitanya and received the name Krishnadasa. Hridaya Chaitanya was himself a disciple of Gauridasa Pandita of Ambika Kalna. Eager for deeper training, Krishnadasa travelled on to Vrindavana and took shelter of Jiva Goswami. Jiva Goswami taught him the philosophy and devotional practice of the Gaudiya sampradaya. In time he gave him the name by which he is remembered today: Shyamananda. In Vrindavana he became close companions with two other students of Jiva Goswami, Narottama Dasa Thakura and Shrinivasa Acharya. When Jiva Goswami judged the three of them ready, he sent them back east. They were to carry the Goswamis' writings and preach the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Bengal and Odisha. Shyamananda took up his own field of preaching in Odisha, and it was there, in the village of Rohini, that he found his own foremost disciple.
Shyamananda himself was not born into a brahmana family. This matters for understanding what came next. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had taught that whoever knows the science of Krishna can serve as a guru, regardless of birth. In his purport to Chaitanya-charitamrita Madhya 8.128, Srila Prabhupada names Rasikananda directly as a clear example of that teaching. He notes that Rasikananda accepted initiation from Shyamananda even though Shyamananda "was not born in a caste brahmana family."
A Voice From the Sky #
According to the traditional account, Rasikananda was meditating alone in Ghantashila, anxious to find a spiritual master, when he heard a voice from an unseen source tell him plainly: "You need be anxious no longer. Your guru is Shyamananda, and you will meet him very shortly." That night he could not sleep, repeating his future guru's name until, toward dawn, he fell into a dream in which Shyamananda himself appeared and told him, "Don't worry any longer, for you will meet me this very day."
Meeting at Dawn #
At first light, Rasikananda kept watch on the path. Before long he saw Shyamananda approaching, surrounded by disciples such as Kishora Dasa. Shyamananda was dancing, fully absorbed, and chanting the names of Chaitanya and Nityananda. Rasikananda fell at his feet. Shyamananda lifted him up, embraced him, and gave him and his wife, Shyamadasi, initiation into the Radha-Krishna mantra. Afterward Rasikananda gave himself so completely to his guru's service that biographers describe him becoming, within a short time, Shyamananda's foremost disciple. He was the one who best absorbed and carried forward what Shyamananda had to teach.
Entrusted With the Govinda Deity at Gopiballabhpur #
Shyamananda's own worship centered on a Deity of Govinda that had come down through Rasikananda's own family. Shyamananda gave the Deity the name Gopi-vallabha Raya, and the settlement that grew up around Its worship took the name Gopiballabhpur. Shyamananda placed the daily service of this Deity in Rasikananda's hands. Biographers describe the young disciple's care of Govindaji as so complete and so absorbed that it charmed the older devotees who watched him serve. Rasikananda was a pujari first and a preacher second. From this base he began the work covered in Spreading the Faith in Odisha.
