With the Govinda Deity's worship firmly established at Gopiballabhpur, Rasikananda took up the preaching mission his guru had commissioned him for, and carried it across Odisha for the rest of his active life. Sources do not agree on exactly how long that mission lasted — one account describes roughly sixteen years of preaching after his initiation, while another states he preached for something closer to forty years — but they agree it filled the remainder of his adult life, right up to his disappearance in 1652.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Base | Gopiballabhpur |
| Also active in | Dharenda, Nrisimhapura, Balarampur, and villages across Utkal (Odisha) |
| Royal disciples | Vaidyanatha Bhanj (raja of Mayurbhanj), Gajapati (zamindar of Patashpur), Chandrabhanu (raja of Moyna), Harinarayana (raja of Panchet) |
| Temple founded at Puri | Kunja Math (formerly Fultota Math), Deity of Radha-Rasika Raya |
A Mission Handed Down From Guru to Disciple #
Rasikananda's preaching territory covered the same ground his guru had worked before him — Dharenda, Nrisimhapura (where Shyamananda himself stayed on visits from Bengal), Balarampur, and the wider stretch of villages around Gopiballabhpur — and he travelled it in the company of his own growing circle of disciples, going from village to village distributing what the traditional biographies call "the jewel of devotion." The Bhakti-ratnakara records that he and Shyamananda were reunited more than once during these years, including a large festival Shyamananda held at Dharenda together with Rasikananda and a disciple named Damodara, still remembered, the text says, by their descendants.
Kings and Zamindars at His Feet #
Among those who took initiation from Rasikananda were rulers of real regional standing: Vaidyanatha Bhanj, the raja of Mayurbhanj; Gajapati, the zamindar of Patashpur in Midnapore; Chandrabhanu, the raja of Moyna; and Harinarayana, the raja of Panchet. Alongside them stood men who arrived as adversaries rather than admirers — the zamindars Bhima and Shrikara of Dharenda are both remembered as having begun as violent, sinful figures before surrendering to Rasikananda and becoming his disciples.
Taming the Wild #
Two episodes involving animals appear repeatedly across the traditional accounts of this period. In one, a hostile Muslim zamindar sent an intoxicated elephant to kill Rasikananda; instead, tradition says, the elephant was transformed by his presence, was given the name Gopala Das, and was engaged in the service of Krishna and the Vaishnavas — after which the zamindar who had sent it came and surrendered at Rasikananda's feet. A second wild elephant is said to have been tamed the same way, and two jungle tigers are described as having given up their ferocity after encountering him. Whatever one makes of these accounts as literal history, biographers of the period plainly meant them to illustrate the same point made more directly through his human disciples, discussed at length on Initiating Across Caste Lines: that nothing — caste, religion, criminal history, or even species — placed a living being permanently beyond reach of the holy name.
A Temple Won From Lord Jagannath #
One year, occupied with preaching elsewhere in the country, Rasikananda realized too late that the Ratha-yatra festival of Lord Jagannath at Puri had already begun without him, and rushed to Nilachala to arrive in time. Tradition holds that Jagannath's cart would not move, no matter how many elephants the king summoned to push it, until Rasikananda arrived — at which point the Lord informed the king He had simply been waiting for His devotee. When Rasikananda finally reached the cart and pulled its rope, it moved easily. Grateful, the king afterward offered him land at a site called Fultota Math, later renamed Kunja Math, where Rasikananda installed a Deity of Bat Krishna — worshipped today as Radha-Rasika Raya, and still standing at Puri alongside the temples of many other Gaudiya Vaishnava acharyas already honored on this site, including Haridasa Thakura.