Rupa Gosvami and his younger brother Anupama reached Prayaga and found Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu already there. The Lord was absorbed in ecstasy at the temple of Bindu Madhava. The crowds around Him were so large that at first the two brothers could only watch from a distance. The Lord had gone for a meal at the home of a hospitable brahmana from the Deccan. There Rupa finally approached Him, falling to the ground with straw between his teeth exactly as he had at Ramakeli. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu called him forward at once: "Stand up! Stand up! My dear Rupa, come here."
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Location within Prayaga | Dashashvamedha-ghat, at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna |
| Duration of instruction | Ten consecutive days |
| Who else was present | Anupama; later, Vallabha Bhatta and Raghupati Upadhyaya |
| Central teaching | The seed, cultivation and fruit of devotional service (bhakti-lata-bija); the classification of the five primary and seven secondary rasas |
| Recorded in | Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, Chapter 19 |
An Ocean Given as a Single Drop #
Once the Lord had settled at the Dashashvamedha-ghat, He began an instruction unlike anything He is recorded to have given anyone else at such length. He told Rupa plainly that the ocean of devotional mellows could never be fully described, and that He would give him only a single drop of it. Then, over ten days, He went on to set out what would become the whole plan of Rupa's own later writing. He explained the tiny, spiritual nature of the living entity. He explained how rare it is for a soul to be fortunate enough to meet a bona fide spiritual master. Then He described the process by which that good fortune ripens. His words here have since become perhaps the single most quoted verse in the whole of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita: "Out of many millions of wandering living entities, one who is very fortunate gets an opportunity to associate with a bona fide spiritual master by the grace of Krishna. By the mercy of both Krishna and the spiritual master, such a person receives the seed of the creeper of devotional service" (Madhya 19.151).
A Creeper That Must Be Weeded #
From that single seed the Lord built a longer comparison, almost like a lesson in gardening. The bhakti-lata-bija must be watered with hearing and chanting. It must be protected from the mad elephant of offense against Vaishnavas. It must also be weeded constantly. Unwanted growths spring up alongside it: the desire for material profit, for praise, or even for liberation. If they are left to grow, they choke it. Only a creeper tended this carefully, He explained, could climb past the material universe altogether and reach Krishna's own abode of Goloka Vrindavana. There it would bear the fruit of prema, love of God. After explaining this process, Mahaprabhu defined the goal itself. Rupa would later place this definition, almost unchanged, at the opening of his own Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu. It is devotional service rendered "favorably," free of any other desire and not covered by either fruitive knowledge or fruitive action (Madhya 19.167).
The Five Rasas and Rupa's Own Verse #
Over the remaining days the Lord went through the five primary devotional mellows. These are neutrality, servitude, friendship, parental affection and conjugal love. He also explained seven secondary emotions that color a devotee's relationship with Krishna. He worked through them in careful order, with examples from Vraja, Dvaraka and Vaikuntha alike. Early in this same meeting, before the formal instruction had even begun, Rupa and Anupama had already offered the Lord the prayer beginning namo maha-vadanyaya. In it they address Him as Krishna Himself, appearing in the golden color of Radharani (Madhya 19.53). It is a verse still recited today wherever Gaudiya Vaishnavas gather. When the ten days finally ended, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu prepared to leave for Varanasi. Rupa begged to go with Him and could not bear the thought of separation. Instead, the Lord ordered him to go straight to Vrindavana, and told him that later he could come from Vrindavana to Jagannatha Puri by way of Bengal, and meet the Lord again there. Rupa fainted at the parting. He was now empowered and grieving, and he carried an assignment that would occupy the rest of his life. In that state he and Anupama turned west toward Vrindavana. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami wrote his account of these ten days decades later. It remains the fullest record we have of what actually passed between them.
