Srila Sanatana Gosvami

yā rūpa-mañjarī-preṣṭhā purāsīd rati-mañjarī
socyate nāma-bhedena lavaṅga-mañjarī budhaiḥ
sādya gaurābhinna-tanuḥ sarvārādhyaḥ sanātanaḥ
tam eva prāviśat kāryān muni-ratnaḥ sanātanaḥ

"Rupa-manjari's closest friend, who was known by the names Rati-manjari and Lavanga-manjari, appeared as Srila Sanatana Gosvami, who was honored by everyone, and who was considered to be like an extension of the transcendental body of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sanatana Kumara, the jewel among the sages, entered the body of Sanatana Gosvami ..." (Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika 181-182)

Srila Sanatana Gosvami was the eldest of the Six Goswamis of Vrindavana. According to his own younger brother, he was the one among them accepted as spiritual master. He was born into a family of Karnataka-brahmana lineage that had settled in Bengal for generations. He rose to one of the most senior posts in the court of an independent Muslim sultan, and then gave it up entirely at Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's word. After this came a desperate escape from prison, two months of personal instruction at Varanasi, and roughly four decades of searching, writing and begging in Vrindavana. This life made him, in Srila Prabhupada's own description, "the ideal spiritual master," the Goswami through whom the lost pastime-places of Krishna's Vraja were found again and given to the world.

A Family of Scholars in Bengal #

According to the Bhakti-ratnakara's account of the family's lineage, Sanatana's forefathers were Karnataka brahmanas who migrated to Bengal generations before his birth and in time settled near the Ganges. His father, known as Kumaradeva or Mukunda, served as an official under the Sultan of Gauda. He raised three sons: Sanatana the eldest, Srila Rupa Gosvami in the middle, and Anupama (also called Vallabha) the youngest. Later, these three brothers would be remembered as the family that gave Gaudiya Vaishnavism its greatest theologians. A separate family tradition names Sanatana's mother as Revatidevi. It records that the couple had six children in all, one daughter and five sons, and that Sanatana, Rupa and Anupama were the three among them remembered as devotees. Even as children the three brothers were said to be absorbed in bhakti-bhava. They named the forests where they played after Vraja's own twelve forests and called their favorite ponds Radha-kunda and Shyama-kunda, long before they had any outward reason to do so. One account describes how the young Sanatana dreamed that a radiant brahmana boy placed a Srimad-Bhagavatam in his hands. He woke up in joy. Soon after, during his morning worship, he met that same boy, who was Krishna Himself in disguise. This childhood, and the family's own unsettled history in Bengal, is told fully in Birth and Early Life in Bengal.

In Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita (Adi 10.84), Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami names the three brothers together as the best branches of the Chaitanya tree:

anupama-vallabha, śrī-rūpa, sanātana
ei tina śākhā vṛkṣera paścime sarvottama

"On the western side were the forty-third, forty-fourth and forty-fifth branches - Śrī Sanātana, Śrī Rūpa and Anupama. They were the best of all." (Chaitanya-charitamrita Adi 10.84)

In his purport Srila Prabhupada gives Sanatana's eternal identity from the Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika: "Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī is described in the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (181). He was formerly known as Rati-mañjarī or sometimes Lavaṅga-mañjarī."

Ministers Under Hussain Shah #

When their father died, family circumstances pushed the two elder brothers into government service under Bengal's independent Sultan, Hussain Shah. Sanatana was given the post remembered as Sakara Mallika. This is generally understood as a senior ministerial or treasury office. Rupa served as Dabira Khasa, the Sultan's private secretary. Both titles are confirmed directly by Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita and by Srila Prabhupada's own purport to it. But later writers do not always describe the exact duties of each Muslim title in the same way. Even as a minister, Sanatana is remembered as keeping a devotee's private discipline. Another devotional account says that in these years he compiled the Sadachar Paddhati, a short manual of scriptural rules to help a householder advance spiritually step by step. The same account says that he gave food every day to brahmanas, to the destitute and to lepers alike. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita later quotes a verse from Kavi-karnapura's Chaitanya-chandrodaya-nataka. The verse describes Sanatana as "a most important minister in the government of Hussain Shah... a most brilliant gem in that assembly," who still kept his heart, like "a deep lake covered with moss," full of devotional feeling beneath a courtier's outer appearance. Both brothers used their position to study Nyaya and Vedanta under the logician Vidyavacaspati, brother of the Puri pandit Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. Even while they served at court, their learning drew scholars from across India. This period is covered fully in Service as Minister to Hussain Shah.

The Meeting at Ramakeli #

In 1514 Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu passed through Gauda on His way toward Vrindavana. The two brothers, still known by their court names, arranged to meet Him secretly by night at Ramakeli. They were afraid of what open association with a Hindu ascetic might cost them at a Muslim court. The full scene of that meeting, their deep humility before the Lord, and His response to it are told in The Meeting at Ramakeli, one of the tradition's most beloved episodes. Here Mahaprabhu gave them the names by which the tradition has known them ever since, Rupa and Sanatana. In that same meeting, Sanatana tactfully persuaded the Lord not to continue toward Vrindavana followed by the enormous crowd then traveling with Him.

Imprisonment and the Long Road to Varanasi #

Rupa's resignation from court was accepted, but Sanatana's was not. When he refused to go with Hussain Shah on a campaign against Orissa, the Sultan had him thrown in prison. Then came a jailer bribed with thousands of gold coins, a river crossed by night, a would-be robber who became an unlikely helper, and a final hard walk to Varanasi. All this is told in full in Imprisonment and Escape. It is one of the best-recorded and most dramatic episodes in the entire Chaitanya-charitamrita.

Sambandha-jnana at Varanasi #

Sanatana met Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu again at the home of Chandrasekhara Acharya. There, over roughly two months, he received the most complete and orderly explanation of Gaudiya Vaishnava theology that the Lord is recorded to have given anyone. It covered the constitutional position of the living entity, the three divisions of sambandha, abhidheya and prayojana, and a first outline of what would become the Hari-bhakti-vilasa. This teaching is recorded across Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita Madhya-lila 20 through 24, and it is covered at length in The Instruction at Varanasi.

Madana-mohana and Four Decades in Vrindavana #

Sanatana was sent on to Vrindavana with the task of finding Krishna's forgotten pastime-places again. There he settled into a life so simple that it became well known among his own godbrothers. He established the worship of the Deity of Madana-mohana. The Madana-mohana temple was the first of Vrindavana's principal temples founded by any of the Six Goswamis. For the better part of four decades Sanatana wandered the villages of Vraja on foot. He lived on begged wheat flour baked into bati bread and turned down every comfort his former rank might easily have given him. Not long after settling there, he made one more journey back to Jagannatha Puri to see the Lord again. That visit, with its illness, self-doubt and mercy, is itself among the most moving episodes in the whole of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita. The fuller story is told in Arrival in Vrindavana and Madana-mohana. It covers the Deity's discovery, the temple built for Him, that return visit to Puri, and Sanatana's daily life of begging and Govardhana parikrama. It is one of the tradition's most cherished records of a life of chosen poverty.

Books, Disappearance and Legacy #

Among other duties, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had asked Sanatana to write down the scriptural foundation for Vaishnava conduct and theology. Sanatana did this in four major Sanskrit works:

• Hari-bhakti-vilasa
• Brihad-bhagavatamrita
• Brihad-vaishnava-toshani
• Krishna-lila-stava: his own long devotional poem

All four are covered in Hari-bhakti-vilasa and Other Works. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita records that the Lord "empowered Srila Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami with the nectar of His mercy to carry out this work in Vrindavana," and these words show how central Sanatana's work became to the survival of the young Gaudiya tradition. By Srila Prabhupada's account, Rupa Gosvami himself accepted his elder brother as his own spiritual master. Elsewhere Srila Prabhupada calls Sanatana "the ideal spiritual master, for he delivers one the shelter of the lotus feet of Madana-mohana." Sanatana Gosvami disappeared from this world in Vrindavana. His disappearance is traditionally dated to 1558. His samadhi still stands beside the Radha-Madana-mohana temple he founded. His final years and lasting influence are told in Final Days and Disappearance.