When Sanatana and Rupa's father died, the two eldest brothers lost the free choice that their scholarship alone might otherwise have given them. Alauddin Hussain Shah had risen to become the independent Sultan of Gauda in Bengal after the troubled end of the earlier Habshi dynasty. He drew capable administrators into government service from the learned Hindu families of his territory. The two brothers were already known for their command of Sanskrit learning and, it seems, also of Arabic and Persian. So they were brought into his court. Sanatana was given the post remembered in the tradition as Sakara Mallika, usually translated as a senior ministerial or treasury office. Rupa served as Dabira Khasa, the Sultan's private secretary. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita itself confirms this pairing directly. In the scene of the brothers' first meeting with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Lord addresses "My dear Dabira Khasa" and "My dear Sakara Mallika" in turn before renaming them Rupa and Sanatana. Srila Prabhupada's purport to the passage states plainly, "Sakara Mallika was the name of Sanatana Gosvami, and Dabira Khasa was the name of Rupa Gosvami." Both are Muslim court titles, not personal names. So later writers sometimes describe Sanatana's duties differently. One calls his post a treasury office, and another calls it a chief minister's office. But according to the original texts, there is no real dispute about which brother held which title.
A Most Brilliant Gem in the Assembly #
Later in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami describes the mercy Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu showed Sanatana at Varanasi. There he quotes a verse from the poet Kavi-karnapura's Chaitanya-chandrodaya-nataka. It shows how the people of Sanatana's own time saw him at the height of his court career: "Srila Sanatana Gosvami, the elder brother of Srila Rupa Gosvami, was a most important minister in the government of Hussain Shah, the ruler of Bengal, and he was considered a most brilliant gem in that assembly. He possessed all the opulences of a royal position, but he gave up everything just to accept the youthful goddess of renunciation." The same verse compares him, in his years of outward wealth, to "a deep lake covered with moss". On the surface there was courtly duty, but underneath were depths of devotional feeling that none of his fellow ministers could see. Lecturing decades later, Srila Prabhupada put the same point more plainly: "Sanatana Gosvami and Rupa Gosvami... They were ministers. When they were ministers they were not gosvami. But when they become disciples of Lord Caitanya, Sanatana Gosvami and Rupa Gosvami, and was trained by Him, they became gosvami." Elsewhere Srila Prabhupada stressed that the title Gosvami is not hereditary or political. It names one who has mastered the senses, not one who remains their servant. By that meaning, neither brother held the title yet, in spite of all their ministerial rank.
Scholars at Ramakeli #
Even while the two brothers carried out real administrative duties for a Muslim sultan, they kept their household at Ramakeli working as a center of Sanskrit learning. There they taught the shastras they had studied under Vidyavacaspati to pandits who came from across India to sit before them. Devotional retellings say that in this period they were already praised as the crest jewels of Gaudiya Vaishnava scholarship, even before either had formally met Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. They had earned this fame by their learning alone. Later this made their giving up of position all the more remarkable to those who saw it. As Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu passed through Gauda toward Vrindavana, He made His way to this household and to these two brothers, who were still living under their Muslim court names. That secret first meeting is told in The Meeting at Ramakeli.
A Minister's Private Devotion #
Even at the height of his ministerial career, Sanatana kept a devotee's private discipline alive beneath his public duties. Another devotional account says that in these same years he compiled the Sadachar Paddhati. This is a short manual of scriptural rules for a householder's gradual advancement in spiritual life. The same account says that he carefully followed its instructions in his own conduct. Every day he gave food to brahmanas, to the destitute and to lepers, and his generosity is remembered as boundless. This detail is easy to overlook beside the drama of his later renunciation. But it shows that when the break with court life came, it was not a sudden change for Sanatana. In every way his circumstances allowed, he had already been living as a devotee, long before Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ever asked anything of him directly.
A Letter, and a Single Verse in Reply #
As their restlessness with court life grew, Rupa and Sanatana are remembered as having written to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu directly, at their own mother's suggestion, to ask what they should do. The first letter got no answer. Another devotional account says that the second got no answer either. When a reply finally came, it gave no direct instruction at all. It was only a single verse of scripture. The verse describes a woman who is attached to a man other than her own husband. She serves her household with steady outward care, just so that no one will suspect where her heart truly longs to be. The brothers understood the Lord's meaning without any further explanation. For the time being they were to keep doing their duties to the Nawab faithfully, while inwardly leaving the outcome entirely to Him. Sanatana, meanwhile, went on reciting Srimad-Bhagavatam with tears of ecstasy for anyone in Gauda-desa who would listen. He waited for the day that the reply had quietly promised.
Two Different Paths Out of Court Service #
The brothers' outward positions were very similar on paper. But once each decided to leave, their paths quickly became very different. Rupa's resignation as Dabira Khasa was accepted without great difficulty, and within a fairly short time he was free to set out after Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. But Hussain Shah firmly refused Sanatana's request to resign. He valued his minister's intelligence too highly to release him easily. This refusal led to the far more dangerous chapter of Imprisonment and Escape. The difference shows that Sanatana's break with worldly position was not, in the end, a matter of simply being given permission. He had to fight for it, at real personal risk, against a ruler who did not want to let him go.
