Once grown, Viracandra traveled the length of Bengal and on to Vrindavana, and the tradition remembers this journey as the period in which the senior Vaishnavas of the generation after Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's own associates came to recognize him as an authority in his own right. This page covers that journey, his part in the story around the famous festival at Kheturi, and the tribute Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami himself paid him in writing.
| Detail | Description |
|---|---|
| Route | Bengal (Uddharana Datta Thakura, Gauridasa Pandita, Shrinivasa Acharya, Kheturi) to Vrindavana |
| Received in Vrindavana by | Jiva Goswami, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami, and other senior Goswamis |
| Places visited in Vraja | The twelve forests of Vrajamandala, Radha-kunda, Shyama-kunda, Govardhana |
| Constant companions | Two devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Ramadasa and Gadadhara dasa |
| Tribute paid by Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami | Called "the greatest branch" of Nityananda Prabhu and "the main pillar" of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's hall of devotional service (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila 11.8-13) |
Through Bengal Toward Vrindavana #
Several independent biographical accounts - drawing mainly on the Bhakti-ratnakara and the Premavilasa, since Chaitanya-charitamrita itself does not narrate this journey in detail - describe Viracandra setting out from Khardaha on a long circuit through Bengal before continuing to Vrindavana. Along the way he is said to have met Uddharana Datta Thakura, one of Nityananda Prabhu's own most devoted followers from the suvarna-vanik merchant community, Gauridasa Pandita, his own great-uncle by marriage and one of the twelve gopalas, and Achyutananda, a son of Advaita Acharya. "Many sinners and atheists were delivered along the way," one account says of the whole journey - a devotional summary rather than a specific incident, but one that gives a sense of how the tradition frames this period of his life: less a private pilgrimage than a traveling ministry.
Received at Kheturi #
More than one source describes Narottama Dasa Thakura coming out to receive Viracandra at Kheturi with what one account calls "great ecstasy," the two of them dancing together in sankirtana. Kheturi itself, and the famous festival held there - at which six Deities were installed and Jahnava Devi, Viracandra's own guru, was given the position of chief guest - is already covered on this site in real depth from two other angles: Narottama Dasa Thakura's own Kheturi Festival page and Shrinivasa Acharya's page on preaching in Bengal and the Kheturi festival. This page does not repeat that ground. It is worth being honest, though, about a real uncertainty: the most detailed reconstructions of the great Kheturi Mahotsava itself - with its named list of attendees, Jahnava Devi as chief guest and Shrinivasa Acharya as head priest - do not consistently list Viracandra among the core organizers by name, even though several separate biographical accounts of his own life describe a joyful meeting with Narottama at Kheturi. Whether that meeting was part of the great Mahotsava itself, or a separate visit on his wider pilgrimage route through Bengal, is not something the sources checked for this page settle clearly.
Among the Goswamis of Vraja #
In Vrindavana, Jiva Goswami and Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami are both said to have welcomed Viracandra warmly, and, by one account, it was with their consent and blessing that he then set out to wander the twelve forests of Vrajamandala - the traditional circuit of Krishna's own childhood and youth. He is described as overwhelmed by the sight of Radha-kunda, Shyama-kunda and Govardhana, in language the tradition uses for very few visitors to Vraja outside the Six Goswamis themselves. Two devotees of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Sri Ramadasa and Gadadhara dasa, are recorded in Chaitanya-charitamrita as having stayed constantly by his side during this period: "Two devotees of Lord Caitanya named Sri Ramadasa and Gadadhara dasa always lived with Sri Virabhadra Gosani" (Adi-lila 11.13) - a small detail, but a telling one, since it places him, this early, already at the center of an entourage of his own.
The Tribute of Krishnadasa Kaviraja #
It is from this same period of recognition that Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami's own tribute to Viracandra, written into the eleventh chapter of Chaitanya-charitamrita's Adi-lila, most plausibly comes. He calls him "the greatest branch" after Nityananda Prabhu himself (11.8), "the main pillar in the hall of devotional service erected by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu" (11.10), and credits him directly with the fact that "people all over the world now have the chance to chant the names of Chaitanya and Nityananda" (11.11) - before taking shelter at his feet, by name, as he begins to write the book at all (11.12). Later in the same chapter, summarizing the whole tree of Nityananda Prabhu's spiritual family, Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami repeats the judgment once more: "Among all the branches of Sri Nityananda Prabhu, Virabhadra Gosani was the topmost. His subbranches were unlimited" (11.56). Coming from the author of Gaudiya Vaishnavism's own central biography of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, this is about as direct a statement of standing as the tradition offers anyone of Viracandra's generation.