Blessed is the Shukla dwadashi tithi in the month of Ashwin, for it marks the holy disappearance of not one but three great personalities, whose transcendental qualities are a shoreless ocean and fully glorifying whom is impossible for even the most erudite scholars. Which words can possibly fully describe the epitome of renunciation, Sri Raghunath Das Goswami, the most expert Bhagwat reciter, Sri Raghunath bhatta Goswami, and the most merciful Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, who bestowed upon the vaishnavas of this world the treasure house of Gaur Prem and Krishna Prem in the form of Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita and Sri Govinda Lilamrita.
Born in Krishnapur in the family of Govardhan Majumdar, a wealthy Landlord, Srila Raghunath das Goswami was, from his very childhood, completely detached from the world and firmly attached to the lotus feet of Sri Krishna. Having been blessed with the association of Namacharya Srila Haridas Thakur, who once stayed at Sri Balaram Acharya’s, Govardhan Majumdar’s family priest, house when Raghunath was a small boy, Raghunath later ran away from home and went to Mahaprabhu in Puri. Seeing young Raghunath, Mahaprabhu blessed him but instructed him to return home and wait for the right time to leave home. He instructed Raghunath to externally put up a show of living a normal life but internally always be absorbed in remembering Radha Krishna. Following Mahaprabhu’s instructions, he returned home and remained there for a few years, during which they arranged for his marriage to an extremely beautiful girl, hoping to get him attracted to family life, but rather he became even more detached and started living in the outer chambers of the house. Eventually he was blessed by Lord Nityananda, who came to Panihati and instructed Raghunath to arrange for a chipped rice festival for all the devotees. This festival later became famous as Panihati chida dahi. Having received the blessings of Nityananda Prabhu, Raghunath was soon presented with an opportunity to leave home, and taking advantage of the opportunity he immediately left home and joined Gaurahari in Puri. There he was put under the care of Swaroop Damodar by Mahaprabhu. Gaurahari also gave him his own Shaligram shila and Gunja mala to worship and in this way bestowed great mercy upon him. While in Puri, he lived a life of great renunciation, begging for alms and eventually he stopped begging even and would take the rotten rice mahaprasad of Jagannath dev, wash it nicely and eat only that prasad which even the animals refused to eat. Such was his renunciation. After the disappearance of Sachinandan, followed by the disappearance of Swaroop Damodar, Raghunath was drowning in the ocean of separation from the Lord of his life and deciding to give up his life by jumping from the top of Govardhan, he started towards Vrindavan. When he reached Sridham Vrindavan, Rupa and Sanatan convinced him not to give up his life and it was only due to their association that he could tolerate maintaining his life in separation from Gaurahari. While in Vraja, he would reside at the banks of Radhakund, only accepting a bowlful of buttermilk and being fully immersed in bhajan. Once when Sanatan Goswami saw that Sri Krishna himself was standing with a stick protecting Raghunath while a tiger drank from the kund and on another occasion when he saw that Srimati Radhika was herself standing in the heat and was giving shade to Raghunath with her veil, he chastised Raghunath saying that it was not appropriate to take service from the Lord and instructed him to stay in a hut that the villagers would make for him. Abiding by the order of Sanatan Goswami, Raghunath das Goswami stayed in the hut and daily offered thousand obeisances to all the associates of the Lord along with performing his daily bhajan. After the disappearance of Rupa and Sanatan, Raghunath das was once again plunged into an ocean of separation which was such that he himself said, “ In the absence of Rupa and Sanatan, Govardhan appears as a terrifying python and Radhakund as the gaping mouth of a tigress”, thus showing the importance of the association of the Vaishnavas. Before departing from the world he blessed the vaishnavas with the chintamani jewels of Stava mala, Mukta Charita, Vilap Kusumanjali and other bhakti literature. On his holy disappearance day, we pray at the lotus feet of Raghunath das Goswami, whose samadhi is in Radhakund and who is Rasa manjari or Bhanumati in Krishna lila, to mercifully bestow upon us love for Gaur Hari and Radha Shyamsundar.
Another of the six goswamis, Srila Raghunath Bhatta Goswami, also chose to bring his pastimes in this world to a close on this very day. Following the instructions of Gaurahari, Raghunath bhatta goswami, while remaining a life long brahmachari, constantly chanted the Mahamantra and recited the Srimad Bhagwatam. He would lovingly serve Mahaprabhu by cooking for him, performing Kirtan and reciting Bhagwatam. When he came to Vrindavan by the order of Gaurahari, all the vaishnavas headed by Rupa and Sanatan, would come and listen to his melodious recitation of Srimad Bhagwatam. Fearing the atrocities of the Mulsim leaders, jiva goswami, after the disappearance of Raghunath Bhatta goswami, arranged for his transcendental body to be burned, instead of being put into samadhi, and his ashes were then put into Samadhi at Radha Kund and the 64 Samadhi Area. May Sri Raghunath Bhatta Goswami, who is the dear maidservant of Srimati Radhika named Rasa or Raga manjari, be merciful upon us and keep us under the shade of his lotus feet, which bestow Krishna prem.
All glories to Srila Krishna das Kaviraj Goswami, the foremost of the followers of Rupa Goswami and the author of the two unparalleled jewels in the treasure house of gaudiya literature, namely Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita and Govinda Lilamrita. Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad once told his disciples that if someday due to some calamity he were to be able to only save three books, he would save Srimad Bhagwat Gita, Srimad Bhagwatam and Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita. If he were forced to choose two from these, he would keep Bhagwatam and Chaitanya Charitamrita, and if he would be forced to save only one, he would save the Chaitanya Charitamrita, for everything that is contained in the Bhagwat gita and Bhagwatam is present in Chatianya Charitamrita and even more than that is present in this most glorious book. All the vaishnavas consider this great work of Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami as their very life and soul. In C.C., Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami has himself mentioned that he was extremely old and weak when he composed this great literature, and yet it is one of the greatest masterpieces. In C.C., which Krishnadas Kaviraj wrote on the insistence of the Vaishnavas in Vrindavan, he has elaborated on the pastimes that Srila Vrindavan das thakur had not explained much in his book Sri Chaitanya Mangal. Along with this, the other great work of his is Govinda Lilamrita, which elaborately describes the ashtakaliya lila of Radha Krishna. It was for this work of his, saturated with Krishna prem and embellished by the most beautiful poetic devices, that he was given the title Kaviraj, the best amongst poets. After blessing the Vaishnava community with these great literatures, he departed from this world on this auspicious day. His Samadhi mandir can be visited in Radhakund. We humbly submit ourselves at his lotus feet and at the lotus feet of Kasturi manjari, his manjari form in Golok Vrindavan, and pray to be able to become qualified to understand the great bhakti granthas that he has bestowed upon us all.
