Introduction:
This work reveals the hidden truths behind the medieval tombs of the ascended masters in the line of pure devotion. It also contains concise biographies unveiling the unique contributions of Sri Caitanya’s intimate associates, eighty of which are listed in ISKCON’s yearly Vaisnava calendar. With maps, sixty photos and precise directions it serves as a practical guidebook to all the Gaudiya Vaisnava samadhi burial vaults in Vrindavana, District of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh INDIA.
Hardcover
Language: English
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Sample Chapter:
Gaudiya Vaisnava Samadhis in Vrindavana
'After bathing in Radha‑kunda he looked directly at me, smiling ever so slightly. Then he entered the samadhi and vanished. Overwhelmed, I paid my dandavats. While lying before the entrance to Sri Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami's samadhi, I heard someone say to me from inside the samadhi, “Don't worry, everything will turn out correctly. Just always chant Radharani's name, and if you're doing this work for Her service then you will get victory. And if you think, 'this is my property, I am the mahanta,' and claim ownership, then you can't stay in Vrndavana.' “
Behind Radha Madana‑Mohana temple, and off the parikrama marga is a place called Javatri Kunja. An old Surya temple graces that kunja. Bhakta‑mala says that Radhika and the gopis would come here and pluck java(red) flowers for worshiping Surya‑deva and Yamuna‑devi. Kishora Dasa baba, a scholar of Vrndavana, purchased this area and built a bhajana kutir here. Once at midnight while chanting japa, he saw a tall older man dressed in babaji cloth carrying a stick and a clay water pot. He was chanting very attentively and emitting a brilliant effulgence. After paying obeisances, Kishora Dasa asked, “Could you be Sanatana Gosvamipada?” The Babaji just smiled, said “Hari bol,” and disappeared. To this day, Kishora Dasa feels that he definitely saw Sri Sanatana Gosvami.
Gauranga Dasa Babaji, a famous siddha mahatma of Vrndavana, repeatedly gave proof of his existence in his samadhi. Several times since his departure he has appeared to the devotees who stay in the ashram beside his samadhi. One night the members of the 24 hour kirtana party fell asleep. At exactly the same time, the samadhi pujari sleeping in the ashram had a dream. He saw Gauranga Dasa Baba choking and gasping for air. Startled, the pujari awoke, and rushed to the samadhi to wake the sleeping kirtana men and continue the Hari‑Nama. The pujari realized that his guru had appeared to teach him that he was indeed living within his samadhi. He felt choked up when the kirtana party stopped chanting the holy name because the holy name was his food‑‑‑his life‑‑‑his breath.
A disciple and former personal servant of Srila Prabhupada said that Srila Rupa Gosvami once appeared to Srila Prabhupada while he was staying at the Radha‑Damodara temple in Vrndavana. Before coming to America in 1965, Srila Prabhupada lived here as a renounced sannyasi chanting Hari Nama, praying to Radha‑Damodara and the Gosvamis, and translating the Srimad Bhagavatam into English. One day while honoring maha‑prasadam, Srila Prabhupada was looking out of the window at the samadhi of Sri Rupa Gosvami. Suddenly, Sri Rupa Gosvami appeared before Srila Prabhupada and spoke these most encouraging words:
“Maharaja, don't worry about anything. Go ahead and travel to the West and preach. Just preach the message of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the chanting of Hare Krishna. You'll be successful. I guarantee because I will be right with you all the time.”
How To Approach the Samadhis‑‑‑ Union in Separation
In Vrndavana, the practice of visiting the samadhis of Lord Caitanya's eternal associates, offering worship, obeisances, and selected prayers has been going on continually for the last five‑hundred years. The Bhakti‑ratnakar describes that before traveling to Navadvipa, Srinivasa Acarya took darsana of Vrndavana's Deities (Govindaji, Gopinatha, Madana Mohana, Radha Vinoda, Radha Damodara, and Sri Sankara Gopisvara Mahadeva). He also visited the samadhis of Sri Sanatana Gosvami, Sri Rupa Gosvami, Sri Kasisvara Pandit, and Sri Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, the only major ones at that time. Sri Jiva Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami, Sri Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, Sri Lokanatha Gosvami, Sri Bhugarbha Gosvami, Madhupandit Gosvami, and Sri Krishna Dasa Kaviraja were all still manifest in Vrndavana. Before leaving Vrndavana, Srinivasa Acarya fell in the dust of their lotus feet and begged for mercy.
To summarize, a samadhi is a spiritual place where one can contact the association of a pure devotee of Radha and Krishna. In one form the pure Vaisnava remains within his samadhi in order to give mercy to faithful and sincere devotees. Samadhis play an important part in Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's pastime of distributing mercy to the fallen souls in Kali‑yuga. Anyone, qualified or not, can easily come to the samadhis and take their benevolent association.
We must come to the platform of appreciating that here (at the samadhi) 'I can actually get the association of a pure devotee.' No one is excluded. For example, during Srila Prabhupada's presence, some disciples hesitated to take his association due to feeling shy or too distant. Although wanting to, they never spoke directly to Srila Prabhupada or intimately associated with him. But now, Srila Prabhupada is freely and fully giving himself to everyone. Anyone can visit his samadhis in Vrndavana or Mayapur and receive his simply wonderful association.
One should approach Srila Prabhupada's or any samadhi with an attitude of surrender. Of course, feeling awe and reverence, one offers dandavats (full prostrated obeisances). Literally, the word dandavat means full obeisances offered with eight limbs: two arms, two legs, two knees, chest, head, eyes, the mind, and the power of speech (prayers).
A disciple's awe and reverence shouldn't be in the “Vaikuntha mood,” where awe and reverence are too strong. A disciple feels reverence in the sense of respect, but he maintains a friendly attitude and understanding toward his spiritual master. Narada Muni explains the loving relationship between guru and disciple in the Srimad Bhagavatam (7.12.1), acaran dasavan nico, gurau sudrdha sauhrdah: “A disciple should be humble and obedient, and he should have an attitude of firm friendship for the spiritual master.”
We should think that the pure devotees still live here. They hear our prayers of submission, and they will shower their mercy upon us if we are sincere and deserving. With a humble mood and a pure devotional attitude we should observe all proper behavior. The eternal associates of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu are actually there in their samadhis. Imagine if that Vaisnava was still manifest in this world? What would you do or how would you feel if you walked into his room, and found him sitting quietly in a meditative posture absorbed in deep concentration on the pastimes of Radha‑Syamasundara? This is exactly the same experience of meeting a liberated Vaisnava in his samadhi mandir!
138-139
Prayers to Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatana Gosvamis
“Within Vrndavana, Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis were the reservoirs of natural love and mercy. They were foremost among the devotees, oceans of kindness, and friends of the poor. They possessed unflinching devotion to Radha and Krisna. Giving up all worldly pleasures, they always sang the glories of Vrndavana's groves and the lotus feet of Srimati Radharani. Therefore, these two brothers are the gifts of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the ocean of mercy. In their absence I have become an orphan.” Bhakti‑ratnakar
“All glories to Sri Sanatana and Sri Rupa Gosvamis who are fathomless well springs of prema‑bhakti‑rasa. They personify ujjvala rasa. They are desire trees whose mercy frees everyone from pain and sorrow. The books of these two great souls clearly explain prema‑bhakti. Hearing about them will bring great joy, for they are the asraya vigrahas of madhura‑rasa. O Rupa and Sanatana, you are endowed with the wealth of divine love, Radha‑Krishna prema, which in your hands is like thousands of Cupid's golden arrows. O Rupa and Sanatana, please bestow some of that treasure upon me by piercing my heart with those jeweled arrows.” (Prema‑bhakti‑candrika)
“Oh tongue, always sing the name of Sri Rupa. O mind, always remember Sri Rupa, the personification of kindness. O head, always bow to Sri Radhika, the embodiment of mercy.” (Sadhana‑Dipika)
“If Sri Rupa did not appear in Kali‑yuga, who would distribute love of Krishna throughout the world? Who would renounce all pleasures, worship Vrndavana, and discuss the books of the bhakti path? Who could have understood the pastimes of Krishna in Vrndavana. And who could experience the love of Sri Radha and Sri Krishna without the mercy of Sri Rupa?” (Bhakti‑ratnakar)
dadanas trnam dantair idam yace punah punah<R>srimad rupa padambhoja‑dhulih syam janma‑janmani
“Holding a straw between my teeth, I beg again and again that birth after birth, I may become the dust of the lotus feet of Srila Rupa Gosvami.” (Mukta‑carita, Sri Raghunatha Gosvami)
Sri Sanatana Gosvami
Sri Sanatana Gosvami appeared in 1488, five years before Sri Rupa Gosvami, in a Sarasvata brahmana family in Bengal. Sanatana and his two brothers, Rupa and Anupama, were always absorbed in bhava bhakti from early childhood. Remembering Vrndavana, they named the forests in which they played after Vraja's twelve forests (Talavana, Madhuvana, Kamyavana, Mahavana). They called their favorite bathing ponds Radha‑kunda and Syama‑kunda.
In his youth, Sri Sanatana dreamt that a beautiful brahmana boy gave him a Srimad Bhagavatam. Feeling ecstatic he awoke. But seeing neither the boy nor the Bhagavatam he felt sad. When Sanatana began his puja that morning, however, Krishna Himself, disguised as a beautiful brahmana boy, came and said,
“Take this Srimad Bhagavatam from Me, always study it, and you will attain perfection.”
In Krishna‑lila‑stava, Sri Sanatana Gosvami glorifies the Srimad Bhagavatam: “O holy Bhagavata, you are my only company, my only friend, and my guru. You are my greatest treasure and my personal saviour. You are the emblem of my highest fortune and the very form of ecstasy. I offer my obeisances unto you.”
Forced to submit to the ruling Muslim government, Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatana became ministers and lived at Ramakeli. But their real engagement was teaching sastras which they learned from Vidyavacaspati, brother of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. Pandits and brahmanas from all over India came to study under the two brothers. Sri Rupa and Sanatana were acclaimed as the “crest jewels of the Gaudiya Vaisnava scholars.” After the Lord visited Ramakeli and freed them, they renounced everything for Lord Gauranga's service. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu ordered Sri Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis to move to Vrndavana and perform four services: (1) Uncover Sri Krishna's pastime places. (2) Install Deities, arrange for Their puja. (3) Compile bhakti scriptures. (4) Propagate the rules of devotional life. “Entering Lord Caitanya's service, they resolutely gave up power, riches, and position to live in Vrndavana as humble beggars absorbed in bhajana. One cannot properly perform Krishna bhajana until one renounces all attachments both internally and externally, and adopts a life of simplicity and humility.” (Sri Vraja Mandala Parikrama).
They traveled extensively through Vraja mandala discovering many lila sthanas of Radha‑Madhava. Having no fixed residence, they would catch a few winks of sleep (no more than one and a‑half hours per day) under a tree or bush. Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatana Gosvamis spent all their time writing, discussing Krishna's pastimes, and chanting Krishna's holy names.
To maintain himself Sanatana would beg some wheat flour, roll it into a ball by adding a touch of Yamuna water, and drop it in smoldering coals to cook. He would offer this bati (salt‑free, baked bread ball) to his Deity of Madana Mohana. Giving up all kinds of material enjoyment, the Gosvamis accepted the poorest way of life as mendicants. They ate just enough to maintain their bodies.
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Price: Rs. 200.00
