Sanatan Goswami:
Finishing Visaya

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, Samadhi-mandir class
13 June 2015

Mahaprabhu asked Chandrasekhar Acharya, "Chandrasekhar, go Tapan Mishra's house. A great personality, a great Vaishnav, has come today, please go and see."

Chandrasekhar Acharya went there and saw a mawlana (a Muslim guru): a man wearing a long coat, a hat and with a very long beard. He came back to Mahaprabhu and said, "Prabhu, I did not see any great Vaishnav there, only some darvesh (dervish) was sitting there. He did not look like a Vaishnav, he looked like a darvesh—a long kurta, a long beard..." Mahaprabhu said, "OK, bring that 'darvesh' here, bring!"

Chandrasekhar Acharya brought him to Mahaprabhu, and seeing Sanatan (He had already given him this name) Mahaprabhu wanted to embrace him, but Sanatan Goswami backed off, "Prabhu, please do not do it. I worked under a mlechchha, I am a great papi, sinner! Do not touch me." Mahaprabhu replied, "I am touching you not for your purification, but for My purification"—and He told one of the devotees, "Tell everybody to pay obeisance to him! Then take him to a barber, shave him, and arrange for his bath."

They shaved him and wanted to give some new clothes, but Sanatan Goswami refused, "I do not want new clothes. If Mahaprabhu has some old clothes, some prasadi clothes, please give me one piece." The devotees gave him some old dhoti and Sanatan Goswami tore it into two pieces—he would wear one piece, wash it and wear the other one.

He took prasadam only on the first day, when he just came; the next day he did not take. He said, "I do not want to be in debt. Mahaprabhu is my Guru, and I cannot take food at Chandrasekhara Acharya's house. I do not want them to spend money or anything on me, I came here for my own benefit. I will go for collection, madhukori (begging)."

Mahaprabhu was very happy, He said, "I am very happy to see his vairagyata, his renunciation. He was a chief minister, but now he suddenly wears old poor clothes and goes begging house to house. Sanatan is not shy, not ashamed—he has no ego."

One day Sanatan was going begging, and it was a very cold day, so he put on the blanket his sister-in-law had given to him. When Mahaprabhu saw it, He looked at it funny, and Sanatan understood that Mahaprabhu did not like it. He was wearing an old dhoti and used a good blanket—it did not look right. So, that day he was going down some street and saw a Gaudiya Vaishnav drying his kantha. (Kantha, কাঁথা, is made by layering old saris together and stitching them together, sometimes with some embroidery—it is still often used in winter season. There are many high quality kanthas sold in Murshidabad and Bangladesh.) The kantha was old and had many holes.

Sanatan Goswami came up to the Gaudiya Vaishnav and asked him,

"Prabhu, can you help me?

"Yes, tell me."

"Can you exchange your kantha? I want to give you this blanket, can you give me this kantha?"

The man became very angry, "Are you joking with me?! I am an old man, and you are a young boy—are you joking with me?! You want me to give you this broken kantha and you are giving me this good blanket? What is this?!"

"No, Prabhu, I did not mean to joke with you. Please, forgive my offence. My relative gave me this blanket, but I do not want it. Mahaprabhu does not like it. It is better if you take it; please, can I take your kantha?"

"OK, if you want, you can take it." The Vaishnav took the blanket and gave him his kantha.

The next day, before Sanatan went for collection, he came to Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu noticed the kantha and asked with a pleased smile, "Prabhu, what happened to your bhet kambal (ভেট-কম্বল)?" Sanatan told Him what happened the day before, and Mahaprabhu said, "Krishna made the arrangement for your detachment—you had only one thing left, only one blanket, but now all your visaya is finished."

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Rupa and Sanatan
• First Encounter
• Running Away
• On the way to
Mahaprabhu
• Finishing Visaya

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