Raghunath Das Goswami's Pastimes:
Nectar of Devotion

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
8 October 2011

In Mahaprabhu's time, and even after that, everybody wanted to be a servant. Das Goswami Prabhu, Jiva Goswami Prabhu, and others, were all servants.

Das Goswami Prabhu became a servant of Svarup Damodar (Mahaprabhu's parsad). He was a big landlord's son, a very rich man, and his father sent him 400 rupees every month. Raghunath Das Goswami gave festivals, Vaishnav seva, two-three times every month with that money. He would invite all Vaishnavs of Sri Dham Puri, Sri Ksetra Puri. A little after that, Raghunath understood that Mahaprabhu did not like it so much, and he rejected that money. He told his father not to send money again—he did not take any money from his father and stopped the festivals. Mahaprabhu asked Svarup Damodar, "Why did Raghunath stop the festivals? Why is he not inviting anyone?" Then He heard that Raghunath had rejected that money because the money was coming from his father and through his Vaishnav seva some pratistha, name and fame, was coming. Mahaprabhu said, "Oh, very nice! I like that."

Then, when sometimes devotees gave Vaishnav seva, Raghunath would go there to take prasadam, but one day he thought, "I will go to the Jagannath temple and stand outside: when people come out with some prasadam, they will give some to me." But after a while he thought again, "Simha-dvare bhiksa-vrtti—vesyara achara: if I expect something from others, it is the behaviour of a prostitute. I am waiting for prasadam—waiting when somebody passes with prasadam and gives something to me. It is not good. Why should I expect anything from others? Vaishnavs never expect anything from anybody." Then, he rejected that too. He stopped begging.

Sometimes he would go to the places where there was some Vaishnav seva. On other days, he went to the place where shopkeepers kept rotten Jagannath prasadam that they did not sell for one-two days and that even the cows did not eat because of the bad smell. He would pick that prasadam rice, wash, and take it with some salt.

One time, Svarup Damodar took that prasadam from him forcefully saying, "What are you taking there and not giving me?" Mahaprabhu also wanted to taste it. Svarup Damodar tried to stop Him, "Prabhu, You cannot take it! No, no, it is very—" but Mahaprabhu forcefully took it from Raghunath Das Goswami's hand and said, "You are taking very good things yourself and not offering it to Me!"

This is a very good pastime. There are many stories, pastimes about Srila Raghunath Das Goswami, so many pastimes happened. You can read Chaitanya-charitamrita and get it there. If you hear about Srila Raghunath Das Goswami's pastimes through Chaitanya-charitamrita you will get a more than good taste—you will get nectar. There you will find his talks with Mahaprabhu, what Mahaprabhu taught him. "Yatha-yogya visaya bhunja' anasakta hana (যথাযোগ্য বিষয় ভুঞ্জ' অনাসক্ত হঞা): stay in your house, but without attachment." Mahaprabhu also taught him about giving up false renunciation. Mahaprabhu told all this to us, through Raghunath Das Goswami. It is necessary to understand this.

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