(3/9) Srila Raghunath Das Goswami's Pastimes

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Vasanta Panchami, Tarakeshwar,
10 February 2019, evening, part 3
Translated from Bengali

When Mahaprabhu told Srila Raghunath Das Goswami to go back to his house and stay there, he asked the Lord, 'Prabhu, if I go back there, my parents will never let me come to You.' Mahaprabhu assured him, 'Do not worry. When time comes, Krishna will show you how you can come. Nobody can stop those who have got His mercy.'

সে ছল সেকালে কৃষ্ণ স্ফুরাবে তোমারে ।
কৃষ্ণকৃপা যাঁরে, তাঁরে কে রাখিতে পারে ॥

se chhala se-kale krsna sphurabe tomare
krsna-krpa yanre, tare ke rakhite pare

'When time comes, Krishna will reveal to you the trick how you can come to Him. Who can stop you if you have received Krishna’s mercy?'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.16.241)

When Srila Raghunath Das Goswami returned home, his father decided to arrange his marriage as soon as possible to bind him to the house. His family brought home a very beautiful girl, who looked like an angel, but he had no attachment even to her. He lived as a householder, but he did not have any attachment to his family life. When they spoke, Mahaprabhu also told him:

অন্তরে নিষ্ঠা কর, বাহ্যে লোক-ব্যবহার ।
অচিরাৎ কৃষ্ণ তোমায় করিবে উদ্ধার ॥

antare nistha kara, bahye loka-vyavahara
achirat krsna tomaya karibe uddhara

'Be fixed internally, and behave like everyone else externally. Krishna will rescue you soon.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.16.237-239)

Mahaprabhu told him, 'Be firmly fixed in your spiritual ideal internally, but you do not have to show it to anybody externally. You can think about the Lord internally and practise Krishna consciousness internally, in such a way that your parents do not know anything about it. If you put tilaks and walk around with your beads, your parents will never stop watching your every step and you will not be able to leave.' So, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami went back home, got married on his parents' order and lived at home for some time.

You all know about Panihati, a town situated in North 24 Parganas now. You all come there for the annual chida-dahi mahotsav, so you know the history. When Sriman Nityananda Prabhu came there one day, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami came to meet with Him, and Sriman Nityananda Prabhu 'punished' him by telling him to arrange vaishnav-seva. Srila Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu arranged a great festival of flat rice (chida) and yoghurt (dahi) and served all the Vaishnavs. At the end of the festival, Sriman Nityananda Prabhu gave him very special mercy – when Srila Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu came to Him to pay his obeisance, Nityananda Prabhu put His feet on his head! This is the kind of mercy He bestowed upon Srila Das Goswami. Then, Lord Nityananda Prabhu said to him, 'Now you can go. You have got mercy.' Getting finally released from all material bondage, he went to Puri.

He started out in Hooghly. Mahaprabhu had told him, 'Krishna will arrange for you to come to Him.' So, everything was arranged in such a way that nobody noticed him leave the house. It took him twelve(!) days to reach Puri. When we go to Puri straight by train, it is about five hundred kilometres. But Srila Das Goswami Prabhu walked to Puri during twelve days. During those twelve days, he ate (drank some milk) only three times. Where did he spend the nights? He would walk the whole day and sleep in some cowsheds. Although he was the son of a big landowner, nobody could recognise him. This is how he finally came to Mahaprabhu.

Srila Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu had got mercy, so this time Mahaprabhu accepted him and gave him service. Getting mercy actually means getting service. He handed Srila Das Goswami Prabhu over to Srila Svarup Damodar and told him, 'Your name will be now Svaruper Raghu (Svarup's Raghu).' He told Srila Svarup Damodar to take care of him.

So, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu settled in Puri. You can see what kind of mood he showed there. He would pay a full prostrate obeisance to all the Vaishnavs whenever he saw them – if he saw some Vaishnav ten times a day, he would pay him obeisance ten times that day. This is a quality of a Vaishnav. At first, he would come to take prasad as a beggar – when shopkeepers brought baskets full of prasad from Jagannath Temple, he would come and stand nearby, and if somebody gave him anything, he would take that. He was the son of a big landlord: when his father heard about his lifestyle, he was very sad, 'My son is living like that, begging for food.' So, his father started sending him some money every month (four hundred coins; an equivalent of four million rupees now). Srila Das Goswami Prabhu thought, 'What will I do with this money?' He used it to host vaishnav-seva. He would feed and give donations to everybody. All Vaishnavs got to know that Raghunath was arranging great vaishnav-seva festivals and giving big donations. But Mahaprabhu did not like to see it because Raghunath was getting much pratistha. He did not say anything to him directly, but Raghunath could understand that Mahaprabhu was not happy. There were no phones at that time, so Raghunath could not pick a phone and call his father, but he told the men who had brought the money from his father, 'Let my father know that he must not send me any more money. I will not take it.'

বিষয়ীর অন্ন খাইলে মলিন হয় মন ।
মলিন মন হৈলে, নহে কৃষ্ণ-নাম গ্রহণ ॥

visayira anna khaile malina haya mana
malina mana haile, nahe krsna-nama grahana

'If you eat food that comes from materialistic people, it will contaminate your mind. And if your mind becomes contaminated, you will not be able to chant the Name of Krishna.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.6.278)

He decided, 'I do not want to take money from a materialist.'

What did he eat then? There was some prasad at the market that did not get sold and would go off – he would take the three-or-four-day-old rice that even cows did not eat, wash it with some water and take it with some salt. (If he got some green chilli, he would take it with chilli; otherwise he would take plain old rice with salt.) One time, Mahaprabhu came to him and forcefully took that prasad from his hand. Mahaprabhu said to him, 'How come you are eating here alone and not giving anything to Me?' Raghunath tried to stop Mahaprabhu, 'Please do not take it! It is not fit for You to eat it!' but Mahaprabhu still ate it forcefully.

Such was Srila Raghunath Das Goswami's renunciation.

When Mahaprabhu and Svarup Damodar left, he felt much pain. He lamented, 'Now that my masters with whom I have been staying have left, how will I live?' He went to Vrindavan – he thought, 'I will climb on top of Govardhan and jump from there, taking my life.' Fortunately, it did not happen. When he met Srila Sanatan Goswami and Srila Rupa Goswami and heard their Hari-katha, he changed his mind. Srila Sanatan Goswami also explained to him, 'I also wanted to commit suicide at some point, but Mahaprabhu forbade me to do it. He explained to me at length that this body is not mine.'

দীক্ষাকালে ভক্ত করে আত্মসমর্পণ ।
সেইকালে কৃষ্ণ তারে করে আত্মসম ॥

diksa-kale bhakta kare atma-samarpana
sei-kale krsna tare kare atma-sama

'Devotees submit their entire being when they take initiation. At this time, Krishna accepts them as His very own.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.4.192)

Srila Sanatan Goswami told Srila Raghunath Das Goswami, 'Mahaprabhu told me, "You gave this body to Me when you came to Me, and I will do many things through you. You cannot destroy this body on a whim. You must serve Lord Govinda with this body, you cannot commit suicide! When you took initiation, you gave this body to Me, then how can you think now that this is your body? Do you have no shame? How can you spoil others' things?"' After that, Srila Raghunath Das Goswami decided to stay in Vrindavan. He helped Srila Sanatan Goswami and served Vaishnavs there.

You have heard that Srila Raghunath Das Goswami stayed on the bank of Radha Kunda. His bhajan-kutir and samadhi-mandir are there. When we do Govardhan parikrama, we visit Shyama Kunda and Radha Kunda, which are in the middle of Govardhan. When we come to Radha Kunda, we offer there our obeisances, sit and chant a few kirtans at Srila Raghunath Das Goswami's samadhi... Today is the appearance day of this Srila Raghunath Das Goswami Prabhu.

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Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Conquering the Conquerer
2) Two Phenomenal Personalities
3) Srila Raghunath Das Goswami's Pastimes
4) Mukunda's Faith
5) Sri Raghunandan Thakur
6) Remembering Lord's Associates
7) Devotees' Wealth
8) Do As You Please
9) Remember Great Souls