Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami ( Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī IAST ; 1495 - 1571 ) is a Hindu Hare Krishna saint , one of the closest disciples of Caitanya Mahaprabhu . He was a member of the group of Hare Krishna saints known as Vrindavan gosvami . The literary works of Vrindavan gosvami served as the philosophical basis of Gaudiya Vaishnavism . Raghunatha Dasa was respected by other Vaisnavas for such qualities as simplicity and renunciation.
| Raghunatha Dasa Goswami | |
|---|---|
| Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī | |
| Birth | 1495 Sri Krishnapura, Bengal (now in Bardhaman County, West Bengal ) |
| Death | 1571 Radhakunda (now in Mathura County, Uttar Pradesh ) |
| Is revered | in Gaudiya Vaishnavism |
| In the face | |
| Day of Remembrance | January 20 (appearance, 2010) February 8 (appearance, 2011) October 19 (leaving, 2010) October 8 (leaving, 2011) |
Biography
Raghunatha was born in 1495 in the village of Sri Krishnapura in Bengal (now West Bengal). [1] The father of Raghunatha was called Govardhan Majumdar. He was a wealthy landowner and younger brother of Zamindar Hiranya Majumdara. Several generations of the ancestors of Raghunatha were Vaishnavas and very wealthy people. In childhood and adolescence, his home teacher was Yadunandana Acharya . From an early age, Raghunatha showed a complete lack of interest in worldly pleasures and a special interest in spiritual life.
At a young age, Raghunatha married, but had no affection for his estate and wife. Noticing Raghunatha’s desire to leave the house, his father and uncle hired bodyguards to watch him. Despite this, in 1518 Raghunatha managed to escape from their vigilant surveillance. He went to Puri , where he met with Caitanya Mahaprabhu and personally served him for 16 years. After that, he went to Vrindavan . He spent the last period of his life on the shores of the holy lake of Radha-kunda .
According to the Caitanya-caritamrta , Raghunatha Dasa Goswami was constantly engaged in ascetic spiritual practice. He reduced the duration of his sleep all the time and in the late period of his life almost completely stopped sleeping, doing more than 22 hours a day chanting the Hare Krishna mantra and devoting the remaining 2 hours to sleep and food. His clothes consisted of a simple piece of cloth and an old scarf. It is said that Raghunatha's eyes were always full of tears from the spiritual emotions he was experiencing. His bhajan-kutir , or the place where he worshiped, has been preserved to this day and is a place of pilgrimage.
The Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika (186) states that Raghunatha Dasa Goswami in the eternal pastimes of Radha and Krishna serves the Divine Couple as a manjari named Rasa. Other sources claim that he is a manjari named Rati.
Bibliography
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Notes
- ↑ The temple of Radha-Govinda still stands there. The entire temple complex is surrounded by walls, and in the small room located on the side of the temple there is a small platform on which Raghunatha Dasa usually worshiped deities . Near the temple is the drying river Saraswati.
Links
- Books of Raghunatha Dasa Goswami
- Sri Manah Shiksha (Prayers to the Mind) with comments by Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakur