Gopalaguru Goswami

Gopal (a) guru Gosvami ( Gopālaguru Gosvāmī ^IAST ) is a Krishna theologian and saint from Orissa , who lived in the 16th century .

Gopala belonged to the Brahmin family from Utkala . He became a follower of Caitanya Mahaprabhu as a child. From early childhood, he was trained by Vakresvara Pandita , then receiving spiritual initiation from him. Caitanya was very fond of Gopala and often joked with him. Once Caitanya jokingly called the boy a "guru." The name stuck, and since then it has become known as Gopalaguru Gosvami.

Later, studying under the guidance of Svarupa Damodara and Raghunatha Dasa Goswami , Gopalaguru became a connoisseur of the race (the science of love tastes of Radha-Krishna ) and wrote the book “Smarana-paddhati” (“The System of Remembrance of the Lord”). Then, he transferred this knowledge to his disciple Dhyanachandra Goswami , who explained in detail in his books how to worship Caitanya and Radha-Krishna in raganuga-bhakti .

Gopalaguru lived for a long time and served his guru, Vakresvara Pandita, in the house of Kasha Mishra in Puri , where Chaitanya had previously stayed. After the death of Vakresvara Pandita, Gopalaguru Goswami built a temple behind Gambhira to worship Radha-Krsna and installed the deities of Radha-kanta in it. The Bhakti-ratnakara (8.382) describes how Narottama Dasa , while in Puri, visited the house of Kashi Mishra , where he met with Gopalaguru Gosvami.

Gopalaguru Goswami died in Puri on the ninth day of the arriving moon of the month of Kartik . Two weeks after his death, the news of this came to the Vaisnavas in Vrindavan . ^[1] They decided to honor him with a second departure ceremony. ^[1] Suddenly, during the ritual, Gopalaguru Gosvami appeared to the gaze of all Vaisnavas sitting under the bakula tree in the temple courtyard. ^[1] Surprised by this sight, the Vaisnavas asked Gopalagura how he got there, to which he replied that in his spiritual body the gopis , he was always in Vrndavana, engaged in the service of Radha and Krishna. ^[1] According to some sources, the Gopalaguru Gosvami in the eternal pastimes of Krsna is a gopi named Tungavidya . In Vrindavan, Samadhi Gopalaguru Goswami is located in the Dhira-samira region.