Lives of the Saints Contents Abhirama Gopala Baladeva Vidyabhushana Bhugarbha Goswami Birchandra Prabhu Devananda Pandit Dhananjaya Pandit Gadadhara dasa Thakur Gangamata Goswamini Gauridasa Pandit Gopala Bhatta Goswami Gopala Guru Goswami Ishvara Puri Prabhu Jagadish Pandit Jagannatha das Babaji Jahnava Mata Jayadeva Goswami Kaliya Krishna das Lochan das Thakur Lokanatha Goswami Madhvacharya Mahesh Pandit Narahari Sarkar Thakur Narottama Thakur Nityananda Prabhu Purushottam Thakur Raghunandan Thakur Raghunath Bhatta Goswami Ramanujacharya Ramchandra Kaviraj Sanatana Goswami Saranga Thakur Shyamananda Prabhu Sita Thakurani Srivas Thakura Svarup Damodar Goswami Uddharan Dutta Thakur Vrindavan das Thakur Vakreshwar Pandit Vamshivadananda Thakur Vasudev, Madhava, and Govinda Ghosh Vishnupriya-devi Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakur Lives of the Saints: Chapter One Shri Abhirama Gopal Thakura Shri Abhirama Gopal Thakura was also known as Shri Rama Das. He was a great devotee of Lord Nityananda. On the order of Shri Nityananda Prabhu, he became a great acharya and preacher of Gaudiya Vaishnavism.He was a very influential personality, and atheists and blasphemers were very much afraid of him. Empowered by Shri Nityananda Prabhu, he was always in ecstasy and was kind to all fallen souls. It is siad that if he offered obeisances to any stone other than a shalagram-shila, it would immediately burst into pieces. According to Gaura-Ganodesha-Dipika (12) in Krishna-lila he was Shridama, one of the 12 prominent boy cowherd friends of Shri Krishna. He was Nityananda's dearmost devotee. Abhiram Gopal's wife's name was Shri Malini devi. Abhirama Gopala Thakura lived in Khanakula Krishnanagara. Khanakula Krishanagar may be visited by taking the narrow gauge train from Howrah Station in Calcutta to Amta. It is located in the present Hooghly District of West Bengal. There, in Khanakula Krishnanagara, near the bankof the Khana river, is the temple of Abhirama Thakura. Because it is a town (nagara) with a Krishna temple, the town is called Krishna-nagara, and because the temple is on the kula (banks) of the Khana, it is called Khanakula-krishna nagara Just outside the temple is a bakula tree. This place is known as Siddha-bakula-kunja. It is said that Abhirama Thakura used to like sitting beneath this tree. The story of how the Gopinath deity of Khanakula Krishnanagara was established is as follows. One day, the deity of Gopinatha appeared to Abhiram Gopal in a dream, and informed him that he wanted to manifest himself in Khanakula Krishnanagara. It is said that he was buried in the earth, and that in the dream he ordered Abhirama Gopal to excavate him and inaugurate his worship. Abhirama Gopal went to the place where the Lord had indicated he would be found, and began excavation. There, after digging for some time, he found the mind-enchanting deity of Shri Gopinatha. The place where this discovery was made is now called Rama kunda, and there is a small lake there. The Bhakti Ratnakara says, "After having excavated the Gopinatha deity, all the devotees headed by Rama Dasa (Abhirama Gopala) bathed in the sacred waters of the kunda near the spot where the deity had been found. From that day on the kunda became famous as Rama Kunda. Whoever bathes there becomes free from repeated birth and death." One day Shri Abhirama Gopala was overwhelmed with the ecstasy of sakhya rasa, and had a desire to play the flute of a cowherd boy. Intoxicated by the bliss of Krishna-prema, he began searching the four directions for a suitable flute. As he searched through the forest for a suitable instrument all at once he saw before him a big log. The log was so huge that sixteen men could not move it. Grabbing hold of that log, he turned it into a flute and began to play upon it. The Chaitanya Charitamrita says, "Rama dasa was one of the principle branches of the Nityananda branch of the Chaitanya tree of bhakti. He was full of sakhya- prema—love of Krishna saturated with the mellow of friendship. He once picked up a log that sixteen men couldn't lift and used it as a flute." Shri Abhirama Thakura had a bullwhip that was imbued with divine power. Its name was "Jayamangal." Whoever was struck with this whip became filled with Krishna prema. One day Shrinivasa Acharya went to take darshan of Abhiram Gopala. At that time, Abhiram Gopal touched him three times with Jayamangal. The Thakur's good wife, Malini, cried out, "My Lord! Do not touch him again. Calm yourself. Shrinivas is only a boy. If you touch him again he will lose consciousness." As a result of coming in contact with the whip of Abhirama Thakura, Shrinivasa Acharya became filled with Shri Krishna prema. When Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ordered Nityananda Prabhu to preach in Bengal, he sent Abhirama Gopal and Gadadhara Das along with him. Simply upon seeing Abhiram Gopal, atheists and blasphemers would flee in terror. He was a remarkable scholar, well-versed in all the scriptures. He married his wife, Malini, upon the order of Shri Nityananda Prabhu. His disappearance day is on the seventh day of the dark moon in the month of Chaitra, and on that day a great festival attended by thousands of devotees is held every year in Khanakula- Krishnanagara. Lives of the Saints: Chapter Two Shri Baladeva Vidyabhusana Shrimad Baladev Vidyabhusan Prabhu was a pure devotee of the highest order, who cared for nothing but the service of the Lord. He didn't have a spot of desire for name and fame. He was the composer of many scriptures which are as priceless as precious gems, for the ultimate benefit of all those who have taken human birth. The exact location of his birth, the names of his mother and father, and their family tree is not known. The exact circumstances of his birth and childhood are, therefore, unknown. Still, some are of the opinion that that he took birth in a place called Baleshvara, a village neighboring Remuna, in the early part of the 18th century A.D, as the son of a vaisya, an agriculturist. At an early age he became learned in Sanskirt grammar, poetry, rhetoric, and logic. After becoming expert in all these subjects, he began wandering to different places of pilgrimage. After wandering about in this way for some time, and after visiting many holy places, he happened to stay at a temple of the Tattvavadi followers of Shri Madhvacharya. There, he became fluent in his understanding of the tattvavada- siddhanta, that is, the philosophical and theological conclusions of the followers of Madhva. After this, he took sannyasa, and preached the tattvavada-siddhanta very vigourously throughout the length and breadth of India. As he wandered from one place to the next, he gradually came to Jagannatha Puri. There he remained and preached for a few days. At that time, he chanced to meet one of the foremost disciples of Shri Rasikananda Deva, Pandit Shri Radha-Damodara, with whom he discussed devotional principles. At that time, Shrimad Radha-Damodara dev Goswami instructed Baladev on the subject of Shri Gourasundara's pastimes of mercy and His teachings on Gaudiya Vaishanva siddhanta to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. After hearing the divine wisdom spoken by Shri Radha-Damodara Goswami, Baladeva's heart was deeply moved. After a few days of hearing from him, he accepted initiation into the Radha-Krishna mantra, and began studying the Sat-Sandarbhas of Jiva Goswami at the holy feet of his gurudeva, Radha-Damodara Goswami. After a short time, Baladeva became expert in the Gaudiya Vaishanva siddhanta. After staying with Radha-Damodara Goswami for some time, he was ordered to further his studies in Gaudiya Vaishnavism by going to Vrindavan and taking shelter at the holy feet of Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakura. After first visiting Nabadwipa, he soon arrived in Vrindavan. Shri Visvanatha Chakravarti Thakur (Shri Harivallabha dasa), was very happy to see Baladeva's submission, modesty, learning, and renunciation. From that day forward, for some time, he kept Baladeva by his side and taught him the acintya-bheda-abheda philosophy of Shri Chaitanya and many other important siddhantas related to the Gaudiya Vaishnava conception of Krishna-bhakti. From this point on, Shri Baladeva's life and soul was fully dedicated to the theistic conception of the Gaudiya Sampradaya. His mind was fixed on this, and with one- pointed determination, he now began preaching this line to the exclusion of all others. One day, in Jaipur, in the royal court, the Ramanuja sampradaya began arguing a case in connection with the Gaudiya sampradaya. They informed the king that the Gaudiya sampradaya had no commentary on the most important revealed scripture of Vedic religion—Vedanta; therefore they had no siddhanta and no real sampradaya, or school. As a consequence they should give up their service of the deities of Govinda and Gopinatha, and entrust with those who were bona fide members of a genuine sampradaya. At that time, the king of Jaipura was a follower of the Gaudiya sampradaya. He immediately sent word of the controversy by messenger to Vishvanatha Cakravarti Thakur in Vrindavan, wanting to know if the Gaudiya sampradaya actually did have any commentary on theVedanta. If there was, the king wanted that the commentary be sent immediately to Jaipur to satisfy the scrutiny of the pandits from the Ramanuja Sampradaya. At this time, Shri Vishvanatha Chakravarti was very old and infirm. It was impossible for him to make the arduous journey to Jaipur. He sent his student and disciple, Shri Baladev, in his place. Baladeva Vidyabhusan was an expert scholar in all the important scriptures. In the midst of a huge assembly of pandits from the Ramanuja sampradaya, Baladeva challenged them all to argue with him in scholarly debate.