Hare Krishna, On this day, the holy advent of Srimati Visnupriya Devi occured.
She is the eternal consort of Sri Gaurasundar in his feature of Gaura-Narayana, and according to Sri Gauraganoddesa-dipika. She is directly Satyabhama in Krishna’s Dwaraka-lila.
by Srila B. R. Sridhar Maharaj
Friday, January 22, 1999, Vasanta Pancami of Lord Krishna (the fifth day of the light fortnight of the moon, month of Magh, when Krishna is worshipped with the new flowers of spring).
Appearance of Sri Visnupriya devi and Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami. Disappearance of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura.
She was the ideal of divine self-surrender at the lotus feet of Mahaprabhu. When she was only fourteen, Mahaprabhu took sannyasa, and after that she lived the rest of her life in penance. From early morning she would take the Holy Name the whole day, and for every Mahamantra that she chanted, she would put one grain of rice into a clay pot. After chanting her quota, she would take that rice and cook it and offer it to the Lord. That was all she would take for her subsistence, so gradually she became emaciated. She passed her days in this way.
Her brother was her guardian after Sacidevi departed, and ultimately she had a Sri Murti (Deity) of Mahaprabhu, and she would worship Him in that form. And since the time of Visnupriya, that worship is being continued up to the present in the Temple here in Navadvipa known as ‘Mahaprabhura Badi (the house of Mahaprabhu). So this day of the year is connected with her holy memory, and we may achieve her Grace if we honor this time in her name, discussing her pastimes. She will be propitiated, and Sri Caitanyadeva will also be pleased with us, giving us a step forward in our transcendental march towards him.
Srila Raghunatha Das Goswami appreciated the acme of divine service, the culminating point of divine service – Radha-dasya, which is servitude unto Srimati Radharani. Therefore, he is called the Prayojanacarya. Srila Sanatana Goswami is generally conceived of by his successors as the Acarya of Sambandha-jnana. Sambandha refers to ‘what is what’ – ‘what is my position in the spiritual hierarchy.’ That was explained most clearly by Srila Sanatana Goswami.
And Abhideya — what we should cultivate in order to attain our objective — was mainly given by Srila Rupa Goswami. He taught us how we can attain fulfillment of our life in the domain of love. And what is particularly the highest point of our attainment, or Prayojana, was very vividly shown by Srila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami. He has given us the highest conception of our attainment in the school of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
What is that? Our best fulfillment is in the service of Sri Radha, because only she can fully attract the grace of Krishna. She is the other half who can draw the maximum of rasa, ecstasy, from Krishna – in quantity as well as in quality. So those who are serving Srimati Radharani get the highest type of qualitative rasa from Krishna in reciprocation for their service. That cannot be had through any other channel. Service that comes through Srimati Radharani is of the highest quality, so her service should be our summum bonum of life.
This was announced clearly by Srila Raghunatha Das Goswami who is considered to be Prayojanacarya, the guide to show us our highest fulfillment of life. By our association with this day and by our humble attempt to discuss all these matters, we may be benefitted in the achievement of our goal. This is the day of the advent of such great personalities.
Today is also the day that Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur departed from this world. He appeared about 180 years after the advent of Gaurangadev. He composed a commentary on Srimad Bhagavatam and many other books to help the devotees coming later in the Sampradaya. He was such a great Acarya. In his own special way, he has dealt elaborately with many spiritual matters, giving the proper approach. He was the sastric or scriptural dispensation of Sri Rupa-Sanatana, etc.By his grace, Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana composed the Sri Gaudiya Vaishnava commentary on Vedanta Sutra, Sri Govinda-bhasya. From such great Masters there is much to be read.
Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti was born in a Brahmana family in Devgram of Murshidabad district. He was a great scholar of sanskrit. He came in the line of Sri Narottama Thakur. He gave us extensive scriptural writings to help us very precisely and elaborately to know about the pastimes of Mahaprabhu and Radha Krishna, Vrindavan, Navadvipa, and the Guru-parampara.
The Guruvastakam we chant daily was written by him, as well as many other important works. Srila Rupa Goswami wrote Sri Bhakti-ramsamrita-sindhu, The Nectarine Ocean of Devotional Joy’ and Srila Visvanatha wrote Sri Bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu-bindu or a drop of that ocean. And from Sri Rupa’s Sri-Ujjvala-nilamani, The Brilliant Jewel of the Supernatural World’ (or Krishna in madhura-rasa) Srila Visvanatha gave Ujjvala-Nilamani-kirana or a ray of that jewel.
In this way, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti has given volumes of books and poems. As Sri Rupa Goswami gave the Asta-kaliya-lila of Krishna, or twenty-four hour service engagement with Sri Sri Radha Govinda, Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti has similarly given in Caitanya-lila tweny-four engagement in the service of Sriman Mahaprabhu. So he has done great service to the sampradaya and profusely bestowed his mercy upon us.
