Jagat

The appearance and disappearance days of Gadadhar Bhatta Goswami, the disciple and successor of Raghunath Bhatta Goswami, come on successive days, the dwadashi and trayodashi of the dark fortnight in Bhadrapada month. This year that fell on August 28th and 29th. Raghunath Bhatta (1505-1579) was especially noted for his sweet presentation of Srimad Bhagavatam and as the innovator of the Bhagavata vachak tradition in Vrindavan. Gadadhar Bhatta was his successor and to this day his descendants maintain the tradition of preaching from the Bhagavata Purana. Gadadhar Bhatt was a reservoir of all virtues and a bringer of pleasure to all. He was naturally gentleman and a strict follower of the teachings of the acharyas. He was free of flaws like envy and desire, and an ocean of compassion to the less fortunate. It was as though he had taken birth only to awaken exclusive devotion to Radha and Krishna in the people of the world. Once he had come to stay in Vrindavan he never left, absor...

From Vrindavan Today . Yesterday, devotees gathered at the Sudama Kutir in Vamshi Vat to honor the memory of Sudama Das Baba. It has been eleven years since Sudama Dasji entered the eternal Vrindavan, but his impact on the sadhu community is still being felt. Bhagavan Das and Sutikshna Das, his disciples and grand-disciple who succeeded him as Mahants of the ashram, lit the lamp and garlanded the murti of their guru that graces his samadhi shrine. This was followed by speaker after speaker who remembered his commitment to service, to the sadhus, to Mother Cow and to humanity at large. Sudama Das, it was said, embodied the mantra from the Ramananandi tradition that all repeat constantly: bhakta bhakti bhagavanta guru catura nāma vapu eka inake pada vandana kiye nāsaiṁ vighna aneka These four – devotion, the devotee, the Supreme Lord, and the Guru – are one in name and form. By worshiping them, all impediments will be destroyed. Since he founded the Sudama Kutir nearly 9...

Many of Vrindavan’s scholars and sants gathered at the Bhava Sadhana Ashram in Gaura Nagar in order to offer homage to Prabhudatta Brahmachari in a special Guru Puja celebration. Haribol Baba recalled the role that Brahmachariji played in the anti-cow slaughter movement. As a result of his leadership, those devoted to Gomata were united in their efforts to end the mistreatment of cows. Many others remembered the contributions of Prabhudatt Brahmachari to the cause of Hindu nationalism. The following account of Prabhudatt Brahmachari’s life is taken from several sources, but primarily from G. Kamesh’s Athato blog . Prabhudatt Brahmachari was born in 1885 to a poor Brahmin family in a village in Aligarh district. He took a deep interest in Sanskrit studies early in his life and left home to study in various Gurukula including ones in Mathura and Vrindavan, finally ending up in Varanasi where Swami Karpatri Maharaj was one of his co-students. It was when still a young student that...

I have been reading a book by Suryakant Goswami, a sevadhikari at the Bankey Bihari temple, called Nikunj ka rahi, or “Pilgrim to the Secret Grove.” The story is about Bhagavat Rasik Dev, an early 19th century saint of the Haridasi or Sakhi sampradaya. The story is itself of great interest, and the telling is done in good, literary Hindi. Goswami’s descriptions of Vrindavan as it was in the first half of the 19th century fills a reader like myself with nostalgia, though some of the things that he describes — large homes for absentee rich people, for instance — show that certain trends are eternal, only being exacerbated by India’s current economic boom. Bhagavat Rasik Dev was a grand disciple of Lalita Kishori Das, the founder of the Tattiya Sthan. On one of his first days in Vrindavan, after bathing in the Yamuna, he had a vision of Swami Haridas with the Divine Couple sitting in his lap, like in the picture above. But when he came to stay permanently in Vrindavan and took ...

Prabodhananda Saraswati: From Benares to Braj (Part I) Prabodhananda Saraswati: From Benares to Braj (Part II) Prabodhananda, Hit Harivansh and the Radha-rasa-sudha-nidhi (Part I) Prabodhananda, Hit Harivansh and the Radha-rasa-sudha-nidhi (Part II) Prabodhananda in the works of the Radha-vallabhi school Rather unexpectedly for those who only know Prabodhananda in the light of the Gaudiya school and CCA, much light is shed on his identity in the primarily Brajabhasha works of authors of the Radha-vallabhi sect. Hariram Vyas of Orcha, a contemporary of Harivams who had connections to the Gaudiya school through Madhavendra Puri, but whose devotion to Harivams far outstripped that which he felt for Rupa, Sanatan or Chaitanya,( 52 ) poem in praise of Prabodhananda. There he is described as he is best known to the Radha-vallabhi school -- the author of a number of rasika works on devotion to Radha and Krishna in Vrindavan. Vyas indicates that the particular name of the deity to whom ...