Sri Rupa Goswami

Sri Rupa Goswami
By Gauridasa Pandita Prabhu

Today is the disapperance day of Sri Rupa Goswami and Gauridasa Pandita

Sri Rupa Goswami

Gaudiya Vaisnava’s, Devotees today and in the future are known as Rupanugas, followers of Sri Rupa Gosvami. Every devotee should aspire to become a servant of the servant of the lotus feet of Sri Rupa Gosvami. Sri Narottama Dasa Thakura sings, sri-rupa-manjari-pada, se more sampada, sei mor bhajana pujana: “The feet of Sri Rupa-manjari (Rupa Gosvami’s eternal form as Sri Radha’s maidservant in Vraja) are my only wealth. They are the only object of my service and worship.”

Srila Rupa Goswami was an incarnation of Rupa Manjari, the most important of the eight confidential maidservants of Srimati Radharani in the spiritual world. It is said that without taking shelter of Srila Rupa Goswami one cannot enter into the pastimes of Lord Chaitanya, and without taking shelter of Rupa Manjari one cannot enter into the confidential loving pastimes of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna.

Six Goswami’s of Vrindavan

“I offer my respectful obeisances unto the six Gosvamis–Sri Rupa Gosvami, Sri Sanatana Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, Sri Jiva Gosvami, and Sri Gopala Bhatta Gosvami–who cast off all aristocratic association as insignificant. To deliver poor, conditioned souls, they accepted loincloths and became mendicants, but they were always merged in the ecstatic ocean of the gopis’ love for Krsna, and they were always bathing repeatedly in the waves of that ocean.”

“The six Gosvamis, namely, Sri Sanatana Gosvami, Sri Rupa Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha Bhatta Gosvami, Sri Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, Sri Jiva Gosvami, and Sri Gopala Bhatta Gosvami, are very expert in scrutinizingly studying the revealed scriptures with the aim of establishing eternal religious principles for the benefit of all human beings. They are always absorbed in the mood of the gopis and are engaged in the transcendental loving service of Radha and Krsna.” (Sad-gosvamy-astaka 2)