Hare Krishna

This prayer by Srinivas Acharya is in glorification of the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan. One of my God brothers in the early 70’s accepted the renounced order of life, sanyas initiation from Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada instructed him to study very carefully these eight prayers by Srinivas Acharya. Because the true spirit of the sanyasi or one in the renounced order is very perfectly revealed by the example of these Six Goswamis. Krishna in his full fledged opulence, the original Personality of Godhead appears in this age of Kali as Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabu. The original form of Krishna seeking to taste the nectar of Radha’s love as Lord Caitanya appears only once in a day of Brahma. That is well over a billion years. So when Srila Prabhupada would say that Lord Caitanya appeared only just recently only 500 years ago, we should understand how fortunate we are that we are in a disciplic succession that is still so internally close to the descent of the Lord in this world.

Audio time

Lord Caitanya, Lord Nityananda are supremely merciful. They are giving the highest gift of the spiritual love of Vrindavan to everybody through the simple process of chanting Harinaam. Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu, personally only wrote eight verses that are still amongst us today. We find other great acharyas have written extensively. Shankracharya, Madhavacharya, Ramanujacharya but Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu he gave us Siksastakam. In order to establish our teachings through transcendental literature, he entrusted this mission with his intimate associates especially the Six Goswamis. At Prayag, the confluence of Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati, Lord Caitanya extensively instructed Rupa Goswami for ten days in the science of Krishna consciousness. He explained the highest perfections of the realizations of the spiritual world and how to attain it from the most basic platform of conditioned life. 

It was at the ‘Dasaswamedh Ghat’ at Prayag that Caitanya Mahaprabhu embraced Rupa Goswami and in doing so invested within the heart of Sri Rupa His own intense ecstasies of love of God. And then instructed him to go to Vrindavan to write books extracting the essence of all knowledge from the Vedas, to present the science of devotion, which culminates in the love of the residents of Vrindavan. He instructed Sanatana Goswami for two months on the bank of the Ganges in Kashi and gave him the same mission in Vrindavan. The first meeting of Rupa and Sanatana is a very great and significant part of the history of our Sampradaya.   Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu always wanted to go to Vrindavan. After He took initiation in Gaya from Srila Ishwar Puri He began to manifest His ecstasies of Radha’s love. In the night when all the students were sleeping He began to run in an ecstatic trance to Vrindavan Dham. A celestial voice from the sky spoke to Him, “ You are the Supreme Personality of Godhead, You have descended in order to inaugurate the Harinaam sankirtan movement and give love of Godhead to all. You should not come to Vrindavan now, You should go to Nawadwip to start the Harinaam movement with the devotees and later You may go to Vrindavan.” So He put aside His own burning desire to preach to others. In Sri Nawadwip Dham he made the whole town crazy with ecstatic love with Harinaam sankirtan. But there were certain proud persons who were not willing to offer Him respect or hear what He said. So to preach them He took sanyas because anyone who would offer respect to Him would get mercy. So it was in Katwa that He accepted the renounced order from Sri Keshava Bharati Maharaj. After He received the Mantra and His name Sri Krishna Caitanya, he immediately started running to Vrindavan. Keshava Bharati and everyone else came with Him. After some way Keshava Bharati was mad with ecstatic love, dancing and chanting the whole way was told by Lord Caitanya to return with all of his followers. Nityananda Prabhu knew Lord Caitanya’s real heart. He wanted to please His devotees. His devotees in Nawadwip and Shantipur were on the verge of death in separation from Him after he took sanyas. So he brought Lord Caitanya to Shantipur after inviting all the devotees of Nawadwip including Sachimata to meet Him. Sachimata and devotees requested, “Please do not go to Vrindavan, live in Puri, Vrindavan is far away but Puri is close by.” Again He gave up His desire for the welfare and satisfaction of His devotees. After His South Indian tour He expressed His great longing to go to Vrindavan but He would not go without the blessings of the Vaishnavas. So they gave blessings as long as they could come also. But Gadhadara Pandit He would not allow to come because he made a vow to never to leave the place where his deity was worshipped, Tota Gopinath. 

So on His route to Vrindavan He mysteriously took another direction. He came to the place called Ramkeli. Ramkeli was a very great capital for the Nawab Hussain Shah, the king of Bengal. Nawab Hussain Shah was a very ruthless cruel man. He was a fanatic. And the Hindus feared him, he outlawed all public expression of Hindu’s faith. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came dancing and singing with millions of people into Ramkeli. Haribol! But just by hearing about the incredible symptoms of the love and bodily features of Lord Caitanya, Nawab Hussain Shah’s heart melted. The Lord performed kirtan for many many hours. When the kirtan finally ended by the request of the devotees, He went to rest under a tamal tree and a kadamba tree. In the middle of the night the chief ministers of the Nawab Hussain Shah came to meet secretly Lord Caitanya. They were originally Brahmans born in the Saraswat dynasty. They came in a line of very very great learned pure hearted Brahman Vaishnavas. But for inconceivable reasons they were obliged to take to service of the meleccha king. Because it is such a excellent job, because they were so kind and gentle the king loved them like his own brother and he awarded them very high titles according to the Muslim faith. He gave them the names Sakar Mullick and Dabir Khas.  Not only that he divided his kingdom with them. In the sense he gave them large tracts of land and built beautiful mansions for them. He gave them extraordinary mounds of wealth and great great power within the kingdom and it’s administration. However they were never happy. They wanted simply to engage in devotional service. In fact their parents, mother and father were praying to Lord Krishna, “Please save our children from this abominable materialistic life and give them devotional service.” They wrote letters to Lord Caitanya asking, “What should we do, we understand You are the Supreme Lord, please save us.” The Lord wrote them one letter in return, “as a wife serves her husband very carefully when she is in love with another man, similarly you should serve the King but always remember Krishna.” 

So Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu in the middle of the night was approached by three brothers, Rupa, Sanatana who were then Dabir Khas, Sakar Mullick and their younger brother Sri Vallabha. First they approached Nityananda Prabhu and Haridas Thakur. After receiving their blessings and mercy, Nityananda Prabhu and Haridas Thakur brought them in for the darshan of Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu. The three brothers with clothes around their neck and straw between their teeth, in the spirit of humility they fell down like sticks at the Feet of Lord Caitanya. They offered prayers of such humility that any stones in the area had to melt. In fact their prayers melted the heart of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and made Him cry. They declared themselves to be the most sinful and the most fallen, addicted to materialistic ways and always absorbed in serving melechhas and yavanas. They declared themselves to be more sinful than even Jagai and Madhai. Why? They may have done all sinful activities but they never served melechhas and yavanas like we do. We are in a hopeless condition. We have no right for any mercy, You are ‘patita pavana’. For us to expect Your mercy is like a dwarf expecting to touch the moon with his finger.  But still we have no other hope. If You bestow Your Mercy upon us You will really be understood as ‘patita pavana avataar’. Please save us, we surrender to you. Lord Caitanya embraced them, placed His feet on their heads and He gave them the names Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami and Anupama. 

This wonderful interaction according to Bhakti Ratnakar was observed by the son of Anupama. He was a very very tiny child. His name was Jiva. If you go to Ramkeli, not far from the kadamba tree and tamala tree where the footprint of Lord Caitanya is, where He personally gave His mercy to Rupa and Sanatana, there is a small temple with the deity of Jiva Goswami there. That was the place where Sri Jiva Goswami had the darshan of Lord Caitanya and heard the wonderful dialogues between Him and his uncles and his father. Soon after that Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu left Ramakeli the next morning but on the advise of Rupa and Sanatana He did not go to Vrindavan, but He went back to Puri. Because they said that so many people going to Vrindavan with You, it will not make You satisfied. The three brothers Rupa, Sanatana and Anupama they hired very first class brahman’s to perform Yagya’s specifically for the purpose of freeing them from their government service so that they could do full time service for Lord Caitanya. Rupa Goswami and Anupama left their service. They began traveling to Vrindavan. On the way they met Lord Caitanya who was coming back from His trip to Vrindavan at Prayag. Then they went to Vrindavan on the Lord’s instructions. With the permission of the Lord and with intense separation they left Vrindavan to meet Lord Caitanya in Jagannath Puri. 

 

Meanwhile, the child Jiva was in the care of his mother. He was a very special child. From the moment he saw Lord Caitanya and his father and uncles together a very very deep attachment awakened in his heart. Due to the darshan of Gaur Nitai he developed a very intense love for Krishna Balarama. He had little Krishna Balarama deities. He had no inclination to play with the other children. His only happiness in life was serving Krishna Balarama. With his own hands he would make garlands for them with flowers, he would personally decorate them with nice clothes and ornaments and he would always offer food to Krishna and Balarama. He would personally arrange preparations to offer to his deities. He would make sandalwood pulp and decorate their feet and would smear it upon their body, he would offer little arti’s to his deities, he would sing and he would dance, he was inseparable from Krishna and Balarama. As a small child even when he would go to sleep he would go to sleep embracing Krishna Balarama. He simply could not be separated from them. While Sri Rupa Goswami and father of Jiva Goswami, Anupama were traveling to Puri, when they reached Bengal, Anupama gave up his life. He left his body on the bank of the Ganga. When I say he gave up his life it doesn’t mean purposely, for whatever reason he left his body on the banks of Ganga. Rupa Goswami performed the last rites. 

When his son Sri Jiva heard the news of his father he lost any inclination for material life. He was feeling intolerable separation from his father and his two uncles. His only desire in life was to renounce everything of this world and go to join his two uncles Rupa and Sanatana. Day and night as he would be serving Krishna Balarama he would be praying to renounce everything of this world. When Rupa and Sanatana Goswami finally met together in Vrindavan it was Jiva Goswami’s only aspiration in life to serve them. One night when he was sleeping, he had a beautiful dream. It was a divine vision. He saw Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s sankirtan party. Lord Caitanya and his devotees chanting and dancing in great ecstasy. Then the dream broke and he awoke up in great separation from what he had just seen. But then there was another dream. He saw Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda mercifully bestowing their intimate blessings upon him. And then Lord Nityananda transformed into his deity of Balarama and Lord Caitanya transformed into his deity of Krishna. When people saw little Jiva they were astonished. He was so beautiful. According to the scriptures there is description of supernatural divine spiritual beings called ‘mahapurusha’s’.  He had all of these extraordinarily beautiful qualities. He was so very very learned in the science of devotional service. He had no inclination for anything except Bhakti. And day and night he would just be weeping and crying in separation from the Lord. The Lord revealed to him that it was time for him to leave home. He really deeply wanted to go to Nawadwip to see the places of Lord Caitanya’s lila. He had heard the news that Nityananda Prabhu was visiting there. So somehow or other he told his family member’s, “ I am going to visit our ancestral home for sometime.” They were thinking it meant their family’s ancestral home but actually he was speaking about our sampradaya’s. (Laughter). So he was speaking absolute truth. So they gave him blessings and instead of going to Fatiabad he told the boatman, “take me to Nawadwip.” In Nawadwip he was searching for Lord Nityananda. Nityananda Prabhu was staying at the house of Srivas Thakur. He knew in His heart that Jiva has come. He sent Srivas Thakur to bring him. Jiva Goswami came and surrendered his life at the Lotus Feet of Lord Nityananda who placed His Lotus feet on his head. Jiva Goswami prayed that, “ No one can approach Lord Caitanya without Your mercy, I surrender to You.” Lord Nityananda Prabhu out of his great mercy invited Jiva Goswami to go on Parikrama of the nine islands of Nawadwip. This Nawadwip Dham parikrama is described in Bhakti Ratnakar as well as in Nawadwip Mahatmaya by Thakur Bhakti Vinod. From Srivas angam where Jiva Goswami learned about beautiful nocturnal kirtan’s of Lord Caitanya and His devotees, the Lord brought him to Yogapeeth the birthplace of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. There Sacimata and Vishnu Priya Devi mother and ex-wife of Lord Caitanya were waiting or him, grieving in separation from the Lord. Sacimata and Vishnupriya personally cooked prasad and offered it to Jiva Goswami with their own hands. And Sacimata’s assistant Vamshivadana who was incarnation of Krishna’s flute also gave great hospitality and comfort to Nityananda, Jiva Goswami and Srivas. In this way Nityananda Prabhu took Jiva Goswami from place to place where Lord Caitanya and His associates performed their lila’s. Due to the intense experience of separation of these devotees for the Lord at times Lord Caitanya actually personally appeared with His associates to perform kirtan with Jiva Goswami and Nityananda Prabhu. After this blessed parikrama of Sri Nawadwip Dham, Nityananda Prabhu instructed Jiva Goswami. “Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu has given Vrindavan to your family, you should go to Sri Vrindavan to join your uncles Sri Rupa and Sanatana Goswami. But on the way stop in Varanasi to study the Vedic literatures.” 

This is a very interesting subject matter. The glory of Lord Nityananda Prabhu. We find that Rupa and Sanatana Goswami first came to Nityananda Prabhu and He brought them into Lord Caitanya. At Panihati, Raghunath Das Goswami surrendered to the feet of Lord Nityananda Prabhu and by His blessings he achieved shelter the feet of Lord Caitanya. The author of our Sri Caitanya Caritamrita, Srila Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami it was by his service to Nityananda Prabhu that he received Nityananda Prabhu’s blessing and the order to go to Vrindavan. So in order to approach Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu the blessings of Lord Nityananda Prabhu is required. So on His order Jiva Goswami went to Varanasi. There Varanasi is actually a place according to the scriptures which is a confluence of two rivers, the Varana and the Nasi. It is also known as Kashi the abode of Shiva. There Sri Jiva Goswami studied under Madhusudana Vachaspati. He was a personal student of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, and a very very great learned scholar. Jiva Goswami mastered all of the subjects he was taught and even Madhusudana Vachaspati his teacher was glorifying him all over Varanasi. Soon his name and his fame spread not only through Varanasi but all over India. At that time he was hardly twenty years old and he had mastered the Vedic scriptures and the Vedanta philosophy. He could speak eloquently and he possessed all virtuous divine personal qualities. 

After perfecting his training he left everything behind to go to Vrindavan. The nephew of Rupa and Sanatana when he arrived there was great joy in everyone’s heart. He was the last of the Six Goswami’s to come to Vrindavan. To greet him was Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, Raghunatha Das Goswami, Gopal Bhatta Goswami, Raghunath Bhatta Goswami, Bugharbha Goswami, Lokanath Goswami, Kashiswara, Subuddhi Ray, many great Vaishnavas. He became most intimately loved by all. He approached Sanatana Goswami for initiation. But Sanatana Goswami out of his natural humility instructed him to take initiation from his younger brother Sri Rupa Goswami. For the pleasure of Sanatana Goswami, Rupa Goswami accepted Jiva Goswami. But he wanted to train him properly. He would not give him initiation until he proved himself to be a true Vaishnava. Although Jiva Goswami was such an incredibly learned scholar, Rupa Goswami gave him very simple menial services to perform. To wash the vessels after Rupa Goswami did his puja, to clean the temple and the areas where Rupa Goswami did his worship, he would go to pick flowers and make garlands, to assist Rupa Goswami in his writings he would go out and collect palm leaves and prepare it into the proper form for Rupa Goswami to do his writings, he would massage Rupa Goswami’s feet and his legs and do all such very simple menial services. When Sri Rupa Goswami was satisfied with his character he gave him formal initiation. 

 

It is explained that once a great scholar who was traveling around the whole country challenging people to debate came to Vrindavan. His name was Rupa Narayan. He approached Rupa and Sanatana Goswami and challenged them to a debate on scriptural topics. Rupa and Sanatana Goswami did not want to waste their time with such mundane debates. So they said, “You know we are not so learned, why should you waste your time with us?” “Ah!” Rupa Narayan said, “if you are not, you either fight with me or you sign my ‘vijaya patra’, you sign Rupa Narayan defeated me.” He had signatures of all scholars. They were so humble, they said, “You heard we are great scholars, these are just exaggerations, we are not scholars. We will sign we have been defeated, why should you waste your time with us?” He (Rupa Narayan) heard the stories of the scholarship of young boy Jiva. That time he was in his early twenties. So he decided to challenge him to a debate. I have already defeated your Guru. Here is his signature. Jiva Goswami was very upset. This rascal, with humility Rupa and Santana signed and now he will spread all over the world that he defeated them. So for the exclusive purpose of defending the honor of his spiritual master and the sampradaya he accepted the challenge. They debated for seven days on the banks of the Yamuna. And then Srila Jiva Goswami was victorious. Rupa Narayan left Vrindavan in shame never to come back. So Jiva Goswami came to report to Rupa Goswami. Although pleased in his heart externally Rupa Goswami wanted to teach the world the glories of Jiva Goswami. He wanted to teach the world a great lesson too. Be prepared if you understand this lesson you will go back to Godhead. If you do not understand this lesson you cannot go back to Godhead. Would you like to hear the lesson? Haribol! Rupa Goswami appeared very displeased and he chastised Jiva Goswami. He said, “why did you waste your precious time in this mundane debate with this mundane scholar? It is because of your desire for prestige, false pride has entered your heart and no one with even a scent of false pride is fit to live in Vrindavan. So you should leave this place. Hare Krishna! Jiva Goswami was so humble, he accepted Guru’s chastisement as the truth, he considered that I am so proud that I have made this great offense. He left Vrindavan to a place called Nandaghat in a lonely place on the banks of Yamuna. And there for practically one year he lived in a hole in a ground just weeping and crying and chanting the Holy Names constantly to atone for his sins of false pride. Sanatana Goswami came there and saw his condition and brought him back to Vrindavan. By that time he was so sickly and emaciated. Sanatana Goswami approached Rupa Goswami and said, “There is one principle of Lord Caitanya that I do not think you are following properly.” Rupa Goswami very humble, “oh please tell me how I can improve.” They went through the cardinal teachings of Lord Caitanya. Naamruchi, Vaishnava Seva and Jiva Doya, mercy to Jiva’s. So Rupa Goswami understood what he was saying, so Rupa Goswami out of his kindness personally brought Jiva Goswami to his own Bhajan kutir and with his own hands nursed him back to health. 

According to Bhakti Ratnakar there is another story very similar to this.   Jiva Goswami was fanning Rupa Goswami with chamara. At that time Vallabha Bhatt a great scholar, he came to visit Rupa Goswami and Rupa Goswami was reading to him his Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu draft. Vallabha Bhatt gave some suggestions that certain of the Sanskrit grammar was not correct. Rupa Goswami was so humble, just gave Vallabha Bhatta manuscript, you please correct it. Meanwhile Jiva Goswami was fanning, Guru Maharaj I want to take bath in Yamuna, so he sent him to Yamuna where he met Vallabha Bhatt. With great respect actually there is no faults in Rupa Goswami’s literature. Vallabha Bhatt said that it is a perfect literature but still it can be improved in this way. Jiva Goswami explained to him how it was perfect with such scholarship. Vallabha Bhatt gave back to Rupa Goswami gave him the manuscripts and said there is no need to correct anything. And then Vallabha Bhatta told Rupa Goswami that your student your disciple Jiva Goswami he is a great scholar, he is the one who explained these things to me. Rupa Goswami called for Jiva Goswami. He is a very senior Vaishnava he wanted to do some seva, why have you done like this? Prestige, you cannot live in Vrindavan. So he went to Mathura and in a little hut there he performed severe tapasya until Sanatana found him there and brought him back. 

Srila Prabhupada explains that Sahajiyas, prakrita sahajiyas who are very incorrect in their thinking, they have three accusations against Jiva Goswami. One is they say that he was proud in defeating Vallabha Bhatt and Rupa Narayana, but actually we understand that there was no pride at all. He was simply defending the honor of his Guru. Srila Prabhupada explains for one’s own honor one should be humble as a blade of grass but for the honor of other Vaishnavas one should be very very strong. Just like Lord Caitanya was humble like a blade of grass and tolerant like a tree whenever there was offences to him but when there was an offence to Lord Nityananda he was angry as fire to defend him. So through this incident Jiva Goswami established actually the highest principle of humility. 

Another accusation that Prabhupada and Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur point out that the sahajiyas in order to minimize Jiva Goswami they say that when Krishandas Kaviraj Goswami wrote Sri Caitanya Caritamrta and Jiva Goswami saw and he saw it was such a good book he threw it into a well. And Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami seeing his life’s work thrown in a well he dropped dead. But this is bogus nonsense blasphemy that has no historical merit whatsoever. 

And also he is criticized for accepting the swakiya ras of Krishna in Gopi’s. Parakiya ras the highest sweetest love of the spiritual world is the love of paramour’s. But Jiva Goswami knowing the deviant mentality of sahajiya’s, they would exploit this conception. And also there were a certain class of sincere devotees who could not understand the concept so Jiva Goswami actually explained things in terms of swakiya ras or married relationships although he supported the ultimate conclusions of parakiya ras. So Jiva Goswami he became dearest, the very life of all the Vaishnavas. 

Sri Rupa Goswami loved him so dearly that with his own hands he carved a deity out of stone. That hand carved stone of Rupa Goswami was named Radha Damodar. Rupa Goswami worshipped that deity. Then out of love for his nephew and disciple he entrusted the worship of Radha Damodar to Jiva Goswami. The loving worship between Jiva Goswami and his deities is described in the Vaishnava literatures. When Jiva was in another room performing his service, the deity of Damodar would play his flute. Jiva would hear it and run to that place and he would see the deity playing the flute and dancing, right in front of his eyes. In this way Jiva Goswami served Radha Damodar ‘pran dhana he’ as his life and soul. 

When Sri Rupa and Sanatana Goswami disappeared from this world, they entrusted the leadership of this sampradaya to Sri Jiva Goswami and all of the Vaishnavas accepted that. Sri Jiva Goswami was so influential, it is said that even the Emperor Akbar when he met him his heart melted. And actually gave all support to the development of Vrindavan. It was at that time that Vrindavan was just flourishing. Radha Govinda temple was being built by Raja Man Singh for Rupa Goswami. Krishna Das Kapur built the Radha Madan Mohan temple for Sanatana Goswami. There were beautiful temples being built for Radha Gopinath, Radha Ramana and Sri Jiva Goswami personally designed and had built the temple of Sri Sri Radha Damodar. 

At that temple of Radha Damodar, Rupa, Sanatana and all the Goswami’s would regularly meeting. In fact he built the temple right at the place of the Samadhi mandir of Sri Rupa Goswami. Sri Jiva Goswami presided over the event of putting Rupa Goswami in his Samadhi. Just next to the place where Rupa Goswami personally did his bhajans for many years in the Seva Kunj area of Vrindavan Dham where Krishna’s ras lila takes place.

 Sri Jiva Goswami also built a library where all the Goswami’s and their associate’s literature would be kept. And he was personally deputed and empowered to scientifically present Krishna consciousness. He personally wrote over twenty-five books. He composed over 400,000 perfect Sanskrit shlokas. In his Sat Sandarbha’s, the six Sandarbha’s he philosophically, logically, scripturally proves every aspect of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s teachings. In Gopal Champu he explains in great detail with sublime realization the wonderful pastimes of Krishna. In Hari Namamrita Vyakarna he explains how to learn Sanskrit, exclusively on the basis of Krishna’s lila and Krishna’s Names. Prabhupada says one who learns Sanskrit from this book also becomes a great Vaishnava. Then he wrote many commentaries of Rupa and Sanatana Goswami’s literatures. Srila Prabhupada explains that of all philosophies in the world the Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy is the highest and the most scientific and complete. And of all the philosophers of the Gaudiya Sampradaya, Jiva Goswami is the greatest. He is declared to be the greatest philosopher in the entire history of the world. In fact one of the most prestigious universities in India, the Hindu Benares University has an entire department dedicated to studying the books of Jiva Goswami. Some of our greatest acharyas were sending their best students to study under Jiva Goswami. Lokanath Goswami personal associate of Lord Caitanya sent Narottam Das Thakur. Gopal Bhatt Goswami sent his disciple, his best disciple Srinivas Acharya. Hridaya Caitanya of Ambika Kalna, he sent Shyamananda Goswami. Jiva Goswami systematically trained them and ultimately it was Jiva Goswami who sent them on their first book distribution party, to take the great books of the libraries of Vrindavan to Bengal and Orissa, to be copied, printed and distributed. 

So on this most glorious day of the appearance of Sri Jiva Goswami it is our great honor to try to speak something about his glorious life. In fact our beloved Srila Prabhupada when he wanted to prepare himself for his world mission he made his residence at the Radha Damodar temple. Today they worship the deities of Jiva Goswami, to daily pray at the Samadhi Mandir’s of Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami. It was in the environment of Jiva Goswmai’s eternal home that Srila Prabhupada spent six years translating Srimad Bhagawatam in deep prayer. So let us on this very auspicious day offer our heart’s commitment and appreciation to Srila Prabhupada, for so kindly bringing us the glorious teachings of Sri Jiva Goswami. If you are to read Sri Jiva Goswami’s books specially the Sandarbha’s you will be amazed. The same examples, the same way he explains things, is exactly how Srila Prabhupada explains in his books and lectures throughout. In such a simple and direct and profound way Srila Prabhupada has given us the teachings of Sri Jiva Goswami and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. So let us bow at the Lotus Feet of Sri Jiva Goswami on this most Holy day and celebrate by performing Naam sankirtan. This is our last kirtan together this year at Prabhupada desh. So everyone please dance very nicely.

I will be singing.