Talk:Rupagosvāmi (A. D. 1493-1568)
By Swami Harshananda
Rupagosvāmi lived in A. D. 1493-1568. His elder brother Sanātanagosvāmī[1] and Jīvagosvāmī[2] were the three jewels of Bengal Vaiṣṇavism, a movement started by Srīkṛṣṇa Caitanya[3] on devotion to Kṛṣṇa as the sole means of redemption. Hailing from South India, he and Sanātanagosvāmī went to Bengal and were working as very high state officials under Hussain Shāh, the then ruler of Bengal. They were called Dabīr Khās and Sākar Mallik. Whether these terms meant the designations of the positions they occupied or that they had become Muslims with these names is not clear.
When Srīkṛṣṇa Caitanya, about whom the brothers had heard much and had been completely fascinated by him, visited them, they renounced the world and became his ardent disciples. They then went to and settled down at Vṛndāban[4] as per his directions. Rupagosvāmi was a great scholar and has left 31 treatises on bhakti or devotion. Out of them the following works may be considered as more important:
- Bhakti-rasāmrtasindhu
- Lalitamādhava
- Ujjvala-nīlamani
- Vidagdhamādhava
Both Rupa and Sanātana Gosvāmīs along with their nephew Jivagosvāmī worked hard at Vṛndāban to recognize and reclaim the many places associated with Kṛṣṇa and restore them as places of pilgrimage.
References[edit]
- The Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Swami Harshananda, Ram Krishna Math, Bangalore