Lord Vamanadeva and Jiva Gosvami’s Appearance Day

Giriraj Swami: Today is the appearance day of Lord Vamanadeva. He appeared as a dwarf brahman before Bali Maharaja, who had conquered the universe. Because Bali had conquered the universe by strength, such possession was considered rightful, and so the Lord did not think it proper to take it from him by force. Bali Maharaja was charitably disposed toward brahmans, so the Lord appeared as a small brahman and begged three steps of land from him, and Bali agreed. With the first step the Lord covered the whole lower portion of the universe, and with the second step He covered the entire upper portion of the universe. Then He said to Bali Maharaja, “You promised Me three steps, but you have given only two. You are not keeping your word.” Bali Maharaja replied, “No, my Lord, I shall keep my word. Kindly keep Your third step on my head.” Thus he surrendered himself to Vamanadeva, and Vamanadeva blessed him by giving him an entire planet, Sutala-loka, and becoming Bali’s doorkeeper and constant companion. So, by surrendering to the Lord, we don’t lose; rather, we gain. And in the end, if we give our very selves and all that we possess to the Lord, the Lord will give Himself to us. Thus one verse and purport in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam state that the spiritual master should train the disciples in such a way that they surrender everything to the Lord and that the Lord will be pleased to give Himself to the disciple, just as Vamanadeva gave Himself to Bali Maharaja:

tatra bhāgavatān dharmān
śikṣed gurv-ātma-daivataḥ
amāyayānuvṛttyā yais
tuṣyed ātmātma-do hariḥ

“Accepting the bona fide spiritual master as one’s life and soul and worshipable deity, the disciple should learn from him the process of pure devotional service. The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hari, the soul of all souls, is inclined to give Himself to His pure devotees. Therefore, the disciple should learn from the spiritual master to serve the Lord without duplicity and in such a faithful and favorable way that the Supreme Lord, being satisfied, will offer Himself to the faithful disciple.” (SB 11.3.22)

Today is also the appearance day of Srila Jiva Gosvami. He was the nephew of Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami, and he was the main acharya after the disappearance of Sanatana and Rupa Gosvami. It has been described that Lord Chaitanya and His associates opened up a flood of love of Godhead and the flood spread everywhere and that it was Srila Jiva Gosvami who made a channel for the water so that there would be definition to that flow. He codified the teachings of Lord Chaitanya and His associates in his Ṣaṭ-sandarbhas. Srila Prabhupada said that he was the greatest philosopher in the history of the world and that there will never be a philosopher greater than Srila Jiva Gosvami.

Jiva Gosvami made his residence in Vrindavan, in the area of sevā-kuñja, and His worshipable Deities were Radha-Damodara. Of course, years later Srila Prabhupada himself took up residence at the Radha-Damodara Temple and began his efforts to spread Krishna consciousness throughout the world from there, overlooking the bhajana-kutira and samadhi of Srila Rupa Gosvami. (Srila Prabhupada kept his rooms there even after he went to America, and he ordered us to preserve his rooms there even after his disappearance.)

At Radha-kunda there are many temples with pratibhu expansions of Deities from Vrindavan. In other words, there are temples with the same Deities of Vrindavan at Radha-kunda. There is even a Banke Bihari Mandir, as well as temples of Gopinatha, Govinda-deva, and Madana-mohana. And there is a Radha-Damodara temple. The Radha-Damodara temple is situated at the side of Srila Jiva Gosvami’s bhajana-kutira at Radha-kunda. Some years ago one devotee took up the renovation of the Radha-Damodara Temple and bhajana-kutira of Jiva Gosvami at Radha-kunda. He was actually a disciple of a disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, but somehow he was living as a bābājīs at Radha-kunda. Still, he had friendships with many ISKCON devotees, especially with Bhurijana Prabhu and other senior devotees in Vrindavan then. He was actually a nice devotee, and when he undertook the renovations at the Radha-Damodara Temple at Radha-kunda, he requested Mother Arca Vigraha to paint a picture of Jiva Gosvami to be installed in the bhajana-kutira, which she did. But he wanted the identity of the artist to be kept secret, because the bābājīs generally have a prejudice against the foreigners: they don’t accept them as Vaishnavas, and they don’t accept food and other items from them because they fear they will be contaminated by their association. Somehow, however, at the time of the installation of the painting of Jiva Gosvami in his renovated bhajana-kutira, the head of the bābājīs at Radha-kunda came to know that Mother Arca Vigraha was the artist—a lady and a foreigner—and in his speech he glorified her: “This woman has come all the way from South Africa, and has done this painting,” and he started to cry while he was speaking about her. So here we have a photograph of the painting of Jiva Gosvami that she did that is now installed in Jiva Gosvami’s bhajana-kutira at Radha-kunda.

Srila Jiva Gosvami staunchly defended his gurus Srila Rupa Gosvami and Srila Sanatana Gosvami. For example, when a materialistic scholar was on a tour to defeat in debate all other scholars and philosophers, he came to Vrindavan to challenge Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis. They however, were not in the mood to waste time and argue with him about revealed scriptures. Each one said, “Here, I give you my certificate that you have defeated me. Now go.” Then the so-called Sanskrit scholar approached Jiva Gosvami: “Your gurus have signed their certificates, and now I want your certificate.” Jiva Gosvami replied, “No, I am not going to sign any certificate for you. I am going to meet your challenge.” Thus, Jiva Gosvami defeated him—not because he wanted to establish his reputation as a scholar or as a debater, but because he couldn’t bear that this dishonest scholar was falsely advertising that he defeated Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami in arguments on revealed scriptures. Also, through his writings Jiva Gosvami gave scriptural evidence to support the principles taught by Rupa and Sanatana Gosvami.

Sometimes I feel that that is what we have to do for Srila Prabhupada. It happens after the leader departs that there is much doubt, speculation, criticism, and minimization. So sometimes I think of Jiva Gosvami, that collectively we somehow should be able to defend Srila Prabhupada the way he defended Rupa and Sanatana Gosvamis. It is so important for us in so many ways that we do so, and so we pray to Srila Jiva Gosvami for his mercy today.

Hare Krishna.

Srila Jiva Gosvami Prabhu ki jaya!
Sri Vamanavatara ki jaya!
Srila Prabhupada ki jaya!
Nitai-Gaura premānande Hari-Haribol!