Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura

Giriraj Swami: I will begin by saying the maṅgala-ācaraṇa prayers and leading a short kirtan, and then we will speak about Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, whose divine disappearance day is today.

Today we are celebrating Srila Narottama dasa Thakura’s divine disappearance day. Srila Prabhupada said of him; “Narottama dasa Thakura was a great devotee acharya in the disciplic succession of the Gaudiya Vaishnava sampradāya; disciplic succession who are coming down from Lord Chaitanya. Narottama dasa Thakura has written many songs and they are recognized as authority by all the Vaishnavas. He has sung the songs in a simple Bengali language, but the purport and the deep meaning of the songs are very significant.” Srila Prabhupada also said, “The prayers of Narottama dasa Thakura—- this sound, is above the material platform. It is directly from the spiritual platform, and there is no need of understanding the language. It is just like a thunder burst. Everyone can hear the sound of thunder, there is no misunderstanding. Similarly, these songs are above the material platform and they crack like thunder within your heart.” Srila Narottama dasa Thakura ki jaya!

Here is a picture of Narottama dasa Thakura. I also have a special conch shell that was sent by Narottama dasa Thakura to Vrindavan. The history of the conch shell, and how it came to me, is that every year for many years, His Holiness Indradyumna Swami would come to my ashram in Carpinteria, California, just after Gaura-purnima. And then he and I would go together to Laguna Beach, to the Pancha-tattva temple, for the regional Gaura-purnima festival. And Srila Narottama dasa Thakura’s appearance day, is not long before Gaura-purnima. So, one year I had the picture of Narottama dasa Thakura on my altar, and when Indradyumna Swami saw it, he told me that after the Kaituri festival, (which we’ll be discussing in a little while) well, at the Kaituri festival, six pairs of Radha-Krishna Deities were installed. And one pair was Radha Braja Mohan, and that pair was sent to Vrindavan.

The temple of Radha Braja Mohan in Vrindavan was not very well known, and Indradyumna Swami sort of discovered it, for ISKCON devotees. And then he and his party would visit regularly. They would give donations. The temple was very poor, so when Indradyumna Swami saw the picture of Narottama dasa Thakura, he told me about the temple and how poor the temple was, and he asked me if I would donate? So, I made a pretty good contribution. The pujari of the Radha Braja Mohan temple gave this conch shell to Indradyumna Swami, which he in turn gave to me.

The history is, that Narottama dasa Thakura had a disciple in Vrindavan, who was worshipping the Deity, Radha Braja Mohan, and Srila Narottama dasa Thakura sent paraphernalia for the worship of the deity, and included in the paraphernalia was this conch shell. And as Indradyumna Swami says, “We don’t know, the conch shell might have been blown by Srila Narottama dasa Thakura, or it might have been blown by Srila Srinivas Acharya, it might have been blown by Jhanava Mata. . . that’s possible, we don’t know. But we do know, that it was sent personally by Narottama dasa Thakura to Vrindavan for the worship of Sri Sri Radha Braja Mohan.” And it has two pitches—a high pitch and a low pitch. I don’t know if I should blow it. . . (He blows it three times) So, yes, that’s the conch shell that Narottama dasa Thakura sent to Radha Braja Mohan.

So now, we will come to the story of Srila Narottama dasa Thakura; Narottama dasa Thakura is a great acharya, spiritual teacher in our Gaudiya Vaishnava spiritual heritage. He is one of the great acharyas of our sampradāya, particularly after the time of the Gosvamis. The Gosvamis were direct disciples of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and there are six who are especially famous. But there are others who were also present during that time, such as Bhugarbha Gosvami and Lokanath Gosvami. And after them, there was another generation of acharyas who continued the mission of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and particularly three are prominent; Srinivas Acharya, Shyamananda Pandita, and Narottama dasa Thakura. For our line of spiritual preceptors: Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, Baladeva Vidyabhusana, Jagannatha dasa Babaji, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura, and Srila Prabhupada.

Narottama dasa Thakura is most prominent because he is the paramparā guru of Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura. As described in Bhakti-ratnākara; During Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes, at one point when Mahaprabhu was in Kaituri, which is now Bangladesh, He started to call out, “Narottama, Narottama!” nara-utama means topmost man. Just like we have Nara Singha—man lion. So nara-uttama is the topmost human being. But Chaitanya Mahaprabhu didn’t have any associates named Narottama, so the Vaishnavas asked Him; “Who is this Narottama whom you are glorifying, and whose name you are chanting?” and Mahaprabhu replied that, “In this place in the future, a great acharya would appear, and continue the saṅkīrtana mission for all of us.” At that time, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu took His bath in the Padma River which is right by Kaituri, and He invested His spiritual potency with Padma devi. Padma devi, the personified deity of that river, appeared before Him and He gave her charge of His prema, and instructed her to keep it for Him until that time when Narottama would come and take his bath in the river. And when that should happen, she should give that prema to him. So, she asked, “How will I recognize Narottama? So many people come to take bath in the river. . .” And Mahaprabhu replied that when Narottama comes, the river will be over flooded with love.

And so it happened, as Mahaprabhu had predicted, that many years later within a Kayasth family in Kaituri (Kayasth are not royalty but they are aristocracy, a high-class vaishya community, like kings). As a child Narottama was born with all the symptoms of a mahā-puruṣa, a liberated soul. There are symptoms, features of bodily physiognomy, and one can read the personality of a person by their physiognomy. So, this person had all the physical symptoms of a greatly elevated soul. And the jyotish, the astrologer, came to read the chart and he said that this was a very great personality. “He would be a very great man and he would be honored and respected by all for his great learning, but great care should be taken, because there were indications of madness. You should be very careful,” the jyotish said, “He should not go near water, rivers, streams, ponds. . . keep him away from such environment, otherwise he could become mad.”

And so, the child’s parents were very careful to raise him and keep him away from such bodies of water, and they were successful for quite some years, until one day he had a dream that he must immediately go and take his bath in the Padma River. So, in the middle of the night Narottama got out of bed, ran down to the river and dove into that water. Padma devi appeared and gave him the prema that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had left with her for him. And he became completely transformed, he became filled with transcendental ecstasy and manifested the asta-sattvika bhāva, the eight symptoms of transcendental ecstasy. He started to cry, his hair was standing on end, he was trembling, shaking, and shivering, calling out, “Krishna! Krishna!” Calling out the name of Krishna, calling out the name of Gauranga, again and again. Then he returned to the bank of the river and fell unconscious. He was going between consciousness and unconsciousness, exhibiting all the symptoms in the middle of the night, and calling out, “Krishna! Krishna!”

So, the people came running. They heard some commotion and they came running and found that it was the son of the king. He had gone mad! So, his parents came. They thought; “All these years, we were endeavoring to keep him away from the river, but now we have been unsuccessful. . . just see, the prince has gone mad.” So, they kept him inside the palace. They were trying to cure him. They brought a very qualified physician, a kavirāja. He felt Narottama’s pulse and diagnosed the madness. The disease was there, and his parents asked him; “Will you be able to cure him? Will you be able to save him?” And he apologized; “I am very sorry, but there is no cure for prema, or love of God, I cannot help you.” And so Narottama’s parents became very worried.

Narottama was just crying for Krishna. He wanted to see Krishna, to meet Krishna, to be with Krishna, to serve Krishna. He was filled with love for Krishna and for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Nityananda Prabhu appeared to him in a dream and instructed him to go.

And so again, in the middle of the night, he got up, walked out of the house and just started walking toward Vrindavan. Along the way he had another vision of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, instructing him to learn from Jiva Gosvami, who is in Vrindavan, writing his transcendental literature. So Narottama went to Vrindavan and took shelter of Srila Jiva Gosvami, who taught him the science of devotional service, particularly the Bhāgavatam. The science of bhakti as taught by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, by Srila Sanatana Gosvami, by Srila Rupa Gosvami.

Srila Jiva Gosvami is famous in Gaudiya Vaishnava history. And he is famous as the most systematic of the followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. There were two other students, comrades, with whom Narottama was studying; Shyamananda and Srinivas. There are wonderful stories of these other two personalities as well, but today we are focusing on the glories of Srila Narottama dasa Thakura.

After some time in Vrindavan, Narottama became very attracted to the personality of Srila Lokanath Gosvami, who was sometimes called the seventh Gosvami. When Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami was writing Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, he went to the six Gosvamis individually and asked; “Please give me your blessings, I’m going to compile Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, the glories of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Please give me your blessings.” So, they all individually gave their blessings. Sri Sri Radha Madana-mohana also gave Their blessings with the falling of Their flower garland. And he went to Lokanath Gosvami, who was one of the first of the Gosvamis to arrive in Vrindavan, on the order of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He and Bhugarbha Goswami arrived first, before Rupa, Sanatana, Raghunatha, or Gopal Bhatta, sent by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. They were actually from East Bengal, Bangladesh. And finally, after giving up their responsibilities in East Bengal, they came to Navadvipa and said to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; “Now we are surrendered to You, we just want to stay with You and serve You here, in your saṅkīrtana mission.” “I want you to go to Vrindavan,” He told them. So, very reluctantly they dragged themselves away from him and settled in Vrindavan.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had two missions (many missions, internal and external) but of His external missions, the preaching of the chanting of the holy name, and then in Vrindavan, to rediscover the pastime places of the Lord, in His manifest pastime, 5,000 years ago. So, Narottama was entrusted to the Gosvamis, beginning with Bhugarbha and Lokanath Gosvami. Narottama became very attracted to, very inspired by Lokanath Gosvami. When Kaviraja Gosvami asked Lokanath; “Please, bless me to write Caitanya-caritāmṛta,” Lokanath Gosvami said; “Yes, you have my blessings, but you must not mention my name in the book.” So Kaviraja Gosvami was bound by this instruction, that he couldn’t mention Lokanath Gosvami’s name. And thus, it doesn’t appear, although he was contemporary to the other Gosvamis.

So Narottama approached Lokanath Gosvami and requested; “Please accept me as your disciple. Please give me dīkṣā.” But Lokanath Gosvami refused; “No, I’m not accepting any dīkṣā disciple. Please do not entertain this thought any longer, it is not possible.” Narottama was heartbroken, he approached him again and again, and repeatedly Lokanath Gosvami refused him. He tried to render different services to Lokanath but Lokanath always refused those services as well. Finally, he took it upon himself to clean the area of the forest where every morning Lokanath Gosvami would answer nature’s call. Narottama would keep water there. In this way, he was rendering very humble and intimate service to Lokanath. This went on for a whole year. Lokanath didn’t know who was doing it, cleaning the place and keeping water there.

One day Lokanath, who was very old, decided to hide himself in the forest to see who it was that was doing this, which from his perspective was humiliating. And when Narottama came and started to clean the area and make different arrangements, Lokanath called out, “Who is there?” “It is I, Narottama dasa, your servant.” “Why are you doing this? Don’t do this anymore!” And Narottama fell at Lokanath feet and said; “Please accept me as your disciple.”

Lokanath Gosvami was also requested by Jiva Gosvami to accept Narottama. And he had also received other indications that he should make one exception to his rule not to accept any disciples, and he should accept Narottama dasa. And so it was, that he gave initiation to Narottama dasa Thakura. Thus, in Narottama’s song, Śrī-guru-vandanā, which we sing daily during guru-puja; Śrī-guru-caraṇa-padma, kevala-bhakti-sadma,. at the end we have Lokanath lokera Jivana—may the glories of my spiritual master be spread all over the world. Lokanath refers to Lokanath Gosvami, and the literal meaning of Lokanath is ”the Lord of the world.” And so, he glorifies his spiritual master. And indirectly it glorifies Jiva Gosvami, who was his śikṣā-guru.

After some time, the Vaishnavas of Bengal, headed by Jhanava Mata, the wife of Nityananda Prabhu, requested Jiva; “Please, you are there in Vrindavan (At that time, Rupa, Sanatana, Raghunatha Bhatta, Raghunatha dasa and Gopal Bhatta, had all left. Jiva was younger, he was the nephew of Rupa and Sanatana, and so he was the head of the Vaishnavas in Vrindavan), so Jhanava Mata requested him: “You have all these wonderful literatures written by the Gosvamis. In Bengal we are deprived of this nectar, so please make arrangements that we can have this nectar in Bengal.” So, Jiva had all the books transcribed, and then told his three prominent students – Narottama, Srinivasa, and Shyamananda; “Go to Bengal and spread the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, spread the teachings of the Gosvamis everywhere.” He graduated them as his students, and gave each different titles—- Srinivas became Srinivas Acharya, Shyamananda became Shyamananda Pandita, and Narottama became Narottama dasa Thakura. They were given their degrees and sent out preaching with the books.

So, the three traveled from Vrindavan to Bengal by bullock cart. Along the way different adventures took place, including all the books being stolen by a king who was also a dacoit, a thief. That’s another story, a great calamity—all of the books were stolen, what to do? But they were retrieved after much endeavor, and the king was made into a Vaishnava by Srinivas Acharya, who stayed in that kingdom and initiated thousands of disciples, establishing Gaudiya Vaishnavism there. Shyamananda Pandita went on to Orissa, where he established Vaishnavism far and wide, and established temples everywhere. His headquarters were in Gopijana-bhallapur. He also initiated kings. And Narottama returned to Kaituri, where his cousin had become king and inherited his family’s wealth.

Narottama came and sat under a tree outside the village. And when the people saw him, they exclaimed; “Hey, Narottama is back!” The news spread that Narottama had returned and had become a great acharya and devotee and sadhu. So, thousands of people flocked there for his blessings. His nephew also came and laid his fortune at Narottama’s feet. Narottama didn’t accept, of course, but he did have his cousin build a beautiful temple in Kaituri, and use his wealth to organize the first Gaura-purnima festival.

For that festival, invitations were sent all over India. Wherever there were Gaudiya Vaishnavas, followers of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, messengers were sent with invitations. So, for Gaura-purnima, a huge camp was set up with accommodations and prasāda for thousands and thousands of Vaishnavas. All the present acharyas and mahants of that time came, and for days there were discussions of kṛṣṇa-kathā and Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy and siddhanta.

Because all the Gaudiya Vaishnavas were so spread out in different places, and quite isolated from one another, there were different understandings. But through this meeting and iṣṭagoṣṭhī and discussion, together they were able to discuss and understand things in a common way, according to the teachings of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and the Gosvamis. Jhanava Mata presided over the assembly as the honored chairperson. During the day they would discuss, and then in the evening they would have wonderful kirtans.

Many of the bhajans we sing today are Narottama dasa Thakura’s compositions. He had a very very beautiful singing voice. He was a very expert transcendental musician. He developed his own kirtan called garan hati. And our kirtan style is taken from that garan hati style of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Not exactly the same, but derived from it. There are other kirtan styles that are more ornamental, and extensive in their articulation of the syllables, more meditational. But this is faster moving and shorter, more suited to the common mass of people that chant and hear and take the maha-mantra, and the different songs that are there.

So, all of these great personalities were in these wonderful kirtans. Narottama led the kirtans, and his followers played the instruments. And in the middle of one of these kirtans, many exalted devotees, not everyone but many saw the Pancha-tattva appear dancing in ecstasy. Hundreds of devotees saw this with their own eyes. So, an indescribable ecstasy flooded everyone’s heart. The Pancha-tattva appeared in the kirtan and were dancing in great ecstasy and were reciprocating with the loving affection of the Vaishnavas.

Narottama dasa Thakura initiated thousands of disciples, including many caste brahmans. This invoked the anger of the caste brahmans, because Narottama was a Kayasth, a vaishya. How could a vaishya initiate brahmans and be their guru? This was their caste consciousness. Obviously Narottama didn’t think much of this brahman by birth philosophy. And neither did Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

So, the caste brahman communities wanted Narottama punished for this offense, going against dharma, going against Vedic injunctions. And they went to the king and told him; “You are the king, the protector of dharma; you have to punish this heretic for his misbehavior. He has gone against Vedic injunctions, and you have to uphold the Vedic injunctions and punish him.” The king replied; “Well, how can I be sure that what you are saying is true? I’m sure he has his explanation as well. Let us take all the leading pandits of the region and debate with him. If he loses the debate, then we can punish him.” And so it was that the king set out with an army, not only of soldiers but also pandits, toward the place of Narottama dasa Thakura.

While they were on the way, however, some of Narottama’s leading disciples got wind of what was happening, and they didn’t want their guru to be disturbed by this unnecessary debate. They were regularly debating with these caste problems, and they had had enough of it. They didn’t want Narottama to be disturbed by the arrogance of the king and the army and the pandits.

So, it’s a funny story; Two of Narottama’s leading disciples set up a shop along the way, selling commodities that a traveling party would need—leaf cups and plates; clay pots. . . things that they could use for eating. Some of the king’s people came into the village, and the shop was at the entrance up to the village. “Oh, there are plates there, cups. . .” They said and went over and asked; “What is the price?” The shopkeepers responded in very high Sanskrit. So, these brahmans were impressed! “Oh, how do you know Sanskrit?” “What do you mean?” The shopkeepers asked, “Everyone here speaks Sanskrit!” The caste brahmans heard the perfect compositions of sentences and pronunciation of Sanskrit words—- better than theirs! And then and there, the shopkeepers started to debate with them, first about Sanskrit and then about language and logic. And the pandits were feeling very uneasy that these shopkeepers are so learned and eloquent. “We shouldn’t be embarrassed by them defeating us,” they considered. And so they left and reported to the king that it appeared that there were very very learned people in that area. Even the shopkeepers were such great pandits. Imagine how the pandits themselves must be. So, they decided not to humiliate themselves and avoided the encounter with Narottama and his disciples.

There was one great pandit among the cast brahmans, who was causing trouble—Ganga Narayana Cakravarti. He went and debated with Narottama, and Narottama defeated him, and he surrendered and became Narottama dasa Thakura’s leading disciple. There was another great personality—Ramachandra Kaviraja, who was a disciple of Narottama’s associate, Srinivas Acharya. And Narottama was very very attached to his association. They were so intimate, that they would eat from the same plate. They were constantly together. In one song Narottama wrote; “Ramachandra-saṅga mage Narottama-Das.” Narottama dasa always desires the company of Ramachandra Kaviraja.

These two personalities, Ganga Narayana and Ramachandra, were very intimate. Ganga Narayana was a disciple, and so he went in one way to the northeast, to Manipur, to spread Krishna consciousness all over Manipur. Even to this day, in every town and village of Manipur, there are Gaudiya Vaishnava temples with Radha-Krishna Deities, Gaura-Nitai Deities, Jagannatha, Baladeva, and Subhadra. Everyone wears Gaudiya Vaishnava tilak, even though they don’t know exactly what it is. This is all due to the preaching of Narottama dasa Thakura’s disciple—Ganga Narayana Cakravarti, and with him was Ramachandra Kaviraja.

At one point, Srinivasa Acharya decided that he would go from Vishnupur, where he had recovered those stolen books, to Vrindavan, to see his guru Gopal Bhatta Gosvami. And he wanted his disciple Ramachandra Kaviraja to go with him. So, he sent a note to Narottama; “I’m going on a pilgrimage and I want my disciple Ramachandra to come with me.” Narottama was heartbroken that his intimate companion, friend, and associate was going. Ramachandra had to go; it was the order of his guru. And after Ramachandra left, Narottama became internally absorbed. And when they were in Vrindavan, Srinivasa Acharya left his body and entered into samadhi. And almost immediately thereafter Ramachandra Kaviraja also entered into samadhi.

When the news came back to Narottama dasa Thakura’s disciples in Katuri, they were in a great dilemma. They had to inform Narottama that Ramachandra had entered into samadhi. But at the same time, they knew that if they informed him, he would also enter into samadhi. So, it was very difficult for them. But they had an obligation—- their guru would want to know, and he would be angry if they didn’t inform him. So they informed him and predictably, he felt completely lost in the absence of his dear friend and associate. He entered into samadhi. And so, full of woe, his disciples started to prepare the funeral pyre. They were placing his body into the funeral pyre, and some caste brahmans came and started saying; “Just see this Narottama! He made such an offense of initiating brahmans, and now the Lord has punished him justly by killing him!” They were speaking in this way. The disciples were so hurt, hearing this harsh criticism of their guru. Ganga Narayana Cakravarti and the other disciples started to pray; “Dear Narottama dasa Thakura, this person is criticizing; surely they are paving their way to hell! Will you not give them your mercy? Will you not deliver them?” This is a very elevated prayer, rather than thinking; “Will you not kill them, or punish them?”

So Narottama came back to life! Sat up on the funeral pyre, got down and initiated those brahmans! They paid their obeisances to him and completely surrendered to him. He initiated them, but he was still grieving the loss, the departure of Ramachandra Kaviraja, and so sometime later he was taking bath in the Padma River with his disciples, and instructed them; “I want you to pour water over me and don’t stop.” So, they poured water over him and he started to melt, to turn into milk actually. And as they were pouring, he was dissolving. . . and so it was impossible for them that, “Here we are, the ones who are causing our guru to disappear. . . but at the same time, we have been ordered not to stop!” And so, with tears in their eyes, they continued to pour the sacred water over him, and their guru was dissolving, turning into milk.

Someone took a lota of that milk. And if you go to Kaituri, to this day, you can see the temple with its deities that were installed during the Gaura-purnima festival. You can see the dhood samadhi of Narottama dasa Thakura, where that milk was placed into samadhi, and a memorial was constructed.

Srila Narottama dasa Thakura ki jaya!

So, my dear devotees, thank you for joining us on this auspicious occasion, of Srila Narottama dasa Thakura’s divine disappearance day.

Devotee: In the prayer, Sri Guru Vandana, Narottama dasa Thakura writes that the spiritual master is the Lord, birth after birth. How does that relate to—let’s say a disciple of Srila Prabhupada—how does that work? Does someone have multiple births?

Giriraj Swami: Well, if I’m your Lord, if you accept me as your spiritual master, and I’m your Lord birth after birth, and if Srila Prabhupada is my Lord birth after birth—that means that Srila Prabhupada is also your Lord birth after birth. There is no contradiction. In fact, here it said that everything that exists in the material world also exists in the spiritual world, in its original pure form.

Once I asked Srila Prabhupada’s disciple, Pradyumna; (This is just after Srila Prabhupada left) “We have pride in the material world, so what is pride in the spiritual world?” And Pradyumna Prabhu replied that pride in the spiritual world is that, “I am the servant of the servant of the servant of the servant. . . I’m the last in the line. So my pride is, I’m the last in the line. I have the most masters to serve!” So, that is our pride, that we are the last in the line, and we have the most masters to serve!

Thank you very much, we can conclude by offering Vaishnava praṇāms.