Rupa Sanatan: First Encounter

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham, Samadhi-mandir class
13 June 2015

Today is a very auspicious day, Ekadashi tithi, and today I am starting Sanatan-siksa.

জয় জয় শ্রীচৈতন্য জয় নিত্যানন্দ ।
জয়াদ্বৈতচন্দ্র জয় গৌরভক্তবৃন্দ ॥
শ্রীরূপ-সনাতন রহে রামকেলি-গ্রামে ।
প্রভুরে মিলিয়া, গেলা আপন-ভবনে ॥

jaya jaya sri-chaitanya jaya nityananda
jayadvaita-chandra jaya gaura-bhakta-vrnda
sri-rupa-sanatana rahe ramakeli-grame
prabhure miliya gela apana-bhavane

Glory, glory to Sri Chaitanya, glory to Nityananda. Glory to Advaitachandra, glory to all the devotees of Gaura. Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatan stayed in a village called Ramkeli, and after meeting with Mahaprabhu, they went back to their house.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.2-3

Rupa and Sanatan stayed in Ramkeli-gram in Malda district, Gauda Mandal. Mahaprabhu actually went there to rescue them. They both worked for the emperor Hussein Shah (Husain Shah), a Muslim king of that area, and were in charge of a big state and all the property within it. Malda is half way to Siliguri, on the other side of the Ganges, it is maybe 200-300 km from Nabadwip.

We must understand how many obstacles they faced to come to Krishna consciousness, how much they tolerated after joining Krishna consciousness, and how much service they did for Mahaprabhu. We can learn something from them.

When Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami lived in that area, Mahaprabhu went there with a few devotees and started sankirtan. It was a Muslim area, so the king's people stopped the kirtan, but Mahaprabhu still stayed in that area for some time. In the meantime, Rupa and Sanatan heard that somebody tried to start kirtan, and, understanding that it had to be Mahaprabhu, they went to meet with Him.

Meek and humble, they came to Mahaprabhu holding straw in their mouth (দাঁতে তৃণ ধরি', dante trna dhori'). They posed as cows thinking themselves lower, worse than a cow. Seeing them, Mahaprabhu was very sad, "You are very great personalities, I know who you are, and I feel pain seeing your humility." Mahaprabhu spent some time talking with them, and He said to them at that time, "I am going to Vrindavan. You are doing some job now, but when you get free from the illusory environment, from your material job, come and join Me in Vrindavan."

It is written here in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita,

শ্রীরূপ-সনাতন রহে রামকেলি-গ্রামে ।
প্রভুরে মিলিয়া, গেলা আপন-ভবনে ॥
দুই ভাই বিষয়-ত্যাগের উপায় সৃজিল ।
বহুধন দিয়া দুই ব্রাহ্মণে বরিল ॥

sri-rupa-sanatana rahe ramakeli-grame
prabhure miliya gela apana-bhavane
dui bhai visaya-tyagera upaya srjila
bahu-dhana diya dui brahmane varila

Sri Rupa and Sri Sanatan stayed in a village called Ramkeli, and after meeting with Mahaprabhu, they went back to their house. The two brothers then began to devise ways how to give up their material life. They hired two brahmans and paid them a lot of money.

Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila, 19.2-3

The two brothers were thinking how to leave all the material things—how to detach themselves from the material work and things.

This kind of desire should come to us too. If you go too much into material things, the material environment will catch you; but if you want to leave the material things then you must do so that the material environment, maya, is not able to attach you to itself. You must be detached, must have no attachment, asakti-rahita (আসক্তিরহিত). Too much attachment to material things, to family life is a source of problems.

You can understand how much property, wealth, enjoyment Rupa and Sanatan had, but they left everything. They did not want name and fame also, but in the end name and fame followed them: we do not go after name and fame, but name and fame follow those who are sadhus. Prabhupad Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Thakur said, "বৈষ্ণবী প্রতিষ্ঠা তাতে কর নিষ্ঠা, Vaisnavi pratistha, tate koro nistha (you must firmly establish yourself as a servant of the Lord)." Being a great servant of the Lord is also a kind of pratistha, and it comes to great Vaishnavs, to the Guru, Acharya.

So, Rupa Goswami Prabhu and Sanatan Goswami Prabhu were thinking how they would detach themselves from the material life, and they succeeded.

This is one of the teachings given in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita.

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Rupa and Sanatan
• First Encounter
• Running Away
• On the way to
Mahaprabhu
• Finishing Visaya

Rupa-siksa:
• Meeting Mahaprabhu
• Empowering Srila Rupa Goswami
• Rare, Rarer, the Rarest
• The Ultimate Gardening Guide
• Pure Devotion

Santan-sikha:
Sambandha:
• Supreme Personality of Godhead
• The Three Worlds
• Brahmas' Realm
• Krishna's Beauty
Abhidheya:
• Maya's Family
• The Cry of a Surrendered Soul
• Breaking Free
• Delusion of Liberation
• Leaving Ulterior Motive
• When Krishna Gives Mercy
• Awakening Taste for Service
• Full Faith
• Power Transmission
• Surrender in Good Association
• Six Limbs of Surrender
• Sixty-Four Devotional Practices
• Spontaneous Loving Devotion
Prayojan:
• The Path to the Supreme Goal
• Hero and Heroine
• "You Are Mine!"
• The All-Attractive Lord