The heart of the Lord’s most intimate associate.
By Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj
Translated from the original Bengali article
published in honour of Srila Gadadhar Pandit’s
appearance day in Sri Gaudiya Darsan,
Volume 12, Issue 10, 11 May 1967.
The highest perfection in the world of the soul is to relish the rasa of Sri Krishna’s Pastimes. “Raso vai Sah: He is rasa.” As Sri Krishna is playful (lilamaya) and His endeavour to spread rasa is self-manifest, His nature is to outwardly generate spiritual happiness. When Sri Krishna—the Akhila-rasamrta-murtih [the embodiment of the nectar of all rasas], satyam sivam sundaram [the personification of truth, auspiciousness, and beauty]—becomes eager to widely distribute His own Pastimes, He divides Himself into the Pancha Tattva and reveals the supreme greatness of His ecstatic Name, Form, Qualities, Pastimes, and associates.
Srila Kaviraj Goswami Prabhu represented this conception in a verse:
pancha-tattvatmakam krsnam bhakta-rupa-svarupakam
bhaktavataram bhaktakhyam namami bhakta-saktikam
The meaning of this verse is that Sri Krishna manifests with His own energy in five forms and eternally distributes Himself. In connection with such Pastimes, Sri Gauranga appeared with Sri Gadadhar in Sri Nabadwip Dham and began His work at the proper time, while secretly performing Pastimes as a human child.
Sri Gadadhar Pandit remains behind Sri Gauranga like a shadow—he hangs behind the Lord as a slight, unexpressed protest to the Lord’s great campaign of distributing the jewel of divine love from their joint store. Sri Krishna is distributing Sri Radhika’s divine love. Remaining at a distance, Sri Nityananda is giving Him enthusiasm. Sri Advaita, Srivas, and others are busy and happy with the work of distributing the Holy Name. But Sri Gadadhar Pandit’s mood is somewhat independent. He is Sri Gauranga’s eternal associate; he cannot conceal anything from the Lord for even a moment, and yet he cannot be sympathetic to, or happy about, this special endeavour of the Lord [to take and distribute their joint wealth].
First, he objected to Sri Gauranga’s sannyas-lila. He tried to stop the Lord’s sannyas by appealing that His mother needed help. But He could not be left behind by that sannyasi [Sri Gauranga] either. In preaching, where other devotees enthusiastically assist, Sri Gadadhar is a silent observer; he does not want to leave his circle—he prefers his own association, his braminical disposition, and serving separately at home. There, he will serve Sri Gauranga according to his own conception—this is his unavoidable, innermost want and desire. It is as though everyone is getting, but he is loosing. In a phrase, it is as though Sri Gauranga is distributing Sri Gadadhar’s wealth, and Sri Gadadhar feels some discomfort. “Vraja na chhadite pare, Toma na dekhile mare, Vraja-janera ki habe upaya (Cc: Madhya, 13.146): the residents of Vraja cannot leave Vraja, but if they do not see You [Krishna], they will die. So, what can they do?” Gadadhar’s feeling is something like this.
The great souls have said that Sri Krishna performed Pastimes as Sri Gauranga to clear His debt from Vraja-lila. But what is this? In Sri Gauranga and His endeavour to clear His debt is found the hidden intention of creating more debt and remaining sold even longer to whom He is indebted. For this reason in particular, those who are “expert in fine jewels” have recognised Sri Gadadhar Pandit as Sri Radhika.
Om Tat Sat Om.
