Who is Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī?

by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda

Who is Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī?

Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī is an eternal associate of Bhagavān. He is the spiritual master of the whole world (jagad-guru) and the emperor among the devotees. In śrī kṛṣṇa-līlā, he is the maidservant of Śrīmatī Rādhikā named Śrī Rūpa Mañjarī. Śrī Rūpa Prabhu is an intimate associate of Śrī Gaurāṅga. His existence does not stem from jīva-tattva (the existential principle of the atomic living soul), but from svarūpa-śakti-tattva (the existential principle of the supreme, internal potency of reality), which is the master of jīva-tattva. He is the beloved associate of Śrī Rādhā, the daughter of Vṛṣabhānu Mahārāja.

There is a speciality of Śrī Rūpa Prabhu among the other devotees of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. He is extremely dear to Śrī Gaurāṅga-sundara. Śrīla Rūpa Prabhu knew the innermost moods of Śrī Gaurasundara’s heart to such an astounding degree that his calibre of excellence in serv

Tomorrow, that is 13th April in India, is the Disappearance of Srila Abhirama Thakura. ISKCON Desire Tree states the date as 12th April. In any case, I did a little search on what Prabhupad has to say, and he elaborates in his purport to Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, 11.13:

TEXT 13
TEXT
śrī-rāmadāsa āra, gadādhara dāsa
caitanya-gosāñira bhakta rahe tāṅra pāśa
SYNONYMS
śrī-rāmadāsa—Śrī Rāmadāsa; āra—and; gadādhara dāsa—Gadādhara dāsa; caitanya-gosāñira—of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu; bhakta—devotees; rahe—stay; tāṅra pāśa—with Him.
TRANSLATION
Two devotees of Lord Caitanya named Śrī Rāmadāsa and Gadādhara dāsa always lived with Śrī Vīrabhadra Gosāñi.
PURPORT
Śrī Rāmadāsa, later known as Abhirāma Ṭhākura, was one of the twelve gopālas, or cowherd boyfriends, of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu. The Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (126) states that Śrī Rāmadāsa was formerly Śrīdāmā. In the Bhakti-ratnākara (Fourth Wave), there is a description of Śrīla Abhirāma Ṭhākura. By the order of Śrī Nityānanda

BY HIS DIVINE GRACE A. C. BHAKTIVEDANTA SWAMI PRABHUPADA

My advice to you under the circumstances is that at least for one hour you must all go to have sankirtana outside on the streets or in the park. That is your life and soul, first business. The next business is completing the chanting of 16 rounds every day. The next business is your editing. And if you find extra time then you can attend the temple ceremonies. Otherwise you can stop these activities. But outdoor kirtana, your editing work, and chanting of 16 rounds must be done. Outdoor kirtana must be done, even at the cost of suspending all editorial work. That is your first and foremost business. Temple worship is not so important. If need be, the whole temple can be locked. But the outdoor kirtana cannot be stopped.

(Letter to Rayarama, 17 May 1969)

We are not much concerned about the temple because temple worship is not the primary factor in this age. The primary factor is sankirtana. But sometimes we want a center where pe

Glories to our news letter team! They are spear-heading our community solidity! May Sri Baladeva attend them and give them strength and ability.

Glories to our members, our pledgers, our servitors and admin. staff too. Together, we individual strings form an orchestra in a great symphony.

This site is too important to fail. Basu Gopal and I were discussing the importance of involving as many Brahmanas as possible in providing online siksa and diksa services, as we are. Whether directly this site, or thousands of others in cooperative association; we prefer the latter. When there are so many internet sites offering BONAFIDE initiations, that we have to add, The Original, to our site, then we will have had success.

Dark forces have gathered and taken over the Movement. Robbernath et al are in cahoots and control by the dark illuminati groups and internal secret would-be government of the world, after eliminating our great general. We are one of the few sets of disciples left largely u

We bring in nowadays about $40. ish per month. We have today about $280. in the non-profit account to pay for 2013. Today is April 10, 2012.  7 x 40 = 280.  Therefore, In seven months from today, it will be Dec 10, 2012,  then we will have 2014 year's ning account net site fees paid.

This means, in yet another seven months, the year's ning.net  account fees for 2015 will be paid by July-August 2014;

- so from there on in, we begin to accumulate a surplus, given a steady income exactly as is, and otherwise the world not ending first.  Overall, $40. x 12mo. is 480. per 12 months period. I suggest we be ahead one or even two years contract fees regularly.

Unless people start to pay the membership fees we requested, ~(>,' ) otherwise  we can not think of doing any sort of projects any sooner than Jul 2014, and still keep the site fees for ning service contract as a priority. 

( I am not including the annual pledgers, as their membership is included, they do not have to additionally donate

.

(1) Rämah — May Rama, the crest jewel of all
kings, be ever victorious. (Rama as the subject)
(2) Rämam — Let there be worship of Lord Rama,
the husband and Lord of Ramä-devi. (Rama
as the object)
(3) Rämena — Hordes of nocturnal demons were
slaughtered by Rama. (Rama as the instrument
of action)
(4) Rämäya — My obeisances unto Lord Rama.
(Rama as the recipient of action)
(5) Rämät — No one is greater than Rama. (Rama
in a comparative sense)
(6) Räm asya— I am a servant of Rama.
(Rama in a relationship)
(7) Räme — Let my consciousness always dwell
in the name, fame, pastimes and qualities
of Lord Rama. (Rama as the shelter of an
object or quality)
(8) Bho Räma! — O Rama! Please deliver me from
material existence! (Rama being addressed
directly). ·

Sri Srimad
Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja

The activities of a Vaisnava, a dear devotee of the
Lord, are very wonderful. vaisnavera kriyä mudrä
vijïeha nä bujhaya — However learned a man

may be, he cannot understand the activities of a
Vaisnava. [Cc. madhya 23.39]

Goswami Tulsidas wrote the book Räma-caritamänasa,
the activities of Lord Rama. His fame
as a great devotee of Lord Rama spread far and
wide. Once, the mogul emperor of Delhi heard
that Tulsidas was displaying many wonderful,
miraculous activities.

So the emperor sent his men,
“Bring Tulsidas here!” So Tulsidas came to the court.
Then the emperor asked him, “I have heard that
you are displaying some miraculous activities. Will
you please display some? I’d like to see.”
Tulsidas is a great devotee of Lord Rama. He said,
“I don’t know anything
but Rama. I never display
any miraculous activity. I only chant the name of
Rama. I don’t know anything but Rama.”

‘Then the emperor said, “Oh! This person is
cheating me!” So he ord

Balavanta's report stated, regarding the November 10-11 tape (T-46 or #18 out of the last 20):

"…it contains a whisper which refers to poison.  This tape was digitally processed for clarity by an independent laboratory in Gainesville, Florida. According to the laboratory technician the following is the probable contents of the whispered statement. Either:

1.  "Lets not poison him and go" or

2.  "Lets now poison him and go."

We are currently sending the tape to another laboratory with more advanced equipment for further investigation. We will report the results of that study as available."

It is noted here that, to the best of our knowledge, this was the first and last public statement made by Balavanta as GBC Special Investigator. Since then, however, Balavanta Prabhu has spoken with others about the investigation unofficially.  He, Mahabuddhi and Isha discussed arranging for more testing on the whispers, and Balavanta disclosed that he had sent the T-46 "poison tape" to the National

Srila Prabhupada is describing that when the Kazi tried to stop the Sankirtan Movement, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu organized a protest march on the Kazi, rallying hundreds of thousands of people to come and put pressure on the Kazi because he was doing the wrong thing by mistreating the Vaisnavas who were on sankirtan. Srila Prabhupada says:

"This incident shows clearly that the Lord was not a so-called timid Vaisnava. A Vaisnava is a fearless devotee of the Lord, and for the right cause he can take any step suitable for the purpose. Arjuna was also a Vaisnava devotee of Lord Krsna, and he fought valiantly for the satisfaction of the Lord. Similarly, Vajrangaji, or Hanuman, was also a devotee of Lord Rama, and he gave lessons to the nondevotee party of Ravana. The principles of Vaisnavism are to satisfy the Lord by all means. A Vaisnava is by nature a nonviolent, peaceful living being, and he has all the good qualities of God, but when the nondevotee blasphemes the Lord or His devotee

Sri Suta Goswami said, "Oh sages, let me offer my humble and respectful obeisances unto the Supreme Lord Hari, Bhagavan Sri Krishna, the son of Devaki and Vasudeva, by whose mercy I can describe the fast day that removes all kinds of sins. It was to the devoted Yudhisthira that Lord Krishna glorified the twenty-four primary Ekadasis, which destroy sin, and now I shall recount one of those narrations to you. Great-learned sages have selected these twenty-four narrations from the eighteen Puranas, for they are truly sublime.

Yudhishthira Maharaja said, 'Oh Lord Krishna, Oh Vasudeva, please accept my humble obeisances. Please describe to me the Ekadasi that occurs during the light part of the month of Chaitra [March-April]. What is its name, and what are its glories?'

Lord Sri Krishna replied, 'Oh Yudhishthira, please listen to Me attentively as I relate the ancient history of this sacred Ekadasi, a history Vasishtha Muni once related to King Dilipa, the great-grandfather of Lord Ra

let it load a minute to avoid pausing...  

~ ~ Just tell somebody about Lord Caitanya, Prabhu Nityananda, and the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra.

Rama Navami – the birthday of Lord Rama   राम नवमी

Ram Navami, or Ramanavami, is celebrated as the birthday of Lord Rama and it falls on the ninth day of Shukla Paksha (waxing phase of moon) in the month of Chaitra (March – April). In 2012, the date of Ram Navami is Mar 31. Ramanavami also marks the end of the Chaitra Navratri. Lord Rama is the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu.

Rama Navami (Devanāgarī: राम नवमी) also known as Sri Rama Navami ( IAST SriRāma-navamī ). Sri Ram Navami is a great festival in India, celebrating the birth of Lord Rama to King Dasharatha and Queen Kausalya of Ayodhya. Rama is the 7th incarnation of the Dashavatara of Vishnu. The festival falls in the Shukla Paksha on the Navami, the ninth day of the month of Chaitra in the Hindu calendar. Thus it is also known as Chaitra Masa Suklapaksha Navami, and marks the end of the nine-day Chaitra-Navratri celebrations.  

The ancient story of Ramayana and the tale of Rama has been a part of the vedic

Among the Dasavatara, Sri Buddha is the ninth avatara. Additionally, Sri Buddha is the twenty-fourth lila-avatara.

In order to condemn the practice of animal sacrifice, Supreme Lord Vishnu appeared in the form of Buddha. Srila Jayadeva Gosvami prays to the Lord of the universe in his Dasavatara-stotra:

"O Kesava! O Lord of the universe! O Lord Hari, who have assumed the form of Buddha! All glories unto You! O Buddha of compassionate heart, You decry the slaughtering of poor animals performed according to the rules of Vedic sacrifice."

The name of Buddha also appears in the verse that describes the ten avataras in Srimad-Bhagavatam:

In the dasavatara verse of Sahitya-darpana (a Bengali reference encyclopedia), we find the names of

 RMdd

"Accompanied by the cowherd boys and Balarama, Krsna brought forward the cows and played on His flute through the forest of Vrndavana, which was full of flowers, vegetables, and pasturing grass. The Vrndavana forest was as sanctified as the clear mind of a devotee and was full of bees, flowers and fruits. There were chirping birds and clear water lakes with waters that could relieve one of all fatigue. Sweet flavored breezes blew always, refreshing the mind and body. Krsna, with His friends and Balarama, entered the forest and, seeing the favorable situation, enjoyed the atmosphere to the fullest extent. Krsna saw all the trees, overloaded with fruits and fresh twigs, coming down to touch the ground as if welcoming Him by touching His lotus feet. He was very pleased by the behavior of the trees, fruits and flowers, and He began to smile, realizing their desires.

RMdd

Krsna then spoke to His elder brother Balarama as follows: "My dear brother, You are superior to all