Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Sri Caitanya Caritamrita Madhya 18.47

mleccha-bhaye aila gopala mathura-nagare

eka-masa rahila viththalesvara-ghare

SYNONYMS

mleccha-bhaye -- because of fear of the Muslims; aila -- came; gopala -- the Gopala Deity; mathura-nagare -- to the city of Mathura; eka-masa -- one month; rahila -- stayed; viththalesvara-ghare -- in the house of Viththalesvara.

TRANSLATION

Due to fear of the Muslims, Gopala went to Mathura, where He remained in the house of Viththalesvara for one full month.

PURPORT

When the two brothers Srila Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami went to Vrindavana, they decided to live there. Following Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's example, they did not climb the hill because they considered it nondifferent from Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. On some pretext, the Gopala Deity granted Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu an audience beneath the hill, and Gopala similarly favored Srila Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami. During his ripe old age, when Rupa Gosvami could not go to Govardhana Hill because of invalidity, Gopala kindly went to Mathura and remained at the house of Viththalesvara for one month. It was then that Srila Rupa Gosvami could see Gopala's beauty to his heart's content.

The following description concerning Viththalesvara is given in the Bhakti-ratnakara (Fifth Wave):

viththalera seva krishna-caitanya-vigraha

tahara darsane haila parama agraha

sri-viththalanatha -- bhatta-vallabha-tanaya

karila yateka priti kahile na haya

gatholi-grame gopala aila 'chala' kari'

tanre dekhi' nritya-gite magna gaurahari

sri-dasa-gosvami adi paramarsa kari'

sri-viththalesvare kaila seva-adhikari

pita sri-vallabha-bhatta tanra adarsane

kata-dina mathuraya chilena nirjane

Sri Vallabha Bhatta had two sons. The elder, Gopinatha, was born in 1432 Sakabda Era (A.D. 1510), and the younger, Viththalesvara, was born in 1437 (A.D. 1515) and died in 1507 (A.D. 1585). Viththalesvara had seven sons: Giridhara, Govinda, Balakrishna, Gokulesa, Raghunatha, Yadunatha and Ghanasyama. Viththalesvara completed many of his father's unfinished books, including his commentary on the Vedanta-sutra, the Subodhini commentary on Srimad-Bhagavatam, Vidvan-mandana, Sringara-rasa-mandana and Nyasadesa-vivarana. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu went to Vrindavana before the birth of Viththalesvara. As previously mentioned, Srila Rupa Gosvami was very old at the time Gopala stayed at the house of Viththalesvara.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Founder Acarya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness