Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmrita Madhya 9.289

śrīpāda, dhara mora gosāñira sambandha

tāhā vinā anyatra nāhi ei premāra gandha

SYNONYMS

śrī-pāda — O Your Holiness; dhara — You hold; mora — my; gosāñira — with Śrī Mādhavendra Purī; sambandha — relationship; tāhā vinā — without him; anyatra — elsewhere; nāhi — there is not; ei — this; premāra — of ecstasy; gandha — fragrance.

TRANSLATION

"Your Holiness is certainly related to Śrī Mādhavendra Purī, without whom there is no fragrance of ecstatic love."

PURPORT

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Thākura remarks that up to the advent of His Holiness Śrīpāda Lakshmīpati Tīrtha, it was the system in the disciplic succession of Madhvācārya to worship Lord Krishna alone. After Śrīla Mādhavendra Purī, worship of both Rādhā and Krishna was established. For this reason Śrī Mādhavendra Purī is accepted as the root of worship in ecstatic love. Unless one is connected to the disciplic succession of Mādhavendra Purī, there is no possibility of awakening the symptoms of ecstatic love. The word gosāñi is significant in this connection. The spiritual master who is fully surrendered unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead and has no business other than the Lord's service is called the best of the paramahamsas. A paramahamsa has no program for sense gratification; he is interested only in satisfying the senses of the Lord. One who has control of the senses in this way is called a gosāñi or a gosvāmī, master of the senses. The senses cannot be controlled unless one is engaged in the service of the Lord; therefore the bona fide spiritual master, who has full control over his senses, engages twenty-four hours a day in the Lord's service. He can therefore be addressed as gosāñi or gosvāmī. The title gosvāmī cannot be inherited but can be given only to a bona fide spiritual master.

There were six great Gosvāmīs of Vrindāvana — Śrīla Rūpa, Sanātana, Bhatta Raghunātha, Śrī Jīva, Gopāla Bhatta and Dāsa Raghunātha — and none of them inherited the title of gosvāmī. All the Gosvāmīs of Vrindāvana were bona fide spiritual masters situated on the highest platform of devotional service, and for that reason they were called gosvāmīs. All the temples of Vrindāvana were certainly started by the six Gosvāmīs. Later the worship in the temples was entrusted to some householder disciples of the Gosvāmīs, and since then the hereditary title of gosvāmī has been used. However, only one who is a bona fide spiritual master expanding the cult of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the Krishna consciousness movement, and who is in full control of his senses can be addressed as a gosvāmī. Unfortunately, the hereditary process is going on; therefore at the present moment, in most cases the title is being misused due to ignorance of the word's etymology.

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