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Sri Rupa Gosvamiru

He was born in 1489 (there are different years given by different historians) and he left his body in 1564, the same year as Sanatana Gosvami (some say later). They are believed to have passed away 27 days apart from each other. Rupa Gosvami’s samadhi is besides the Radha Damodara Temple.
Sri Rupa Gosvami gave up all family connections, joined the renounced order of life, and divided his money. He gave fifty percent to the brahmanas and Vaishnavas, twenty-five percent to his family members and kept twenty-five percent for personal emergencies.

It is said that Rupa Gosvami arrived in Vrindavana in 1517 and that Sanatana arrived a few years later. It is said that they first stayed at Dhruva Ghata in Mathura and then moved to Vrindavana.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu used to praise the handwriting of Rupa Gosvami, stating that it was like a row of pearls. Sri Rupa Gosvami could compose verses according to the desires of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and by His direction he wrote two books named Lalita-madhava and Vidagdha-madhava

He came to Vrindavana to fulfill four orders of Lord Caitanya: (1) Uncover the lost pastime places of Krishna, (2) install Deities, (3) write books about devotional service (bhakti-sastras), and (4) propagate the rules of bhakti-yoga. He was a learned scholar and was proficient in Sanskrit, Bengali, Persian and Arabic. He found the Deity of Govinda at the present location of the Govindaji Temple.

Rupa Gosvami performed bhajana at Seva Kunja, Radha Kunda, Ter Kadamba (near Nandagram) and Varsana. He would live under a tree, under a thorny thicket or in a cave. When Rupa Gosvami lived at Seva Kunja (present day downtown Vrindavana) there were no temples and buildings, just forest. In Sadhana Dipika it says that Rupa Gosvami could make Deities, draw expertly, was a master of astrology and mathematics, and he was a great Gaudiya Vaishnava philosopher and scholar.
In the Gaura Ganoddesa Dipika (verse 180) Sri Rupa Gosvami is described as the gopi named Sri Rupa-manjari. In the Bhakti-ratnakara there is a list of the books Srila Rupa Gosvami compiled. Of all his books, the following sixteen are very popular among Vaishnavas: (1) Hamsaduta (2) Uddhava-sandesa, (3) Krishna-janma-tithi-vidhi, (4 and 5) Radha-krishna-ganoddesa-dipika. Brihat (major) and Laghu (minor), (6) Stava-mala, (7) Vidagdha-madhava, (8) Lalita-madhava, (9) Dana-keli-kaumudi, (10) Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu (this is the most celebrated book by Srila Rupa Gosvami), (11) Ujjvala-nilamani, (12) Akhyata-candrika, (13) Mathura-mahatmya, (14) Padyavali, (15) Bataja-candrika and (16) Laghu-bhagavatamrita.

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