Srila Narottam Thakur Puspa Samadhi

This is the pushpa samadhi of Shrila Narottama Dasa Thakura who entered Samadhi while in Bengal in the year 1611. This pushpa samadhi contains a flower garland worn by Narottama Dasa, his outer cloth, a kaupina, and his japa beads. He was the only disciple of Lokanatha Goswami and became famous for the large number of devotional songs that he wrote. He was a greatly celebrated singer of kirtanas as well as an exceptionally good mrdanga player. He was also a powerful preacher of Mahaprabhu’s mission and converted thousands to the bhakti cult of Lord Chaitanya in Bengal and Assam, as well as the state of Manipura, where he was the first to introduce the sankirtana movement.
Some years before Narottama’s birth, Lord Chaitanya was on a tour of Bengal where he visited Navadwipa and then Ramakeli, which is now in Bangladesh, where He met the brothers Rupa, Sanatana and Sri Vallabha, who were at that time still engaged in Government service.
While there, Lord Chaitanya went to take His bath in the nearby Padma River. On the opposite bank of the river was a village called Kheturi, where in the future Narottama Dasa would be born. While gazing into the water, Lord Chaitanya began to call out in a very ecstatic mood. “0 Narottama! 0 Narottama!” Lord Chaitanya then informed the devotees accompanying Him, that in the future a very great personality would be born at Kheturi, his name would be Narottama and he would become so absorbed in nama-kirtana-rasa, it would be equal to the nama-sankirtanarasa experienced by Lord Chaitanya Himself. The Lord also told the devotees that He would now bathe in the River Padma, and later when Narottama would come there to bathe in the same river, the waters of the river would extend to Narottama the Lord’s special mercy and divine love.
In the year 1534, the same year as Lord Chaitanya’s disappearance, Narottama Dasa took
birth in the village of Kheturi. His father was a hayastha, who are considered by many to be sudras, while they generally believe they are hsatriyas. Narottama’s father however, was accepted as a king, due to his great wealth and ownership of vast tracts of land. As a boy, Narottama was a brilliant student and loved to hear about the pastimes of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. When he reached his teens, one night he had a dream in which Lord Nityananda appeared before him and told him. “Tomorrow morning you should take your bath in the River Padma, at that time you will receive Krishna-prema, pure love of God.” On waking the next morning, Narottama went immediately to the River Padma and on entering the water, experienced a sudden spiritual transformation. As Narottama became overcome with ecstasy, Lord Chaitanya suddenly appeared before him and embraced him within His arms, and Narottama felt the spirit of the Lord enter his heart. At that moment, Narottama’s dark complexion turned a molten gold, the same color as Lord Chaitanya’s transcendental body. On coming out of the water, Narottama began dancing in ecstasy up and down the river bank loudly chanting the holy names of the Lord. As the morning wore on, suddenly realizing that Narottama was missing from home, his anxious parents came to the riverbank in search of their son. When they saw a golden complexioned youth dancing in ecstasy on the river bank, they could not at first recognize him as being their son, because his dark complexion and physical demeanor had so drastically changed. Eventually, they realized that this was in fact their son, and they immediately brought him back to their home. When they got their son home, they noticed that he was a completely changed person, who continually chanted the holy names of Krishna both day and night.
After some months, Narottama had another dream where Lord Chaitanya appeared
before him and after tightly embracing him, ordered him to immediately leave for Vrindavana where he should accept Lokanatha Goswami as his spiritual master. Very soon after this dream, Narottama ran away from home and proceeded to Vrindavana, much to the despair of his loving parents. On arrival in Vrindavana, Narottama immediately went to see the deity of Govindaji, and upon beholding Lord Govinda’s beautiful form, fell unconscious on the ground while exhibiting all the eight symptoms of ecstatic love known as ashta-satviha-bhava. The news quickly spread about this most unusual incident andjiva Goswami immediately came to the Govindaji Mandira to see Narottama. Some of the devotees in Vrindavana had heard about the predictions made by
Lord Chaitanya and had been wondering when Narottama would appear. Narottama was
immediately placed under the care of Lokanatha Goswami, who was engaged in bhajan and sevapujaof his deity Radha-Vinoda, in a garden near Keshi Ghata where the Gokulananda Mandira was later built. As Narottama had been informed in a dream by Lord Chaitanya to accept Lokanatha Goswami as his guru , he diligently performed all kinds of menial service for Lokanatha, who had also been told in a dream by Lord Chaitanya to accept Narottama as his disciple.
Nevertheless, due to his great humility, he did not feel qualified to initiate anyone, and therefore declined. Regardless, Narottama continued to offer his menial service to Lokanatha and would even clean the area in the jungle which was used by Lokanatha as a toilet. Lokanatha then had another dream, where Lord Chaitanya again appeared and reminded Lokanatha that it was the Lord’s own cherished desire that he should accept Narottama as his disciple and initiate him. After receiving this dream, Lokanatha relented and accepted Narottama as his only disciple and requested Jiva Goswami to accept Narottama as his sihhsa disciple and train him in all the aspects of Vaishnava philosophy. Narottama then became part of ]iva Goswami’s famous troika of sihsa disciples, along with Shrinivasa Acharya and Shyamananda Pandita.

In the year 1582, ]iva Goswami sent these three illustrious and most brilliant students
on a preaching mission to Bengal and Orissa, by bullock cart with a large trunk of books written by the Six Goswamis that had all been copied by hand and were to be distributed amongst the followers of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. This was the first ever book distribution party in the history of the Gaudiya sampradaya. After reaching Bengal, Narottama Dasa returned to his home village of Kheturi and organized what was to become th~ first ever ‘Gaura-purnima Festival’ celebrating the appearance day of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. All the followers of Lord Chaitanya attended the festival including jahnava Mata and her son Virabhadra. During the festival, with the help of Shrinivasa Acharya, Narottama installed five sets of deities for the benefit of the devotees. One of those deities, Radha Vraja-mohana, is still being worshiped in Vrindavana at Gyana-gudri. Narottama had one very close and dearly beloved companion named Ramacandra Kaviraja, and one important disciple named Ganganarayana Chakravarti, and they both expertly assisted Narottama Dasa in his life’s mission of spreading the divine message of Lord Chaitanya to every town and village. According to the Gaura-ganoddesha-dipika, Narottama dasa was Vilasamanjari in Krishna’s Vrindavana pastimes.

Appearing as the son of a king, Sri Narottama Dasa Thakura (Sri Thakura Mahasaya) showed all the bodily symptoms of a mahapurusa (an exalted divine person). He had long arms, a deep navel, golden-complexion, beautiful eyes shaped like the lotus petals. In school, he was a sruti dhara (able to memorize whatever he hears) Although he quickly mastered Sanskrit and the Vedas, he hankered to serve Krishna. He was a lifelong brahmacari.
By the mercy of the holy name Gaura-Nitai, Narottama became detached, left his opulent family, and ran to Vrndavana. He took diksa from Sri Lokanatha Gosvami and siksa in Gaudiya philosophy from Sri Jiva Gosvami.
When he arrived in Navadvipa-dhama all the devotees asked him about the health and activities of the Gosvamis in Vrndavana. They were eager to hear the news from Vrndavana. After visiting all of Gauranga’s pastime places in Gaura Mandala, Narottama Dasa did the same in Sri Ksetra Dhama (Jagannatha Puri). Then he went to see the devotees and Sri Caitanya’s pastime spots in Santipura, Sri Khanda, Kanthak Nagar, Ekacakra, and Kheturi Gram.
In Kheturi, Sri Narottama Dasa Thakura arranged the famous Kheturi Mahotsava. This was the first “Gaura-Purnima” festival to honor the divine appearance day of Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu. During the festival six Deities were installed: Sri Gauranga Deva, Sri Vallabhi Kanta, Sri Vraja Mohana, Sri Krishna, Sri Radha Kanta, Sri Radha Ramana.
With his sweet voice Narottama Dasa began a wonderful kirtana. His chanting filled the heavens, and brought down tears of prema from the eyes of the devotees, who were all sporting in the ocean of ecstasy. “In the midst of their kirtana, the munificent Sri Caitanya Himself and all His personal associates appeared and joined in the sankirtana. Like a flash of lightning in the midst of a mass of beautiful blue clouds, Sri Caitanya Himself appeared in the crowd of devotees through a divine manifestation.” (Bhakti-ratnakar)
“At that time, although Mahaprabhu had left this world years before, many different devotees saw Mahaprabhu in different ways. Those of Sri Navadvipa dhama saw Him more intimately as Nimaicandra or Visvambhara, as they knew Him during His youth. Those devotees were attracted to Mahaprabhu in sakhya and vatsalya rasa. The followers of the six Gosvamis, who only knew Mahaprabhu as a sannyasi, related to Him in the mood of dasya rasa. And hundreds of devotees also worshiped Lord Caitanya in an aisvarya mood of awe and reverence.
“This festival is considered a major achievement in Gaudiya Vaisnavism. Hundreds and hundreds of devotees were invited, including direct disciples of Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu, and Advaita Acarya. At this time, many differences existed in the interpretation of Gaudiya Vaisnavism. Acaryarani Jahnava Devi came from Kardaha with her entourage. Presiding over all the Vaisnavas, she resolved their diverse conclusions into one consistent Gaudiya Vaisnava philosophy.
“For the first time, the festival featured many kirtana styles which integrated the glorification of Lord Caitanya with the glorification of Lord Krishna and His pastimes. And because so many Vaisnavas were present at one place, it automatically made the Kheturi festival extraordinary. It also acted as an important step toward unifying all the Gaudiya Vaisnavas.” (Sri Navadvipa-dhama parikrama)
Narottama Dasa Thakura wrote many devotional songs about the spiritual master, the devotees, devotional service, the six Gosvamis, Gaura-Nityananda and Radha-Krishna. Although composed with sweet melodies in simple Bengali language, Narottama Dasa’s songs give sastricsiddhanta and devotional inspiration. Srila Prabhupada often sang these bhajanas. Considering them non-different from Vedic sastra, He quoted them in his Bhagavatam lectures. Prarthana and Prema-bhakti-candrikaare Narottama’s most famous works.
The following excerpt comes from Prema-bhakti-candrika: “Radha and Krishna are my goal in life and death, and They are the masters of my breath. Performing my bhajana only for Them, I rise and fall in the ocean of prema. I pray that I can always maintain this conception within my heart as my highest ideal.
“Let me serve the lotus feet of Radha-Govinda. Let my mind be filled with dedication to Their divine forms that defeat the beauty of Cupid and Rati. With a straw between my teeth I fall at Their divine feet and present my humble appeal: ‘O Kishora-Kishori! O son of Nanda Maharaja—Syamasundara! And O daughter of King Vrsabhanu, Sri Radha. You enchant even Hari, and Your bodily complexion is the color of a golden lotus. O Krishna, with a bodily color like an indranila gem (blue jewel), Your beauty mocks Cupid.
‘O topmost dancers—Sri Radha and Sri Krishna—please dance within my mind. O You whose beauty increases the charm of Your dazzling ornaments, day and night I only wish that I shall go on singing Your glories in great ecstasy.’ “
Narottama Dasa serves Srimati Radhika as Campaka-manjari. His samadhi is in Radha Gokulananda’s temple courtyard.
ye anilo prema-dhana koruna pracur heno prabhu kotha gela acarya-thakur.
kaha mora swarup rupa kaha sanatan kaha dasa raghunatha patita-pavan.
kaha mora bhatta-juga kaha kaviraj eka-kale kotha gela gora nata-raj.
pasane kutibo matha anale pasibo gauranga gunera nidhi kotha gele pabo.
se-saba sangira sange je koilo bilas se-sanga na paiya kande narottama das.
jai vaisnav thakur, jai vaisnav thakur, jai vaisnav thakur, jai vaisnav thakur. nitai gaura—hari bol, hari bol, hari bol, hari bol!

A garland, kaupins, cloth, and mala form the contents of Narottama Dasa’s pushpasamadhi.