Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami (1505-1579 CE) was a disciple of the Vaishnava saint Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was a Vaishnava saint and social reformer in eastern India in the 16th century, believed by followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism to be the full incarnation of Lord Krishna...

, and member of the influential Gaudiya Vaishnava group collectiveley known as the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan. He is regarded by followers in the Gaudiya tradition as an ideal practitioner of the Bhakti yoga

Bhakti yoga

Bhakti yoga is one of the types of yoga mentioned in Hindu philosophies which denotes the spiritual practice of fostering loving devotion to a personal form of God....

 system.

Background

Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami was born in a devotional family in Eastern Bengal. His father, Tapana Mishra was a devout Vaishnava and would sometimes invite Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to dine at his house. When Chaitanya Mahaprabhu visited Sri Tapana Misra's home, Raghunatha Bhatta would often massage his feet.

In his early years Raghunatha spent much time in study, becoming adept in Sanskrit grammar and rhetoric and well versed in the scriptures. When his formal studies were complete his father sent him to Puri

Puri

Puri is district headquarter, a city situated about south of state capital Bhubaneswar, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal in the Indian state of Orissa. It is also known as Jagannath Puri after the Jagannath Temple . It is a holy city of the Hindus as a part of the Char Dham pilgrimages...

, where he again met Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, spending eight months in his service and cooking for him on a regular basis. Pleased by his service Chaitanya Mahaprabhu offered Raghunatha a tulsi

Tulsi

Ocimum tenuiflorum Ocimum tenuiflorum Ocimum tenuiflorum (also tulsi, tulasī, or Holy Basil is an aromatic plant in the family Lamiaceae which is native throughout the Old World tropics and widespread as a cultivated plant and an escaped weed. It is an erect, much branched subshrub 30–60 cm...

 garland from around his own neck.

Later life

After Raghunatha Bhatta's parents had died, he returned to Jagannath Puri

Jagannath Temple (Puri)

The Jagannath Temple in Puri is a famous Hindu temple dedicated to Jagannath and located in the coastal town of Puri in the state of Orissa, India. The name Jagannath is a combination of the Sanskrit words Jagat and Nath...

 where he spent a further eight months in Mahaprabhu's service. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu then sent Raghunatha to Vrindavana, to study the Bhagavata Purana

Bhagavata purana

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...

 and other Vedic

Vedas

The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....

 and Puranic scriptures under the guidance of his disciples Rupa Goswami

Rupa Goswami

Rupa Goswami was an Indian devotional teacher , poet, and philosopher from the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition of Hinduism. Alongside his brother Sanatana Goswami, he was considered the leader of the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan associated with Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Hindu saint believed to be the...

 and Sanatana Goswami

Sanatana Goswami

Sanatana Goswami was a principal disciple of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Sanatana wrote a number of important works in the bhakti tradition of Gaudiya Vaishnavism and was the seniormost of the influential Six Goswamis of Vrindavan, among whom was his brother Rupa Goswami.-Birth and early years:Sanatana,...

. It is here that he officially became part of the Six Goswamis group.

Legacy

Some time after Raghunatha's passing, his disciples built a temple for Sri Gaura

Gouranga

Gauranga is a term popularized by the Hare Krishna movement in the 1970s.It is derived from Sanskrit "having a white or yellowish body", a bahuvrihi compound from "white, yellowish, reddish" and "limb, member; the body"....

 Govinda

Govinda

' and ' are names of Krishna, referring to his youthful occupation as a cowherd. He is regarded as the Supreme Godhead in the Vaishnava tradition and also by much of the pan-Hindu tradition...

 in Vrindavana. He is offered respects as a guru

Guru

A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...

 by all of the current lineages of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition.

See also

• Hare Krishna (mantra)
• Nityananda
  Nityananda
  Image:Panca-tattva Altar.jpg|thumb|This is interactive image-map. Click! on lotus feet. Sri Krishna Chaitanya , Sri Nityananda Prabhu , Sri Advaita Acharya , Sri Gadadhara Pandit , Sri Srivas Pandit...
  
  
• Gaudiya Math
  Gaudiya Math
  The Gaudiya Math was formed on 6 September 1920, about 30 months after Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura took sannyasa, the renounced order of life. On 7 March 1918, the same day he took sannyasa, he established the Sri Chaitanya Math in Mayapura, later recognised as the parent body of all...
  
  
• International Society for Krishna Consciousness
  International Society for Krishna Consciousness
  The International Society for Krishna Consciousness , known colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement, is a Gaudiya Vaishnava religious organization. It was founded in 1966 in New York City by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada...
  
  
• Krishnology

External links

• Raghunatha Bhatta Goswami (radhakunda.com)