Radhanath Swami on Sanatana Goswami

Preaching

Sanatana Goswami would travel from one village to another. When he would come to a village, all the people would greet him with tears of affection. Children in the village saw him as a father, elders saw him as their son and people of his age saw him as a friend. They would say, “please come to our homes.” And when he would come, he would ask them, “How are your cows? Did your daughter get married? How is your health? How many calves your cows gave birth to?” He knew everything about everyone and he was very intimately related to them. In this way he captured everyone’s hearts. He would spend hours discussing Krishna katha and having Nama sankirtana with them. He would open people’s hearts so deeply that they fully accepted whatever he said. This was his method of preaching. He would conquer their hearts with his love and then fill them with Krishna. The next morning he would leave and everyone would cry in separation and then he would go to the next village. In this way Sanatana Goswami travelled to hundreds of villages in Braja.

Trouble with mosquitoes

Sanatana was living near the Chakleshwar Mahadeva area at Govardhan. He would light little lamps with ghee and would write his books. In those days, writing books was such a nice experience. There were no word processors or computers or dictaphones or typewriters. There were no paper or pens or even pencils. He would personally process the leaves and carve Sanskrit letters on them. Then he would make ink out of herbs and wipe the ink over the carved letters.

While he was living at Chakleshwar Mahadev, many mosquitoes would disturb his service. So he decided to leave for a more suitable place to perform his devotional service. Lord Shiva, who is Chakleshwar Mahadeva, could not bear the thought of separation from Sanatana Goswami. So he appeared in the form of a brahmana and asked Sanatana to just wait for a day and if the mosquitoes would still trouble him the next day, he could leave. Sanatana agreed and Lord Siva called for the demigod in–charge of the mosquitoes and gave him an order, “Don’t allow any of your insects to disturb Sanatana Goswami.” From that day on no mosquitoes bothered Sanatana Goswami.

Sweet Rice

Once Rupa Goswami wanted to offer some prasad to Sanatana Goswami. A beautiful little girl offered Rupa Goswami some milk, rice, sugar and spices and told him to prepare kheer. Later, she herself prepared the kheer and Rupa Goswami brought it to Sanatana Goswami.

As both the brothers tasted the kheer they began to tremble in ecstasy. Sanatana Goswami asked Rupa Goswami, “Where did you get this?” Rupa Goswami explained the whole incident. After hearing the description of the little girl Sanatana Goswami could understand that Srimati Radharani had personally appeared and cooked for them. Sanatana Goswami told Rupa Goswami, “We are the servants of the servants of the servants of Radharani’s servants. How could you allow her to serve us?”

“Today in the world most people worship God as their order supplier. But Vrindavan consciousness is simply to give pleasure to Krishna and not expect anything in return except the opportunity to serve and when we chant the holy names with this spirit, Krishna reveals Himself in full.”

Govardhan Parikrama

Sanatana Goswami would circumambulate Govardhan even in his old age. One day Krishna came in the disguise of a cowherd boy and told him, “Why in your old age are you taking so much trouble to do this circumambulation?” Sanatana Goswami replied, “It is my service to Krishna and is my life and soul.” The boy went on the Govardhan hill and started playing His flute. A stone from Govardhan melted under His feet and the boy brought that piece of stone and said, “Do you see Krishna’s footprint and the footprint of His calf and also the impression of His stick on the stone? Just circumambulate this stone and that will be equal to performing the full Govardhan parikrama.” The little boy personally carried the shila to Sanatana Goswami’s bhajan kutir.

– Radhanath Swami