Srila Rupa Goswami and Sanatana Goswami were prominent amongst the famous six Goswamis of Vrindavan. They were disciples of Lord Shri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and under His direction they excavated many of the lost places of Krishna’s pastimes in Vrindavan.
Once they were living in Kamyavan and continuously discussing the divine subject matters of the pastimes of Lord Krishna, sometimes throughout the day and sometimes throughout the night. One time as they were speaking they became so much immersed that they completely forgot about eating or sleeping. That time, a beautiful young girl came and said that “I have heard that you are so engrossed in Hari Katha that you have not eaten for a long time. I have brought some milk, rice and sugar. You can make nice Kheer, Sweet Rice.” But they just continued speaking the glories of Vrindavan. So, this girl personally collected the ingredients for making a fire. She put all the ingredients in a pot and cooked it and gave it to Rupa Goswami. Rupa Goswami immediately offered it to his spiritual master, Srila Sanatana Goswami. On tasting this most nectarine Prasad, Sanatana Goswami entered into a state of ecstacy: tears started flowing from his eyes, his hairs started standing on end, and his limbs started trembling.
He asked Rupa Goswami, “Please tell me where you got this?” Rupa Goswami answered, “A little girl had come, She has given this to me, and I am offering it to you.” As Rupa Goswami was explaining the qualities of this girl and how She looked, it dawned upon them that She was none other than Shrimati Radharani. Sanatana Goswami became very much sad in his heart on realizing that they had engaged Shrimati Radharani in their service. So, he started lamenting, “We have come to this land of Braja to serve Shrimati Radharani. It is the aspiration of our life to be the servant of the servant of Her servants, and yet She is collecting wood, She is lighting fires and She is preparing this Kheer just for us. This is very bad, we should never want to take anything from Shrimati Radharani, we should only want to serve Her.” So as they were thinking like this they began to both weep in a sense of regret, but at the same time the taste of that sweet rice was so nice that they kept drinking. They would take a sip and they would weep and cry, fall to the ground, and regret “How have we accepted this service from Shrimati Radharani?” Then they would take another sip, and they did this throughout the day. Such was the loving devotion of Rupa and Sanatana Goswami for the Divine Couple.
But Radhanath Swami while narrating this esoteric pastime brought out very practical lessons for a practicing devotee. He said that we should not think what God can do for us; rather we should meditate on what we can do for God. He quoted Caitanya Mahaprabhu, “I do not want great wealth or followers or association of beautiful women or even liberation. I only want loving devotional service unto the lotus feet of Radha and Krishna, birth after birth after birth.” This is the supreme prayer that a devotee should offer here at Kamyavan.
– Radhanath Swami
