Śrī Gadādhara Pandita
By Swāmī Śrī Bhaktivedānta Tripurāri Mahārāja, excepted from Sacred Preface.
Gadādhara Pandita was approximately the same age as Śrī Caitanya, and they were classmates in Navadvipa. Both were brāhmaņas by birth. Thus they had a natural bond through age and varna. When Gaura entered the āśrama of renunciation, Gadādhara followed suit. Gadādhara never married and also left home with Mahāprabhu when the latter took sannyāsa. Thinking that Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya would reside in Puri for his sannyāsa-līlā, Gadādhara took a vow to remain in this sacred earthly abode of Jagannātha Swāmī, kṣetra-sannyāsa for the balance of his life. Caitanyadeva gave him the famous Toțā-gopīnātha Deity, whom Gadādhara devoutly worshiped and before whom for the pleasure of Sriman Mahaprabhu he daily recited Śrimad Bhāgavatam.
Kavirāja Goswami’s text is centered more on Gaura’s Purī līlā than it is on his earlier, sweeter lilā of Nadīyā. The Purī līlā is not as intimate as Gaura’s Nadīyā līlā, but it is more instructive to sādhakas. In Puri, Gaura teaches us how to enter the Nadīyā līlā. In Puri, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, the great sannyāsin, is seriously engaged in an effort to fully and exclusively experience Rādhā’s spiritual emotions. He is engaged in his sādhana of Śrī Kṛṣṇa sankīrtana that leads to his internal life of lilā-smaranam and the culture of Rādhā bhāva.
Krsnadāsa Kavirāja casts Gadadhara with a timid disposition throughout his text and more so in Puri Dhama, unlike the nature of Radha’s temperament depicted in the Goswami lilā-granthas and the more technical manuals such as Ujjvala-nilamani. Therein, Radhā is a bold lover who controls Dhira-lalita Krsna. But Gadādhara’s temperament in Purī is more like that of Rukmiņi in Dvārakā, and Kṛṣṇadāsa makes this comparison. Furthermore, Puri in Gaura līlā corresponds with Dvārakā of Kṛṣṇa līlā. In Vṛndāvana, Rādhā plays the leading lady’s role. In Dvārakā, this part goes to Rukmini, her expansion.
It is in Puri that Gaura Krsna ultimately becomes successful in his effort to fully and irreversibly experience Rādhā bhāva. In his final verse of Sikṣāstakam, Gaura becomes Rādhā. Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja writes that this last verse was spoken by Rādhā herself. Kṛṣṇadāsa places the speaking of the Śikṣāstakam verses at the very end of the Puri lilā. In these later years, Mahāprabhu turns to a life of solitude and internal bhajana, supported in his effort to experience Rādhā bhāva by Svarūpa Damodara and Rāmānanda Rāya.
Where is Gadādhara in all of this? He has all but disappeared from the lilā, remaining in separation from Gaura in the seva of Toță-gopīnātha. As Gaura becomes Rādhā, Gadādhara recedes more and more to the background. The more Gaura enters Rādhā bhāva, the more Gadādhara, with the loss of that bhāva, represents the slightly lesser bhāva of Lalitā or Rukmini. Throughout his text, Kṛṣṇadāsa has emphasized that Śrī Caitanya is Rādhā, even more than he has emphasized that he is Krsna. Thus he arguably depicts Gadādhara as a vitiated form of Rādhā. As Gaura flourishes in Rādhā bhāva, Gadādhara dwindles, serving in separation.
This, however, is a dwindling that does not diminish his position, but rather showcases his selflessness. He relinquishes his bhāva so that Gaura Krsna may be successful in accomplishing what he has descended for. Thus Gadadhara shows the way in Gaura lilā. No one knows Gaura like Gadadhara, just as no one knows Kṛṣṇa like Rādhā. His service, his sacrifice that Gaura might be successful, stands like a lighthouse showing the way to the shore of the most intimate service to Gaura. This is the full expression of dharma-prema-dharma-samsiddhir śri-gaura-hari-tosanam.
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