Rāmānanda Rāya
By Śrīla Bhakti-rakṣaka Śrīdhara Dev-Goswāmī Mahārāja
Rāmānanda Rāya was a married man, but he was recognized by Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as a master of his senses to the extreme degree. Once a brāhmaṇa priest named Pradyumna Miśra came to Mahāprabhu and told Him, “I would like to hear about Kṛṣṇa from Your lips.” Mahāprabhu said, “I do not know anything about Kṛṣṇa, but Rāmānanda Rāya knows. Go to him and hear about Kṛṣṇa. Take My name, and perhaps he will talk with you.”
Pradyumna Miśra was hesitant, but he went and observed Rāmānanda Rāya for some time and then returned and reported to Mahāprabhu. Mahāprabhu asked him, “Have you heard about Kṛṣṇa from Rāmānanda?” “No.” “Why?” “I saw him engaged in something objectionable. I watched for some time, and then returned here.” “What did you see?” Pradyumna Miśra answered, “I saw Rāmānanda Rāya training some young dancing girls!”
Girls who are generally devoted to the service of the Jagannāth Deity from a young age are known as deva-dāsīs. They do not marry, and sometimes their character is not very good. Pradyumna Miśra saw Rāmānanda Rāya training deva-dāsīs in a very objectionable way. He was showing them how to go before the Jagannāth Deity and dance and sing. He showed them how their posture should be, how they should gesture, and how their looks should be enticing. So Pradyumna Miśra told Mahāprabhu, “Seeing Rāmānanda doing all these things, I had no regard for him, so for some time I saw him busily engaged in that matter, and then I went away.”
Mahāprabhu told him, “Don’t underestimate Rāmānanda Rāya. He is the master of his senses. There is not a tinge of craft in him. Even I feel trouble from sense disturbance within Me, but Rāmānanda has no such trouble. We have no direct experience that a stage can be attained where it is possible to be above mundane sense pleasure, but we have only heard through the scriptures that there is a stage when a man may transcend all these gross attachments.
“This is mentioned in the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam (10.33.39):
vikrīḍitaṁ vraja-vadhūbhir idaṁ ca viṣṇoḥ
śraddhānvito ’nuśṛṇuyād atha varṇayed yaḥ
bhaktiṁ parāṁ bhagavati pratilabhya kāmaṁ
hṛd-rogam āśv apahinoty acireṇa dhīraḥ
One who hears with firm faith the supramundane amorous affairs of Lord Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs, as described by a pure devotee of the Lord, soon becomes freed from mundane lust and achieves divine love of Kṛṣṇa.
One may be engaged bodily in such activities, while his heart is elsewhere. And there is only one who is of that type, Rāmānanda Rāya. There are not big numbers of Rāmānandas; there is only one Rāmānanda, who has acquired such a stage because he is well-versed in the kind of sentiment and realization which is necessary for the service of Kṛṣṇa and the gopīs. His heart is completely dedicated to the cause of Kṛṣṇa; He has no selfish interest. He is always in Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and whatever he does is for Kṛṣṇa’s satisfaction, so don’t think ill of him. Go there again.
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