Six Goswamis of Vrindavan
The associates of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the great Acharyas, the protectors of the devotees.
The associates of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the great Acharyas, the protectors of the devotees.
vande rūpa-sanātanau raghu-yugau śrī-jīva-gopālakau
I offer my respectful obeisances unto Sri Rupa, Sri Sanatana, Sri Raghunatha Bhatta, Sri Raghunatha Dasa, Sri Jiva, and Sri Gopala Bhatta.
The Goswamis of Vrindavan, companions of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, were entrusted by Him to reveal the science of Vraja-bhakti to the world. They are the greatest teachers and protectors of the devotees. Meditation on their forms, qualities, and deeds is an authorized practice recommended by the sacred scriptures and our spiritual teachers.
We would like to help everyone develop a personal relationship with each of these great Vaishnavas. To this end, we have built six kutirs from the soil of Vraja and invited a murti of each Goswami in them.
We have come a long way, starting with discussions about each murti and creating numerous sketches. Our work was aided by the fact that one of our projects is the multi-episode film “Ṣad Goswami", which provides a detailed account of the lives of the Goswamis of Vrindavan. However, while much is known about their deeds, how do we get any idea about what they looked like?
There is an opinion that this is the only surviving image of Srila Rupa Goswami made during his lifetime. However, it turned out to be an image of Jadrupe, an ascetic from Ujjain and a close associate of Emperor Jahangir, who was born after the departure of Srila Rupa Goswami. So, unfortunately, we do not have authentic images of any of the Six Goswamis today.
We embarked on a fascinating journey with a team of sculptors whose workshop is located in the ISKCON temple in the sacred city of Ujjain. For many months, we worked together to bring these forms to life, praying that the Goswamis would accept our efforts and manifest in these murtis.
We paid great attention to detail. For example, the lines on the Goswamis' hands closely align with the descriptions of the marks on the hands of maha-purushas (great personalities) found in the texts of Samudrika Shastra (Vedic chiromancy).
