The knowledge of “abhidheya” helps us to come “out” of our bodily conception of life. We all identify with our material bodies and therefore we suffer. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu instructed Srila Rupa Goswami to write books about and elaborate on the subject of “abhidheya-tattva”, the knowledge of the way to achieve our goal, prema-bhakti. Our goal is to come out of our body-life and to start a loving relationship with Sri Sri Radha Krishna with all our heart and soul. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came to give us this highest love and to take us by the hand to lead us in this direction. He did this through Srila Rupa Goswami. Srila Sanatana Goswami told us about who we are and what our relationship to Sri Sri Radha Krishna is and now we can follow Srila Rupa Goswami and be on our path to pure love, prema-bhakti.
Srila Rupa Goswami surrenderd wholeheartedly to this task and honestly, without him, we would not be able to know about our highest goal and more importantly HOW to achieve it. Without Srila Rupa Goswami, bhakti-yoga (LOVE IN ACTION) would not have been accessible for us living entities in such a wonderful and astonishing way.
He wrote many books, but two works stand out:
- Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu ( The nectarocean of divine devotion)
- Ujjvala nilamani ( The splendid sapphire of the highest love)
In Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu, Srila Rupa Goswami writes about all there is to know in bhakti-yoga and how we can achieve our highest goal, pure love to Sri Sri Radha Krishna (prema-bhakti). When we read his words our spiritual lives are enriched by the knowledge about
“If Srila Rupa Goswami had not appeared in Kali-yuga, who would have opened the great store-house of Vraja-prema and distributed its contents freely? Just as a swan separates milk from water, who else could have separated the rasas to taste them? Abandoning everything, he performed bhajana in Vrindavan and wrote his rasika literatures. He lived like a bee taking the nectar of lotuses. Who could have understood the nectar he was collecting? Who could have understood Krishna’s pastimes in Mathura and Vrindavan? How could we have known the sweet vraja-lilas and the love between Radha and Madhava (another name of Sri Krishna, meaning the husband or beloved of the supreme goddess of fortune)? By the mercy of his lotus feet, all can sing about and attain such divine bliss. The surrendered Madhava Das is always praying to embrace Sri Rupa’s glories.” (Yadi kali rūpa śarīra na dharata, by Madhava Das)