Ādi 10.130

The original name of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was Vasudeva Bhattacarya. His place of birth, which is known as Vidyanagara, is about two and a half miles away from the Navadvipa railway station, or Cahpahati railway station. His father was a very celebrated man of the name Mahesvara Visarada. It is said that Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was the greatest logician of his time in India. At Mithila in Bihar he became a student of a great professor named Paksadhara Misra, who did not allow any student to note down his explanations of logic. Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was so talented, however, that he learned the explanations by heart, and when he later returned to Navadvipa he established a school for the study of logic, thus diminishing the importance of Mithila. Students from various parts of India still come to Navadvipa to study logic. According to some authoritative opinions, the celebrated logician Raghunatha Siromani was also a student of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. In effect, Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya became the leader of all students of logic. Although he was a grhastha (householder), he even taught many sannyasis in the knowledge of logic. He started a school at Jagannatha Puri for the study of Vedanta philosophy, of which he was a great scholar. When Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya met Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, he advised the Lord to learn Vedanta philosophy from him, but later he became a student of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu to understand the real meaning of Vedanta. Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was so fortunate as to see the six-armed form of Lord Caitanya known as Saḍbhuja. A Saḍbhuja Deity is still situated at one end of the Jagannatha temple. Daily sahkirtana performances take place in this part of the temple. The meeting of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya with Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu is vividly described in the Madhya-lila, Chapter Six. Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya wrote a book named Caitanya-sataka. Of the 100 verses of this book, two verses, beginning with the words vairagya-vidya-nijabhaktiyoga, are very famous among Gauḍiya Vaisnavas. The Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika (119) states that Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya was an incarnation of Brhaspati, the learned scholar from the celestial planets.

Gopinatha Acarya, who belonged to a respectable brahmana family, was also an inhabitant of Navadvipa and constant companion of the Lord. He was the husband of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya's sister. In the Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika (178) it is described that he was formerly the gopi named Ratnavali. According to the opinion of others, he was an incarnation of Brahma.