TEXT 289
sripada, dhara mora gosanira sambandha
taha vina anyatra nahi ek premara gandha
SYNONYMS
sri-padaO Your Holiness; dharaYou hold; moramy; gosanirawith Sri Madhavendra Puri; sambandharelationship; taha vinawithout him; anyatraelsewhere; nahithere is not; eithis; premaraof ecstasy; gandhafragrance.
TRANSLATION
"Your Holiness is certainly related to Sri Madhavendra Puri, without whom there is no fragrance of ecstatic love."
PURPORT
Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura remarks that only Lord Krsna was worshiped in the disciplic succession of Madhvacarya up to the advent of His Holiness Sripada Laksmipati Tirtha. After Srila Madhavendra Puri, worship of both Radha and Krsna was established. For this reason Sri Madhavendra Puri is accepted as the root of worship in ecstatic love. Unless one is connected to the disciplic succession of Madhavendra Puri, there is no possibility of awakening the symptoms of ecstatic love. The word gosani is significant in this connection. The spiritual master who is fully surrendered unto the Supreme Personality of Godhead and has no business other than the Lord's service is called the best of the paramahamsas. A paramahamsa has no program for sense gratification; he is interested only in satisfying the senses of the Lord. One who has control of the senses in this way is called a gosani or a gosvami, master of the senses. The senses cannot be controlled unless one is engaged in the service of the Lord; therefore the bona fide spiritual master, who has full control over his senses, engages twenty-four hours a day in the Lord's service. He can therefore be addressed as gosani or gosvami. The title gosvami cannot be inherited but can be given only to a bona fide spiritual master.
There were six great Gosvamis of Vrndavana-Srila Rupa, Sanatana, Bhatta Raghunatha, Sri Jiva, Gopala Bhatta and Dasa Raghunatha-and none of them inherited the title of gosvami. All the Gosvamis of Vrndavana were bona fide spiritual masters situated on the highest platform of devotional service, and for that reason they were called gosvamis. All the temples of Vrndavana were certainly started by the six Gosvamis. Later the worship in the temples was entrusted to some householder disciples of the Gosvamis, and since then the hereditary title of gosvami has been used. However, only one who is a bona fide spiritual master expanding the cult of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Krsna consciousness movement, and who is in full control of his senses can be addressed as a gosvami. Unfortunately, the hereditary process is going on; therefore at the present moment, in most cases the title is being misused due to ignorance of the word's etymology.

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