Gopal Bhatta Goswami's Samadhi

Gopal Bhatta Goswami was the son of Vyenkatta Bhatta, a brahmana priest of Srirangam Temple in Tamil Nadu. His uncle Prabhodananda Sarasvati also became his spiritual master. In 1511 Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu visited Srirangam and danced in ecstasy before Lord Ranganath. Vyenkata Bhatta invited Lord Caitanya to stay at his house during Caturmasya. Gopal Bhatta was at that time was a small boy and got the chance to serve the Lord and hear directly from Sri Mahaprabhu. After some time Lord Caitanya left on his tour to South India and told Gopal Bhatta to go in the future to Vrindavan. Gopal Bhatta became learned in Sanskrit, poetry, rhetoric and all aspects of devotional service. After losing his parents, he left his home and proceeded towards Vrindavan where he joined Rupa Goswami and Sanatan Goswami. After studying in Vrindavana for some time, Gopal Bhatta made a trip to Nepal. One day when he was taking bath in Kali-Gandakini river, he dipped his kamandalu into the water and 12 silas mysteriously entered his water pot. He put them back into the water and dipped the kamandalu again in the water of the holy river, but the silas again entered his water pot. When it happened for the third time, Gopal Bhatta realized, that those are not ordinary stones, but they must be some very special ones and there must be some divine arrangement behind it. He kept them in a cloth bag hung around his neck and from that time on he started to worship them and returned to Vrindavana. Once he intensely desired to decorate his salagram, seat Him on a swing and serve Him as other devotees would do. "If only He had arms and legs like a Deity," he thought. Lord Krisna, being very kind to His devotees, that very night transformed Himself from one of small salagram-sila into threefold form of Radharaman. If one has darsan of Radharaman's back, one will see that it resemble salagram-sila. Although the Deity is quite small many devotees find Him to be extremely attractive. The appearance place of the Sri Radharaman Deity is next to the temple besides Gopal Bhatta's samadhi. Gopal Bhatta was actually originating the Sat-Sandarbhas, later elaborately developed by Jiva Goswami, he also edited Hari-bhakti-vilas. His most prominent disciple was Srinivas Acarya. Gopal Bhatta Goswami was no other than Ananga Manjari, one of the eight intimate maidservants of Srimati Radharani.