Sad-Goswamy Ashtakam
Eight verses by Srinivasa Acharya glorifying the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan who established pure devotional practices.
Verses
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Six Goswamis—Sri Rupa, Sanatana, Raghunatha Bhatta, Raghunatha Dasa, Jiva, and Gopala Bhatta—who are always engaged in chanting Krishna's holy names and dancing in divine love, who are dear to all, free from envy, and who spread Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's boundless mercy everywhere.
Verse 1
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Six Goswamis, who are expert in scrutinizing all the scriptures to establish the eternal religion of divine love, who work for the welfare of all humanity, and who are intoxicated like bees drinking the nectar of Radha and Krishna's lotus feet.
Verse 2
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Six Goswamis, who are like honeybees at the lotus feet of Sri Chaitanya, who deliver souls drowning in the ocean of birth and death, and whose hearts are absorbed in the ecstatic moods of the gopis.
Verse 3
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Six Goswamis, who kicked away aristocratic position, wealth, and worldly rulership as insignificant, accepting simple kaupina and torn cloth, diving blissfully into the nectar waves of the gopis' love.
Verse 4
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Six Goswamis, who resided on the banks of Govardhana Hill and Radha Kunda amidst singing cuckoos, swans, and peacocks, joyfully remembering and writing about Radha-Krishna's confidential pastimes.
Verse 5
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Six Goswamis, who passed their time chanting fixed numbers of holy names and offering prostrated obeisances, who conquered sleep and hunger, and who were merged in ecstatic love.
Verse 6
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Six Goswamis, who wandered through the forests of Vrindavan, Radha Kunda, Bhandiravana, and Govardhana, accompanied by Govinda's dear devotees, their eyes always brimming with tears of love.
Verse 7
I offer my respectful obeisances unto the Six Goswamis, who called out across Vraja with deep longing: 'O Radha! O Goddess of Vraja! O Lalita! O Son of Nanda! Where are You? Are You under the wish-fulfilling tree of Govardhana, or on the bank of the Yamuna?'—wandering in intense separation.
Verse 8
Worship Guidelines & Chanting Benefits (Phalashruti)
Wednesday (Budhwar), Thursday (Guruwar) & Ekadashi
Early Morning (Brahma Muhurta) or Sandhya (Twilight)
Tulsi leaves, Butter (Makhan), Mishri, Yellow flowers & Chandan
- Awakening of pure divine love (Prema Bhakti), mental joy, and freedom from anxiety
Background
This Sanskrit ashtakam (eight-verse prayer) is attributed to Srinivasa Acharya, a Gaudiya Vaishnava teacher of the Chaitanya tradition who, according to that tradition, was a disciple of Gopala Bhatta Goswami and carried the Goswamis' writings from Vrindavan to Bengal. It honors the Six Goswamis of Vrindavan, the disciples of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu who established the devotional practice and scriptural foundation of the tradition: Sri Rupa, Sanatana, Raghunatha Bhatta, Raghunatha Dasa, Jiva and Gopala Bhatta. Each verse ends with the same line of homage, 'I bow to Rupa and Sanatana, to Raghunatha, to Jiva and Gopala.'
About this Text
Composed by: Srinivasa Acharya
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Authorship
The ashtakam is credited to Srinivasa Acharya, a leading figure of the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, and is sung by devotees of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in honor of the Six Goswamis. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada lectured on it at Los Angeles on 18 November 1968.
The Six Goswamis
Sri Rupa, Sanatana, Raghunatha Bhatta, Raghunatha Dasa, Jiva and Gopala Bhatta lived in and around Vrindavan, wrote the devotional literature of the tradition, and rediscovered the places of Krishna's pastimes. Jiva Goswami's Sandarbhas, for example, systematize the teachings of the Bhagavatam.
Song and dance as practice
Verse 1 describes them as 'always engaged in loud chanting of Krishna's names, in song and in dance,' immersed in the ocean of the nectar of divine love, which makes the chanting of the holy names itself the center of their life.
Renunciation
Verse 4 praises them for casting aside the company of kings and wealth like straw, living in simple loincloth and patched cloth, and plunging into the waves of the nectar of the gopis' love.
Places of Vraja
Verses 5 and 7 name Govardhana hill, Radha Kund, Bhandirvan and the Vrindavan forests as the places where they wept in remembrance, and verse 8 shows them calling, 'O Radhe, O Lalita, O son of Nanda, where are you?', in the pain of separation.
Krishna
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The same teaching, echoed across traditions