Early life
His father’s name was Vallabha, and he was the brother of Rupa and Sanatana. On the day Vallabha accepted Lord Caitanya’s initiation, he received the name Anupama.
It is said that when the Lord met Rupa and Sanatana at Ramakeli, Jiva secretly listened to their sacred words and kept them in his heart. Shortly after Mahaprabhu’s second encounter with his father and uncles (in Allahabad), Anupama abandoned his mortal body during a journey, leaving Jiva fatherless. Jiva was only a child, but this experience had a profound effect on him, giving him an immediate understanding of how cruel the laws of the material world can be.
From the first days of his life, he manifested all the physical qualities of a great personality (maha-purusa) and his intellectual characteristics were no less. He was a true child prodigy, so much so that in a very short time he became a master of grammar, poetry, logic and hermeneutics of the scriptures.
Growing up, he chose to worship the deities of Krishna and Balarama, who for him were the same reincarnated as Caitanya and Nityananda.
In those years, from time to time, he received news from his uncles, Rupa and Sanatana, who were in Vrindavana and were working to reconstruct the Krishna-bhakti tradition. In his heart he had only one wish: to go live with them.
Another great desire of his youth was to go to visit Navadvipa, but his mother never granted him permission for fear that he would take the order of renunciation and leave her abandoned. However, one day, with the excuse of a trip to Fatehabad, he managed to reach Navadvipa, where he met Nityananda Prabhu, and then he was sure that the latter was no different from Balarama.
He was little more than a child when he suffered a second serious grief: the death of his mother. At that time he decided to take sannyasa and go to Vraja. First, however, he wanted to return to Navadvipa, where he again met Nityananda Prabhu, with whom he visited the places that had witnessed the youthful pastimes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
We found interesting details of this trip in the Navadvipa Dham Mahatmya of Bhaktivinoda Thakura. Nityananda himself made him visit all the holy places of Navadvipa, including the famous house of Srivasa, where the first fantastic kirtanas had taken place. When Sri Jiva met Srivasa Thakur, he introduced him to Sacidevi and Visnupriya, who wanted to prepare a delicious prasada in his honor. Vamsivadana, Saci’s servant, accompanied him to the temple of Jagannath Misra.
In those days, Jiva visited the nine islands of Navadvipa.
During the pilgrimage, Nityananda instructed Jiva Gosvami to go to Vrindavana via Varanasi. Nityananda wanted him to visit Madhusudana Vacaspati, a disciple of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya, and learn lessons from him. Arriving in Varanasi (Benarés), Sri Jiva immediately found Vacaspati and accepted him as a teacher. He resided in this important center of culture for a time, thus having the opportunity to complete his Sanskrit studies. He soon became famous for his vast erudition.
In those days he began his work as a writer with the Sarva-sanga-vadini, his first work, where he presents several commentaries on the Vedanta Sutras. The University of Varanasi, in recognition of his merits, has dedicated an entire department of studies to him, which is still functioning today.
This is a section of the book “Tattva Sandarbha”, in English.
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