The fifth waxing-moon day of Magha, is very auspicious and known as Vasanta Pancami! On this day the first signs of early spring are visible such as flowering mango blossoms, reddish budding leaves, fresh green grasses and the appearance of yellow mustard flowers. The days become slightly warmer and the Lord’s hemanta-vesha or wintertime clothing is put away. During this time and in the weeks ahead, many very sweet and touching pastimes of Sri Radha-Krsna occur. Their Lordships are traditionally dressed in bright yellow and chartreuse cloth with silver on this special occasion.
Today is also Sarasvati Puja and the goddess of learning, knowledge, music, and all the sixty-four arts is worshiped at this time. Goddess Sarasvati is the wife of Lord Brahma. The Puranas describe how she was variously born from the mode of goodness, the mind, the face, and the effulgence of Lord Brahma. He then gave her three places to reside—on the tip of everyone’s tongue, on earth as a holy river, and within Brahma himself (as his other half, or wife). Some rishis state that Lord Brahma has three wives (Savitri, Gayatri and Sarasvati) and others say he has two or only one. The truth is that all three of these goddesses are different aspects of the same deity, and they are all expansions of the Lord’s internal potency.
The appearances of four great personalities are also celebrated on this day—Srimati Visnupriya Devi, Srila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami, Sri Pundarika Vidyanidhi and Sri Raghunandana Thakura. Visnupriya Devi was the second and dearmost wife of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. She was an incarnation of the Lord’s internal bhu-sakti (Sri Gaura-ganodesa-dipika, 47). Her marriage to Mahaprabhu is elaborately described in Sri Caitanya-bhagavata and her final, touching conversation with Him prior to His taking sannyasa is narrated in Sri Caitanya-mangala. Srimati Visnupriya Devi adopted a very austere and devoted lifestyle after the Lord’s departure, spending her remaining days worshiping His Deity form, remembering His pastimes and weeping incessantly.
Srila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami (1495-1586 CE) is one of the six Goswamis of Vrndavana. He met Lord Caitanya at the age of fifteen and later renounced his beautiful wife and opulent family to completely surrender to the Lord at Jagannatha Puri. He did this after pleasing Lord Nityananda by organizing a chipped rice festival at Panihati and receiving His mercy. In Puri, Raghunatha was put under the care of Srila Svarupa Damodara Goswami and Mahaprabhu gave him His personal Govardhana sila and gunja-mala to worship. After the Lord’s departure from this world, Raghunatha experienced great separation and retired to Vrndavana, where he became a very dear associate of Sri Rupa, Sanatana and all the Vaisnavas. Raghunatha stayed on the banks of Sri Radha-kunda, performing great austerities and doing deep bhajana there for the rest of his life. Once, while absorbed in bhajana, two ferocious tigers came to drink at the kunda and Krsna personally protected Raghunatha at that time. In another instance, Srimati Radharani personally came and used Her veil to protect Raghunatha from the sun. Srila Sanatana Goswami witnessed all this and chastised him for taking service from the Divine Couple; henceforth Raghunatha agreed to build a small bhajana-kutira for his meditation. The three famous writings of Srila Raghunatha Dasa Goswami are: Sri Stavavali (which contains Sri Manah-siksa, Vilapa-kusumanjali, etc.), Sri Mukta-carita, and Sri Dana-keli-cintamani. In Vraja-lila he serves Sri Radha as Sri Rati-manjari, who is also known as Tulasi-manjari. According to others he is either Rasa-manjari or Bhanumati-devi (Sri Gaura-ganodesa-dipika, 186).
Sri Pundarika Vidyanidhi was senior to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu (as a disciple of Sri Madhavendra Puri) and also the guru of Sri Gadadhara Pandita. He resided in Navadvipa during the Lord’s youthful pastimes and later moved to Jagannatha Puri to be with the Lord there. Mahaprabhu considered Pundarika Vidyanidhi a father and his pure devotion caused the Lord to cry out, “Pundarika is My father, My dearmost friend! When will I see him again?” He also declared, “Simply by hearing the name of Pundarika Vidyanidhi, the whole world becomes purified.” Pundarika Vidyanidhi is famous for being personally slapped by Lord Jagannatha while asleep. In Vraja-lila, Sri Pundarika Vidyanidhi is none other than Maharaja Vrsabhanu, the father of Sri Radha (Sri Gaura-ganodesa-dipika, 54).
Sri Raghunandana Thakura was junior to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and the young son of Sri Mukunda Dasa. He is especially known for his great devotion to the Lord and a pastime in which the Deity personally ate everything on the plate offered by him. Witnessing this miracle performed by the Lord for his young son, Sri Mukunda was astonished. Recounting the incident, Mahaprabhu would often joke with Mukunda saying, “Who is the father and who is the son?” Mukunda would reply, “My son, Raghunandana, is actually the father because through him I have understood krsna-bhakti. Therefore he is my real father.” Mahaprabhu confirmed, “Yes, whoever gives us krsna-bhakti is our guru and real father.” Later on, the Lord requested Raghunandana to worship the Deity of Sri Caitanya Deva in order to expand preaching in the area known as Srikhanda. Sri Raghunandana is said to be Kandarpa-manjari in Vraja-lila and Sri Pradyumna of the catur-vyuha in Dvaraka-lila. His father Mukunda Dasa is none other than Sri Vrnda-devi (Sri Gaura-ganodesa-dipika, 175).
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