For the remainder of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's manifest life at Jagannatha Puri, Ramananda Raya belonged to a circle so small that Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita gives it an exact, almost startling size: three and a half people, throughout the entire world, whom Mahaprabhu accepted as truly confidential associates of Srimati Radharani Herself. The three were Svarupa Damodara Goswami, Ramananda Raya and Shikhi Mahiti; the half was Shikhi Mahiti's own sister. Everything else recorded about Ramananda Raya's Puri years has to be read against that measure — this was not simply a devoted follower among many, but one of a small handful of people the tradition considers to have stood permanently at the very center of Mahaprabhu's private devotional life.
A Friend Like Subala #
Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita reaches for a specific comparison to describe what Ramananda Raya actually did for Mahaprabhu day to day: just as Subala, one of Krishna's cowherd friends in Vrindavana, once helped Krishna Himself through His own moods of separation from Radha, so Ramananda Raya gave that same kind of help to Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Together with Svarupa Damodara, he sang and recited long into the night — his own compositions, the poetry of Chandidasa and Vidyapati, verses from Bilvamangala Thakura's Krishna-karnamrita and Jayadeva Goswami's Gita Govinda, and lines from his own Jagannatha-vallabha-nataka — whenever Mahaprabhu's longing for Krishna grew too intense to bear quietly. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami states outright that only Ramananda's words about Krishna and Svarupa Damodara's songs kept the Lord functioning through some of these episodes.
Training the Temple Dancers #
One pastime from these years still unsettles readers who come across it for the first time. Ramananda Raya personally trained young devadasis — temple dancers dedicated to Lord Jagannatha's service — teaching them the emotional and rhythmic art of portraying his own rasa-laden dramas, and in doing so bathed, massaged and dressed them with his own hands, every single day. Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita does not soften this or explain it away; it simply states that no small-minded person could hope to understand what was in Ramananda Raya's mind while he did it. Mahaprabhu Himself is recorded as saying that even He, a sannyasi under vows, sometimes felt His own mind disturbed by the mere sight of a woman's form — but that Ramananda Raya was greater than Him in this respect, for he remained entirely undisturbed even while touching one directly. The tradition is equally direct about the other side of that statement: this was Ramananda Raya's unique prerogative, granted for reasons particular to his own position, and not a standard for anyone else to imitate.
Declining to Speak on His Own #
Not every glimpse of Ramananda Raya's service in Puri is this dramatic. When the devotee Pradyumna Mishra came to his home hoping to hear about Krishna directly from him, Ramananda Raya's servant first had to explain that his master was occupied — busy with exactly the kind of daily service just described. When Ramananda Raya did receive him, he responded to Pradyumna Mishra's request with something closer to refusal than agreement, insisting that any real understanding of Krishna had to come through Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, not through him speaking independently. Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami's own comment on the exchange is blunt: Ramananda Raya's discourses cannot properly be described in ordinary language, because he is not an ordinary man — his very words are absorbed in devotional service, spoken as a instrument of the Lord's own will rather than as opinions of his own.
A Mine of Devotional Mellows #
Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita elsewhere has Mahaprabhu describe Ramananda Raya to another visiting scholar in language that leaves little room for ambiguity: Ramananda Raya, He says, is "the ultimate knower of the transcendental mellows of Krishna's devotional service," the very person who taught Mahaprabhu that Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and someone whose influence "cannot be described" — it was only by Ramananda Raya's mercy, Mahaprabhu says, that He came to understand the unalloyed love of the residents of Vrindavana. Coming from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Himself, this is about as high a statement of spiritual authority as the tradition records for anyone. What the tradition believes lies behind that authority — who Ramananda Raya actually is, beneath the governor's robes and the years of quiet Puri service — is the subject of His Identity in Krishna-Lila.