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Sri Jiva Gosvami

He was the son of Anupama (Vallabha), who was the brother of Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami. He established the Radha Damodara Temple. He was born in Ramkeli, Bengal in 1514 and he left his body in Vrindavana in 1618.
From his childhood Jiva Gosvami was greatly fond of Srimad Bhagavatam. He went to Navadvipa to study Sanskrit and circumambulated the entire Navadvipa Dhama. He toured Navadvipa Dhama with Nityananda Prabhu. He went to Benares (Varanasi) to study Sanskrit under Madhusudana Vacaspati, a disciple of Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya. After finishing his studies he went to Vrindavana and took shelter of his uncles, Sri Rupa Gosvami and Sri Sanatana Gosvami. This is described in Bhakti-ratnakara.

After the disappearance of Srila Rupa Gosvami and Sanatana Gosvami in Vrindavana, Srila Jiva Gosvami became the acarya of all the Vaishnavas in Bengal, Orissa and the rest of the world. He used to guide them in devotional service. Jiva Gosvami established the worship of Radha Damodara in the Seva Kunja area in Vrindavana, in 1542. When Jiva Gosvami was still present, Krishna Dasa Kaviraja Gosvami compiled his famous Caitanya Caritamrita. Later, Jiva Gosvami inspired Srinivasa Acarya, Narottama Dasa Thakura, and Syamananda Prabhu (Duhkhi Krishnadasa) to preach Krishna consciousness in Bengal.

While Jiva Gosvami was alive, Srimati Jahnava Devi, the wife of Sri Nityananda Prabhu, came to Vrindavana with a few devotees. Jiva Gosvami was very kind to the Gaudiya Vaishnavas from Bengal.

Jiva Gosvami wrote 25 works in Sanskrit (over 400,000 Sanskrit verses) such as: (1) Sat Sandarbha, (2) Harinam Amrita Vyakaran, (3) Sarva Sambadindi, (4) Gopala Champu, (5) Kramasandarba, (6) Commentary of the Brahma Samhita, (7) Durgama Sangamani, (8) Sutra Malika - a grammatical work dealing with the derivation of words, (9) Commentary on Krishna Karnamrita, (10) Krishna Chandra Dipika.
Jiva Gosvami personally managed the Govindaji, Madana Mohana, Gopinatha and Radha Damodara temples. He assisted Raghunatha Dasa Gosvami to excavate Radha Kunda.
It is believed that the Mughal Emperor, Akbar, came to see some of the Gosvamis of Vrindavana in Nidhivana, in 1573. It is said that since Jiva Goswami was the senior most Vaishnava, that Emperor Akbar came to see him. Akbar became an ardent admirer of them.

Srila Prabhupada said about Jiva Gosvami: “The Vaishnavas are by far the greatest philosophers in the world, and the greatest among them was Srila Jiva Gosvami. Prabhupada.” In the Gaura Ganoddesa Dipika it is said that Jiva Gosvami was formerly Vilasa-manjari gopi.

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