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Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana

He was born in a village near Remuna in Orissa, in the 1600s. He was expert at Sanskrit, grammar, logic and poetry. He became a sannyasi in the Madhva sampradaya. He became a dig vijaya pandit (conqueror of all opponents). He would go to different holy places and defeat the local scholars and sannyasis.

When he went to Jagannatha Puri he learned about the philosophy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu from Radha Damodara Gosvami. After being converted to becoming a Gaudiya Vaishnava he was initiated by Radha Damodara, who was the disciple of the disciple of Sri Rasikananda Murari. He studied the Sandarbhas of Jiva Gosvami under Radha Damodara Gosvami. Baladeva Vidyabhusana was in the fifth generation of descendants in the disciplic succession from Syamananda Prabhu. The disciplic succession was Nityananda Prabhu, Gauridasa Pandita, Hridaya Caitanya, Syamananda, Rasikananda, Nayanananda, Radha Damodara and Baladeva Vidyabhusana.

When he went to Vrindavana he studied Srimad Bhagavatam under Srila Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur and he worshiped Radha Shyamasundara. He wrote more than twenty-four books.

In 1706 Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakur sent him to Galta (near Jaipur, Rajasthan) to settle an argument on whether Gaudiya Vaishnavas in the line of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu were bonafide. The local Ramanandis (a branch of Sri Vaishnavas) said that the Gaudiya Vaishnavas had no right to worship Govindaji because they were not a bonafide sampradaya. Baladeva Vidyabhusana was able to prove in argument that the Gaudiya Vaishnavas were bonafide, but was then told they had no commentary on Vedanta Sutra. He was then given three months to write this commentary, which was considered impossible to do. It is said that Lord Govindaji directly revealed Govinda-bhasya (his commentary on Vedanta in the line of the Gaudiya Vaishnavas) to Baladeva Vidyabhusana. He solidly established the fact that the Gaudiya Vaishnavas had a bonafide independent philosophy and therefore had the right to worship Govindaji.

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