1. Appearance Day of Śrī Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi

2. Appearance Day of Śrī Raghunandan Thakur

3. Appearance Day of Śrī Raghunath Das Goswami

4. Disappearance Day of Śrī Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur

5. Appearance Day of Srimati Vishnupriya Devi

6. Vasant Pancami

1. Appearance Day of Śrī Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi

Sri Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, a disciple of Madhavendra Puri and the guru of Śrī Gadādhara Paṇḍita, was often misunderstood as being attached to material pleasures. However, in reality, he was an ecstatic devotee of Krishna. In Krishna’s pastimes, he was Vrishabhanu, the father of Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī.

For more information, refer to Pundarika Vidyanidhi’s appearances in Chaitanya-charitamrita Adi-lila, 10.14, and Madhya-lila, 16.76-81.

2. Appearance Day of Śrī Raghunandan Thakur

“Sri Raghunandana Thakura was the son of the great devotee Mukunda Dasa. Both were contemporaries of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It is stated in the Bhakti-ratnākara (Eighth Wave) that Raghunandana used to serve a Deity of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.”

For further details, you can find references to Raghunandana Thakura in Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila 10.78-79, and learn about Lord Chaitanya’s interactions with Mukunda Dasa and Raghunandana Thakur in Chaitanya-charitamrita, Madhya-lila 15.112-132.

3. Appearance Day of Śrī Raghunath Das Goswami

“Raghunatha Dasa Goswami was the only son of a wealthy landowner. At the age of fifteen, however, he met Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and later became one of the six Goswamis of Vrindavan who were Mahaprabhu’s direct followers. Raghunatha Dasa led a most austere life of pure devotion. He was the very emblem of renunciation. Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī compiled three books, named Stava-mālā (or Stavāvalī), Dāna-carita and Muktācarita. He was known as the prayojana acharya, he who by example teaches life’s ultimate goal. In the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (186) it is stated that Śrīla Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī was formerly the gopī named Rasa-mañjarī. Sometimes it is said that he was Rati-mañjarī. His samadhi stands on the bank of Radha-kunda, Vrindavan, India.”

For more details, refer to Raghunatha Dasa Goswami’s life discussed in Chaitanya-charitamrita, Adi-lila 10.91.

4. Disappearance Day of Śrī Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakur

Viśvanātha Cakravarti Ṭhākura was one of the most prominent, influential, and prolifically literate teachers in the disciplic succession of Gaudiya Vaishnava Sampradaya. He appeared in the village of Devagram, Bengal. He received initiation from Ramana Chakravarti, and his name after taking sannyasa (renounced life) was Hari Vallabha Goswami.

Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakura is the author of Sri Gurvastakam, ‘Eight Prayers Glorifying the Spiritual Master’.

Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti’s most famous disciple was Srila Baladeva Vidyabhushana. When brahmana scholars in Jaipur challenged the validity of Lord Chaitanya’s movement, Vishvanatha, the leader of Lord Chaitanya’s followers at the time, was too old to make the journey and debate the challengers, so he sent Baladeva in his place. By the dictation of Lord Krishna, Baladeva wrote the Govinda-bhashya commentary on the Vedanta-sutra and defeated the skeptics.

Srila Vishvanatha Chakravarti also wrote important commentaries on Srimad Bhagavatam and Bhagavad-gita and the writings of the six Goswamis of Vrindavan.

Srila Prabhupada regularly referred to Vishvanath Chakravarti Thakura’s Srimad-Bhagavatam commentaries while writing his own purports.

5. Appearance Day of Srimati Vishnupriya Devi

On all of Krishna’s visits to the material world, He’s accompanied by His pleasure potency – His internal spiritual energy personified, in the form of Lakshmidevi or Srimati Radharani. As Krishna expands Himself into innumerable avatars, Srimati Radharani also has unlimited expansions to accompany Krishna everywhere. Srimati Vishnupriya Devi is one such expansion. She was the second wife of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. About Srimati Vishnupriya, Srila Prabhupada says in Teachings of Lord Chaitanya:

“During his residence in East Bengal, His (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s) wife Lakshmidevi left this world from the effects of snakebite. On returning home, he found his mother in a mourning state. He consoled her with a lecture on the uncertainty of human affairs. It was at his mother’s request that he married Vishnupriya, the daughter of Raja Pandit Sanātana Miśra.”

And in the Introduction to Srimad-Bhagavatam:

“For His first twenty-four years He (Mahaprabhu) remained at Navadvipa as a student and householder. His first wife was Srimati Lakshmipriya, who died at an early age when the Lord was away from home. When He returned from East Bengal He was requested by His mother to accept a second wife, and He agreed. His second wife was Srimati Vishnupriya Devi, who bore the separation of the Lord throughout her life because the Lord took the order of sannyasa (renounciation) at the age of twenty-four, when Srimati Vishnupriya was barely sixteen years old.”

6. Vasant Pancami

Vasanta Pancami usually takes place during the month of January or February, and marks the first official day of spring. The spring season signifies new life and joy, and Mother Nature shares that jubilation in the form of blossoming flowers and flourishing trees. It is indeed a very beautiful time of the year. As Lord Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita 10.35, ‘ham ṛtūnāṁ kusumākaraḥ: “…and of seasons I am flower-bearing spring.”

“Śrīla Prabhupāda: “Of course spring is a season universally liked because it is neither too hot nor too cold, and the flowers and trees blossom and flourish. In spring there are also many ceremonies commemorating Kṛṣṇa’s pastimes; therefore this is considered to be the most joyful of all seasons, and it is the representative of the Supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa.”

(Excerpt from Bhagavad-Gita as It Is 10.53, Purport | 1972 Edition)

Traditionally in Vrndavan, Vasanta Pancami is celebrated very wonderfully. All the deities are dressed and decorated in beautiful yellow cloth and elaborately decorated, and everyone dresses in various shades of yellow or green.

The Vasanta season is celebrated as the best of seasons, not only because it represents life and joy, but because it is the most fortunate of all the seasons, as Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in the Vasanta season.”

“I offer my respectful obeisances unto the full-moon evening in the month of Phālguna, an auspicious time full of auspicious symptoms, when Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu advented Himself with the chanting of the holy name, Hare Kṛṣṇa.”

(Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta >> Ādi-līlā 13.19 | 1974 Edition)