Å›rÄ«-vÄ«rabhadra gosÄñi — skandha-mahÄÅ›ÄkhÄ
tÄá¹…ra upaÅ›ÄkhÄ yata, asaá¹…khya tÄra lekhÄ

 Å›rÄ«-vÄ«rabhadra gosÄñi - ÅšrÄ« VÄ«rabhadra GosÄñi; skandha - of the trunk; mahÄ-Å›ÄkhÄ - the biggest branch; tÄá¹…ra - his; upaÅ›ÄkhÄ - subbranches; yata - all; asaá¹…khya - innumerable; tÄra - of that; lekhÄ - the description.


Text

After NityÄnanda Prabhu, the greatest branch is VÄ«rabhadra GosÄñi, who also has innumerable branches and subbranches. It is not possible to describe them all.

Purport

ÅšrÄ«la BhaktisiddhÄnta SarasvatÄ« ṬhÄkura writes in his AnubhÄá¹£ya, “VÄ«rabhadra GosÄñi was the direct son of ÅšrÄ«la NityÄnanda Prabhu and a disciple of JÄhnavÄ-devÄ«. His real mother was VasudhÄ. In the Gaura-gaṇoddeÅ›a-dÄ«pikÄ (67) He is mentioned as an incarnation of KṣīrodakaÅ›ÄyÄ« Viṣṇu. Therefore VÄ«rabhadra GosÄñi is nondifferent from ÅšrÄ« Kṛṣṇa Caitanya MahÄprabhu. In a village of the name JhÄmaá¹­apura, in the district of Hugli, VÄ«rabhadra GosÄñi had a disciple named YadunÄthÄcÄrya, who had two daughters — a real daughter named ÅšrÄ«matÄ« and a foster daughter named NÄrÄyaṇī. Both these daughters married, and they are mentioned in the Bhakti-ratnÄkara (Thirteenth Wave). VÄ«rabhadra GosÄñi had three disciples who are celebrated as his sons — GopÄ«jana-vallabha, RÄmakṛṣṇa and RÄmacandra. The youngest, RÄmacandra, belonged to the ÅšÄṇá¸ilya dynasty and had the surname Vaá¹­avyÄla. He established his family at Khaá¸adaha, and its members are known as the gosvÄmÄ«s of Khaá¸adaha. The eldest disciple, GopÄ«jana-vallabha, was a resident of a village known as LatÄ, near the MÄnakara railway station in the district of Burdwan. The second, RÄmakṛṣṇa, lived near MÄladaha, in a village named GayeÅ›apura.†ŚrÄ«la BhaktisiddhÄnta SarasvatÄ« ṬhÄkura notes that since these three disciples belonged to different gotras, or dynasties, and also had different surnames and lived in different places, it is not possible to accept them as real sons of VÄ«rabhadra GosÄñi. RÄmacandra had four sons, of whom the eldest was RÄdhÄmÄdhava, whose third son was named YÄdavendra. YÄdavendra’s son was NandakiÅ›ora, his son was Nidhikṛṣṇa, his son was CaitanyacÄṇá¸a, his son was Kṛṣṇamohana, his son was Jaganmohana, his son was VrajanÄtha, and his son was ÅšyÄmalÄla GosvÄmÄ«. This is the genealogical table given by BhaktisiddhÄnta SarasvatÄ« ṬhÄkura for the descendants of VÄ«rabhadra GosÄñi.