Disappearance Day of Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura

What is the Disappearance Day of Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura?

Each year devotees honour Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura on the day he left this world and entered the eternal pastimes of Radha and Govinda. In 2027 it falls on Wednesday, 20 October.

Significance

Narottama wrote in simple Bengali, yet his songs carry both devotion and the final conclusions of Vaishnava philosophy. The best known are Prarthana and Prema-bhakti-candrika. Srila Prabhupada regarded them as no different from Vedic scripture and quoted them in his Bhagavatam lectures.

His closest companion was Ramachandra Kaviraja, a disciple of Srila Srinivasa Acarya. When Ramachandra Kaviraja and Srinivasa Acarya entered the Lord's pastimes, Narottama was overcome with separation and wrote the song "ye anilo prema-dhana". He then went to the Ganges, and there, absorbed in sankirtana, he merged into its waters and vanished from worldly view. His disappearance is observed on Krishna Panchami in the month of Kartika.

In Prema-bhakti-candrika he prays:

Let me serve the lotus feet of Radha-Govinda. Let my mind be filled with dedication to Their divine forms that defeat the beauty of Cupid and Rati.

Narottama Dasa Thakura, Prema-bhakti-candrika, as translated on Gaudiya History

How to observe it

Sing or read one of his songs, and pray, as he did, for the service of Radha and Krishna. Chant extra rounds. Remember that he was a king's son who gave up everything, and ask for the humility he showed.