Gītagovinda

Gītagovinda · gīta-govinda, “the song of Govinda”

The Gītagovinda is the work composed by the bhakta poet Jayadeva. The Pratisarga Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa tells that King Dharmapāla, Jayadeva’s disciple, attained moksha by reading it.

Jayadeva and King Dharmapāla

The Pratisarga Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa tells, in Bṛhaspati‘s account of the glory of Bhagavān Sūrya as Sūta reports it, that Bhagavān Sūrya promised the devas he would be born in Bilvagrāma in Vaṅga-deśa as Jayadeva, the crest-jewel of poets. Born to the brāhmaṇa Kanduki, Jayadeva lived in the forest in vairāgya, and by the command of Bhagavān Jagannātha the brāhmaṇa Satyavrata gave him his daughter Padmāvatī.

Thieves impelled by Kali looted the wealth Jayadeva had received, cut off his hands and feet and threw him into a pit, and Padmāvatī drew him out. King Dharmapāla, coming there while hunting, asked who had done this. Jayadeva answered that he had come to this state as the fruit of his own karma, and that no one had done any wickedness. The king brought him to his palace, took dīkshā from him and built him a dharmaśālā.

Later the same thieves came to the court in the dress of Vaishṇavas and spoke falsely against Jayadeva. The earth split open and the thieves were caught in it. The compassionate Jayadeva wept to see them so, and as he wept his hands and feet became whole. The king, astonished, heard all that had happened from Jayadeva and was exceedingly glad. Reading the Gītagovinda composed by Jayadeva, that king attained moksha.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 9

Sources

• Bhavishya Purāṇa, Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 4, Chapter 9