Śrī Abhirāma Ṭhākura disappearance day

Identity in the spiritual world

purā śrīdāma-nāmāsīd abhirāmo’dhunā mahān | 

dvātriṁśatā janair eva bāhyaṁ kāṣṭham uvāha yaḥ ||

"Previously, his name was Śrīdāma, and he was very charming; now, he has become Abhirāma Ṭhākura. He held in his hand a piece of wood that would have taken 32 men to move. [Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā 126]

Abhirāma Ṭhākura could pick up that wood [which would have taken 32 men to move] and hold it like a flute. [Bhakti-ratnākara Fourth Wave]

Abhirāma Ṭhākura is a branch of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta Ādi-līlā 11.13

Śrī Rāmadāsa, later known as Abhirāma Ṭhākura, was one of the twelve gopālas, or cowherd boyfriends, of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu. The Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (126) states that Śrī Rāmadāsa was formerly Śrīdāmā. In the Bhakti-ratnākara (Fourth Wave), there is a description of Śrīla Abhirāma Ṭhākura. By the order of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu, Abhirāma Ṭhākura became a great ācārya and preacher of the Caitanya cult of devotional service. He was a very influential personality, and nondevotees were very much afraid of him. Empowered by Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu, he was always in ecstasy and was extremely kind to all fallen souls. It is said that if he offered obeisances to any stone other than a śālagrāma-śilā, it would immediately fracture.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura writes in his Anubhāṣya, “Ten miles southwest of the Cāṅpāḍāṅgā railway station on the narrow-gauge railway line from Howrah, in Calcutta, to Āmtā, a village in the Hugli district, is a small town named Khānākūla-kṛṣṇanagara, where the temple in which Abhirāma Ṭhākura worshiped is situated. During the rainy season, when this area is inundated with water, people must go there by another line, which is now called the South Eastern railway. On this line there is a station named Kolāghāṭa, from which one has to go by steamer to Rāṇīcaka. Seven and a half miles north of Rāṇīcaka is Khānākūla. The temple where Abhirāma Ṭhākura worshiped is situated in Kṛṣṇanagara, which is near the kūla (bank) of the Khānā (Dvārakeśvara River); therefore this place is celebrated as Khānākūla-kṛṣṇanagara. Outside of the temple is a bakula tree. This place is known as Siddha-bakula-kuñja. It is said that when Abhirāma Ṭhākura came there, he sat down under this tree. In Khānākūla-kṛṣṇanagara there is a big fair held every year in the month of Caitra [March-April] on the Kṛṣṇa-saptamī, the seventh day of the dark moon. Many hundreds and thousands of people gather for this festival. The temple where Abhirāma Ṭhākura worshiped has a very old history. The Deity in the temple is known as Gopīnātha. There are many sevaita families living near the temple. It is said that Abhirāma Ṭhākura had a whip and that whoever he touched with it would immediately become an elevated devotee of Kṛṣṇa. Among his many disciples, Śrīmān Śrīnivāsa Ācārya was the most famous and the most dear, but it is doubtful that he was his initiated disciple.”

Abhirāma Ṭhākura’s divine whip

Excerpt from Śrī Caitanya: His Life and Associates, Swami B.B. Tirtha, Mandala Publishing

Abhirāma Ṭhākura possessed a fiery temper and great spiritual power. The atheists trembled whenever they saw him. He was intoxicated, as if he had been possessed by Nityānanda, and his enchanting mercies are famed throughout the world. 

The devotees were greatly astonished when they saw him perform such superhuman feats. According to one legend, whenever Abhirāma Ṭhākura paid his obeisances to a stone or statue, if it was not a Viṣṇu-śilā or a consecrated deity, it would crack or be reduced to powder. Nondevotees were also unable to tolerate his praṇāmas. Nityānanda’s son Vīracandra Gosvāmī and his daughter Gaṅgā Devī survived his obeisances, and this confirmed their divine status. Śrīla Abhirāma Ṭhākura possessed an amazing whip that he named Jaya-maṅgala. Anyone touched by this whip would immediately experience the transcendental ecstasies of prema. One day Śrīnivāsa Ācārya visited Abhirāma Ṭhākura who gave him three lashes with that whip. Abhirāma’s wife Mālinī stopped her husband from hitting him again, saying that Śrīnivāsa was just a young lad who wouldn't be able to tolerate the effects of divine love. Nevertheless, Śrīnivāsa Ācārya was very dear to Abhirāma and received many blessings from him. Though not his initiated disciple, he was like a disciple to him. The Jaya-maṅ- gala whip is still held in the Kṛṣṇanagara temple.