{"id":8014,"date":"2026-06-27T17:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T11:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/?p=8014"},"modified":"2026-06-27T17:46:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T12:16:39","slug":"kholavecha-sridhara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/kholavecha-sridhara\/","title":{"rendered":"Kholavecha Sridhara \u2013 Dear Devotee of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Great Fortune of Kholavecha Sridhara<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the Chaitanya<\/a>-bhagavata it is said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

khol\u0101vec\u0101 sevakera dekha bh\u0101gya-s\u012bm\u0101<\/em>
brahm\u0101 \u015biva k\u0101\u1e45de y\u0101ra dekhiy\u0101 mahim\u0101<\/em>
dhane jane p\u0101\u1e47\u1e0ditye k\u1e5b\u1e63ere n\u0101hi p\u0101i<\/em>
kevala bhaktira va\u015ba caitanya-gos\u0101\u00f1i<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBehold the great fortune of the devotee Kholavecha. Lord Brahma and Shiva<\/a> shed tears upon seeing his greatness. One cannot attain Lord Krishna by any amount of wealth, followers, or learning. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is controlled only by pure devotion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Simple Life and Pure Devotion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had a very sincere devotee whose name was Kholavecha Sridhara and whose business was to sell cups made of the skin of banana trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever income he had, he used fifty percent for the worship of mother Ganges, and with the other fifty percent he provided for his necessities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was so poor that he lived in a cottage with a broken roof full of holes. He could not afford brass utensils and drank water from an iron pot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, he was a great devotee of Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He is a typical example of how a poor man with no material possessions can become a most exalted devotee of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conclusion is that one cannot attain shelter at the lotus feet of Lord Krishna or Sri Chaitanya Gosani through material opulence; that shelter is attainable only by pure devotional service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu started His civil disobedience movement in defiance of the Kazi, Sridhara danced in jubilation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sridhara presented a squash to Sachidevi to cook before Lord Chaitanya took sannyasa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year he went to see Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu at Jagannatha Puri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Refusing Material Opulence<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lord Chaitanya once revealed Himself to this confidential devotee, Kholavecha Sridhara, and offered him any opulence he liked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Sridhara informed the Lord that he did not want any material opulence. He was satisfied in his present position and wanted only unflinching faith and devotion unto the lotus feet of Lord Chaitanya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is the position of pure devotees. If they can be engaged twenty-four hours each day in devotional service they do not want anything else, not even the happiness of liberation or of becoming one with the Supreme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Identity in Krishna-lila<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Kavi-karnapura, Sridhara was a cowherd boy of Vrindavana whose name was Kusumasava.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his Gaura-ga\u1e47odde\u015ba-d\u012bpik\u0101 (133)<\/em> it is stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

khol\u0101-vec\u0101tay\u0101 khy\u0101ta\u1e25 pa\u1e47\u1e0dita\u1e25 \u015br\u012bdharo dvija\u1e25<\/em>
\u0101s\u012bd vraje h\u0101sya-karo yo n\u0101mn\u0101 kusum\u0101sava\u1e25<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe cowherd boy known as Kusumasava in krishna-lila later became Kholavecha Sridhara during Chaitanya Mahaprabhu\u2019s lila at Navadvipa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Lord Chaitanya\u2019s Loving Dealings with Sridhara<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every day Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu jokingly snatched fruits, flowers and pulp from Sridhara and drank from his broken iron pot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Great Fortune of Kholavecha Sridhara In the Chaitanya-bhagavata it is said: khol\u0101vec\u0101 sevakera dekha bh\u0101gya-s\u012bm\u0101brahm\u0101 \u015biva k\u0101\u1e45de y\u0101ra dekhiy\u0101 mahim\u0101dhane jane p\u0101\u1e47\u1e0ditye k\u1e5b\u1e63ere n\u0101hi p\u0101ikevala bhaktira va\u015ba caitanya-gos\u0101\u00f1i \u201cBehold the great fortune of the devotee Kholavecha. Lord Brahma and Shiva shed tears upon seeing his greatness. One cannot attain Lord Krishna by any amount of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":8010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-our-acharyas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8015,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8014\/revisions\/8015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iskconbangalore.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}