8.60
tanhara ananta guna ke karu prakasa
tanra priya sisya inha--pandita haridasa
SYNONYMS
tanhara—his; ananta—unlimited; guna—qualities; ke—who; karu—can; prakasa—display; tanra—his; priya—dear; sisya—disciple; inha—this person; pandita haridasa—of the name Haridasa Pandita.
Ananta Acarya was a reservoir of all good qualities.
No one can estimate how great he was.
Pandita Haridasa was his beloved disciple.
PURPORT
Sri Ananta Acarya is one of the eternal associates of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
Previously, during the advent of Lord Sri Krsna, Ananta Acarya was Sudevi, one of the eight gopis.
This is stated in the Gaura-ganoddesa-dipika, verse 165, as follows: anantacarya-gosvami ya sudevi pura vraje “Ananta Acarya Gosvami was formerly Sudevi-gopi in Vraja (Vrndavana).” In Jagannatha Puri, or Purusottama-ksetra, there is a monastery known as Ganga-mata Matha that was established by Ananta Acarya.
In the disciplic succession of the Ganga-mata Matha, he is known as Vinoda-manjari.
One of his disciples was Haridasa Pandita Gosvami, who is also known as Sri Raghu Gopala and as Sri Rasa-manjari.
His disciple Laksmipriya was the maternal aunt of Ganga-mata, a princess who was the daughter of the King of Putiya.
Ganga-mata brought a Deity of the name Sri Rasika-raya from Krsna Misra of Jaipur and installed Him in the house of Sarvabhauma in Jagannatha Puri.
The disciple in the fifth generation after Sri Ananta Acarya was Sri Vanamali; in the sixth generation, Sri Bhagavan dasa, who was a Bengali; in the seventh generation, Madhusudana dasa, who was an Oriya; in the eighth generation, Nilambara dasa; in the ninth generation, Sri Narottama dasa; in the tenth generation, Pitambara dasa; and in the eleventh generation, Sri Madhava dasa.
The disciple in the twelfth generation is presently in charge of the Ganga-mata monastery.