There is a legend surrounding the addition of the word guru to Gopāla’s name.

There was once a devotee in Purī who was particularly attached to the chanting of the Holy Names. The chanting had become automatic for him so that his tongue uttered the Holy Names incessantly. One day Gopāla saw this devotee on his way to the toilet, holding his tongue between his fingers because he did not wish to chant the Holy Name while engaged in an impure act. Gopāla was just a lad, but he was able to understand why the devotee was doing this and he said to him, “What are you doing? Don’t you know that there are no regulations governing the time and place for chanting the Holy Name? One should chant the Name in all times and any circumstance, pure or impure. If you were not able to chant while defecating, how would you be able to have an auspicious death, should death suddenly come upon you at that time?”

Mahāprabhu overheard Gopāla’s words of the highest wisdom and was very impressed. He announced to all His devotees that Gopāla was doing the work of a guru. From that day on, the young Makaradhvaja Paṇḍita was known to the Vaiṣṇavas as Gopāla Guru. The name was appropriate because he both preached and practised and was factually acting as an ācārya or guru.

It did not take long for his fame to spread through the Vaiṣṇava world. Abhirāma Ṭhākura had the reputation of being able to verify whether a stone was a real Viṣṇu-śilā or śālagrāma-śilā by paying his obeisances to it. If not real, it would crack or turn into dust. Only a pure Vaiṣṇava would be able to tolerate his obeisances, otherwise, they could prove fatal. When the Vaiṣṇavas heard that Abhirāma Ṭhākura had come to Purī to test Gopāla Guru, they were anxious for the boy for whom they felt great affection. Mahāprabhu realized that everyone was troubled and so He placed His foot on Gopāla’s forehead, thus creating the distinctive tilaka marking of the Lord’s foot that is used to this day by those in Gopāla Guru’s spiritual lineage. Even so, Gopāla was still frightened and so he sat in the Lord’s lap for protection. Abhirāma Ṭhākura’s obeisances could thus do him no harm.

King Pratāparudra’s father Puruṣottama Deva brought several deities back from Kāñcī with him after defeating that city’s king. One among these deities was Rādhā-kānta. This deity was first placed in a small temple on the northwestern corner of Jagannātha’s Chatrabhoga Temple, but later, Pratāparudra’s guru Kāśī Miśra asked to be given the deity for his personal service. Kāśī Miśra had bequeathed everything he possessed to Mahāprabhu. Kāśī Miśra had no children of his own, so Mahāprabhu gave the service of Rādhā-kānta, His temple and the surrounding gardens, etc., to Gopāla Guru. His guru, Vakreśvara Paṇḍita, never acted as ācārya at Rādhā-kānta Math. Rather, he stayed absorbed in kīrtana and danced in the company of Mahāprabhu.

The tithi marking Mahāprabhu’s bestowal of Rādhā-kānta’s service on Gopāla Guru is celebrated on the śuklā dvādaśī of Māgha. On this day, he also gave him the post of the first ācārya of the Rādhā-kānta Math and the occasion is marked annually by an abhiṣeka of the present-day head of the Math.

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has written the following about Gopāla Guru Gosvāmī: “Vakreśvara Paṇḍita’s disciple Gopāla Guru Gosvāmī is currently head of Mahāprabhu’s own maṭha in the house of Kāśī Miśra in Puruṣottama. He has completely memorized the teachings of Śrī Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī.” (Jaiva Dharma)

Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī’s method of worshipping in madhura-rasa was spread throughout the world through two different lines: one through Raghunātha Dāsa Gosvāmī which was carried through Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, the other through Vakreśvara Paṇḍita and Gopāla Guru Gosvāmī. Gopāla Guru wrote two books on the subject, Smaraṇa-krama-paddhati (“a guidebook to the steps to remembering”) or Sevā-smaraṇa-paddhati (“a guidebook to remembering and service”) and Gaura-govindārcana-paddhati (“a guidebook to Gaura-Govinda’s deity worship”).

From the time of Gopāla Guru, Kāśī Miśra’s house was known as Rādhā-kānta Math. During Kāśī Miśra’s lifetime, the deity of Kṛṣṇa was worshipped alone. While Gopāla Guru was in charge of the temple, however, a deity of Rādhā was placed at Rādhā-kānta’s left side and a deity of Lalitā on His right. Deities of Gaurāṅga and Nityānanda Prabhu were also installed and the temple buildings were repaired and enlarged during this time, between 1539 and 1549 AD.

In the Odishan language, a small separate room situated on temple grounds is given the name gambhīrā. Srila Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has written, “In the customary architecture of a temple in Odisha, the deity room itself has a verandah facing it. Facing the verandah is a paved and covered area known as the dālāna. A small room within this area is given the name gambhīrā.” The Gambhīrā at Kāśī Miśra’s house marks the place where Mahāprabhu performed His bhajana and where He slept. Gopāla Guru kept Mahāprabhu’s wooden shoes and a quilt, which was made either by Svarūpa Dāmodara Gosvāmī or Jagadānanda Paṇḍita, in the Gambhīrā where they are worshipped. The water-pot made of clay from the Vraja area which Mahāprabhu used is also kept there, along with a wooden water-pot that was placed there in later times.

From Bhakti-ratnākara (8.382, 389) we learn that when Narottama Dāsa Ṭhākura visited Purī, he came to Kāśī Miśra’s house and met Gopāla Guru. Affectionately he took Narottama Ṭhākura on his lap and wept loudly.

A few accounts of miraculous events are told about Gopāla Guru. When Gopāla Guru grew old, he turned the responsibility for the Rādhā-kānta Math over to his disciple Dhyāna Candra Gosvāmī. When he left the body, not long after, his successor was overcome with grief. He took his guru’s body to the Svarga-dvāra for final rites.

While he and other disciples of Gopāla Guru Gosvāmī were at the cremation ground, some representatives of a government department barricaded the temple, claiming that the transfer of authority to Dhyāna Candra Gosvāmī had been done without ministerial sanction. When Dhyāna Candra Gosvāmī heard that this was going on, he fell at the lotus feet of his guru’s body, tears flowing from his eyes. Gopāla Guru’s body was already on the funeral pyre, but the prayers of his dear disciple reached him and he was revived. He rose up, chanting the Holy Names in saṅkīrtana.

As soon as the government representatives heard of this event, they became fearful and abandoned their effort to take over Rādhā-kānta Math and fled away from there. Gopāla Guru returned to the temple and made a legal written transfer of ownership to his disciple before disappearing finally sometime later on the Kārtika śuklā navamī.

A year after Gopāla Guru disappeared, when some devotees who had made the trip from Vraja for the Ratha-yātrā returned home, they were amazed to see Gopāla Guru sitting under a Pakur tree in Vamsi Vat, chanting japa. They sent the message to Dhyāna Candra Gosvāmī in Purī and he immediately hurried to Vṛndāvana to see his guru. He fell down at his feet and begged him to come to stay in Purī, however, Gopāla Guru rejected the proposal. Finally, Gopāla Guru told his disciple, “If you feel such separation from me that you are unable to tolerate it, then have an image of me made out of a neem tree and place it in front of the altar room of the temple and worship it.” This is what was done and the deity of Gopāla Guru Gosvāmī is worshipped at the Rādhā-kānta Math to this day.

āre mora gopāla guru bhakati kalapa taru
makara-dhvaja nāma jāṅhāra
śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya jāṅke gopāla baliye ḍāke
dekhi śiśu caritra udāra

gaurāṅgera sevā-rase sadāi ānande bhāse
gorā binu nāhi jāne āna
tileka nā dekhi jāṅre dhairaja dharite nāre
gorā jena gopālera prāṇa

gopāla śiśura prati śiksā dila eka rīti
prabhu premāveśe ḍhuli ḍhuli
kahe sabe āre āre āji haite gopālere
ḍākibā gopāla guru bali

gopāle karuṇā dekhi sabāra sajala āṅkhi
sukhera samudra uchalila
sabe kahe anupāma śrī gopāla guru nāma
prabhu datta jagate vyāpila

gopālera guru-bhakti kahite nāhika śakti
sadāi prasanna vakreśvara
mahāmatta nija-gīte nāhika upamā dite
sarva cittākarṣa kalevara

dekhila sakala ṭhāṅi emana dayālu nāi
kebā nā jagate yaśa ghoṣe
sabe kaila prema-pātra haila vañcita mātra
narahari nija karma doṣe

O Gopāla Guru, you are my devotional desire tree. Your name was previously Makaradhvaja, but Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya called you Gopāla because of your noble behaviour as a child.

You were always absorbed in the joy of serving Gaurāṅga; indeed you knew nothing other than Him. You could not tolerate being separated from the Lord for even a moment; it was as if Gaura was Gopāla’s very life.

One day, Gopāla was explaining some devotional practices to another child. The Lord was so ecstatic when He saw this that He said to everyone, “From today on, all of you call Gopāla, ‘Gopāla-guru’.”

Tears filled the devotees’ eyes when they saw how merciful the Lord was to Gopāla; it was as though the ocean of joy was overflowing. Everyone said that Gopāla Guru was an extraordinary name, and he became famous by the name given by the Lord Himself.

I am incapable of describing Gopāla’s devotion to his guru, Vakreśvara, who was always pleased with him. The incomparable Gopāla Guru, whose appearance was attractive to everyone, was always intoxicated in singing his own devotional songs.

Everyone recognized that no one was as merciful as he. Who in the world did not sing his glories? He made everyone worthy of loving ecstasy, only I, Narahari, have been deprived of it because of my own misdeeds.