Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī appeared in the village of Ramakeli in the district of Maldah as the son of Anupama Mallika (Vallabha), who had made his residence there in order to serve in the government. The name of Jīva Gosvāmī’s mother is not known. Narahari Cakravartī in his Bhakti-ratnākara (1.540-568) has given Jīva Gosvāmī’s genealogy going back seven generations. This list, as explained by Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura has been given here in this volume in the chapter on Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī. Jīva Gosvāmī’s father’s original name was Vallabha, but Mahāprabhu gave him the name Anupama. (Caitanya Caritāmṛta 2.19.36)

Mahāprabhu met Anupama for the first time when He came to Ramakeli. By His will, Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī abandoned all of their worldly duties and then set off in an effort to be reunited with Mahāprabhu in Vṛndāvana. The same spirit of renunciation took hold in Jīva Gosvāmī’s heart at this time also, as has been vividly described by Narahari in Bhakti-ratnākara as follows:

Śrī Jīva’s mind became distracted from the time that his two uncles went to Vṛndāvana. He abandoned his jewels and fine dress, comfortable bed, food and various amusements. It was as though nothing interested him anymore. He could not bear hearing news of political and other mundane affairs. (Bhakti-ratnākara 1.686-8)

Narahari Cakravartī summarizes Jīva Gosvāmī’s early life as follows: In a dream, Jīva Gosvāmī had a vision of Mahāprabhu dancing in the midst of saṅkīrtana. He was overwhelmed by feelings of divine love and soon thereafter left his home. He had some companions who went with him as far as Fatehabad from Bakla Chandradvīpa, but from there he continued alone to Navadvīpa. There he met Nityānanda Prabhu in the home of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita and received His blessings. Nityānanda Prabhu told him at that time that he should go to Vṛndāvana:

With fatherly affection, Nityānanda Prabhu touched Śrī Jīva’s head with His feet. He showed incomparable mercy toward Śrī Jīva, lifting him from the ground and embracing him tightly. Transported by divine ecstasy, Nityānanda Prabhu said, “I rushed here from Khardah for your sake alone.” He said other things like this to pacify Śrī Jīva and then made Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita and the other devotees give their blessings to him. After keeping Śrī Jīva there for some time with Him, Nityānanda Prabhu sent him off to the North. He said, “Hurry off now to Vraja. That is the place the Lord has given over to your family.” (Bhakti-ratnākara 1.765-9, 772)

It is not clear whether Jīva Gosvāmī ever met Mahāprabhu directly. However, there is a hint in the Bhakti-ratnākara that Jīva Gosvāmī was a baby when the Lord came to Ramakeli. Jīva Gosvāmī demonstrated an interest in devotion to the Supreme Lord from his early childhood. Even when playing with his friends, he was only interested in games that were connected to the worship of Kṛṣṇa.

When Śrī Jīva was a little boy, he refused to play any game that had no relation to Kṛṣṇa, with other boys. He made images of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma and would worship Them with flowers and sandalwood paste and dress and decorate them. He would gaze upon them with unblinking eyes, sitting motionless on the floor like a golden doll. When he paid obeisance to the deities, his eyes filled with tears. He would offer their Lordships sweets and then take the prasāda and distribute it to his friends. (Bhakti-ratnākara 1.719-23)

By Nityānanda Prabhu’s grace, Jīva Gosvāmī was able to visit all the sacred sites in Navadvīpa-dhāma. After completing his tour of the dhāma, he travelled to Benares where he studied all the scriptures with Madhusūdana Vācaspati. Then he went on to Vṛndāvana where he remained under the tutelage of Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmīs.

Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda has given the following summary of Jīva Gosvāmī’s life in his Anubhāṣya to the Caitanya Caritāmṛta: “After the disappearance of Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī, Jīva Gosvāmī was established as the topmost teacher of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas of Odisha, Bengal and Mathura provinces. He engaged everyone in the worship of Kṛṣṇa through teaching the truths given by Mahāprabhu Himself. He would occasionally perform Vraja-dhāma parikramā with the other devotees and sometimes would go to visit Vitthala-nath in Mathura.

“Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī wrote the Caitanya Caritāmṛta during Jīva Gosvāmī’s lifetime. Not long thereafter, when Śrīnivāsa, Narottama and Duḥkhī Kṛṣṇadāsa came from Bengal, he gave them the titles Ācārya, Ṭhākura and Śyāmānanda, respectively. He then sent them back to Bengal with all the scriptures that the Gosvāmīs had written, with instructions to preach the religion of the Holy Names and love of Kṛṣṇa. He received the news of the loss of the scriptures and later of their retrieval. He later gave the title Kavirāja to both Rāmacandra Sena and his brother Govinda. Jāhnavā Devī and other devotees came to Vṛndāvana during his lifetime. Whenever Bengali devotees came to Vraja, he arranged for prasāda and lodgings during their stay.” (Anubhāṣya to Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.10.85)

The loss of the scriptures referred to in the above paragraph took place when agents of King Bīrahāmbīra of Banavishnupur stole them. Later, when the king heard Śrīnivāsa Ācārya speak on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, he took to Vaiṣṇava-dharma and got initiated by him. Śrīnivāsa Ācārya thus recovered the books. All this is described in full in this volume in the chapter on Śrīnivāsa Ācārya.

The Bhakti-ratnākara has given a list of twenty-five works ascribed to Jīva Gosvāmī:

(1) Hari-nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇa
(2) Sūtra-mālikā
(3) Dhātu-saṅgraha
(4) Kṛṣṇārcana-dīpikā
(5) Gopāla-virudāvalī
(6) Rasāmṛta-śeṣa
(7) Mādhava-mahotsava
(8) Saṅkalpa-kalpa-vṛkṣa
(9) Bhāvārtha-sūcaka-campū
(10) A commentary on Gopala-tāpanī Upanisad
(11) A commentary on Brahma-saṁhitā
(12) A commentary on Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu
(13) A commentary on Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi
(14) A commentary on Yogasāra-stavaka
(15) Gāyatrī-bhāṣya of Agni-purāṇa
(16) Kṛṣṇa-pada-cihna of Padma-purāṇa
(17) Śrī Rādhikā-kara-pada-sthita-cihna
(18) Gopāla-campū, Pūrva and Uttara divisions
(19) Krama-sandarbha
(20) Tattva-sandarbha
(21) Bhagavat-sandarbha
(22) Paramātma-sandarbha
(23) Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha
(24) Bhakti-sandarbha
(25) Prīti-sandarbha

Śrīla Bhakti Siddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Ṭhākura Prabhupāda has given the following warning in his Anubhāṣya to those inexperienced persons who might be deprived of kṛṣṇa-prema through the influence of ignorant and offensive sahajiyā teachings: “Three slanderous ideas about Jīva Gosvāmī are current amongst the ignorant prākṛta sahajiyās. Anyone influenced by these calumnies, which are fundamentally inimical to Kṛṣṇa, the guru and the Vaiṣṇavas, will become increasingly offensive and end up losing his taste for service to the Supreme Lord.

“(1) It is said that a certain dig-vijayī scholar, eager to amass mundane prestige, came to Rūpa Gosvāmī and Sanātana Gosvāmī to get their signature as an admission of defeat in debate. Jīva Gosvāmī’s gurus conceded defeat without any argument and the arrogant scholar proclaimed them to be nothing more than ignorant fools. He then asked Jīva Gosvāmī also to sign such an admission of defeat. Jīva Gosvāmī, however, decided to take on the puffed-up brāhmaṇa in debate in order to silence his scurrilous tongue. In this way, he preserved the integrity of his spiritual master’s reputation and demonstrated the ideal behaviour of one who is guru-devātma (one who recognizes his spiritual master to be his worshipable deity and source of life). Some ignorant sahajiyās, however, say that Śrī Jīva’s behaviour went contrary to Mahāprabhu’s teaching of being humbler than a blade of grass and of giving respect to others. Indeed, they say that Rūpa Gosvāmī chastised Jīva Gosvāmī for this very reason and ostracized him for some time, and only when Sanātana Gosvāmī interceded on Jīva Gosvāmī’s behalf did he accept him again into his association.

“Only when these enemies of the spiritual master and the Vaiṣṇavas receive Kṛṣṇa’s mercy and begin to see themselves as their eternal servant, will they also receive Śrī Jīva Prabhu’s blessings and be able to understand what it really means to be ‘humbler than a blade of grass’ and ‘a giver of respect to all’. Only then will they be eligible to chant the Holy Names in the proper way.

“(2) Some other foolish sahajiyās say that when Jīva Gosvāmī first read the Caitanya Caritāmṛta with its clear and brilliant explanation of the divine devotional sentiments of Vraja, he was afraid that it would hamper his own scholarly reputation. He, therefore, threw the manuscript down a well in a spirit of mean-mindedness. Upon hearing of this, Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī was greatly shocked and immediately gave up his body. Fortunately, Kavirāja Gosvāmī’s disciple Mukunda had made a copy of the original manuscript and thus it was preserved and later published far and wide. Had Mukunda not done so, the Caitanya Caritāmṛta would have been lost forever.

This is another contemptible bit of invention based on an inimical attitude to the guru and Vaiṣṇavas. It has no basis in reality and there is no possibility of its being true.

“(3) According to other sense-obsessed fornicators, Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī should not be accepted as an authority because, in his treatises, he did not accept Rūpa Gosvāmī’s pārakīyā-vāda idea, but rather supported the svakīya-vāda. They say that he cannot be accepted as a rasika-bhakta or a devotee who is knowledgeable in the divine sentiments.

“The fact is that during Jīva Gosvāmī’s lifetime, some of his followers demonstrated a preference for the svakīyā-vāda. Jīva Gosvāmī recognized their limitations and so, for their benefit and for the benefit of those in the future who would be unable to comprehend the transcendental nature of the pārakīyā-rasa and would themselves take up adulterous relationships in imitation of Kṛṣṇa, he gave credence to the svakīyā doctrine. This is a sign of his acting appropriately as an ācārya. One should not take this as evidence of his being opposed to the transcendental pārakīyā-rasa, however, for he is the topmost of Rūpa Gosvāmī’s followers and one of Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī’s spiritual teachers.” (Anubhāṣya to Caitanya Caritāmṛta 1.10.85)

Narahari Cakravartī has shown how Rūpa Gosvāmī instructed Jīva Gosvāmī, punished him and then blessed him, in a story told in the fifth wave of Bhakti-ratnākara:

One hot summer day, while Rūpa Gosvāmī was writing Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu in seclusion and Jīva Gosvāmī was fanning his perspiring body, Vallabha Bhaṭṭa came by to see Rūpa Gosvāmī. After reading some of Rūpa Gosvāmī’s introductory verses, he offered to make a few corrections. When Vallabha Bhaṭṭa went to the Yamunā to take a bath, Jīva Gosvāmī followed him on the pretext of going to fetch water. In fact, he was angry because he considered Vallabha Bhaṭṭa’s proposal to be arrogant. He asked him what fault he had found in Rūpa Gosvāmī’s verse. Vallabha Bhaṭṭa told him and Jīva Gosvāmī immediately showed him the flaws in his argument. A debate ensued in which Jīva Gosvāmī countered every one of Vallabha Bhaṭṭa’s objections. When he came back to Rūpa Gosvāmī’s hut, Vallabha Bhaṭṭa told him how impressed he was with Jīva Gosvāmī’s scholarship, recounting the entire episode. Rūpa Gosvāmī gently rebuked Jīva Gosvāmī, telling him to return to Bengal and to come back to Vṛndāvana only when he had calmed down.

Thus banished from his presence, Jīva Gosvāmī left Rūpa Gosvāmī’s dwelling and went to Nanda Ghāṭa, a nearby village. Hoping to regain his guru’s favour, he began to practice rigorous austerities, worshipping Kṛṣṇa intensely while fasting or eating only a bare minimum. As a result of such severe practices, his body became weak and sickly. One day, Sanātana Gosvāmī happened to come to Nanda Ghāṭa and discovered him in this condition. He was moved and took Jīva Gosvāmī back with him to Rūpa Gosvāmī and appealed to his brother to forgive him. Rūpa Gosvāmī and Jīva Gosvāmī were thus reconciled and Jīva Gosvāmī once again began to receive Rūpa Gosvāmī’s affectionate blessings.

Jīva Gosvāmī’s appearance day is on śuklā dvādaśī in the month of Bhādra, his disappearance day is śuklā tṛtīyā in the month of Pauṣa. His deity, Rādhā-Dāmodara, is still being worshipped in the Rādhā-Dāmodara Temple in Vṛndāvana. His samādhi tomb is on the grounds of the Rādhā-Dāmodara Temple and his bhajana-kūtīra is preserved in Rādhā-kuṇḍa, near Lalitā-kuṇḍa.