We can come to know about a great personality from his birth. Of course there are exceptions like Jagai and Madhai. But they were transformed by the mercy of the Lord. But great people manifest their greatness right from their birth.

In case of Madhvacharya, when he started going to school when the teacher asked him to write the first alphabet a, he used to write aa. That means he knew the next alphabet. The teacher was very amazed and happy.

Similarly Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. His teacher Ganga Narayana Das was very happy to have Him as a student.

Similarly Narottama Dasa Thakur was very calm and composed from his childhood that everyone would be attracted to him. He used to excel in his school. He used to memorize everything completely. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had infested that love within him that by the time he turned 12 his attachment towards the materialistic world had completely evaporated. Naturally the family members were very concerned and he was thinking of leaving and going to Vrindavana.

He was the son of a great king or a landlord who possessed immense wealth and power. His family had immense authority over that area and his father Krishnananda Dutta was considered to be a King. The higher King wanted to meet him regarding collection of tax or whatever. His father and uncle had to leave to meet that king. Similar to Raghunatha Dasa Goswami. Narottama Dasa Thakur takes this opportunity and leaves and goes to Vrindavana. After reaching Vrindavana he decides to take diksha from Lokanatha Dasa Goswami.

Lokanatha Dasa Goswami was feeling separation from Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He just wanted to stay in seclusion and worship Krsna. He didn't have any disciples. May be because disciples means lot of responsibility etc. He didn't have any. But Narottama Dasa Thakur was confident that he wanted Lokanatha Dasa Goswami as his guru. But Narottama was not getting any service opportunities to render to Lokanatha Dasa Goswami. He didn't allow or give anybody any service. We all know the story. Narottama Dasa Goswami thought of cleaning the place where Lokanatha Dasa Goswami would attend nature's calls. So every day he used to clean the place after he left. And then he used to keep soft soil so that he can clean his hands with soft soil. He also used to keep water. Soil because earlier they used to use soil for cleaning after passing stool. Soil is used to clean the hand because it was purifying. It not only cleanses but purifies also. I don't know if the soap does that? The purification part. Anyway he used to keep soft soil to clean his hands and water and everything. So, Lokanatha Goswami was wondering who is cleaning the area early at 3 am and he found out finally. He hid there, kept chanting all night. It's natural for them. It's not a problem to chant all night for them. And he found out. He was amazed and shocked and thought that he is the son of a king and he is a prince. Seeing his humility and determination etc, he thought, I cannot say No to him. His heart actually transformed. The guru's heart was transformed and he accepted him as his disciple. He was his only disciple.

Then he was instructed by Srila Jiva Goswami. He accepted a life companion there. He made friends with Shyamananda Goswami and Srinivasa Acharya. Then the three of them copied so many handwritten books and they were carrying it all the way to Bengal and it got stolen on the way.

Jiva Goswami understanding that Narottama Dasa was a prince asked him to go back to his village and use the opportunity of being a prince to preach and thereby attract many people to Krsna consciousness.

So , when the books were stolen Srinivasa Acharya understanding the urgency and the instructions of the guru told Narottama Dasa Thakur to go ahead. You go ahead. I will sit here and take care of these books.

This is something very amazing. At the same time we can understand that the books were stolen. It was a huge crisis. If something very close to your heart gets stolen then you would start blaming Krsna only, Why is this happening? We rendered so much service to You and the guru only. Then what is this happening? Why is it happening with us? Well, it was not their fault. It was stolen. But look at these great Acharyas. At that time also they are in full control of the situation. He says, Now you go ahead. I'll stay here. I'll try to find out.

When situations go very bad in our life we come under the control of the situation. If we are in control of the situation then the regular duties and activities will not stop. It will go on. Ofcourse one will be disappointed, feel sorry, despondent and everything but if the duties have stopped then that means that the situation has affected us.

So in this circumstance he goes to Bengal, North Bengal and starts preaching. Because of his purity, dedication, because of his bhakti which Mahaprabhu infested in him directly whoever saw him was attracted. He had so many mystic potencies due to these things

So he went to a person's house. There was a snake living in that brahmana's house. It was not going. So the family was disturbed by that snake because it was not going anywhere. When Narottama Dasa Thakur enters the snake leaves. The place where the snake was there, there was the deity of Gauranga Mahaprabhu and Srimati Vishnupriya. It's said that the deities jumped out and sat on the lap of Narottama Dasa Thakur. Pure devotees usually don't exhibit their greatness. It just happens.

So his glories began to spread all over. Some intelligent brahmanas who had taken birth in brahmana families saw Narottama Dasa Thakur and became eager to accept him as their spiritual master. They were very eager to associate with him. But some other brahmanas who didn't understand the greatness of Narottama Dasa Thakur thought that he is the son of a sudra. Why are people associating with him ? He is converting people through his mystic powers and making them to shift from their duties of worshipping devi etc.

So two brahmanas were walking with a Buffalo and a goat in the country side, a village. When they were walking they saw Ramachandra Kaviraja, ( an intimate friend of Narottama Dasa Thakur and the disciple of Srinivasa Acharya) and Narottama Dasa Thakur going together. They asked the brahmanas where they are going along with the animals. They said that they were going to offer them as Bali to devi. But the Brahmanas were tremendously attracted on seeing Narottama Dasa Thakur and Ramachandra Kaviraja. They told the Brahmanas that instead of worshipping the devi in the mode of passion, they should worship her with pure devotional service. The brahmanas on understanding set the animals free and later they became his disciples. Their father was Shivananda Acharya, who is dear to Lord Shiva. He was upset with this and hence he called a scholar from Mithila to contest with Narottama Dasa Thakur and defeat him and thereby establish devi worship again. But his own two sons defeated the scholar and hence he had to go back. Then more numbers of brahmanas began to take diksha from Narottama Dasa Thakur and this created a lot of anxiety amongst the smartha brahmanas. So they went to the local King whose name was Narasimha. He brought a scholar of his named Rupa Narayana. He was a digvijay. When the disciples of Narottama Dasa Thakur and Ramachandra Kaviraja came to know about this they went to the way where the king and the scholar would approach and setup a pan shop. Who opens a pan shop? Those who are poor and who would have failed in school. They were conversing in Sanskrit. So when the entourage came by, they saw that in this village even the panwallas speak in Sanskrit. Naturally the king was also amazed. So the panwallas completely defeated them in Sanskrit with their red mouths and dirty clothes. The king thought that if simple panwalla disciples can defeat them then there is no point in going to Narottama Dasa Thakur. But devi appeared in his dream and asked him to surrender unto Narottama Dasa Thakur.
In this way he received Narottama Dasa Thakur's mercy.

And the songs that he wrote were full of pure devotional service and the Vedas were manifesting in his songs. Srila Prabhupad used to sing a lot of Narottama Dasa Thakur's bhajans. In Mayapur everyday we sing his Bhajans.

Once Vrajabihari Prabhu was giving a class here. He was saying that Lokanatha Dasa Goswami did not want any recognition. When Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami went to take permission from him to write Sri Chaitanya Charitamrta, Lokanatha Dasa Goswami gave him permission and blessings with a condition that he shouldn't mention his name anywhere.

In one of his bhajans related to guru puja, Narottama Dasa Thakur mentions the name of Lokanatha Dasa Goswami.

In 1999-1998 when we had gone to Vrindavana with Radhanath Swami Maharaj, there you can see samadhis of Lokanatha Dasa Goswami, Narottama Dasa Thakur and Vishwanatha Chakravarthi Thakur. Vishwanatha Chakravarthi Thakur was the disciple of Narottama Dasa Thakur.

He writes the guruashtaka. In that he says
Yasya prasadad Bhagavad prasadad. Srila Prabhupad mentions this line. It talks about our Connection to guru.

Narottama Dasa Thakur pada ki.
Jai

Srila Prabhupad ki.
Jai

Nitai Gaur Premanande!!