Ramananda Raya was a married man and master of his senses

Reality the Beautiful by Bhakti R. Sridhar Maharaj

Ramananda Raya was a married man, but he was recognized by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as a master of his senses to the extreme degree. Once a brahmana priest named Pradyumna Misra came to Mahaprabhu and told Him, "I would like to hear about Krsna from Your lips." Mahaprabhu said, "I do not know anything about Krsna, but Ramananda Raya knows. Go to him and hear about Krsna. Take My name, and perhaps he will talk with you."

Pradyumna Misra was hesitant, but he went and observed Ramananda Raya for some time and then returned and reported to Mahaprabhu. Mahaprabhu asked him, "Have you heard about Krsna from Ramananda? "No." "Why?" "I saw him engaged in something objectionable. I watched for some time, and then returned here." "What did you see?" Pradyumna Misra said, "I saw Ramananda Raya training some young dancing girls!"

Girls who are generally devoted to the service of the Jagannatha Deity from a young age are known as deva-dasis. They do not marry, and sometimes their character is not very good. Pradyumna Misra saw Ramananda Raya training deva-dasis in a very objectionable way. He was showing them how to go before the Jagannatha Deity and dance and sing. He showed them how their posture should be, how they should gesture, and how their looks should be enticing. And for such training he would sometimes even touch their private parts. So Pradyumna Misra told Mahaprabhu, "Seeing Ramananda doing all these things, I had no regard for him, so for some time I saw him busily engaged in that matter, and then I went away."

Mahaprabhu told him, "Don't underestimate Ramananda Raya. He is the master of his senses. There is not a tinge of craft in him. Even I feel trouble from sense disturbance within Me, but Ramananda has no such trouble. We have no direct experience that a stage can be attained where it is possible to be above mundane sense pleasure, but we have only heard through the scriptures that there is a stage when a man may transcend all these gross attachments.

This is mentioned in the Srimad Bhagavatam (10.33.39):

vikriditam vraja-vadhubhir idam ca visnoh
sraddhanvito 'nusrnuyad atha varnayed yah
bhaktim param bhagavati pratilabhya kamam
hrd-rogam asv apahinoty acirena dhirah

"One who hears with firm faith the supramundane amorous affairs of Lord Krsna and the gopis, as described by a pure devotee of the Lord, soon becomes freed from mundane lust and achieves divine love of Krsna."

One may be engaged bodily in such activities, while his heart is elsewhere. And there is only one who is of that type: Ramananda Raya. There are not big numbers of Ramanandas; there is only one Ramananda, who has acquired such a stage because he is well-versed in the kind of sentiment and realization which is necessary for the service of Krsna and the gopis. His heart is completely dedicated to the cause of Krsna; He has no selfish interest. He is always in Krsna consciousness, and whatever he does is for Krsna's satisfaction, so don't think ill of him. Go there again."

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