Bilvamangala Acharya was a devotee of Bhagavan Sri Krishna who wrote lyrical verses known collectively as Krishna Karnamrita. Bilvamangala, who lived in South India, composed low-grade songs for unworthy clients in the early years of his life. So inordinately obsessed was he with sensual enjoyment that even when observing a fast on the death of his father, he ventured out on a stormy night, crossed the swollen river on a plant, crept up to the roof of the house of a courtesan a called Chintamani and jumped into her courtyard. Chintamani, aroused at midnight from her sleep, rebuked her visitor: “If only the desire you have for me were turned into the desire for Bhagavan, you would be happier human being”, she said.
This reception acted as a jolt to his senses and
Bilvamangala renounced his attachment to the courtesan. It occurred to him in a
flash that the woman had taught him a great truth on a stromy night by a stormy
river on a windswept courtyard. Impelled by some mysterious divine power, he headed
towards Brindavan. The chant that arose within him spontaneously was Govinda,
Damodara, Madhava.
In Vrindavan, Bilvamangala immersed himself in devotion to
Bhagavan Sri Krishna. His Krishna Karnamritam consists of 328 shlokas (verses)
divided into three chapters. The verses have a haunting lyrical quality and vividly
portray Bhagavan Sri Krishna in different stages of life from childhood – from the
God lying on a banyan leaf – vatapatrashayi.
Chintamani, too, renounced all her worldly possessions and
joined Bilvamangala. Chintamani and Bilvamangala sang and danced to the tunes
of the shlokas composed on Bhagavan Sri Krishna.