We should know about Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami. He is in the line of Rupanuga Vaisnavas, and he is very near and dear to Srila Rupa Gosvami and all other Vaisnavas.
Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami took birth in a very aristocratic and wealthy family, and he was the only son of his father and uncle. In boyhood he was very fortunate to be initiated by Srila Yadunandana Acarya in the line of Sri Advaita Acarya. Also, Krsna arranged to send Srila Haridasa Thakura to his home, and they were together often. From babyhood he had great taste in chanting the holy name, and at the age of five he received initiation and gradually developed in his bhakti.
Only because of Srila Raghunatha dasa Gosvami did Srila Haridasa Thakura come to the house of a visayi (sense enjoyer). Dasa Gosvami's father was a Vaisnava, but there are two kinds of Vaisnavas: vaisnava-praya and visayi-praya. Visayi-praya is good and vaisnava-praya is not good. If one is Vaisnava- praya it means he seems to be a Vaisnava but he is not. A visayi-praya may seem to others to be a sense enjoyer, but he is not. It seems that Sri Pundarika Vidyanidhi, Sri Raya Ramananda, Srivasa Pandita and others like them were visayis, but they were actually pure Vaisnavas – uttama bhagavatas.
Srila Raghunsatha dasa Gosvami's father used to serve all the Vaisnavas and many Vaisnavas visited him, but he was engaged in sense gratification and so he was a Vaisnava-praya, not a Vaisnava. If we consider the symptoms of Vaisnava-praya and visayi-praya, we will see that we are also Vaisnava-praya, not suddha-vaisnava. If you are householders, try to be like Pundarika Vidyanidhi, Raya Ramananda, Srivasa Pandita, the five Pandavas, Draupadi and so on. And, if you are renounced from household life, then try to be like Sri Narada, Sri Sukadeva Gosvami, Srila Rupa Gosvami, Srila Sanatana Gosvami and others like them.
So almost from the beginning of his life, Raghunatha dasa Gosvami was associating with Srila Haridasa Thakura. From the beginning he had great affection for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, by hearing from Yadunandana Acarya, Srila Haridasa Thakura especially, and from the other Vaisnavas who visited his home. Raghunatha dasa Gosvami is an eternal associate of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Sri Sri Radha-Krsna, but he is showing us by the example of his own life’s activities that if one has performed spiritual pious activities (sukrti) in past lives, one will easily get the association of Vaisnavas in ones next life. He was playing a role in order to show us how we should behave.
De Glind, Holland: June 11, 2003