I offer my respectful obeisances unto Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu, by whose mercy even a person in the lowest form of life can find direction in transcendental devotional service to the Lord.
After Lord Caitanya accepted the renounced order of life (sannyāsa), He traveled all over India. During this period He went to Maldah, a district in Bengal. In that area there was a village named Rāmakeli, where two government ministers of the Nawab Hussain Shah's regime lived. These two ministers were named Dabira Khāsa and Sākara Mallika, and they were later to be renamed Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmī. Being inspired by Lord Caitanya, they decided to retire from government service and join His saṅkīrtana movement.
Upon making this decision, the two brothers at once took steps to leave their material engagements, and they appointed two learned brāhmaṇas to perform certain Vedic religious rituals that would enable them to achieve complete freedom for the devotional service of Kṛṣṇa. These preliminary activities are known as puraścaryā. These ritualistic functions demand that three times a day one worships and offers respects to his forefathers, offers oblations to a fire, and respectfully offers food to a learned brāhmaṇa. Five items—time, worship, offering of respect, offering of oblation into the fire and offering of food to a brāhmaṇa—comprise puraścaryā. This and other rituals are mentioned in the hari-bhakti-vilāsa, the authoritative book of directions.
After performing these religious rituals, the younger brother, Sākara Mallika (Rūpa Gosvāmī), returned home with an immense amount of money which he had acquired during his government service. Indeed, the silver and gold coins he brought back filled a large boat. After arriving home, he divided the accumulated wealth first in twain and distributed one part to the brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas. Thus for the satisfaction of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, he distributed fifty percent of his accumulated wealth to persons engaged in the Supreme Lord's transcendental loving service. Brāhmaṇas are meant to understand the Absolute Truth, and once they understand the truth and actually engage in the loving service of the Lord, they can be called Vaiṣṇavas. Both brāhmaṇas and Vaiṣṇavas are supposed to be fully engaged in transcendental service, and Rūpa Gosvāmī, considering their important transcendental position, gave them fifty percent of his wealth. The remaining fifty percent was again divided in twain—he distributed one part to his relatives and dependent family members, and the other he kept for personal emergencies.
Such distribution of personal wealth is very instructive for all who desire to be elevated in spiritual knowledge. Generally a person bequeaths all his accumulated wealth to his family members and then retires from family activities in order to make progress in spiritual knowledge. Here, however, we find the behavior of Rūpa Gosvāmī to be exemplary; he gave fifty percent of his wealth for spiritual purposes. This should serve as an example for everyone. The twenty-five percent of his accumulated wealth which he kept for personal emergencies was deposited with a good business firm, since in those days there were no banks. Ten thousand coins were deposited for expenditures incurred by his elder brother, Sanātana Gosvāmī.