Within this world, the island of Jambūdvīpa is most excellent. In Jambūdvīpa, the land of Bhārata-varṣa is eminent and within Bhārata-varṣa, the topmost place is Gauḍa-bhūmi. Within Gauḍa-bhūmi, the nine-island region of Śrī Navadvīpa-maṇḍala is most distinguished, and in one area of Śrī Navadvīpa-maṇḍala, on the eastern bank of the Bhāgīrathī river, a beautiful settlement named Śrī Godruma is eternally situated.
In ancient times, many stalwart practitioners of bhajana lived in the various places of Śrī Godruma. It was here that Śrī Surabhi, a cow of divine origin, previously worshiped the Supreme Lord Bhagavān Śrī Gauracandra in her own kuñja, a grove shaded with fragrant flowering creepers. At a little distance from this kuñja is Pradyumna-kuñja. Here, Śrī Premadāsa Paramahaṁsa Bābājī, a śikṣā disciple of Pradyumna Brahmacārī, the best among the associates of Śrī Gauracandra, now lived in a kuṭīra (hut) covered with vines and dense foliage, and spent his time constantly immersed in the divine rapture of bhajana.
Śrī Premadāsa Bābājī was a refined scholar, and was fully conversant with all the conclusions of the śāstras. He had taken shelter of the forest of Śrī Godruma with single-minded conviction, knowing it to be non-different in essence from Śrī Nandagrāma. As a daily routine, Bābājī Mahārāja chanted two hundred thousand holy names and offered hundreds of obeisances to all the