He was a disciple of Radharamana Chakravarti who is in the disciplic line of Srila Narottama dasa Thakur. He spent many years in his guru's house studying bhakti under his tutelage. During his student years he defeated a famous digvijaya pandit and wrote many small compositions known as bindhus. His parents married him early but he had no interest in family life. On his guru's instruction he spent one night with his wife and read Srimad Bhagavatam to her until dawn. Then he left for Radha Kunda and stayed in the bhajana kutir of Sri Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami.
He was known as Hariballabha Dasa and later got the title of Vishvanatha Chakravarti Thakur for his uncanny perceptions into the mellows of Krishna bhakti. He was called Rasacharya. He could stop the rainfall by his writing of S.B. commentaries, because the rain didn't want to disturb him or drip on his manuscripts.
He re-established parakiya-bhajan at Radha Kunda by writing a tika on Gopala Champu. For this, some envious persons tried to kill him when he went for his ablutions in the forest, but he took his siddha-deha form of a young girl and they couldn't discern him.
His disciple was Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana, who wrote the Govinda-bhasya.