Lord Nityananda Prabhu redeems the fallen brahmanas

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Deliverance of Jagai-Madhai

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Five hundred years ago, Sri Krishna descended as

Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in His most merciful incarnation,

to deliver the fallen souls of Kali yuga. Principal

amongst His associates was Lord Nityananda, Who was

non other than Lord Balarama, the incarnation of

Anata-sesa. Even though Caitanya Mahaprabhu

distributed the love of Godhead freely to any one

willing to partake, Lord Nityananda was more merciful

and gave His mercy even to unwilling, sinful and

atheistic people.

 

Jagai and Madhai

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One day Lord Caitanya instructed Nityananda Prabhu and

Haridasa Thakur to go to every one's house in Nadiya

and request them to chant Krishna"s name. The two

great devotees eagerly set forth and began to knock on

each and every door with the request, "please chant

Krishna"s name, worship Krishna and teach others about

Krishna." They were happily received by the pious

people, while the envious would blaspheme them.

Completely unconcerned by favorable or unfavorable

reactions they proceeded around the town.

 

In Nadiya there lived two very sinful brothers called

Jagai and Madhai. Though they born in pious Brahman

families, by bad association they had become meat

eaters, drunkards, thieves and arsonists. There was no

crime that they had not committed, including the most

abominable sin of killing cows and Brahmans. The

entire town was terrified of these two persons who

seemed to be the very personification of all sinful

activities.

 

On the day Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakur were

moving in the town, these two brothers, completely

intoxicated were alternatively fighting and embracing

each other. After observing them for some time

Nityananda Prabhu compassionately decided to deliver

them and thus approached them.

 

Despite the warnings of the town people Lord

Nityananda and Haridasa Thakur, approached the two

drunkards instructing them to chant the holy name of

the Lord. Hearing these words the two sinners looked

up and seeing the two saintly figures roared in anger.

They leapt up and ran to catch the two sannyasis.

Playing their pastimes, the two devotees fled at the

sight of the attacking brothers. Apparently terrified

they shouted, "Krishna! Save us!! Govinda!," and ran.

 

Haridasa complains about Nityananda Prabhu

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While running, Haridasa Thakur proclaimed that all

this trouble was because he was in the company of a

trouble maker, a charge that Nityananda Prabhu hotly

denied. In this way, pursued by the cursing

Jagai-Madhai, Lord Nityananda and Haridasa Thakur,

laughed and ran. They finally disappeared into the

home Srivasa Acarya, leaving the bewildered brothers

searching for them in vain.

 

The pastimes of these exalted devotees are full of

sugar and spice. While they all understood each others

exalted positions, they would also have many loving

and teasing exchanges. This was specially true for

Nityananda Prabhu and Advaita Acarya. In this mood,

Haridasa went to Advaita Prabhu to complain about Lord

Nityananda. He recounted how in the past Nityananda

Prabhu would calmly swim the waters infested with

crocodiles, or how he would milk other's cows and

drink the milk, or steal their butter and yogurt

leaving Haridasa to face the angry crowd. When Advaita

Prabhu heard about the pastime with the two drunkards,

He laughed and commented, "it is all right that these

three drunkards should stay together." However in

their hearts they knew that Nityananda Prabhu was only

intoxicated by the love of Godhead and that

Jagai-Madhai were already delivered by His mercy.

 

Nityananda Prabhu attacked

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In the meantime the two brothers began to reside near

Ganga where Caitanya Mahaprabhu bathed. Constantly

drunk, they started harassing and terrorizing the

devotees. At night, they could hear the sounds of the

kirtans coming from the house of Srivasa Acarya and

would playfully sing and dance with the melody.

 

One day while Nityananda Prabhu was returning in the

dark He was accosted by the two brothers. On learning

His identity, Madhai became furious and struck Him

with a broken earthen pot. When Jagai saw the blood

flow from the wound, he became compassionate and

restrained his brother. While Nityananda Prabhu

patiently stood, looking at the brothers with

compassion, tolerating the pain and humiliation,

people ran to tell Caitanya Mahaprabhu about the

incident.

 

Hearing that Nityananda Prabhu had been hurt by the

brothers, Caitanya Mahaprabhu ran towards them with

the intention to kill them. He summoned His chakra

which looked like death personified to the two

terrified brothers. However Nityananda Prabhu quickly

intervened and begged Caitanya Mahaprabhu to stop. He

reminded Him of His mission to kill the sinners by

saturating them with love of Godhead. Thus appeased

the Lord took back His chakra.

 

Jagai-Madhai delivered

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Nityananda Prabhu told Caitanya Mahaprabhu that it was

Jagai who had saved Him from further harm at Madhai's

hand. Hearing this Caitanya Mahaprabhu said to Jagai,

"Lord Krishna be merciful to you. By protecting

Nityananda you have purchased Me. You may ask any

desire you have in your heart. From today on you will

have pure love and devotion for Krishna" Hearing this

Jagai fell at the feet of the two Lords and grasping

the feet of Caitanya Mahaprabhu wept.

 

Seeing the wonderful transformation in his brother, a

remorseful Madhai begged for the mercy of the Lord.

However, since he had committed the worst of all

offenses, that of attacking a Vaishnava, the Lord did

not even consider all his pitiful pleas for mercy.

Only after Madhai grasped the feet of Nityananda

Prabhu and received His mercy that Caitanya Mahaprabhu

agree to deliver Madhai also.

 

Jagai-Madhai become devotees

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Having received the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and

Lord Nityananda, both the brothers became completely

transformed. They would chant 200,000 names of the

Lord every day, offer every one humble obeisances and

constantly berate themselves for their past sinful

activities. Madhai in particular was very remorseful

at the fact that he had caused physical harm to

Nityananda Prabhu and would shed many tears for this.

Finally he approached the Lord and begged for some act

of atonement. The compassionate Lord assured him that

he was completely forgiven, but if he wanted to atone

for his other past sins then he could build a bathing

place on the banks of the river Ganges to help people

take a bath.

 

Madhai enthusiastically built this place which still

exists with the name of Madhai ghata. He would

constantly be present there, humbly offering any and

all services to devotees. In this way the two brothers

spent the rest of their lives singing the glories of

Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu.

 

The demigods rejoice

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It is said that when Yamaraja asked Chitragupta, the

demigod responsible for recording the sinful

activities of people, how many sins had been committed

by Jagai-Madhai, he was told that it would take one

hundred thousand scribes one month to complete the

record. On seeing Lord Caitanya take all these sinful

activities into Himself and deliver Jagai-Madhai,

Yamaraja fainted with ecstasy. When he was revived, he

began to dance, glorifying the Lord for delivering the

most fallen. Attracted by his dancing, Lord Shiva,

Lord Brahma, Narada Muni, Sukhadeva Goswami, Indra and

other demigods also began to dance in ecstasy at the

mercy of the Lord. In this way the heavenly planets,

all the way to Brahmaloka became completely immersed

in the love of Godhead.

 

Lessons in this pastime

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In this pastime the Lords revealed many instructions

for future generations to follow.

 

While Jagai-Madhai had committed many sinful

activities, they had never offended a Vaishnava. Since

Jagai had protected Nityananda Prabhu, Lord Caitanya

immediately absolved him of all sinful activities and

gave him Krishna prema. However since Madhai hit

Nityananda Prabhu, he did not receive this mercy until

he was forgiven by Nityananda Prabhu. This is in line

with a lesson that Caitanya Mahaprabhu repeatedly gave

to His followers that while Krishna can overlook

offenses committed against Him, He will take any

offense against His devotee very seriously.

 

In fact while Caitanya Mahaprabhu readily gave the

boon of devotion to Jagai, He had previously refused

to give the same gift to His beloved mother, Saci

Mata, because of a slight offense she had made against

Advaita Acarya. Only when she begged and received the

forgiveness of Advaita did she became eligible to

receive this gift.

 

The Lord also revealed that there are no material

restrictions to performing devotional service. Even

though Jagai-Madhai were performing the most

abominable activities, even though they were unwilling

to chant the holy name, they were still delivered. The

pastime also revealed that the devotees of the Lord

are even more merciful than the Lord Himself. While

Lord Caitanya would ignore these two brothers and had

nothing to do with them, Nityananda Prabhu still

approached them and ultimately delivered them.

 

The personality of Nityananda Prabhu is most

bewildering by material conception. He played the role

of an avadhut, one who is completely beyond the

material conception of life. So saturated was He with

the love of Godhead that He would often loose complete

consciousness of His material body and behave in

strange ways. However Caitanya Mahaprabhu strongly

cautioned about committing any offenses against Him.

He emphatically stated that no one can even think of

approaching Radha-Krishna without having first

received the mercy of Lord Nityananda, the adi-guru or

the original spiritual master of the universe.

 

All glories to Nityananda Prabhu!

All glories to Jagai-Madhai !!