Navadvipa-lila

[Guest guest]

The following pastime appears in the Sri Caitanya-bhagavata,

Adi-khanda, Chapter 8.151-178. Nimai Pandita used to wander about

Navadvipa teasing the various shopkeepers and demanding their goods for

free. He would similarly visit various devotees' homes unnanounced, and

pester them too. One example is as follows:

 

 

In this way, in as many homes as there were in Navadvipa, the Lord

would wander to them all. Even today, in their good fortune, the townspeople

obtain the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya and Nityananda.

 

Then, simply out of His own desire, Lord Gauracandra Bhagavan went to

the home of an all-knowing astrologer. Seeing the Lord's powerful effulgence,

that astrologer humbly offered his respectful obeisances. The Lord said,

'I've heard that you're quite an astrologer. Would you tell Me who I

was in my other births?' 'Very well,' the astrologer said, his mind full

of piety. Chanting his Gopala mantra, he immediately saw [the form of Lord

Visnu, as] bluish with His great effulgence, holding conch, disc, club and

lotus in His four hands, the mark of srivatsa and kaustubha on His chest.

[He saw] the Lord in the prison [of Kamsa], and His mother and father

offering prayers before Him in the middle of the night. At that time, he

saw the Lord's father [Vasudeva] taking away his son at his bosom, and

bringing Him to Gokula that same night. Then again, he saw the Lord in

His charming two-armed form, dressed only in the directions [i.e., naked],

with a belt of tiny bells around His waist, and butter in His two hands.

That all-knowing astrologer saw his own worshipable Deity, just as he would

always meditate on Him deep within, along with all His transcendental

characteristics. Then he saw the threefold bending form of Muralivadana,

surrounded by a bevy of gopis singing and playing musical instruments.

 

Seeing this wonder, the astrologer rubbed his eyes and looked at

Gauranga. Then again he entered meditation. The astrologer prayed, 'O

Bala-gopala! Listen, please, show me who this brahmana is.' Then he saw

the Lord holding a bow, with the complexion of green durva grass, heroically

sitting on His royal throne. Then again, he saw the Lord in the middle of

the ocean of cosmic annihilation--His wondrous boar form--with the earth

balanced on His tusk. Again, he saw Mahaprabhu as Nrisimha-avatara, His

greatly ferocious form who is yet unlimitedly kind to the devotees. Then

he saw the Lord taking the form of Vamana, cheating Bali at his sacrifice

through His maya. Then again, he saw the Lord in His Matsya form,

happilly sporting in the waters of universal cataclysm. That pious

astrologer again saw the Lord's intoxicated form as Haladhara [balarama]

with plowshare in hand. The the all-knowing astrologer saw the form of

Jagannatha, with Balarama on His right and Subhadra beautifully in between

Them. In this manner, the astrologer saw the truth of the Lord, but

because of the Lord's maya, he was completely unable to fathom any of it.

 

Mulling over this, the astrologer was completely perplexed and

thought, 'this brahmana must know some great mantra [mahamantra-vit].

'Or he might be a some sort of demigod, come to me in the guise of a

brahmana in order to test me. Seeing the superhuman power in the brahmana's

body, the astrologer wondered, 'Could he have even come to spite me, the

"sarva-jna" astrologer?'

 

The Lord smiled and asked the anxious astrologer, "Who am I? What

did you see? Why don't you tell me everything you saw?'

 

The astrologer answered, 'For now, just go. I'll tell you this

afternoon, when I'm in a better frame of mind after chanting my mantra.

 

'Very well, very well,' the Lord said, smiling, and so He left.

Then He arrived at His dear Sridhara's house.

 

 

MDd

[Guest guest]

Dandavats vaishnavas. Jaya Srila Prabhupada!

 

Here is some katha sent to me by Vedavyasa Prabhu of Vancouver. I

will just add a few comments below. Hare Krsna!

 

Your humble servant,

 

MDd

 

 

> “Let us continue our pilgrimage to Modadrumadvipa, one of the nine

> islands of Navadvipa, West Bengal. In the previous issue of this

> newsletter we understood that Lord Rama revealed to His beloved wife Sita

> how in the future He would appear as Lord Caitanya. Now we will hear from

> a different time…

>

> There lived a devotee of the name Saranga Murari in the village of

> Mamagachi. He lived beneath a large bakul tree which shed beautiful star

> like flowers during the early morning hours. There he performed worship

> of his deity, Radha Gopinath. He was the personification of humility and

> even though Lord Krsna repeatedly inspired him from within to accept

> disciples, still he would not do so. Lord Caitanya even gave him the

> order to accept disciples.

>

> One night Saranga received great inspiration within his heart from the

> Lord, and upon rising determined, “Whomever I see I shall make my

> disciple.” Thinking in this way he went to the nearby Ganges to take his

> morning bath. As he stood within the water the dead body of a youth came

> floating by. The youth had been bitten by a snake and since it was not

> customary to burn the body of a person who had died of snakebite, he had

> been thrown into the river Ganges by his relatives.

>

> Remembering his vow to initiate the first person he saw, Saranga touched

> the passing body with his foot. Immediately the youth regained his

> consciousness as if he had been in a deep sleep only, and rose from the

> water to thank the Thakura. Saranga was exhilarated and named the boy

> Murari. He became a fearless preacher as Murari Caitanya brahmacari.

>

> Murari would deliver the holy name to everyone. He even slapped tigers in

> the face like pussycats. While chanting the holy name, he was so

> powerful that he even faced snakes like the cobra. He would remove the

> envy from their hearts and deliver this Krsna-prema. When he wanted a

> little break he would submerge himself under water sometimes for three

> days chanting japa.

>

> One day Lord Gauranga went to visit Saranga Murari. When the Lord

> arrived, Saranga was elated and after offering his obeisances he gave the

> Lord a seat beneath his beloved bakul tree. As the Lord sat there He

> observed that the tree, which was old, was drying up and was almost dead.

>

> “Murari,” the Lord said, “what are you going to do about your tree now?”

>

> “My Lord,” he sadly replied, “I don’t know what can I do.”

>

> Lord Gauranga then arose and embraced the tree with His beautiful golden

> arms and to Saranga’s amazement new branches immediately grew forth from

> the trunk, and from them new green leaves and fresh flowers appeared.

> This big tree is still living – and so are the Radha Gopinath deities.

>

> The old temple got revived by a disciple of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta

> Sarasvati Thakura in the 1920’s. Two sannyasis were traveling from town

> to town staying at different homes at night, preaching the glories of the

> Lord. They noticed an eight-year-old boy who was so attentive. One of the

> sannyasis said to boy’s father that they had noticed how his son was so

> devotional and attracted to hear about Krsna. The father replied that his

> son as been like that since birth. The father then offered his son to the

> sannyasis to help them in their mission. The two sannyasis thought that

> Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura would be pleased so they brought the

> boy to him. The boy agreed to become the pujari for Sri Sri Radha

> Gopinath. The temple was in the jungle so he went there to worship the

> deities.

>

> One day, there was a flood of the Ganges in the area of the Radha

> Gopinath temple and the boy stayed with the deities alone without food

> for three days. Sri Gopinath appeared in a dream to a sannyasis in Madras

> saying, “I’m hungry and there is an eight-year-old boy with Me who is not

> eating either. Please send some provisions right away.”

>

> When the sannyasis awoke, he communicated with the Calcutta temple. They

> sent devotees by boat to Navadvipa and the boy’s life was saved.

>

> The boy stayed as pujari his whole life. He is now 85 years old and we

> bow to him with respect.

 

I too was fortunate enough to meet this prabhuji in 1996, when he once

came to ISKCON's Sri Mayapura Candrodaya Mandira. This great soul is a

lifelong brahmacari and pujari of Gopinathaji.

 

 

> It was nice to meet him personally while on

> pilgrimage. He told us many stories about his life as a pujari. Many

> animals like monkeys and even a white owl would come to see arati every

> evening.

 

A white owl is said symbolize Laksmidevi. In another temple (of Jagannatha)

near Mayapura, a white owl used come as well. That temple now belongs to

ISKCON, and there are many, many similar stories like this about its

history and the pastimes of the Jagannatha deities who live there. Some

of these involved the pujari of Candrodaya Mandira, Jananivasa Prabhu, who

used to care for the Jagannatha deities around 1980 or so.

 

 

> He goes to the same big tree that Lord Caitanya embraced to get

> flowers and to the Ganges for two buckets of water everyday for the

> worship of the deities. A couple years ago, while picking flowers, he

> fell from the tree due to his old age and hurt his back. Since the

> monkeys have been watching him for years, they went on their own to fill

> up the bucket of water and brought it back so that he could continue his

> worship. As the old sadhu told us his story through a translator, he

> looked so simple and unpretentious, satisfied serving his guru. Many gave

> a donation to him. While bowing my head to him, I was thinking, “Will I

> serve my guru faithfully all my life, or life after life?

>

> Your servant, Vedavyasa dasa

[Guest guest]

Thank you so much, prabhu, for the wonderful inspirational stories. I

have always been partial to Mayapur and Lord Chaitanya lila.

bhaktijan das