Disappearance of Laksmipriya From Sri Caitanya-bhagavata

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Sri Caitanya-bhagavata

Adi-khanda

Chapter Fourteen

The Lord's Travel to East Bengal and Disappearance of

Laksmipriya

This chapter describes Gaura-Narayana's enactment of a

householder's pastime of serving guests, His visit to

East Bengal, the offensive activities of some sinful

atheists who imitated the Lord and a brahmana-daitya

of Radha-desa, who were all contemporaries with the

author of this book, the disappearance of Laksmidevi,

the inquiries of Tapana Misra to the Lord regarding

the goal of life and the process for achieving it, the

Lord's reply and teachings, and the Lord's return from

Bangladesh.

Nimai Pandita was greatly honored by the wealthy

people of Navadvipa as well as by all those who were

accustomed to perform religious rituals. In order to

establish an ideal example of the principles of

household life, the Lord did not encourage the fault

of miserliness, rather He showed compassion towards

needy and distressed persons. Guests were always

properly served at the Lord's house in Sri

Mayapur-Navadvipa. Though the Lord, who is the teacher

of people in general, personally displayed the

pastimes of a poor householder, He nevertheless

constantly endeavored to serve renounced Vaisnava

sannyasis. As soon as mother Saci noticed a shortage

of ingredients required for feeding the sannyasis,

Gaurasundara would immediately bring from somewhere

the necessary ingredients for the service of the

Vaisnavas. Laksmidevi engaged in cooking for the

service of the Vaisnavas, and the Lord personally sat

with the Vaisnava sannyasis and fully satisfied them

by feeding them sumptuously. The principle duty of

householdersis to serve guests; those householders who

do not serve guests are lower than animals and birds.

Even if a householder is bereft of wealth due to past

karma, he should without duplicity serve his guests

with at least some water, a sitting place, and sweet

words. Knowing that Sri Laksmi-Narayana had appeared

in Navadvipa, Lord Brahma, Lord Siva, Sukadeva,

Vyasadeva, and Narada visited the Lord's house at Sri

Mayapur in the guise of sannyasis.

>From early morning, Sri Laksmidevi continually engaged

in various services in the temple room, arranged the

paraphernalia for worshiping the Lord, and served

tulasi. She gave more attention to the service of

Sacidevi, her mother-in-law and mother of her Lord,

than to the service of tulasi. Sacidevi sometimes saw

blazing flames of fire under the feet of her son, and

she sometimes smelled the fragrance of lotus flowers

throughout her house.

After some time, Nimai Pandita went with His students

to earn some wealth in Bangladesh, where He stayed on

the banks of the Padmavati River. Overwhelmed by the

Lord's ingenious scholarship, innumerable students

came to study from Him and within a short time

mastered various subjects.

At this point the author says that simply because the

Lord went to Bangladesh, the young, the old, and the

women there are even today intoxicated in Sri

Caitanya's sankirtana movement. But sometimes in order

to fill their stomachs some atheists declare

themselves to be Narayana, or the Supreme Lord, and

they thus ruin the people of that country. In

Radha-desa also there was a great brahma-daitya, who

externally dressed as a brahmana but who internally

had the nature of a demon, declared himself to be

"Gopala." Due to his cowardliness, however, people

called him a hated jackal. There are no greater

offenders than those sinful living entities who

instead of declaring Sri Caitanya, the Lord of

innumerable universes, as the Supreme Lord, want to

declare themselves or other living entities to be the

Supreme Lord. Moreover, even today it is found that

simply by remembering the servants of Caitanyacandra a

living entity attains all auspiciousness.

While the Lord was residing in Bangladesh, Sri

Laksmidevi, being unable to tolerate separation from

the Lord, left this world from the bank of the Ganges

while meditating on the lotus feet of the Lord. When

the people of Bangladesh heard that the Lord was

returning to Navadvipa, they brought various gifts for

Him. At that time one pious brahmana resident of

Bangladesh named Tapana Misra, who was unable to

ascertain the goal of life and the process to achieve

it, received instructions late one night in a dream to

approach Nara-Narayana in the form of Nimai Pandita,

who appeared in the age of Kali to deliver the fallen

souls. When Tapana Misra arrived before the Lord, Sri

Gaurasundara instructed him that the only religious

process for the Age of Kali was the congregational

chanting of the holy names of Lord Krsna, which awards

all perfection and which is to be followed by all

people of all countries at all times. He further

instructed Tapana Misra to give up all duplicity and

always chant the sixteen word, thiry-two syllable

maha-mantra with full attention. When Tapana Misra

asked permission to accompany the Lord, the Lord

ordered him to immediately go to Varanasi and

indicated that they would again meet there and

elaborately discuss the goal of life and the process

to achieve it. When Tapana Misra then related the

topics of his dream, the Lord forbid him from

disclosing those topics to anyone.

Thereafter the Lord returned home from Bangladesh with

His wealth and offered everything to His mother. Many

students accompanied the Lord to Navadvipa in order to

study from Him. Hearing about the disappearance of

Laksmidevi, the Lord imitated ordinary people by

exhibiting grief for a short time and then instructed

His mother about the temporary nature of this material

existence.

 

 

 

 

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