Saint of the month: Sri Krishna Chaitanya & Sri Nitayananda Mahaprabu

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Nitai Gaur Radhe Shyam | Hare Krishna Hare Ram ||

An incident from Gauranga Mahaprabhu’s life

 

 

 

Chaitanya

Mahaprabhu (Gauranga) lived only for 48 years. The first twelve years of his

life he spent in playing pranks just as Krishna had. The next twelve years of

his life he shut himself in a room with few friends and performed

Namasankirtan (singing the divine name of the Lord). The next twelve years he

visited various Holy places. It was during these wanderings that he visited

Sri Rangam in the South. And, the last twelve years of his life was spent in

solitude in “Gambira” cave at Puri.

 

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's disciples Sanathana Goswami and Roopa Goswami were

busy authoring books. They found no peace till they converted the gushing up

thoughts into words. It is only through them do we learn the life history of

the great Incarnation (Avatar) Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mahaprabhu's

brother disciple Nityananda was deeply concerned about the way the world was

moving. People were living with false values. There were no genuine Masters to

guide them and the innocent/ignorant people were being caught in the net of

quack Gurus. His Master Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had shut himself up in a room

with a small circle of close friends and was doing Namasankirtan. Nityananda

desired to bring to the Master's notice the need for guidance to the ignorant

who were being led astray with false values. He wished that his Guru would

come out of closed doors and take a look at the world. But how can one advise

the Guru? How can one instruct the Guru to do this or that? After much

thinking he decided to carry out this work surreptitiously.

 

One day, Nityananda informed Chaitanya Mahaprabhu that a Sadhu had invited

them for lunch. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted the invitation and went to the

Sadhu's place along with Nityananda. When they reached the place he found a

board bearing the name of the Sadhu and the Ashram. They went in and were

received warmly by a person who wore a long beard and matted hair on his

head. A personal attendant of the Sadhu began to serve them food. Nityananda

began to eat happily. He did not seem to be the least concerned about their

host or the surroundings. The Sadhu asked them, " What would you like to

have? - Ganga water ('Ganga teertham') or Bliss ('Ãnandam')? "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu could not understand the words of the Sadhu. He turned to

Nityananda and said, " Nitai! I understand the term 'Holy Ganga water' but

what does he mean by Bliss ('Anandam')? "

Nityananda said, " Company of women! And, by Ganga water he does not mean

the Holy Ganga water but wine! " Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was aghast.

" What! " he cried out. And, taking hold of Nityananda's hand he rushed

out. Panting heavily he ran away from that place as quickly as the legs would

carry him. He was seething with anger.

 

Calming down the Guru Nityananda next led him to his (Mahaprabhu's) disciple

Advaitacharya's home. Advaitacharya welcomed them with great joy and offered

them seat. Nityananda said to him, " Our Gurudev is hungry. Please offer

some food. "

 

At once, Advaitacharya said to him, " Oh, I have not yet performed my daily

rites. I have to complete it and then cook food. It would take sometime! "

 

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu jumped up from his seat and taking hold of Nityananda's

hand walked out of Advaitacharya's home.

 

The clever Nityananda had driven home the message! Chaitanya Mahaprabhu

realized what Nityananda was trying to convey to him. First he had showed him

that the world was being fooled by quack Gurus who claimed to show the path of

spirituality. And, secondly, in the name of adhering to the words of the

scriptures men failed to recognize its end purpose. Advaitacharya was so deeply

drowned in the performance of daily rites prescribed by the Scriptures that he

asked his Guru to wait for hours for offering him food!

 

 

 

We

find reports from many parts of the world that someone crowing himself a

'Guru' mesmerizes people in large number and harms them. Caught under the

spell of mass hypnotism people dance to the tune of this 'self-crowned' Guru.

People do not hesitate even to consume poison and die! Such questionable

incidents have begun to occur in India too.

On the one side innumerable dangerous 'Gurus' have cropped up who play on the

innocence and ignorance of the people and on the other side are people who are

immersed in ritualism without understanding the real import behind them. Let

us say that a person has been asked to clean a glass so that it could be used

to drink water. The person keeps washing the glass with no end in sight to

the job given. He goes on scrubbing it. On and on he goes. What was the

purpose behind the instruction to clean the glass? - Only to use it to drink

water. But what does he do? He does not bring the cleaning to a close so that

it could be used to drink water. Similarly the Scriptures speak of the various rituals

only to purify your mind so that through the purified mind the Lord could be

attained.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

!!! Will Continue !!!

Story

Source: www.namadwaar.org

Photo source: ISKCON websites

 

Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare

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