Jai Nitai!

[muralidhar_das]

Srila Sridhar Maharaj:

 

All-embracing Mercy of Nityananda Prabhu

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Nityananda Prabhu's mercy sometimes exceeds the mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Because it may create a bad precedent, Mahaprabhu sometimes cannot accept certain fallen souls-He has to consider their status as well as other things. Nityananda Prabhu's mercy, however, does not care for any unfavorable circumstances; His mercy is very lavish and almost blind. He does not discriminate between different degrees of sinners. His mercy is all-embracing. And Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu cannot dismiss His recommendation. Even those who Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu rejected, Nityananda Prabhu sheltered, and gradually Mahaprabhu had to accept them. So the grace of Nityananda is the greatest both in magnitude and circumference, and that is our solace, for by His mercy even the most fallen souls can attain the supreme goal.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu once told His followers, "Even if Nityananda Prabhu is found with a fallen girl of the lowest kind, drinking wine in a wine shop, still you should know that He is above all these things. Although you may find Him apparently engaged in lower activities, He is never implicated. He may appear connected with so many fallen activities, but you should know that He is always revered by the creator of the universe, Lord Brahma, and other exalted devotees.

Nityananda Prabhu's mercy is so powerful that if one simply takes a piece of His loincloth and wears it respectfully on his body, he will be saved from all the disturbances of the mundane senses." Therefore we pray, "May my mind always stick to His holy feet; I offer my obeisances to Sri Nityananda Prabhu."

 

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu took sannyasa for the benefit of those souls swallowed by maya. He ran and chased after the fallen souls to deliver them from illusion by giving them the holy name of Krishna, and Nityananda Prabhu, like His shadow, ran after Him wherever he went. He fully surrendered and identified Himself with Mahaprabhu's cause. So we must bow down to Nityananda Prabhu. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was merged in tasting the sweetness of Radha-Govinda lila, and diving deep into that reality, however, at the same time, He wanted to deliver all souls whose hearts had not been devoured by the false notions of renunciation and exploitation, He ordered Nityananda Prabhu, "Go to Bengal and try to deliver them-give them divine love for Radha and Krishna."

He ordered Nityananda Prabhu to distribute divine love for Radha-Govinda, but instead, Nityananda began to preach about Sri Gauranga. He thought, "It will be better for them to worship Gauranga; that will help free them from their offenses in their present condition, and by doing so, they will automatically achieve a position in Radha-Govinda lila." he was ordered to preach the name of Krishna, but instead began to preach the name of Gauranga. So, for our own welfare, we bow down to Nityananda Prabhu with all our humility.

We pray, "O Nityananda Prabhu, O gurudeva, please give me a drop of firm faith in Sri Gauranga, who is Radha-Govinda combined, tasting the sweetness of the divine nectar of the pastimes of Vrndavana. Give me a drop of faith, so that one day I may attain divine love and enter into that domain."

If we neglect Nityananda Prabhu and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, our aspiration to serve Radha- Govinda will be a dream, an abstract imagination without reality. Nityananda Prabhu is the refuge of all fallen souls. He is the most generous-hearted aspect of guru-tattva; we must bow down our head to Him, accept His holy feet, and surrender to Him.

In the spiritual realm of Vaikuntha, Nityananda Prabhu is represented as Sankarsana, the Supreme Lord who is considered to be the foundation of everything in existence. All possible existence is maintained by His energy. Nityananda Prabhu is the original Baladeva, the Personality of Godhead. Therefor, we should view the pastimes of Nityananda Prabhu with full consciousness of His dignified position, although He used to roam about here and there, rolling in the dust with tears in His eyes, saying, "Take the name of Gauranga and I will be sold to you." Although He posed in this lower position, still, He should be considered in light of His actual dignified position. We must surrender to Him with that attitude.

Balarama is represented in different parts of the spiritual world in different aspects. He came here as Nityananda Prabhu with Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The truth about Nityananda Prabhu has been exhaustively explained in Caitanya-caritamrta and Caitanya-bhagavata. There, He is described as enjoying His life and relishing His pastimes with His own younger brother. To that Nityananda, we must bow our heads.

Sri Krishna prema, divine love, is an inconceivable substance which is very pleasing and ecstatic. Great saints who get a taste of that wonderful substance throw away all sorts of aspirations, including salvation, which is lavishly praised by the Vedas. So Nityananda Prabhu, although one with Baladeva, is greater than Him? Why? He is distributing divine love.

What is divine love? It is so important and valuable, so much higher than all other sorts of achievements, that one who can give divine love is far superior to those who can give duty, wealth, pleasure, and even salvation (dharma, artha, kama, moksa). If we conceive that Krishna is subordinate to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, then of course Balarama is subordinate to Nityananda Prabhu. In all other respects the two of Them are similar, but when magnanimity is added to Balarama, He becomes Nityananda Prabhu.

First, the position of divine love must be established: the great saints discard salvation and other things after they get a slight scent of divine love. Once the position of divine love is established, we can understand that one who can give it must necessarily be superior to the givers of all other things.

So Nityananda Balarama is superior to Karanodakasayi Visnu, the Supersoul of the collective universes, Garbhodakasayi Visnu, the Supersoul of this universe; and Ksirodakasayi Visnu, the Supersoul of all living beings. And that Balarama has come here as Nityananda Prabhu-not with majesty, grandeur, or power, but in a human form-to distribute divine love. And He is the giver of Gauranga. His greatness is proved by this fact. We can understand this by further examining the different aspects of his life, step by step.

Nityananda Prabhu was born in Ekacakra, and there He passed His early life. his parents, friends and neighbors were filled with ecstatic joy, being pleased with His sweet infant pastimes. From His birth, He was a pleasure to the whole atmosphere of Ekacakra, and in this joyful atmosphere He passed his childhood years.

One day, while Nityananda was still young, a sannyasi came to His home and begged Him from His parents. The sannyasi was roaming about to different holy places and he prayed for Nityananda as his alms. He took Him in his company and Nityananda Prabhu wandered about almost all the holy places, following that sannyasi. It is said that the sannyasi was Madhavendra Puri.

Then one day, from within, feeling ecstasy in His heart, Nityananda Prabhu could understand that Sri Gauranga had begun His pastimes of sankirtana in Navadvipa Dhama.

 

That day, Mahaprabhu told His followers, "I had a dream that an extraordinarily great man, in a chariot marked with the palm tree flag of Balarama, came to my door and said, 'Where is the house of Nimai Pandita?' Twice, thrice, four times-again and again-He keeps saying, 'Where is the house of Nimai Pandita?'" Mahaprabhu continued, "That great personage must have come last night to Navadwipa. Try to search Him out." They searched and searched, but could not find Him anywhere.

Then Mahaprabhu told them, "Let Me try." He took them straight to the home of Nandanacarya, and when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu with His followers suddenly arrived there, they found Nityananda Prabhu sitting on the veranda. After seeing Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Nityananda Prabhu stared intently at Him for some time, became absorbed in Him, and fainted. In this way, in one day, He became the most intimate associate of Sriman Mahaprabhu. When He was ordered by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu to give Krsna consciousness to everyone, He began to distribute Gauranga consciousness, divine love of Sri Gauranga. That Nityananda Prabhu is the savior of all fallen souls, without any discrimination of the degree of their fallenness, so we bow down to His holy feet.

Once, Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu had a secret talk with Nityananda Prabhu in Jagannatha Puri. When Nityananda Prabhu went to Bengal and married, some say that Mahaprabhu asked Him to marry. It is our opinion that because the so-called "high class" people were so much surcharged with vanity, Nityananda Prabhu was asked to approach the masses. Because he was ordered to mix with them very familiarly for His preaching purposes, it was found necessary for Him to marry. Otherwise, if he were to have mixed very familiarly with family men, accusations may have been leveled at His standard of renunciation. And to further that purpose, He married. He had to adopt that policy and accept that attitude. And He may have been told to do so by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu; it was not His own decision. Of course, marrying or not marrying was nothing to Him.

How he came in contact with His eternal consort, Jahnavadevi is described in the Bhakti-ratnakara. It appears that when He was preaching all around Bengal, He preached at the house of Jahnavadevi's father, Suryadasa Pandita, the brother of Gauridasa Pandita, who was already a follower of Gaura-Nityananda. Suryadasa gave Him intimate help in His propaganda work, as his house was a good base. And Suryadasa, who had two daughters, offered Nityananda Prabhu his daughter in marriage. Ultimately, Srila Nityananda Prabhu and Srimati Jahnavadevi are eternally associated, and although their marriage apparently took place out of necessity, it was actually part of Their eternal lila.

Of course, some so-called sannyasis take advantage of this to give up their bows of celibacy and marry. They give the marriage of Nityananda as an excuse. But it is not a proven fact that Nityananda Prabhu was a sannyasi. Actually, the name "Nityananda" is a brahmacari name. "Ananda" is a suffix added to the name of a brahmacari. Ananda, Svarupa, Prakasa, and Caitanya are different types of brahmacari names. The name Ananda is also found in the sannyasa order of life, but we find no sannyasa title mentioned for Nityananda Prabhu. There is also no mention anywhere of a sannyasa guru for Nityananda Prabhu, although we know that His diksa guru was Madhavendra Puri, the guru of Advaita Prabhu and Isvara Puri.

Nityananda Prabhu is known as an avadhuta. Avadhuta does not mean a sannyasi, but one who is not very particular about his external practices and sometimes does things which should not be done. When an exalted person is seen engaging in lower practices, he is considered an avadhuta. It is understood that he is above that, but his practices are of a lower nature. Ava means lower, and dhuta means that he can either remove or purify.

Nityananda Prabhu broke the single sannyasa staff (ekadanda) into three; that indicates that when taking sannyasa, the renounced order of life, we should accept not one, but three dandas, which symbolize the dedication of body, mind, and words in the service of the Lord. And Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura Prabhupada was also inspired by this action of Nityananda Prabhu's to give tridandi sannyasa to his followers, in contrast to ekadanda which was formerly current in Bengal. The system of tridandi sannyasa as the custom in Southeast India with the Vaishnavas who follow Ramanujacarya, and Srila Bhaktisiddhanta introduced it for the modern age.

 

Nityananda Prabhu's approach was somewhat peculiar. His strategy was to uplift the most fallen.

Like Napoleon, whose policy was to attack the strongest position of the opposing army, Nityananda Prabhu wanted to capture the most sinful. Generally, we think that a saint flies away from this world of maya and goes to a solitary place where he can enter into a cave and engage himself in meditation. Indian saints generally preach, "Give up everything, go to a solitary place in the jungle, find a cave, and engage yourself fully in understanding Godhead." But our guru maharaja was different. Like Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu, he wanted to attack maya and, like a great general, he declared totalitarian war on illusion and even all other existing conceptions of religion. "Why is there this misunderstanding and misconception?" he thought, "Everything belongs to Krishna: isavasyam idam sarvam. It is plain and simple and sweet. How can we think, 'This is for me, that is for Him?' Why should we let this misconception stand here at all? Attack it-and crush the whole thing!"

He told us, "Kirtana means to preach against misconception. As soldiers, you must go door to door and preach Krishna consciousness-Krishna's interest-the Krishna conception. If they understand that everything is for Krishna, they will be saved. This truth is plain and simple. Why should they not understand this? Try to capture them, to release them from the world of misconception and misunderstanding where they are now suffering from reaction."

In this way, we are not afraid of anything. A Vaishnava who loved solitary life once asked our Guru Maharaja, "Why do you stay at Calcutta? That is the place of Satan, where fighting for sel- fish interest is so acute. Leave that-come to the holy dhama." But Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura especially chose that place, saying, "I prefer to represent Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's creed in an extremely contaminated place." For this reason, he wanted to send men to the West. "The East is captured by the glamour of Western civilization," he said, "so Western civilization must first be crushed. Then, its glamour will vanish and the whole world will come to join the campaign of divine love of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu." This was the same spirit with which Nityananda Prabhu canvassed the fallen souls of this world, in His attempt to take them to the lotus feet of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.