Hare Krishna! The Srimad Bhagavatam tells that in Sri Vrindavan Dham all the seasons simultaneously existed to give pleasure to Sri Krishna and the Brijwasis. Navadwip is non- different than Vrindavan Dham so we all happily experienced many different seasons for the last few days.

‘Tapo divyam putraka yena sattvam’. Rishabh Deva when He instructed His sons in the fifth canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, He began with this verse that now that you have achieved this human form of life, it is not meant to be pursuing the comforts, securities and pleasures that are available for the lower species. Human life is especially a gift of Krishna for the purpose of self-realisation. By performing Tapasya for this purpose one can be given the greatest happiness. Spiritual happiness is transcendental to the happiness and distress of this world. As long as we are seeking happiness in this world, the by product, the natural result of such a quest is suffering. Little Prahlada was five years old but when he was in the womb of his mother he heard from his Guru Sri Narada Muni, this little child inside mother’s body, by Narada Muni’s grace could hear very carefully. He was in the darkness of the womb completely dependent on his mother for his very survival but from Narada Muni he understood that truly everyone is dependent on Krishna because whatever the mother, whatever the father, whatever anyone who helps us gives, is ultimately Krishna’s property, Krishna’s grace. When we hear the words ‘Sarva Karana Karanam’ that Krishna is the cause of all causes, the source of everything it has incredible insight in every situation of life. Krishna is the root cause of all that exists.

Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu taught that Krishna has only one motive. His motive is because He is ‘Aham bija pratapita’, the father of all living beings, whatever He creates is out of His love for everyone’s benefit. ‘Dukhalayam Ashashvatam’, Krishna tells in Bhagavad Gita that we should strive to come out of this material world, A-brahma-bhuvanal lokah punar avartino ‘rjuna mam upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate, because this material world from the highest planet down to the lowest they are all places of misery because death is inevitable whether we are Brahma or a little insect. So, if everything Krishna does is out of His love, His compassion, His mercy, He is Karuna sindhu, limitless ocean of mercy, why did He create the material world in this way, Dukhalayam ashashvatam? A place of suffering and a place where whatever happiness we find it just induces us to become attached to something that will be taken away. Sometimes people think if I was God, I would not create material existence like this because there is serious suffering. So often we hear about the sufferings of this world, its inconceivable, its heart breaking, its tragic. Why? First of all, we should understand we are not God. The Supreme Absolute truth is ‘Achintya’, inconceivable. Om Puurnnam-Adah Puurnnam-Idam Puurnnaat-Purnnam-Udacyate, the Absolute truth is perfect and complete. Everything emanating and whatever the Lord does is perfect and complete. Because we are seeing things from the perspective of today and yesterday, tomorrow, maybe next year, all within this little tiny lifetime. Na hanyate hanyamane sarire, na jayate mriyate va kadacin, the soul is eternal.

Turning away from Krishna, wanting to enjoy separate from Krishna, through exploiting and plundering the resources of material nature, and continuing to do so is based on our free will. But for the eternal soul all these things, from the perspective of eternity what is one lifetime? Its not even a flash of a second, not even a moment. But within it in this human form of life is the opportunity, to revive our original God consciousness. In 1966, Srila Prabhupada spoke in a tape-recording machine, a very famous description of the chanting of the Holy names. He said this chanting of Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare is a sublime method of reviving our original Krishna consciousness or God consciousness. Srila Prabhupada said it is not a super imposition on the mind. It is actually the original, natural, essential consciousness of every living being. To realise we are eternal, to realise that we are all connected to Krishna’s inconceivable knowledge and to feel the ‘Anand’, the ecstasy of the love for Krishna, that is within us and in loving Krishna, loving all of His creations and loving all living beings. That’s the way the soul sees, feels. Just like a nice eye, when its covered by a cataract, it only sees after sometime the various cloudy coverings of the cataract and everything and everyone is seen through that. And if we have such a cataract birth after birth, we think that’s what it really is. But when we remove it, that covering, we see things as it is.

So, transcendental knowledge is to remove the darkness of ignorance, to remove that cataract of the false ego so that we can see everything in truth. Essentially the whole purpose of the entire created world is to give the living entities various reasons, understandings and opportunities to revive our original natural consciousness. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came 1486, here in Sri Mayapur Dham, He appeared to teach us in a wonderful exciting and pleasing way how to revive our original Krishna consciousness. In 1975, Srila Prabhupada was here in Mayapur having a conversation with devotees and guests. At that time, this little Temple, I think it was about the second building that was built here in Mayapur. Its very small little Temple for small sized, 8 metal brass Deities of Sri Radha Madhav and Lord Chaitanya. Srila Prabhupada said we have named this Temple ‘Mayapur Chandrodaya Mandir’ because it is here that Lord Chaitanya appeared. The verse in Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita, Adi Lila tells that Lord Chaitanya, He appeared in the womb of Sachi Devi like the moon appears from the ocean. So, Mayapur Chandra, He appeared like the moon in Mayapur so He is Mayapur Chandra.  Udaya means rising, the rising moon of Mayapur because as the moon rises in the sky and it gets higher and higher, it gives light in all directions to everyone. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in Sri Mayapur Dham for the purpose of spreading His grace through Hari Naam Sankirtan through the path of pure devotional service to the whole world.

Srila Prabhupada wanted the devotees to build this beautiful community, the ‘Temple of the Vedic planetarium’ to create such a culture of devotion, such a community of pure devotees that the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would rise higher and higher and higher and give light to everyone in every town and every village through the world. Lord Chaitanya, the Supreme Brahman while living in Mayapur performed such beautiful, sweet pastimes leading to the inauguration of the Sankirtan movement. During our Mayapur yatra we will just take certain lessons and stories from Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes as revealed by the Acharyas in our Holy scriptures to bring us to the different stages of Lord Chaitanya’s beautiful life. His Bal-Lila is from His birth till He is five years old so we are still there.

Yesterday, we discussed Lord Chaitanya as a little child stealing the food of the pilgrim Brahmin but really did He steal it? ‘Sarva loka Maheshwaram’, everything belongs to the Lord so He doesn’t really steal anything but to reciprocate with His devotees’ love, He accepted it. This is the true feelings and realisations of a Vaishnav, na dhanaṁ na janaṁ na sundarīṁ kavitāṁ vā jagad-īśa kāmaye mama janmani janmanīśvare bhavatād bhaktir ahaitukī tvayi. Lord Chaitanya taught Himself. Who knows better how to please Krishna than Krishna but there is someone who knows better how to please Krishna than even Krishna, that is Sri Radharani. Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Radha Krishna nahi anya, Lord Sri Krishna in the mood of the Prema the pure love of Sri Radha is teaching us how to love Krishna. Praying, I do not want wealth, power, fame, influence, knowledge, followers, liberation from suffering, all sorts of different magical, mystical powers, I only want to please You my Lord, to serve You unconditionally. That means our highest aspiration is that Krishna is pleased to accept our offering. It sounds so simple because it is so simple. The problem is we are so complicated.

Jiva Goswami, greatest of all philosophers, Sridhar Swami the original commentator of the Srimad Bhagavatam, Rupa Goswami, Sanatana Goswami, all these authors of many volumes of great literatures, they all taught this simple principle, that the perfection of knowledge- Vasudevah sarvam iti, sa Mahatma su durlabhah, is what brings us to this simple state of surrender and surrender is- Krishna, the highest aspiration of my life is You will be pleased to accept my offerings. Patram puspam phalam toyam yo me bhaktya prayacchati, if with love, devotion a fruit, a flower, a leaf or water is offered to Krishna, Krishna is pleased to accept it. Hanuman was very strong, very resourceful, he used it all for Sri Ram’s service. Sri Ram accepted it. Shabari was a simple, illiterate lady living in a cave, she just offered some little fruits, little berries to Ram, that’s all she had, she didn’t have much, she didn’t even have a plate to give it, she just gave it to Him with her hands but Ram accepted it in the same way because of the sincerity of her intent. She gave everything she had. That Supreme Absolute truth performed His leela as a little child in Mayapur just as He had in Gokul, Mahavan when He was Gopal to attract our hearts. To teach us many incredible lessons in very very sweet ways and to reciprocate with the love of His devotees.

Nimai was very mischievous. He was mischievous to attract our hearts and whoever He was mischievous to, fell in love with Him, even if they were angry. Even if Nimai was causing so much disturbance, He was attracting them with so much love. So, when He was a child, four five years old with His friends He would go to the bathing ghats on the banks of the Ganga here in Sri Mayapur Navadwip Dham and in those days we were explaining, Navadweep was very populated. There were thousands of people at each bathing ghat and many people they were coming for very holy, purificatory, religious practices. So, people kind of respected each other like that, they would come to gather water for their Puja, they would come to take very sacred bath to purify themselves for whatever Pujas they were doing. Of course, their Pujas mostly in those days were for very materialistic purposes. Yesterday we were discussing the worship of Demigods. The Gopis worshipped Durga, Katyayani, but they worshipped so that they could give their hearts and love to Krishna. So, Demigod worship really means when we are worshipping empowered beings for the purpose of our own materialistic purpose. Bhakti is when our worship, our Puja, our purpose is for pure, unalloyed devotional service, for purification, for love, not to accomplish things that people accomplish anyway even if they don’t worship.

There are so many people in this world who are millionaires and rulers of nations, who have beautiful wives and handsome husbands and many children and good education, who don’t worship any Demigods. So why should we worship for things that people get anyway? Things that are destined for death. In Bhakti, all our prayers, all our purposes are for the highest liberation and that highest liberation can never be achieved. It can only be given to us when the Supreme being is pleased by our unconditional efforts to serve Him. So little Nimai would go to the bathing ghats, He caused so much commotion along with His friends, He was the leader. Can you imagine, people are chanting Vedic hymns, very excellent, perfect pronunciation, ladies are singing songs, collecting their waters, taking their Holy baths and suddenly a whole group of these children, four five year old children. They would jump in the water and they are yelling and they are screaming, they are splashing and they are going up to the people who are bathing, Nimai especially was fond of swimming under water. And if He would see a Brahmin chanting His Gayatri Mantra, Nimai would grab him by the feet under water and pull him. The Brahmin is trying to do His Gayatri Mantra and he is dragged under the water, then Nimai lets go and he comes up and he is wondering who did that. Then a moment later when he is looking around, Nimai comes up from the water with His mouth full of that water and spits it right in his face and He swims away and all the children are laughing at that Brahmin. And He goes to somebody else, comes out from the water, kicks with His feet water in the face of that person. Other residents of Navadwip, they would come out of the water nice and clean and just when they were all dried and ready to do their Pujas, Nimai and His friends would throw sand all over their bodies.

The young girls, some of them, they would bring Deities to worship them at the banks of the Ganges for the purpose of getting a good husband. When they would go in the river to take their bath before the Puja, Nimai would sit on the little throne that they made and He would be eating all the offerings, they said, “what are You doing?” He said, “give me all the rest of the offerings.” He said, “I will fulfil all your desires because I am the source of all the Demigods.” Little Nimai is saying this. They didn’t understand it. Some of the girls ran away with the offerings. Nimai said, “if you give Me your offerings, I will bless you that you will get a very kind, compassionate, handsome, wealthy husband and you will have seven well behaved, very intelligent sons but if you run away from Me then My blessing is you will have an old, deformed husband with four co-wives.” So, when the girls heard that they would become quite superstitious. They came running back to give Nimai the offerings. Nimai ate them and smiled. The men would bathe on one bank and the ladies would bathe on another ghat. As they are bathing, Nimai and His friends, some of them would be doing so much splashing and so much kicking and so much spitting and so much making noise and distracting everybody and others, while that was going on, would very secretly take all the men’s clothes and put it at the women’s ghat and bring all the women’s clothes to the men’s ghat. And after they take their bath and they were distracted by Nimai in so many ways, when they go to get dressed, where her saree was, the lady found a kopan, the man where he put his kopan, there was a saree and whatever else are the things that all the ladies wear. Sanyasis don’t know the details.

This created really a disturbance, they had to get back into the water. They couldn’t come out of the water and how were they going to transfer? Nobody dared to come out to transfer back because they were all so ashamed and embarrassed and Nimai and the friends they would just be spitting and splashing and throwing sand and laughing. Some of the ladies and some of the young girls and Brahmins, they would come to complain to Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Mata. The girls would complain to Lord Chaitanya’s mother and the Brahmin men would complain to Jagannath Mishra. Jagannath Mishra became very angry. How could my Nimai be doing this? Sachi Mata is thinking, why is He eating the food meant for Durga and Vishnu and everyone else, what’s going to happen to my child? Jagannath Mishra told the men, “I will go and I will punish Him.” And as he was on his way to the bathing ghat, the girls, because actually they were only complaining like the Gopis would complain about Krishna eating butter. They only complained because they just loved Nimai and they loved when He performed His pastimes. They wanted to talk about it. In the name of complaining, they were actually glorifying the Lord with love. So, the girls, they just complained. They ran secretly and they called out to Nimai when He was playing in the river, said, “Your father is coming He is very angry, You better go.” Nimai said to His friends, “if My father comes, tell him I did not come here today.”

Is that a lie? No. Is that the truth? No. What is it? It’s the Absolute truth because we, you and me if we tell a lie it’s because we are trying to hide something we have done or because we are embarrassed or because we don’t want to get in trouble or for whatever other reasons, because we want to cheat somebody but Krishna when He does like this, Nimai, its only to increase the love of His devotees. Its the highest, that love is the highest truth. So somehow Nimai just told these children and His friends and then He came out and He came home. Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Devi they see Him, how is this possible? Jagannath Mishra came, they said He didn’t come today, he came back and there is Nimai. He is completely dry, His beautiful hair is totally dry, He has dust all over His body. He has ink spots from His studies. Little children when they write they get ink spots all over their body. How was this possible? Nimai told His mother and father, “I am just now going to the Ganges.” They said, “what? We just got all these complaints about You.” He said, “Oh! They are complaining about Me like this even before I went to the Ganges? If they are going to say this, then now I am going to the Ganges and I am going to cause them more mischief than ever and then He ran away to join His friends.”

The Brahmins and the ladies, they came to Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Devi and said, “actually we are not angry. There is no greater bliss we find than when Nimai does this mischief.” There is no one more fortunate. In fact Vrindavan Das Thakura in this context explains if the Vedas had millions of forms and each of those forms have millions of mouths, they could never adequately explain how fortunate Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Devi were and how much happiness in their good fortune they were given to have the Supreme truth as their own little son who totally loved them as His mother and father and they totally with their whole hearts, body, mind, words, souls loved Him as their son. One time, Jagannath Mishra had a dream. This happened just after Jagannath Mishra chastised Nimai for His mischief. A Brahmin appeared in this dream. He was very angry. The Brahmin told Jagannath Mishra, “You do not know anything about your son, you are thinking that your son is just your son, what right do you have, what foolishness that you are chastising your son? You do not understand what a great transcendental personality He is.” Jagannath Mishra replied from his heart. He said, “My son maybe a Demigod, He may be a mystic super charged empowered Yogi, He maybe the greatest of all saints, He maybe Lord Narayan but none of these things matter to me because He is only my son and it is the father’s duty to educate his son. If I do not teach my son right from wrong, how will He ever learn what is right from wrong?” The Brahmin was so pleased. He offered His obeisances to Jagannath Mishra and disappeared. When Jagannath Mishra woke up, He was astonished.

Just after that, Jagannath Mishra inaugurated the education of Nimai. It’s a nice little ceremony where he first gives his son some chalk and a little chalk board and Jagannath Mishra starts teaching Him how to write letters. He starts teaching Him the alphabet. Little Nimai, incredibly, as soon as He saw a letter once, He could write it perfectly and as soon as He heard a word once, He could say it perfectly in Sanskrit and write it down. He became the pride of His parents. He learned so fast, so quickly and He would love to debate whatever He knew and how He would debate. Little child, He would establish some principle of truth. He would say, “can anyone defeat Me?” Nobody could defeat Him. Even great scholars, He is just a little boy. He would say, “you are all fools. This is not the truth.” Then He would defeat what He would just say. Then He would say, “could anyone prove the original thing I said was true?” Nobody could say anything because He had just defeated it and then He would defeat what He just spoke and re-establish what He just defeated as the truth. Its hard enough for us to even understand that. He was so brilliant and so mischievous.

One day, actually, Vrindavan Das Thakura and Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswami, they write that Nimai in His restless childhood pastimes He had no fear of His mother and father. In fact, whatever they taught Him to do, He would do the opposite and whatever they told Him not to do, He would do it even more. But whenever Nimai was in the presence of His brother Vishwaroop, He was very humble and full of respect. Vishwaroop was extraordinary. He was several years older than Nimai. He was totally well behaved, respectful and He was such a great scholar but He was a scholar in such a way, even as a small boy that He knew the Vedic literatures so well but every word of every line of every shloka or verse, He understood the essence, it was pure unalloyed love and devotion to Lord Vishnu. ‘Saaragrahi’, Saaragrahi means one who is always seeking the essence. In the Bible it is said, ‘seek and you shall find.’ If we are seeking the essence, Krishna will reveal the essence to us. If we are seeking something else that’s what we are going to see. In Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells, Ye yatha mam prapadyante tams tathaiva bhajamy aham mama vartmanuvartante manusyah partha sarvasah, as people surrender to Me, as people approach the Lord, The Lord reveals Himself accordingly.

Vishwaroop was always seeking the essence, He had pure unalloyed devotion to Krishna. He was an expansion of Lord Nityananda, Balaram, the original servant of Krishna. When He would see the mischievous naughty pastimes of Nimai, Vishwaroop, He understood. He was simply amazed that this is Krishna, this is the Gopal of Vrindavan who is performing pastimes as My little brother here in Navadweep. He would sometimes take Nimai on His lap and Nimai would be very well behaved with Vishwaroop. Vishwaroop from His birth was completely renounced of any false ego, He was completely renounced from any material pursuits for happiness. He just wanted to chant Krishna’s names, hear about Krishna and serve Krishna. He understood that Krishna has come in the form of His younger brother Nimai. But not wanting to interfere with the Leela of the Lord, He kept it secret within His own heart and never spoke it to anyone. Vishwaroop was so renounced. He didn’t even like to see because it hurt His heart so much the nature of His particular compassion, when He saw people wasting their lives away on the road to suffering and death pursuing wealth and sensual pleasures and education for that purposes, it broke His heart. It was like a fire that was burning in His mind because He was tasting the sweetness of pure love.

So, He would go early in the morning before others would come, He would bathe in the Ganga and worship Mother Ganga because Mother Ganga is the water that is coming from the Lotus feet of Lord Sri Vishnu which has come to cleanse and purify the world. Later on, when Nimai was older and became a great teacher, he taught that the Ganges river is so pure that if we have faith, by touching the water of the Ganges, what to speak of bathing in it, by tasting it, from drinking it, by seeing the River Ganges or even by being touched by the breeze that has touched Mother Ganga, pure unalloyed devotional service can awaken in our hearts because that’s the true purpose of the Ganges’ coming into this world. She is an expansion of the pleasure potency of the Lord who has descended in a liquid form and just like we have a body and within this body is a soul and it is the soul that is fully conscious of every aspect of the body. So, the soul of the water of the Ganges is Ganga Devi. She is fully present and fully conscious, in every drop of her water to bestow liberation, purification and ultimately Prema, pure love. So, this is how Vishwaroop went to take bath in the Ganges, worship Mother Ganga and then He would go right to Sri Adwaita’s house because in Sri Adwaita’s house the only things happened, Adwaita Acharya had his Deity, Madan Gopal, he had his Shaligrama Shila and he would do very sincere devoted Puja. When Adwaita Prabhu was immersed in those early mornings doing his Abhishekams, Alankars, making the Bhoga offerings, the Aratis, when he was absorbed in his Puja, when Vishwaroop came into the house, Adwaita was so enthusiastic, he would just stop all his Puja and run out to embrace Vishwaroop.

Vishwaroop was just, He was in his adolescence at that time. When Vishwaroop would speak from the scriptures, it mesmerised the devotees’ hearts. Some of these devotees who were gathered, Adwaita, Srivas, they were the age of his father, some of the age of his grandfather. They loved to hear Vishwaroop speak about Krishna, speak about any subject because it was saturated with love for Krishna. They couldn’t stop listening to Him and Vishwaroop was so eager to hear from them. Macchittaa madgatapraanaa bodhayantaha parasparam | kathayantashcha maam nityam tushyanti cha ramanti cha. This is devotee community, Krishna tells in Gita, when devotees are inspired and enlivened, taking great pleasure discussing Krishna among each other. Tatra tisthami narada, yatra gayanti mad bhakta, Krishna tells Narada, “you will find Me wherever My devotees are gathered together taking great pleasure hearing and chanting My glories.” On the highest level, Hari Katha was taking place at Adwaita’s house. Vishwaroop did not want to go anywhere else, He is a child. He is with all these very elderly senior people just talking about Krishna, discussing the scriptures, seeking the essence of Krishna in every scripture. He never wanted to leave.

Sachi Mata would cook. She would tell Nimai, restless little Nimai, just four five years old. She would say, “go bring Vishwaroop, tell Him lunch is ready.” Nimai would run to the house of Adwaita Prabhu in Navadweep here and as soon as He would come into the house, He would tell Vishwaroop, “Mother is calling.” Adwaita, Srivas, brothers, all these gathered Vaishnavas, they were just in the highest ecstasies of discussing Krishna Katha because when we discuss Krishna Katha in association of people who have faith, who are in the mood of surrendering to that Krishna Katha, we are actually in the presence of Krishna, Krishna’s pastimes are not something that is limited by time. Through sound vibration when we hear these pastimes that we are hearing today we are actually participating in that pastime. It is directly being enacted in our hearts when we hear with faith so can you imagine all these great devotees talking about Krishna, they couldn’t stop talking about Krishna and here is little Nimai four five years old just coming from playing all day with dust on His body, hardly any clothes and He says, “Vishwaroop please come.” They looked at Nimai, Nimai gazed at them with His beautiful lotus eyes. When they were touched by His glance, something happened. Seeing His eyes, seeing His moon-like golden face, seeing every limb of His body, He was just a little child, so delicate, so tender, so beautiful. Every limb was like the Supreme ornament of sweetness. They just looked at Him, they couldn’t speak, they couldn’t talk about Krishna. That never happened to them before. Satatam kirtayanto Maam, Bhagavad Gita says the quality of a great devotee is he is always talking about Krishna. They couldn’t talk about Krishna because they were so totally immersed, their hearts, their souls in just seeing Nimai, their love grew to such a level from the very core of their hearts they couldn’t talk, Samadhi, absorption, just looking at Him. And Nimai just smiled at Vishwaroop, ‘please come, please come’. So Vishwaroop ran back to His house and little Nimai held on to His dhoti and ran behind Him.

When they were gone, all the great Vaishnavas they were still, they couldn’t move, they couldn’t speak and finally Adwaita said, “what just happened?” They loved Krishna but they felt more love for Krishna than they ever felt before looking at Nimai but they didn’t know He was Krishna.  The power of Yogamaya. Nimai did not want them to know at this time. Adwaita Acharya said, “I don’t know what type of powers this little child has. He is not ordinary. Whatever love we have for Krishna somehow awakens whenever we see Him. Who is this child?”

Vishwaroop would go home, He would honour Sachi Mata’s Prasad that she had offered to Vishnu on the Altar and after eating Prasad whenever He was at home, He hardly said anything to anyone. He just was in the Temple room praying, remembering Krishna, chanting Krishna’s names and as soon as the opportunity came, He ran back to the house of Adwaita Acharya. Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Mata were becoming somewhat worried about Vishwaroop because He just had no interest in anything else. And Vishwaroop, it is repeated again and again, His heart was feeling so much pain to see people suffering, wasting the valuable moments of human life. Every moment is precious, Athato Brahma Jigyasa, because this human form of life, out of 8,400,000 species is ‘Durlabham’, it’s very rare. Durlabh Manav Janam Satsange and the rarest thing in this human life is to associate with devotees, with saintly people, who we can absorb ourselves in the highest purpose. So, seeing people wasting their lives was heart breaking to Vishwaroop and He couldn’t do anything about it because how much ever He tried, nobody would listen to Him. No one would listen to any of the devotees. People were totally engrossed in their egoistic selfish pursuits and if anyone tried to remind them, they would call them beggars, they would call them parasites, they would call them what is useless what are you renouncing, you are gonna die just like us.

At that time, Vishwaroop learned that His mother and father were making final plans for His marriage. Upon hearing that without saying a single word to anyone anywhere, Vishwaroop left home, He entered into the forest. Soon after, He accepted the vows of a Sanyasi, given the name Shankar Aranya and He travelled, travelled throughout India, living in forests going to Holy places and never again in His life did He have any communication with His mother and father. Suddenly He was gone. When Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Devi learned that Vishwaroop had become a Sanyasi, their hearts exploded with grief. In those days especially, you never see such a person again. Even Nimai, Nimai loved Vishwaroop, His brother so deeply. He wouldn’t see Him again. When Nimai heard that His brother had left home, Nimai fell unconscious. Jagannath, Sachi and Nimai they wailed crying very loudly. The families, the friends, the relatives, they came to try to console them, especially Jagannath Mishra. The great devotees and the family members, they were telling Jagannath Mishra, “you should be very happy, your son has become a Sanyasi, He has surrendered His life to the loving service of Lord Krishna, this is the perfection of life. Don’t you understand the Vedic literatures say that if in a family one person takes Sanyasa then millions of generations of the whole family will get the Supreme liberation. He has liberated your family, millions of your family members, your forefathers in the past and the present, in the future, they are all gonna get liberated because of the greatness of your child Vishwaroop, this is a time for celebration, be happy.” Jagannath Mishra kept crying, all this philosophy doesn’t touch your heart when our heart is broken because of love and separation.

And they would speak so many things and hearing them speaking sometimes He was relieved and he became peaceful but then when the thought of Vishwaroop came back into his mind again he would cry. But then, he contemplated the philosophy of pure devotion that ‘Krishna gave me my son Vishwaroop, He is not just my son, He is Krishna’s son and by Krishna’s mercy, Krishna gave Him to me. And now by Krishna’s own free will He has taken Him away from me. Krishna is independent. Krishna can do anything He wants to anyone at anytime, anywhere, in any way but Krishna is always perfect, Krishna is always compassionate. I surrender my body, my words, my thoughts, my life to Krishna.’ In that surrender, Jagannath Mishra found solace but the greatest solace was in Nimai. The family and friends, they told Jagannath Mishra, Vishwaroop may have gone to liberate all your family members but you still have Nimai and even ten million of all of the most wonderful sons of the world cannot compare to Nimai. Be happy with Nimai. Nimai, just to give comfort and solace to His parents, He became very well behaved and He engrossed in His studies.

One day, Nimai ate a betel nut. Because of the intoxicating effect of the betel nut Nimai fell unconscious. His mother and father sprinkled water on His face and His mouth and He came to consciousness. They said, “what happened?” He said, “I had a dream, it was a wonderful dream. Vishwaroop came to Me in this dream. He was the crest jewel of all Sanyasis. He took Me by the hand and took Me away from here and He said Nimai come with Me become a Sanyasi, in the renounced order of life. We will be together. I told My brother that who will take care of our helpless mother and father? They need Me. I will stay and I will take care of them. That is my duty and I will become a householder to protect My mother and father. What do I know about Sanyas?” Vishwaroop said to Nimai in the dream, He was very happy. He said, “please give My thousands and thousands and thousands of obeisances to Mother Sachi.” Such a wonderful dream. From that time Nimai became very very absorbed in His studies and every moment He was reading a book. He became so expert in every subject matter, so learned. Even though He was still a child, people recognised Him as being the most learned scholar in the whole of Navadwip, the highest seat of learning.

One day, Jagannath Mishra had a dream. In this dream, let us explain it in this way. He woke up from the dream, he bowed down and started crying out with great feeling, “Krishna, Krishna, please do not take my son away.” Sachi Mata said, “why are you saying this?” He said, “I had this dream, in the dream there was our beloved Vishwambhara, Nimai. He had a shaved head and the saffron robes of a Sanyasi. He was surrounded by thousands of devotees, headed by Adwaita and all of the other great Saints of Navadweep. They were all worshipping Him, they were all chanting His glories and together Nimai was inducing them all to chant the Holy Names, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. Then I saw millions of people following Nimai. He was sitting on a throne, and all the great devotees were coming and He was putting His lotus feet on their head and then the dream changed and there were millions of people following Him to Jagannath Puri chanting His names and glories. I think that Nimai is going to take Sanyas. If He takes Sanyas, how will we live?” Sachi Mata said, “this was just a dream, don’t take it seriously. Nimai will never leave us. He loves His home and He is totally engrossed in His studies.” Now I am going to rewind because this dream happened a little later but what did happen is that when Jagannath Mishra saw little Nimai so engrossed in His studies, He said to Sachi Devi, “this is the same thing that Vishwaroop did, because the Vedic literatures, if you study the Vedas seriously you realise that all the pleasures and all the promises that everyone is living for in this material world is only an illusion. The only truth is surrender to Vishnu, love for Krishna. If He keeps studying, He is going to lose all attachments, all attractions for everything in this world. He is going to become a Sanyasi, He is going to leave us. We cannot live without Him, we will die. Today I declare that Nimai should no longer study.” Sachi Mata said, “what kind of foolish thing you are saying, He is a little boy, He should study. If He doesn’t study how is He gonna earn a living when He grows up and who is going to be willing to marry Him if He is uneducated?”

Jagannath Mishra said, “it is not me that’s foolish. It is you. Don’t you understand that everything is under the control of Krishna? I am a great scholar, I know all the Vedas but we don’t have any food in our house, we are so poor but look, we see over there, there are people who are totally uneducated, they cannot write a single letter of the alphabet and yet they have so much money that there are thousands of great Pandits and Mahapandits waiting at their door trying to get a donation. If Krishna wants Nimai to have a nice wife, He will have a nice wife whether He is educated or uneducated.” And Jagannath Mishra called little Nimai and said, “from this day on, You are not allowed to study. You can do anything You want but not study.”

Nimai accepted that. He didn’t study and He definitely did anything He wanted. At this point He was at the culmination of His mischief day and night. He and His friends, they would be observing Navadweep. One example is given by Vrindavan Das Thakura. They saw a beautiful banana garden, banana trees in some very nice home garden so they examined it. That night He and one of His friends put a big white sheet over them. Two under one sheet, they looked just like a bull and they came and started smashing against the banana trees and the owner of the house saw this big bull destroying His garden and He got so angry and he started chasing after. They ran away, they took off their sheet, they were laughing and jumping because they had caused so much mischief. Another example of what they would do is at night. They would go to people’s houses, especially people they knew were very proud and not respectful. They would latch and lock the doors from the outside. Now in those days, no one had toilets inside their house, not in Bengal. They went outside to respond to the calls of nature and when nature calls…everyone laughs because everyone has that experience. Whether you are a Sanyasi, or a Brahmachari, whether you are a Grihasta or Vanaprastha, whether you are male or female or from one cast or religion, or one social background. Whether you are a billionaire or in poverty, when nature calls it’s the same for everyone. Some people respond in a golden toilet bowl and some people respond on the railway tracks. It really doesn’t make any difference. When nature calls, you just have to go.

So, at night, people have to go and like any other day, they get up and they go to the door to go out into the moonlight and the stars, into the field, be relieved but no the door doesn’t open and the windows don’t open. Nimai and His friends were very thorough. They just locked up the house from the outside and they are inside. They started screaming, knocking, howling. That’s the way it is, nature calls. First its just a little whisper, then it’s a message, then it’s a strong demand and soon its howling. And Nimai would see them howling and trying to get out but they couldn’t get out because you know these were Brahmin people, they couldn’t do it in their house. They would be laughing and clapping and dancing and they would run away.

One day, Nimai’s friends came to Sachi Mata and told that Nimai is sitting on top of a large pile of dirty discarded pots. Sachi Mata was very alarmed. She ran to the place and there she saw little Nimai who was, His beautiful golden complexion was covered by the black soot from the bottom of the pots because these pots were used to cook for Lord Vishnu, the Bhoga. In those days these clay pots, they would be used once for cooking and its cooked with fire, the pots would be all black with blazing fire under them and then they would discard the pots, just cook once with them. Then the clay pots would naturally just organically go back into the earth. So here is Nimai with all these old, which was considered dirty pots. Sachi Devi asked Nimai, “what are You doing? Why are You in such a dirty place?” Nimai said, “because of you I am uneducated. If I am uneducated how am I supposed to know what is dirty and what is clean? If you want Me to remain a fool then you can’t expect Me to understand the difference.” Sachi Mata said, “You are a Brahmin child, You are the child of Jagannath Mishra, You should not be sitting in this dirty place, look at Your beautiful limbs filled with all this soot. Come down.” Nimai said, “I will not come down because whatever I touch becomes purified. What is this pure and impure? These are all the dualities of this material existence. I am source of everything Mother. Whatever I touch becomes purified, Pavitra, nothing can become impure when it touches Me.” Sachi Mata was thinking, what is my boy talking. Meanwhile more and more of the neighbour ladies were listening to little Nimai and He said, “besides that these pots were used for cooking for Vishnu so they are Tadit they are pure so how can you say that I am dirty? And if you leave me uneducated then I cannot understand anything more.” At that time, the ladies who were surrounding they all agreed with Nimai. They took His side. They said, “Sachi Devi what ignorant fool has convinced you to not allow your child to study? Our children don’t like to study. Its such a great challenge to somehow or other get them to study, they just want to play. Your son loves to study and you don’t let Him study. Who is the enemy that has convinced you of this ignorance?”

Then they looked up at Nimai and said, “stay on those pots, we are on Your side. If Your mother doesn’t allow You to study then You should do whatever You want.” Sachi Mata was very much, like arrows in her heart. She herself had to climb to the top of the pile of pots and bring her dirty little Nimai and carry Him down and give Him a nice bath, then give Him Prasad. When Jagannath Mishra came home that night Sachi Mata told that Nimai is very unhappy, He really wants to study. Then the family members gather around Jagannath Mishra and said, “If Krishna is in control of everything then even if Nimai studies, if Krishna wants Him to stay home, He will stay home and if Krishna wants Him to prosper in His life and take care of His parents, He will take care of His parents so why are you interfering with His study, just depend on Krishna.” Jagannath Mishra allowed Nimai to resume His studies. In fact, just after that he gave Him His sacred thread which is like a further inauguration into the study of the Vedas. And when this beautiful ceremony took place, Nimai assumed the mood and the form of Vamana Dev. Everyone was so attracted.When He was on that pile of pots He was speaking in the mood of Dattatreya. All the various incarnations were manifested at different times in the pastimes of Viswambhara, Lord Chaitanya.

Is His Holiness Jayapataka Maharaj here? His Holiness Srila Jayapataka Maharaj is expected to be here. He is in a meeting.

There are many wonderful pastimes that are explained where Nimai would go to the greatest of the scholars of Navadweep and challenge them. He would also challenge the devotees, devotees like Gadadhara. Gadadhara Pandit from His very birth He had no material inclinations or attractions. He just loved Krishna. He loved to hear about Krishna, to be with the devotees of Krishna, to offer Seva to Krishna, to cry for Krishna, to chant Krishna’s names, that was Gadadhara. Although He was approximately the same age as Nimai, He was completely different, He was never naughty, He was never mischievous. He was never did all these things with Nimai. He was always just in Seva, in Puja, in Kirtan. He was one of the people who loved to be at Adwaita Acharya’s house. Nimai would see Gadadhara. He would say, “Gadadhara I have a question for you.” Gadadhara would say, “what is Your question?” and He would ask Him a very very complicated question based on Sanskrit grammar. Gadadhara had no taste, no inclination and no interest in such a debate but He couldn’t, He loved Nimai so much, He didn’t know why. He couldn’t not be in His association and at the same time He couldn’t tolerate being in His association. Nimai was such a magician and such a grammatical genius and He could inter twine words in such a way that mesmerize anybody and everybody and that’s exactly what He did. He asked Gadadhara what is the meaning of liberation. Gadadhara gave the standard explanation of meaning of liberation. Nimai tore everything He said, every word He spoke He tore it to pieces and defeated Him. Gadadhara was thinking in His heart, ‘I just want to flee, I want to get out of here’ but Nimai would be holding Him, He wouldn’t let him go.

Then Nimai would go to Mukunda. Mukunda was always in the association of devotees. His voice was so sweet. When he would sing Kirtan, everyone, all the devotees’ hearts would melt in ecstatic love. When he sang about the wonderful pastimes of Vrindavan, when he sang the names of Sri Sri Radha Govinda it was with so much feeling, so much devotion and such sweetness. It didn’t just attract the mind, it gave ecstasy to the very souls of the devotees. That was Mukunda. Nimai would stop him along the road path and say, “Mukunda I have a question for you.” Mukunda would say, “what is Your question?” and they would get into a big debate and Nimai would completely defeat him. Mukunda would say, “why do You keep doing this to me?” And after some time when Nimai, actually He became a teacher. Jagannath Mishra asked Nimai, “who would You like to be Your teacher?” Nimai told him, “Gangadas Pandit”. Gangadas Pandit was one of the most popular devoted teachers in all of Navadwip. The Gaurganadesh Dipika declares that Gangadas Pandit in his previous birth was Sandipani Muni who in Avanti Desh, Ujjain was the teacher of Krishna and Balaram. He taught Krishna and Balaram all these different sciences and Vedas and 64 arts and Krishna and Balaram learned each one immediately, fully. After being in Sandipani Muni’s Ashram for several months they wanted to give a gift to Sandipani Muni. Krishna and Balaram asked, “What Dakshinia can We give?” Sandipani Muni’s wife, she said, “our only son, he drowned in the ocean. Can You bring him back for us because we know what You did in Vrindavan. You can do anything.”

So, Krishna and Balaram went to the ocean. They told the ocean, “We want that son back.” The ocean said, “there is a demon in Panchajanya. He killed him.” So, They dove to the bottom of the ocean and They found Panchajanya who was in the form of a conch shell and they fought him and defeated him. Krishna kept his body to be His conch shell. They couldn’t find the children so They went to the abode of Yamaraj and They told Yamaraj please give Us Our Guru’s son and Yamaraj said, “Oh I didn’t know, I am very sorry. He must be here somewhere.” He gave him back to Krishna and gave him his life back and Krishna and Balaram brought the son back to Sandipani Muni and they were very happy. So that same Sandipani Muni became Gangadas Pandit. Murari Gupta who was much older than Nimai, he was one of the students there as were so many others, Mukunda.

Jagannath Mishra brought Nimai, so beautiful, so attractive. As was explained even when He did mischief to people, it was the highest happiness of their life. Even when they appeared to become angry with Nimai, it was just an expression of their love. They just wanted it to happen again and again and again. And Nimai when He would defeat people in debate no one else could do that like Him because they would be happy. When you are really a proud scholar and you are undefeated you are totally demolished and miserable if someone defeats you. But Nimai did it with such sweetness and such compassion that they would be happily defeated by Nimai.

Jagannath Mishra brought his son to Gangadas Pandit and he said, “please accept Him as your own son” and Gangadas Pandit, he said, “I could never ever pray for a more wonderful student than Nimai. I will take care of Him and teach Him as my own son.” And he did and instantly Nimai was his best student. He was the prize student. He would debate and defeat and argue with all the other students and they started teaching all the other students. In those days in Navadwip there was a lot of competition on knowledge. Everyone was proud that they had the best teacher so the students were always fighting over who has the best teacher especially at the bathing ghats. Nimai and His friends from Gangadas Pandit’s ashram they would go to the bathing ghats and they would, and other people were saying ‘my teacher is the best’ and Nimai would say, “no, no, our teacher is the best”. Then they start splashing each other and throwing sand at each other and wrestling with each other and debating with each other. That was Navadwip in those good old days, five hundred years ago. And Nimai would defeat everyone.

Gradually Gangadas Pandit was so proud of Him, he gave Him so many titles and Nimai Himself became a teacher. As He grew older, He was known as Nimai Pandit. The greatest of the Bhattacharyas, the Mishras, the Pandits, all these great scholars with so many titles were being challenged by Nimai and same thing, He would say, “Ask a question.” They would ask a question. He would establish a truth. He would say, “can you defeat My truth?” They said, “it’s impossible, You have thoroughly covered every aspect of that truth from so many different scriptures and so much logic and so many different grammatical poetic compositions, there is no way to defeat that truth.” Then Nimai would tear to pieces what He just said. Totally defeat it, disassemble it, make it look foolish.  Then He would say, “can you re-establish that truth again after I have defeated it?” They said, “impossible, nobody could do that.” Then Nimai would tear apart the arguments that He just defeated what He originally said and re-establish the original truth and He could just keep doing that again and again and again and the greatest scholars who were the age of His father, His grandfather, all they could do was just look at Him with great happiness. Everyone was proud of Him.

In Navadwip, Nimai Pandit was loved by everyone. Not only was the greatest champion scholar, but He simply attracted all hearts. Then Jagannath Mishra had that dream that I talked about before where he saw Nimai as a Sanyasi. He told Sachi Mata, “I think our son is going to leave us.” She said, “He will not leave us.” A few days later, Jagannath Mishra developed a fever, very high fever. He was on the verge of death. There was no doctor or anyone could help him. Sachi Mata was in great distress. Nimai told His mother, He was in as much distress but even in His distress, out of love He consoled Sachi Devi, “that it is inevitable. In due course of time, the soul must leave the body of everyone. Death is inevitable. But Mother, for the soul there is no death. This body is a temporary residence for the eternal soul and in due course of time, by the power of time himself, the body breaks down and the soul moves on to its next destination. Please do not cry for the inevitable My Mother. Our Father will certainly achieve the greatest destination.” Nimai loved His father. It’s interesting how, even when knowing the highest truths and realising the highest truths, still the nature of love is to cry in separation because the body is a vehicle which is the medium in which we reciprocate love with the soul of that person. And although we have no sorrow for the soul of a person who lives a devoted life, at the time of death we celebrate but still that precious medium in which we exchanged through the medium of our bodies is gone and that separation is heart breaking.

The relatives were wondering what should we do? He is dying. Nimai, He said, “let us bring him to the bank of the Ganges and constantly chant the names of the Lord around him because there is no greater act of love for a dying person than to surround him with Krishna who has incarnated in His Holy names.” Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. As Jagannath Mishra’s body was laid down on the banks of the Ganges, Nimai, Sachi Devi, all the relatives were there, chanting His Holy names, sprinkling him with Ganga water, Tulasi leaves, Maha prasad, Nimai said to His father, “how will I live without you? Who will chastise Me? Who will hold My hand? Who will call Me his son? Throughout My whole life, you have filled My heart with your love, with your kindness, with your wisdom. What will I do, where will I go, how will I live without you dear father?” Jagannath Mishra looked at little Nimai. He was completely in a mood of surrender. He prayed to Lord Ram, “I now entrust the care of my son to You.” And surrounded by the Holy names of Krishna, and himself chanting the names of Krishna in a state of samadhi, totally absorbed in remembering Krishna, he gave up his external body.

Vrindavan Das Thakur, Lochana Das Thakur, they both explain that he went back home, back to Godhead. Jagannath Mishra is Nanda Maharaj in Krishna’s Leela. He returned to his eternal service in the Spiritual world of Goloka. In separation, Nimai cried. Sachi Mata came and placed her head at the feet of her departed husband and cried, “why did you leave me here alone? Why did you not take me with you?” She felt a great responsibility for Nimai and Nimai felt great responsibility for His mother. Just as Lord Ramchandra cried incessantly when He received the news of the departure of the soul of His father Maharaj Dasarath, similarly Nimai cried incessantly in separation from His beloved father but He consoled Himself so He could console His mother and He told her, “I will always be with you.” Nimai’s mischievous activities were no more, at least not so much. Now He was Nimai Pandit, the greatest teacher in all of Navadwip, the greatest student of Gangadas at the same time. His mother was a widow, she had lost her elder son, she had lost eight of her daughters and now she lost her husband. Nimai was all she had. She lived for Nimai exclusively and Nimai lived for her.

Written by

Radhanath Swami

H.H Radhanath Swami is one of today’s most beloved and respected spiritual teachers. A Bhakti Yoga practitioner for 40 years, he is a guide, community builder, philanthropist, and acclaimed author.Born and raised in Chicago,at the age of 19 he discovered India's Mystical devotional tradition and now spread his message of compassion and love around the world.

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About Me

Radhanath Swami

H.H Radhanath Swami is one of today’s most beloved and respected spiritual teachers. A Bhakti Yoga practitioner for 40 years, he is a guide, community builder, philanthropist, and acclaimed author.Born and raised in Chicago,at the age of 19 he discovered India's Mystical devotional tradition and now spread his message of compassion and love around the world.