Ganga Mata Goswamini

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
24 September 2009

There was once a young girl, a daughter of a good Odisha king, who got much mercy from Jagannath. She always served in the Jagannath temple—made garlands and whatever other service there was. Her father asked her, "You are a young girl, how will you continue your life if you do not get married?" She answered, "I have already given my life to Jagannath, I do not want to get married—I do not want to serve some matta purush (মত্ত পুরুষ, lit. mad, or intoxicated, man). I do not want to serve some man who does not have any love and affection for Lord Jagannath. You will bring some boy and marry me to him, and this rich prince will drink whiskey and do nonsense—I do not want to be his servant!"

India is like this— when a girl gets married, she has to always serve her husband, but that girl refused.

Instead, she went to Vrindavan and asked a babaji, who came at that time to Vrindavan, to give her initiation. The babaji made a condition, "You are so young and beautiful, how will you be able to continue in this way for your whole life? First, show me your renunciation for one year—wear tilak, kanthi mala, a white sari, etc." She followed everything. She went begging and ate only one time a day, fasting for the rest of the day. When the year was over, she again came to the babaji, and he saw how much she had changed—all her beauty was gone... Seeing her determination, he gave her initiation.

Then, she returned to Puri. One day, she asked Lord Jagannath, "O Jagannath, I want to go to Nabadwip for one day to bathe in the Ganga." Lord Jagannath told her in a dream, "It is not necessary for you go to Nabadwip—I can bring the Ganga here for you."

Then, one day, it was midnight, all doors of the Jagannath temple were locked, and everybody—the security guards, pujaris—had already gone to bed. There were only some guards outside the temple. Suddenly they heard so much noise coming from the Jagannath temple—it was the noise of a water current, and they could also hear some voice coming from the inside the temple.

They immediately woke the guards who had the keys and opened the gate, but when they came in, they saw there was only a girl there. It was that same girl. "How did you get here?!" They thought she was a thief and had hidden in the temple to steal the ornaments of the Deities. They caught her and took her to the police station, and were going to tell everything to the King the next day.

The next day, however, Jagannathdev come in a dream to the king, the main pujari, Kashi Mishra, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya and said, "That girl is My real devotee, and your security has put that girl into jail. I will fast today the whole day! Take all the security guards and go to tell her, apologise to her. I brought the Ganga for her, she is not a thief! Your security gave so much dishonour to her, you have made so much offence to her! Go to that girl with a band party, kirtan, and all honour, and apologise to her, otherwise I will fast." The girl was released from the jail, and then Jagannath was offered the bhog.

Lord Jagannath is always for His devotees. Krishna can do everything for His devotees.

That girl's name was Ganga Mata Goswamini. She later became the acharya of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's temple—that temple's Deity is still there, Sri Radha Krishna Mahaprabhu. She had many disciples, and could give a good lecture—when she would speak Hari-katha, all women would come to listen to her.

It is a very nice story from Lord Jagannathdev's Pastimes.

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