Srila Gauri Das Pandit's Pastimes

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
Speaking to devotees in Venezuela
29 July 2012, part 3

Tomorrow is also Gauri Das Pandit's disappearance day...

Gauri Das Pandit is also a dearmost devotee of Nityananda Prabhu and a dearmost devotee of Mahaprabhu. You know that one time Nityananda Prabhu and Mahaprabhu went to Kalna, the area where Gauri Das Pandit lived (it is twenty-five kilometres from Nabadwip). When Nityananda and Mahaprabhu came to him, Gauri Das Pandit said,

"Prabhu, You have come to my house, I am very happy, but I will not allow you to leave my house. You must stay here permanently!"

"How is it possible?" answered Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. "We have to go. We must go for preaching. You know why We have come here—how is it possible for Us to stay in your house permanently?"

Then, suddenly, Nityananda and Gauranga Mahaprabhu turned into Deities—They Themselves were talking to Gauri Das Pandit and suddenly there appeared two more Nityananda and Gauranga in another form. They said then, "Look behind!" And when Gauri Das Pandit turned, he saw there were Deities in the house and They looked just as Nityananda and Gauranga who were in front of him. He was surprised, "How is this possible? And whom shall I keep? Two persons are sitting in the veranda, in the corridor, and two are inside—whom shall I keep?" Then, Mahaprabhu said, "You can keep the ones who are inside, They can stay here permanently." Then, Nityananda and Mahaprabhu left, and Gauri Das Pandit started serving Their Deities (vigraha) at his house.

Actually, I have told many times that a Deity is non-different from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, from Radha-Krishna. You also worship Parama Karuna Nitai Gaurachandra in Caracas, and They are non-different from Nityananda and Mahaprabhu. You must understand this clearly. They are not just some murti, some wooden or stone murti—no! You must not see the Deity in this way. "Vigraha Tumi nao, saksad Vrajendra-nandan!"—vigraha, a Deity of Krishna is nondifferent from Krishna, Gauranga's vigraha, Nityananda's vigraha are non-different from Them.

In Mahaprabhu's life time, His Deities were worshipped in three places—one was worshipped by Vishnupriya in Nabadwip (we go there every year during the parikrama); another one is Gaura-Gadadhar in Champahatti (we also go there, on the last day of the parikrama); and the third one is in Kalna, Gauri Das Pandit's house.

One time, Gauri Das Pandit wanted to celebrate Mahaprabhu's appearance day, so he went outside to invite devotees and preach. At that time, there were no letters, no telephone, no internet, and Gauri Das Pandit went alone, on foot (there were also no cars). He would come to some house, preach and call people, "Please come everybody to Kalna. We are going to celebrate Mahaprabhu's appearance day and we are making a festival. Please come." He preached in this way outside, time passed, and he was getting late...

There were only three days left before the festival, and there were so many things to do. Gauri Das Pandit had a disciple called Chaitanya Das. Chaitanya Das stayed at the temple and when only three days were left he could not tolerate it any longer. He thought, "Why is my Guru not coming? The festival is coming in just three days!" So, he invited some devotees to Kalna himself—he said, "Come, there will be a festival in three days. Come to the temple."

When Gauri Das Pandit came back and heard that Chaitanya Das had also invited somebody, he became angry, "I am the Guru, I am the manager, why does he invite anyone without my permission?" He ordered to Chaitanya Das, "Get out! Why did you do that without my permission? Get out of my temple!" Chaitanya Das left and went to live on the bank of the Ganges (at that time, the same Ganges that flows through Nabadwip went through Kalna as well).

Gauri Das Pandit stayed alone. What could he do now? So many people started coming for the festival day—some came with pranami, some came with some rice, dal, etc. but Gauri Das Pandit did not accept them. He said, "Who invited you?! I did not invite you! Go to the one who invited you!" The devotees were surprised, "What? The festival is here... What is happening? Where is Chaitanya Das?" Gauri Das Pandit said, "I did not invite you, if Chaitanya Das invited you, then you can go to him."

The devotees went to Chaitanya Das to the bank of the Ganges. Somebody came there in a big boat and brought so much dal, rice, subji, etc. and Chaitnaya Das arranged a big festival there on the bank of the Ganges in an open field.

In the meantime, Gauri Das Pandit was alone. What could he do? He did some little cooking and was going into the temple to offer the bhog. The temple was locked, but when he opened it, he saw there was no Deity there! He became very angry, "What has happened? Where have my Deities, my Gaura Nityananda gone?! They are mine! They are my Masters! Why, where have They gone?" Then he went to the bank of the Ganges to see what Chaitanya Das was doing, and there he saw Gaura Nitai in the middle, surrounded by many devotees, and everybody was chanting and dancing. Chaitanya Das was also there. When he saw this from far away, he took a stick and was ready to charge, "I will beat him! My Prabhu is gone there! He has taken Them!" As soon as Gaura Nityananda understood what was happening, They immediately entered the heart of Chaitanya Das, and from that day his devotional name became Hriday Chaitanya...

In the end, Gauri Das Pandit brought him back to the temple: as Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj also said, "Mercy is above justice."

— • :: • —

{ 2001  |   2002  |   2003  |   2005  |   2009  |   2010  |   2011  |   2012 }
{ 2013  |   2014  |   2015  |   2016  |   2017  |   2018  |   2019  |   2020  |   2021 }

• Download (2.5 Mb)