Under a Haritaki Tree

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj,
31 December 2012, Denur

This place's name is Denur, it is Vrindavan Das Thakur's place, but it is not his birthplace. His birthplace is in Mamgachhi—when we go on Nabadwip Dham parikrama, it is the last place where we go to.

You know that Vrindavan Das Thakur's mother's name is Narayani, and she was a niece of Srivas Pandit.

Mahaprabhu said, "I always stay in the house of Srivas Pandit (Srivas angane), Raghava Pandit (Raghava bhavane), at the kitchen of Sachi Mata (Sachimata randhanasala), and wherever Nityananda Prabhu dances (Nityananda Prabhu nartane)." Mahaprabhu always held kirtans in the house of Srivas Pandit, and Narayani lived in that same house. When she was very little, she got Mahaprabhu's mercy:

One day, when Mahaprabhu was taking prasad, she came up to Him, stretched out her hand, and asked for His prasad. Mahaprabhu gave her some prasad, and in this way she got His mercy. As a result, she later got married, and although her husband was not very well (his name is not mentioned anywhere in the books), by the mercy of Mahaprabhu she got a very good son. His name is Vrindavan Das Thakur. That Vrindavan Das Thakur always served Nityananda Prabhu.

Mahaprabhu gave Nityananda Prabhu charge and ordered Him, "Take care of this area (Rad-desh, Gaura Mandal)." After Mahaprabhu took sannyas, He stayed in Puri, and Nityananda Prabhu and Sivananada Sen would every year take all the Bengal devotees to Puri to meet with Mahaprabhu... They would take breakfast in Nabadwip and then start walking to Puri, and on their way the parikrama party stopped here, in this mango garden.

The name of the landlord of this village was Ramahari Chakravarti, he was a brahmin and took Nityananda Prabhu as his Guru (we will go to his house today). He always thought about Him, "When will I be able to see Nityananda Prabhu? When will I meet Nityananda Prabhu?"

One day, Ramahari Chakravarti saw many devotees were coming, and the crowd was so colourful—some were wearing saffron colour clothes, some were wearing blue colour clothes, some were wearing white colour clothes, etc. He was surprised, and walked over to see who they were. As he came closer, he realised that Nityananda Prabhu Himself was standing there! Seeing his Guru, he fell on the ground, offering his full dandavat, "Prabhu, I always think of You, and suddenly You are here in front of me! Please, come with me to my house, please come." Nityananda Prabhu said, "There are so many of us here, how will we all fit in your house?" Instead, He ordered him, "Bring some rice and dahl, we can make kitchuri and take prasad here." Ramahari Chakravarti arranged everything for all the devotees.

After Nityananda Prabhu took prasadam, He said to His servitor, Vrindavan Das Thakur (who was only thirteen years old at that time), "Vrindavan! Where is my thing?" Vrindavan Das Thakur easily understood what Nityananda Prabhu meant, it was not necessary to tell the name of the thing He wanted, and he took it out of his dhoti and gave it to Nityananda Prabhu. And akrodha paramananda Nityananda Ray showed His anger. He is never angry (akrodha), but that day He showed He was angry with His servitor, "Where did you get this?!"

What Vrindavan Das Thakur gave Him was a haritaki fruit. It is used as a mouth freshener and a digestive—it is similar in use to mauri (মৌরি, saunf, or fennel), and is also one of the components of triphala (amloki, haritaki, and bahera). Nityananda Prabhu would take it every day.

Nityananda Prabhu asked Vrindavan Das Thakur, "How did you get it so quickly?!" His servitor explained, "Prabhu, You took prasadam in the morning in Nabadwip, and knowing You would take it, some devotee gave it to me. You took half of it, and I kept the other half because I knew You would take it later." He told the truth himself. As soon as Nityananda Prabhu heard it, He became angry, "You are like a householder! You are keeping things for tomorrow!" What do householder people do? They always keep for the next day, worrying, "What will I eat when I become old? Who will take care of me?" Even today some brahmacharis and sannyasis keep something aside for their old age, or keep some bank account because they worry about their future... Nityananda Prabhu said, "If you think like this, you cannot go with Me! Stay here at Ramahari's house. Preach here."

It was a simple matter—how will Nityananda Prabhu preach alone? For this reason, He kept Vrindavan Das Thakur to preach in this area. That is the story. The main thing is not that Nityananda Prabhu showed His anger—Vrindavan Das Thakur did it for his Guru, what is wrong about that?—the main thing is that He told him to stay and preach here.

And Vrindavan Das Thakur stayed here. His samadhi is here, his bhajan kutir is here, and this is the place where he wrote Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata. He also later installed and worshipped Nityananda Prabhu's and Mahaprabhu's Deities here, Gaura Nitai. We will go there today.

Also, this tree is a haritaki tree, but it is not the same tree. The original tree died, and somebody took the seeds and planted it again...

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