Surrender: Eye-Opener

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Vyasa Puja Adhivas, Bengali class
10 October 2015, part 4

When Mahaprabhu took sannyas, He went to Puri from Shantipur. On the way to Puri, Nityananda Prabhu broke His danda. Mahaprabhu showed His anger, "I have brought only one danda with Me, and You have broken it! Go, I will not go with You!" Then, Mahaprabhu went fast to the Jagannath Temple and fainted there upon arrival. Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, who was the manager of the Temple, told the guards, "Whoever He is, let it be. Bring Him to my house."

In the meantime, Nityananda Prabhu, Mukunda Prabhu and others caught up and began searching for Mahaprabhu in Puri. They asked somebody if they had seen Mahaprabhu and were told that Mahaprabhu was at Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's house. They went there and saw Mahaprabhu lying without senses. They began chanting the Holy Name into His hear and Mahaprabhu came round.

After that, Gopinath Acharya asked Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya,

"Do you not know who this is? Can you not recognise Him? He is the Guru of all, He is Lord Krishna Himself! He has come to this world to awaken the souls. He took sannyas from Keshav Bharati." Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya did not believe it. He asked Mahaprabhu, "Why did You take sannyas at such an early age?"

"What can I do?" Mahaprabhu replied humbly. "I have become crazy. At this age, I am supposed to serve My mother, but I gave it up and took sannyas. You are a very learned scholar, please give Me your mercy so that I can keep this sannyas."

"What have You studied?" asked Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya.

"Not much. I have studied primary grammar."

"What will primary grammar do for You? You have become a sannyasi but You have not read Vendanta! You must read it. Stay here with me and I will teach it to you."

"All right, Prabhu. You read it and I will listen," Mahaprabhu agreed.

Then, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya began reading and explaining Vendanta and Mahaprabhu would sit and listen to him. Seven days passed. Finally, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya asked Him, "Hey, new sannyasi! I have taught You Vendanta for seven days, but You have not said a word. I do not understand if You understand any of it or not."

"Prabhu, can I say something?" Mahaprabhu asked.

"Yes, say it."

"When you read from the Vedanta, I understand it, but when you begin to explain it, I do not understand anything."

"What??"

The thing was that Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya taught mayavada bhasya, the conception of mayavadis, atheists. Mayavadis are actually worse than sahajiyas because sahajiyas at least accept that there is God. Do we not sing in the kirtan, "Yasomati nandana..." "navina-nagara-bara"? What does it mean? One who has several women is called "nagar". Sahajiyas imitate Krishna, dress like Krishna, do Krishna-lila, etc., but mayavadi do not even believe in Krishna, do not believe that God has a form or that the soul leaves the body and takes another body. So, instead of worshipping God, mayavadis do idol, or doll, worship.

So, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya explained Vedanta from the mayavadi point of view of. When Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya gave nine different explanations of the verse "Atmaramas cha munayo," Mahaprabhu explained it to him in eighteen other ways. When Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya heard it, he began to tremble and his eyes bulged, "My God! Whom have I been teaching these seven days! Who is He?" But even then he could not believe Mahaprabhu was the Lord—only when Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya surrendered himself could he see Mahaprabhu's Sadbhuja form and understand who He was.

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