(3/7) Understanding Lord Jagannath

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Speaking to devotees worldwide,
30 November 2020, part 3

Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in this Age of Kali here in Mayapur Dham, in chaudda-sata sata-sake (Bengali year of 1407), on the evening of a purnima tithi. Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur writes:

'নবদ্বীপ'-হেন গ্রাম ত্রিভুবনে নাই ।
যঁহি অবতীর্ণ হৈলা চৈতন্য-গোসাঞি ॥

'navadvipa'-hena grama tri-bhuvane nai
yanhi avatirna haila chaitanya-gosani

'There is no other village in the entire three worlds that could compare to Nabadwip, where Chaitanya Goswai made His advent.'

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, 1.2.55)

This Nabadwip, Mayapur, is a very beautiful village, and it is the most suitable place in the world as the Lord appeared there in the Age of Kali.

Later, after Mahaprabhu took sannyas, His mother told Him not to go very far, to Vrindavan, but to stay in Puri. So, as my Gurudev told, Mahaprabhu 'rejected' Nabadwip and 'accepted' Puri. On the way to Puri, Mahaprabhu visited the temples of Kheer-chora Gopinath and Saksi-Gopal. He went there with three devotees, some places mention that there were five devotees: Nityananda Prabhu, Mukunda and others. Mahaprabhu walked carrying His danda. But Nityananda Prabhu, who is non-different from Him (just as Krishna and Balaram are non-different from one another, so are Gauranga and Nityananda), broke it. When Mahaprabhu asked Him, 'Where is My danda?' Nityananda Prabhu told a little lie, 'Prabhu, when You were chanting and dancing, You fell down on Your danda, and it broke into three pieces. I threw it into the Bhargi River.' Hearing this, Mahaprabhu was a little angry. He said, 'Then I will not go with you! I will go alone.' He went on to run to Puri Dham, and all the devotees followed Him. When He came to Lord Jagannath, He was so overwhelmed that He could not even pronounce Lord Jagannath's Name. With foam coming from His mouth, He only kept saying, 'Ja-ja-ga-ga, Ja-ja-ga-ga!' After that, He was taken to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's house. Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya was the main person at the temple of Lord Jagannath. Taking Mahaprabhu to be an ordinary sannyasi at first, He wanted to teach Mahaprabhu. His relative, Gopinath Acharya, told him, 'Can you not see that He is the Lord Himself? He is the son of Jagannath Misra. He appeared at the house of Jagannath Misra and Sachi Mata in Mayapur, Nabadwip. After taking sannyas, He has come here.'

It is very necessary to have Chaitanya-kripa (mercy of Lord Chaitanya). Who can understand Chaitanya Mahaprabhu? Who can understand Lord Jagannath? You cannot understand Lord Jagannath so easily. I see many people coming directly to Jagannath, but Lord Jagannath is non-different from Mahaprabhu, and you cannot understand Lord Jagannath without the association of Mahaprabhu's devotees, with devotion to Mahaprabhu or without Mahaprabhu in general.

There is a very nice quotation written in one of our books. I will read it in Bengali. I am very sorry that I do not have sufficient command of English to say it for you in English. Please forgive my offence.

[His Divine Grace reads the following quotation in Bengali.]

'Sri Jagannath is not an object to be seen; Jagannath is the Seer. When the soul gives up the ego of the seer and becomes fully established in the ego of an object of Jagannath's vision or the pure original form of being an object of enjoyment, it then acquires service temper and can attain the darshan of Lord Jagannath through the eyes of divine love and service temper.

'For as long as we think that we will see Jagannath, we will not be able to see Him, but rather we will only always see wood, stone, an enjoyable idol maimed by the impersonal or historical accounts; and when we can know with all our heart and soul that He will see me, that we are materials for His enjoyment, and there is no covering of our own pleasure when it comes to His enjoyment, that He is absolutely independent and acts as He pleases, then only will Jagannath reveal Himself to us.

'But people in this world are consciously and unconsciously deluded by the idea that, "I will get to see Jagannath—I will measure the sach-chid-ananda vigraha with my fleshy eyes and enjoy." That is why even after the deception of getting the darshan of Jagannath, their senses remain captured by the desire to see various bad things of this world.'

(Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur Prabhupad)

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur's writing is very nice.

So, without Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's mercy, without the mercy of Mahaprabhu's devotees, we cannot understand Jagannath. We come to Jagannath, crying, 'Make me rich (dhanam dehi)', 'Give me knowledge (vidyam dehi)', 'Make me beautiful (rupam dehi)', 'Give me a good wife (bharyam dehi)', 'Make me a great poet (kavitam sundarim dehi).' But what Mahaprabhu said is just the opposite: O Lord, we only want devotion, we only want mercy from You, we want to serve You.

We do not come to the Lord to use the Lord, we cannot do that. In this world, we make Deities and do business, using Deities for our own interest. I have seen many people come – somebody comes to Lord Nrisinghadev, somebody comes to Lord Jagannath – and pray, 'Oh, please give me this, give me this, give me this.' We use Lord Jagannath, we use Lord Nrisingha for our own interest, that is why we cannot see understand, we cannot realise, we cannot understand Lord Jagannath or Lord Nrisinghadev. 'We only want to serve You' – this should be our only ardent, earnest request. We can only pray that we can serve the Lord and His devotees. This is the main thing.

— : • : —

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Understanding Religion of Kali-Yuga
2) Who Is Mahaprabhu?
3) Understanding Lord Jagannath
4) Mahaprabhu's Mystic Pastimes
5) Small Service, Great Heart
6) Love and Appreciate Mahaprabhu's Gift
7) Highest Devotion