Holy Vasanta Panchami Day

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Kolkata—Worldwide, 14 February 2021, part 1

Haribol. Dandavat.

Jay Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Sundar Govinda Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Visva-varenya Srila Guru Maharaj ki jay
Om Vishnupad Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Sri Srila Bhakti Siddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay
Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundarjiu ki jay
All the assembled devotees ki jay
All the sannyasi-vrinda ki jay
All the worldwide devotees ki jay
Samagata Sri Gaura bhakta-vrinda ki jay
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

Dandavat. I am offering my humble obeisance to all the devotees, please accept my humble obeisance. I have come again in front of you after one week. I have returned from preaching today—the last preaching programme was today at noon, and I came back to Dum Dum Park at 4-4:30 p.m.. On Tuesday, I am going for preaching again. I have some more preaching programmes before Sriman Nityananda Prabhu's festival. I have quite a busy schedule now. 25 February is Sriman Nityananda Prabhu's appearance day, and also the inauguration anniversary of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math Temple in Ekachakra and the holy appearance day of Sri Sri Guru Gaura Nityananda Prabhu. I must attend so many preaching programmes before that. Also, the day after tomorrow [16 February] is the appearance day of Sriman Mahaprabhu's sakti Srimati Vishnupriya Devi, Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi, Sri Raghunath Das Goswami, Sri Raghunandan Thakur, as well as Srila Visvanath Chakravarti Thakur's disappearance day.

Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu was a King Vrisabhanu, the father of Srimati Radharani, in Dvapar-yuga. So, he is the incarnation of King Vrisabhanu. Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu was a great Vaishnav. His appearance place is in Bangladesh, in a town called Chattogram. Some of our devotees also joined Krishna consciousness from Chattogram, and ISKCON made there a small preaching centre, a temple. At some point, Sri Gadadhar Pandit Goswami wanted to take initiation and he approached Mahaprabhu for initiation, but Mahaprabhu told him, "Your guru is coming soon, you must wait for him." When Sri Gadadhar Pandit first met Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu, he did not really like him because externally Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu looked very much like a materialist, a gross householder. (That is why it is repeatedly said that you cannot recognise a Vaishnav by his dress only.) Sri Gadadhar Pandit saw Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu always chewed pan supari (betelnut), which made his mouth red, he wore a babu dress (like that of a zamindar, or a materialist). However, later Sri Gadadhar Pandit understood that he had misjudged Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu and took initiation from him. Sri Gadadhar Pandit is an incarnation of Srimati Radharani, and this Sri Gadadhar Pandit took initiation from Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu, an incarnation of Srimati Radharani's father, King Vrisabhanu. Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu is a great Vaishnav—he may look like a materialist, but he is a great Vaishnav.

It will also be the appearance day of Sri Vishnupriya Devi. Sri Vishnupriya Devi is a daughter of Sri Sanatan Misra. When Laksmi Priya Devi (Sriman Mahaprabhu's sakti, or first wife) left, Sri Sachi Mata and Sri Jagannath Misra wanted Nimai to marry again, and they wanted Him to marry Sri Vishnupriya Devi. Actually, Sri Vishnupriya Devi always worshipped Mahaprabhu from her early childhood (from her father's home). She would regularly come to the Ganges to bathe, and she saw Mahaprabhu there (Mahaprabhu used to come to the Ganges to bathe too). At that time, she was a very young girl. When Mahaprabhu later took sannyas, she was only thirteen years old, a very young girl.

Srila Lochan Das Thakur wrote something about Sri Vishnupriya Devi's lamentation in his book Sri Chaitanya-mangal. I read something to you from this book on the appearance day of Srila Lochan Das Thakur recently. Srila Lochan Das Thakur described the conversation that happened between Mahaprabhu and Sri Vishnupriya Devi before Mahaprabhu left to take sannyas. Sri Vishnupriya Devi cried bitterly when she heard that Mahaprabhu wanted to take sannyas. Mahaprabhu explained to her everything, He told her what for He was going to take sannyas, and He said, "I will never leave you. You are always with Me. Take care of your bhajan, your sadhan, your practising life. And you must think that I am always with you." Mahaprabhu gave her some nourishment in this way. However, He did not tell her what day He was going to leave.

At night, before Mahaprabhu left, He called Maya Devi (Kalanidra), and Maya Devi plunged Sri Vishnupriya Devi into a deep slumber so that she could not wake up and prevent Mahaprabhu from leaving. When leaving, Mahaprabhu left His ankle bells by the side of the bed, and when Sri Vishnupriya Devi finally woke, it was very dark in the room—finding herself was alone in bed, she was surprised and immediately became anxious, and when she put her leg on the floor, she touched Mahaprabhu's ankle bell and then she understood that Mahaprabhu had left. Taking these ankle bells, she began to cry so much... Srila Lochan Das described this in Sri Chaitanya-mangal.

Sri Vishnupriya Devi made too much sacrifice. Srila Gurudev said once on this day that if Sri Vishnupriya Devi had not made this sacrifice (if she had not allowed Mahaprabhu to take sannyas), then how would we have got Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu? How would we have seen Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's achar-dharma, prachar-dharma (the example of His practice and preaching)? Having taken sannyas, Mahaprabhu went to Puri, and there He spoke about sadhyan-sadhan tattva with Srila Sanatan Goswami and Srila Rupa Goswami, He spoke about prayojana-tattva with Raya Ramananda. The conversation that took place between Mahaprabhu and Raya Ramananda is very important for our line.

So, Sri Vishnupriya Devi made a huge sacrifice in her life. When we go for Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama and come to Koladwip, we visit Sri Vishnupriya Devi's sevita vigraha of Mahaprabhu. Everybody calls this place 'Mahaprabhu's house' (Maharabhur bari), but it is actually Srila Sanatan Misra's house. When Sri Vishnupriya Devi was getting Mahaprabhu's Deity made, she would go to the murti-valla every day to see how the Deity was turning out. Then, she installed the Deity and would every day make an offering. She would chant the Holy Name and keep a grain of rice aside—in this way, chanting the Hare Krishna maha-mantra and counting rice grains, she would then gather all the rice she got in this way during the day, cook it, and offer to the Deity with some salt. She did not use so many spices, chilli, masala, etc. She showed too much sacrifice in her life, too much austerity. This is how she continued her life...

Actually, nobody has been able to trace when Sri Vishnupriya Devi left this world. Nobody knows it—we have not heard it mentioned anywhere in the scriptures. We only know the appearance (avirbhav) of Sri Vishnupriya Devi...

So, it is a very good day coming the day after tomorrow...

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