(1/6) Holy Vasanta Panchami Day

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

Hari bol. 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 Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay.
Jay saparikara Sri Sri Guru Gauranga Gandharva Govinda Sundar jiu 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 scheduled before Sriman Nityananda Prabhu’s festival. I have quite a busy schedule now. 25 February is Sriman Nityananda Prabhu’s appearance day, the inauguration anniversary of Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math Temple in Ekachakra and also 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 King Vrisabhanu, the father of Srimati Radharani, in Dvapar-yuga. So, he is an 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. When Sri Gadadhar Pandit Goswami wanted to take initiation, 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 quite like him because externally Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu looked very much like a materialist and a gross householder. (That is why it is repeatedly said that you cannot recognise a Vaishnav by his clothes.) Sri Gadadhar Pandit saw Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu was always chewing pan supari (betelnut), which made his mouth red, and wore a babu dress (like that of a zamindar, a materialist). But later, Sri Gadadhar Pandit understood that he had misjudged Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi Prabhu, and he 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. As I have already said, 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 the 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 had always been worshipping Mahaprabhu since her early childhood (from her father’s home). She would regularly come to the Ganges to bath, and she saw Mahaprabhu there (He used to come to the Ganges to bath, 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 have recently read something to you from this book on the appearance day of Srila Lochan Das Thakur. In particular, he 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 about Mahaprabhu’s intention. He explained everything to her; He told her what for He was going to take sannyas, and He reassured her, ‘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.’ He gave her some nourishment in this way, but He did not tell her what day He was going to leave.

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

Sri Vishnupriya Devi made a very big 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 the sadhyan-sadhan tattva with Srila Sanatan Goswami and Srila Rupa Goswami, He spoke about the 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 an enormous 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 (deity maker) 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 gather all the rice she had got in this way during the day, cook it and offer it to the Deity with some salt. She did not use many spices, chilli, masala, etc. She showed very much sacrifice and austerity in her life. This is how she carried on 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 when her appearance (avirbhav) is…

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

— : • : —

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Holy Vasanta Panchami Day
2) Extraordinary Qualities of Srila Raghunath Das Goswami
3) Hanker and Aspire
4) Keep Your Head at Vaishnavs' Lotus Feet
5) "Please Forgive Me"
6) Renounce Pride, Not Practice