(11/13) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (3)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Ekachakra Dham, 23 February 2021, part 11
Translated from Bengali

Apart from Srila Raghunath Das Goswami, there were other great personalities who received Sri Nityananda Prabhu’s mercy. Two of them are Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami and Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur.

You know that Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur was the son of Narayani, Srivas Pandit Prabhu’s niece. He was born in Mamgachi, Nabadwip (Modadrumdwip – current Bardhaman District).

Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur stayed with Sri Nityananda Prabhu as His servitor from the age of thirteen. He knew what Nityananda Prabhu liked to eat and served Him in every possible way.

Once, Sri Nityananda Prabhu was taking all the devotees to Puri. They had taken prasadam in Nabadwip and started walking in the morning. Sri Nityananda Prabhu had a habit to eat hartaki. (I heard from Gurudev that even a mother can be nasty to her son, but hartaki can never fail your stomach – it always works. If you take a green hartaki, it always helps digestion.) When devotees in Nabadwip had given some hartaki fruits to Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur, he thought, ‘Prabhu will take prasadam on the way, and He will ask for hartaki again. Let me keep a few for later.’

When Nityananda Prabhu and the devotees set off from Nabadwip and by midday reached Denur, a village in East Bardhaman, Sri Nityananda Prabhu sat in a mango grove and met with Sri Ramahari Chakravarti, a local brahman.

Sri Ramahari Chakravarti had always thought, ‘When will Prabhu come? When will I get Nityananda Prabhu’s mercy?’ He saw a dream in which he was told that he would get Nityananda Prabhu’s mercy very soon. The next day, he saw that there were many sadhus in the mango grove near his house. When he went to the grove, he saw that his Prabhu Himself was there! Ramahari Chakravarti fell in a full obeisance to Lord Nityananda Prabhu and said, ‘Prabhu, please come with me to my house. Please take prasadam at my house.’ Nityananda Prabhu replied, ‘Do you have place for so many people? Do Me a favour. Bring some rice, dal and other things here – we can cook and take prasad here.’ Ramahari Chakravarti arranged everything, and Lord Nityananda Prabhu took prasad in the garden, together with all the devotees.

Finishing His meal, He told Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur, ‘Vrindavan, where is My thing? Give it to Me.’ He did not say in front of everyone what He wanted, but Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur understood it and gave Him a hartaki.

Then, Akrodha-Paramananda Nityananda Ray (who is never angry and is always full of extraordinary joy) showed anger. To teach others, He said angrily, ‘You are a brahmachari, but you are not keeping your brahmacharya properly! Your hoarding mentality has not gone away yet! You still think what you will eat tomorrow! You must not come to Puri with Me – stay here, get married and do what you like.’

This is how Sri Vrindavan Das Thakur stayed in Denur. Do you know what he did in Denur? He wrote Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata there! He named his book Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, but in fact he mostly wrote about Sri Nityananda Prabhu’s glories in this book. When devotees read it, they chuckled, ‘You should have called it Sri Nityananda-bhagavata!’

[His Divine Grace notices somebody is dozing off.] Hey, give him a pillow! Do you have a pillow in your room? Bring it, give it to him. You are falling asleep. Why are you suddenly feeling sleepy? Because Maya Devi is getting to you. There are three sisters – Ghum-parani (fast asleep and snoring), Jhim-parani (fast asleep and drooping) and Dol-dolani (fast asleep and rocking or jerking). You must have heard these three names before. When you listen to Hari-katha, you feel drowsy, but when you watch TV series, you do not feel sleepy. In every house I go to I see that people sit in front of their TV sets and watch series. They have no time to listen to Hari-katha. They have no time to chant kirtans for half an hour in the evening. If they did, they would have already learned all kirtans by heart, but, no, they have no time. They can easily tell what time which series are on, but they cannot remember kirtans. They have no time for it. That is why sleep comes…

So, I was saying that Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur stayed in Denur and composed Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata there. Srila Krishna Das Kaviraj Goswami called him ‘Vyasadev of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes’ (Chaitanya-lilara vyasa—Vrndavana-dasa; Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 1.8.34). If you go to Denur, you can still see his handwritten manuscript there.

This is how Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur received Sri Nityananda Prabhu’s mercy and was able to write his very beautiful scripture, Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata.

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READ OTHER PARTS:

1) This Is Not a Playground
2) Wrong Worries
3) Pure Identity
4) Worshipful Devotion
5) Meaning of Discipleship
6) Free Mercy, Exclusive Rights
7) Path of Devotion
8) Krishna Conscious Life
9) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (1)
10) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (2)
11) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (3)
12) Sri Nityananda Prabhu's Glory (4)
13) Clean Mood