At Sri Mamgachi (1)

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day Four
Ritudwip, 27 March 2021, part 6
Translated from Bengali

Please sit down. Today is the last day of our Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama, and this is our last stop.

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 Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay
Rupanuga-guru-varga ki jay
Namacharya Haridas Thakur ki jay
Vrinda Devi, Tulasi Devi, Sri Bhakti Devi ki jay
Sri Shyama Kunda, Radha Kunda, Sri Giri Govardhan ki jay
Sri Mayapur Dham, Sri Nabadwip Dham, Sri Vrindavan, Mathura ki jay
Sri Purusottam Ksetra ki jay
Baladev, Subhadra, Jagannathjiu ki jay
Akar Math-raj Sri Chaitanya Math ki jay
Mayapur Yogapith ki jay
Bhakta-prabara Prahlad Maharaj ki jay
Suddha-bhaktir-vighna-vinasankari Bhagavan Nrisinghadev ki jay
Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math ki jay
Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur Prabhupad ki jay
Om Vishnupad Bhagavan Srila Bhakti Vilas Tirtha Goswami Maharaj ki jay
Srila Bhakti Prajnan Yati Maharaj ki jay
All the assembled sannyasi-vrinda ki jay
All the assembled devotees ki jay
All the worldwide devotees ki jay
Harinam sankirtan ki jay
Nitai Gaura premanande Hari bol

Devotee: Jay Om Vishnupad Paramahamsa Jagad-Guru Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj ki jay. Gaura premanande Hari bol

Passing Sri Jahnudwip on our way, we have now come to the birthplace of Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur in Sri Modadrumdwip. Every year, we complete our parikrama here. We will take prasad after the class and then return to our temple by buses. We did not stop in Jahan Nagar on our way because it is very hot and the road goes through the forest—devotees would struggle to sit there. I will speak about Jahnudwip here. We have also passed Sri Murari Gupta temple, where Murari Gupta's samadhi mandir, bhajan kutir and the worshippable Deities are—we offered our obeisances there but did not sit there because the place is very small. Finally, I will also speak about the place where we have come, which is the birthplace of Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur. Srivas Pandit's father-in-law (Malini Devi's father) lived in this house, and he arranged the marriage of his niece, Narayani Devi, at this house. So, this is the house of Narayani Devi's in-laws. Her husband's name is not written anywhere, but we know her son's name—he was a great personality who preached about Mahaprabhu and Nitai in this world. By the mercy of her son, Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur, we have got Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata. Later, Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur lived and worshipped the Lord in a city called Dhenur—when Nityananda Prabhu was going to Puri, He kept him there, saying, "You are not able to follow brahmacharya because you like to keep things for the future, which is not a brahmachari's quality. Therefore, stay here and get married."

The meaning of this order is that Nityananda Prabhu kept him in Dhenur for preaching—He ordered Srila Vrindavan Das Thakur to live a pure family life and preach. Not everybody can become brahmacharis and sannyasis—if you can worship the Lord (practise Krishna consciousness) and serve your Guru living as a pure householder (sat-grihastha), then it is good, there is no problem with that. The main thing is that it is necessary to take shelter of a bona fide guru and practise Krishna consciousness. Because not everybody is able to live as a brahmachari or a sannyasi, some can live as householders.

So, continuing our Sri Nabadwip Dham parikrama, we have crossed Sri Rtudwip and have now come to Sri Jahnudwip (this area is known as Jahan Nagar). There is no temple in this island, but we usually stop and sit there in the middle of the forest in Sri Jahnudwip for some time to speak about the glory of this island (because it is very hot, this time we came quickly here).

The enchanting forest of Jahnudwip is Bhadravan of Vrindavan Dham. In ancient days, a great sage Jahnu lived here and practised austerities for a long time, as a result of which he attained the darsan of Gauranga Mahaprabhu.

When we went to Ganganagar (Mayapur), we spoke about Ganga Devi, about how Bhagirath Maharaj took Ganga Devi to the ocean to rescue his ancestors, but Ganga Devi stopped in Ganganagar, saying she wanted to perform austerities for one month until Phalguni Purnima, when Mahaprabhu appears in this world. One evening, when Jahnu Muni was sitting here, a pot that he used for the worship of the Lord fell into the swift current of the Bhagirathi Ganga and was carried away. Seeing this, Jahnu Muni became very angry and drank all water of the Ganges! (Can you imagine this? In the pastimes of the Lord, everything can be possible. For great sages, it is a small matter to drink all Ganges! But when we drink one glass of water, we have to go to the bathroom two times [His Divine Grace chuckles].) In the meantime, Bhagirath Maharaj noticed that the Ganges was nowhere to be seen. He searched and searched for the Ganges and eventually understood what had happened. He came to Jahnu Muni and explained to him everything very humbly, but Jahnu Muni did not say anything. Then, Bhagirath Maharaj stayed here and started worshipping and meditating on the sage to attain his mercy. Many days later, taking pity on the king, Jahnu Muni split his thigh and let Ganga Devi come out of it. This is how Ganga Devi got her name Jahnavi ('born of Jahnu').

Long after that, in Dvapar-yuga, Ganga Devi's son Bhismadev came here to meet with his mother. Seeing her dear son, Jahnavi Devi showed much affection to him and took Bhismadev to the house of her father. Bhismadev lived in the asram of Jahnu Muni for a long time and studied dharma from the sage (later, he taught these same teachings to Yudhisthir Maharaj). By staying at this Sri Jahnudwip within Nabadwip Dham and by receiving the treasure of devotion, Bhismadev became a great Vaisnav.

This is the glory of this island of Jahnudwip, which is non-different from Sri Bhadravan.

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