SRI PURI DHAM MAHATMYA-MUKTA-MALA

(22) Ganga Mata Goswamini

If you go to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya’s house, you can see that there are Deities installed there. Who served those Deities? Ganga Mata Goswamini. Her previous name is Sachi Devi (this is not Mahaprabhu’s mother; this is another Sachi Devi). Later, she came here and became a famous guru – she spoke good Hari-katha, and many people would come here to listen to her. She also received special mercy of Lord Jagannath.

Born in Rajshahi (present day East Pakistan), Sachi Devi was a princess. When she grew up, her parents wanted to arrange her marriage, but although she was incredibly beautiful, she said, ‘I have already given my heart to the holy feet of Lord Sri Krishna. I do not want to marry any mad man who will only enjoy and use me! I do not want all this.’ She kept begging her parents not to arrange her marriage, and in the end she succeeded. Her parents let her be. Some time later, when Sachi Devi’s parents left this world, she immediately set off on a pilgrimage.

Reaching Vrindavan, she came to a guru and asked, ‘My Lord, can you give me initiation?’

‘You are such a beautiful girl, an unmarried princess – will you be able to follow all the rules and regulations?’

‘Yes, I will.’

‘First, then, stay here and practise all the rules and regulations. I will see in one year. If you are able to live by begging, then I will give you initiation.’

So, Sachi Devi stayed in Vrindavan and started practising very strict renunciation. She ate only every other day (she ate one day and fasted another day). As the result, all her covetable beauty had dried up.

A year later, she came to the same guru and asked him, ‘Prabhu, can you give me initiation?’

Her appearance had changed so much that the guru did not even recognise her at first. He agreed to give her initiation at once and after giving her initiation sent her to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya’s house. When she came there, she started worshipping a salagram-sila and collecting madhukari alms. She spent the rest of her time reading Srimad Bhagavatam. Her lectures were so good that even the king of Odisha would come to listen to her Hari-katha.

So, how did she get her name Ganga Mata Goswamini?

The residents of Puri would often travel to the Ganges to bath in the holy river. However, Sachi Devi was content to do her service, so she did not want to go anywhere to earn piety. One night, Lord Jagannath Himself came to her in a dream and said, ‘Sachi, if you ever want to go the Ganges to bath in the holy water, there is a pond called Svetaganga in front of the house – if you bath in it, you will get the result of bathing in the Ganges.’

Then she suddenly woke up. She did as Lord Jagannath had told her – she quietly went to Svetaganga in the middle of the night and immersed herself into its water. Suddenly, a very strong current came over her, sweeping her away. Then, she found herself right in the middle of Lord Jagannath’s temple, and all around her there were people bathing in the Ganges. There was a lot of noise because all the people were bathing and chanting prayers.

It was deep night. Before that, when the temple was closed, the guards carefully locked the gate. There are many huge locks on Lord Jagannath’s temple: some are forty, fifty and sixty kilograms, there is even a lock that weighs one hundred kilograms! The guards put all the locks on, and one of the guards stayed outside the temple to keep guard at night. Suddenly, in the dead of the night, he heard some loud sounds of water inside the temple. The guard was astonished. He ran to the pujari and urged him, ‘Oh, please come to the temple! Open the temple! There is somebody inside! There is so much noise coming from inside!’

When they opened the temple, they did not see anybody bathing in the Ganges – they only saw a girl standing in the middle of the temple. Everybody rushed to attack her, ‘Look at this! She has come to steal the Lord’s golden ornaments! Arrest her!’

They arrested the girl and went back to their houses to sleep. The king was also sleeping at this time. Lord Jagannath came to the king in a dream and said, ‘O King, wake up! On your order, My devotee Sachi Mata was put in prison! You have made an offence at her feet. You must come and ask her forgiveness. Go to her and bring her back on the back of a ceremonial elephant! If you cannot bring her back with full honour, then starting from tomorrow you must not cook anything – I will not eat anything.’

The king got scared. He thought, ‘What is this?! What have I just seen in a dream?!’ Then he quickly went to Ganga Mata Goswamini and asked her forgiveness. He seated her on the back of an elephant and returned her to her house with full pomp (with drums beating, etc.). After that, Lord Jagannath was offered bhoga. From that time, Sri Sachi Devi’s name became Sri Ganga Mata Goswamini. She was such a great guru that even the king himself came to her and took initiation from her.

From this pastime, you can understand what is called the glory of devotion.

Sri Svetaganga Sarovar.

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