SRI PURI DHAM MAHATMYA-MUKTA-MALA

(33) Gambhira – a Room Ablaze with Separation

What is the meaning of the word ‘Gambhira’? ‘Gambhira’ means a room within a room. This small room is where Mahaprabhu stayed. I remember one time when my Guru Maharaj was in Puri, he asked me, ‘Vinod, do you know how Mahaprabhu danced with His arms upraised in this tiny room?’ Mahaprabhu was very tall (7’6, or 2.32 m) – ajanulambita-bhuja, His arms reached His knees – and Gambhira is such a small room. So, how could He dance there? This is the question Guru Maharaj asked me. Whom will you tell these things and who will listen to these things? This is a very profound matter. When He danced with His arms upraised, the ceiling of the room expanded and became very high. When it comes to the Lord, everything is possible.

This is the room where Mahaprabhu lived and relished His separation pastimes (vipralambha-lila). ‘Vipralambha’ means separation (viraha).

ayi dina-dayardra natha he
mathura-natha kadavalokyase
hrdayam tvadaloka-kataram
dayita bhramyati kim karomyaham

‘O gentle-hearted Lord, ever-gracious upon the destitute, O Lord of Mathura, when shall I see You again? In Your absence my broken heart trembles. Beloved! what shall I do now?’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.4.197)

He lamented, ’You let Me see You once, but now You never show Yourself to Me again…’

Who was Mahaprabhu? One day in Dvapar-yuga, when Krishna was meditating in Imlitala, He saw His reflection in the Yamuna and thought, ‘Oh! I am so beautiful!’ Then, He decided, ‘I want to see why Radharani cries so much when She takes My Name. What kind of happiness does She feel when She serves Me? I want to know that kind of taste! I will assume Her mood and come in Kali-yuga!’

To fulfil this wish, He stole Sri Radha’s heart and halo and appeared in Kali-yuga in this world in Sri Nabadwip Dham, choosing Jagannath Misra and Sachi Mata as His parents. In this form of Golden Lord (Gaura-hari), He would go door to door, urging everybody, ‘O soul! Wake up! Wake up! How long are you going to sleep in the lap of this Witch Maya? Arise! You have lost your address! I have come to take you from here – come with Me and I will send you to your own home!’

Mahaprabhu relished His separation pastimes in Gambhira during twelve years. He started manifesting these pastimes when He was in Mayapur, Nabadwip. His mother, Sachi Mata, worried very much thinking, ‘Visvarup has gone, and now my other son, the only son I have left, has gone crazy! He is talking gibberish. What am I going to do now?’ She went to a doctor, and the doctor told her to apply some cooling oil on Nimai’s head. Sachi Mata did that.

In the meantime, Srivas Pandit came to their house and said, ‘Didi, what are you doing? No oil can remedy what has happened to Him! I, too, want to become crazy like Him! I also want what He has got, but my fortune is such that I have not got there yet.’

Hearing Srivas Pandit’s words, Mahaprabhu suddenly became grave. He caught his hand and said, ‘Srivas, if you too had said that I was mad, I would have jumped into the Ganges and taken My life! That fact that at least you understand it is My only hope.’

krsna-varnam tvisakrsnam sangopangastra-parsadam
yajnaih sankirtana-prayair yajanti hi su-medhasah

‘In the Age of Kali, very intelligent people engage in sankirtana-yajna (congregational chanting of the Holy Name) to worship the Supreme Lord who always chants the Name of Krishna, who possesses non-black (golden) lustre, and who is surrounded by His various associates and weapons.’

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.5.32)

sri-radhara bhave yini suvarna varana
sangopange navadvipe yanra sankirtana
kalite upasya sei krsna gaura-hari
navadha bhaktite tanre upasana kari

‘I worship with nine kinds of devotion Sri Krishna, who is worshipped in Kali-yuga as Sri Gaura-Hari, garbed into the divine mood and golden complexion of Sri Radha and performing sankirtan pastimes in Sri Nabadwip.’

(Sri Sri Nabadwip-sataka; Bengali translation by Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

Soon after that, Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip and came to Sri Puri Dham, where He lived and manifested His last pastimes. One day, Sri Jagadananda Pandit brought Him a letter from Sri Advaita Prabhu, where Sri Advaita Prabhu wrote:

‘baulake kahiha,—loka haila baula
baulake kahiha,—hate na vikaya chaula
baulake kahiha,—kaje nahika aula
baulake kahiha,—iha kahiyachhe baula’

‘Tell the Madman that people have gone mad. Tell the Madman that rice is not selling at the market anymore. Tell the Madman, who is mad with divine love, that there is no work left for the Madman in this world. Tell the Madman that this news is brought to Him by another madman. (In other words, the purpose for which the Lord had incarnated was fulfilled, and now the Lord may do as He pleases.)’

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 3.19.20–21)

Reading this poem, Mahaprabhu became very serious. Svarup Damodar asked, ‘Prabhu, what does this mean?’ And Mahaprabhu replied, ‘I do not know the real meaning, but Advaita is a great worshipper – he first invited the Deity to worship Him, and after some time, when his worship is over, he bid the Deity adieu. Perhaps, Advaita thinks that it is time for the Deity to go now.’

From that time, Mahaprabhu’s pastimes became extremely intense and secluded – He stopped all preaching and spent His last days in the blazing agony of separation.

vamsi varana mane na, katha ye sone na,
o mara kena mare na?
vamsira kono laja nai, divanisi dake tai,
ami yata dure yai, vamsi bale, ‘eso rai’,
keno ye samaya bojhe na

‘The Flute heeds no prohibition, it listens to no words. It is dead [a piece of wood], but why does it not die then? This Flute has no shame! It only keeps calling Me day and night. No matter how far I go, the Flute keeps calling, "Come, Rai." Why does it not understand it is not a good time now?’

In this consuming fire of separation in Radhika’s mood, Sri Gaura-hari became mad for Krishna. Vraja-gopis had said, ‘Krishna, You left us here in Vrindavan and went away! You will have to come to this world and cry as much as we did!’

These are the pastimes that happened here, in Gambhira.

His Divine Grace seated in front of Gambhira, speaking Hari-katha.

A glimpse into Mahaprabhu's Gambhira room.

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