SRI PURI DHAM MAHATMYA-MUKTA-MALA

(35) Sri Gadadhar Pandit:
Mahaprabhu's Shadow

From his childhood, Sri Gadadhar Pandit stayed near Mahaprabhu. His father’s name is Madhav Misra, and his mother’s name is Ratnavali Devi. They lived close to Sri Jagannath Misra’s house in Mayapur, and Ratnavali Devi treated Sachi Devi as her elder sister.

During His childhood pastimes, Sri Gaura-hari always played with Gadadhar Pandit, and although Gadadhar Pandit was a few years younger than Mahaprabhu, they studied together at the local school. Mahaprabhu could not stay without Gadadhar, and Gadadhar also could not stay even a moment without Mahaprabhu.

One day, Sri Ishvar Puri came to Mayapur. During his visit, he taught Gadadhar a scripture called Krishna-lilamrita – hearing this holy scripture from Sri Ishvar Puri’s holy mouth, Gadadhar was extremely captivated. From his childhood, Gadadhar Pandit was placid, peaceful, reserved and renounced. When Gaura-hari was small, He would display a very naughty mood and sometimes asked Gadadhar hard questions, trying to trick him with logic. Gadadhar Pandit did not particularly like it, so sometimes he would try to keep away from Nimai (sometimes, seeing Nimai walking down the street, he would turn around and go in the opposite direction to avoid Him), but Sri Gaurasundar did not let him go.

Once, Gadadhar Pandit came to Mahaprabhu and said, ‘Prabhu, give me initiation.’ Mahaprabhu replied, ‘Your guru is coming; wait for him, he will give you initiation.’ After a while, Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi came to Nabadwip from Chattagram (Mahaprabhu always called him ‘Father’). One day, Mukunda Datta came to Gadadhar Pandit and asked him, ‘Prabhu, would you like to meet a Vaishnav?’ Gadadhar Pandit answered, ‘Yes, of course! Let us go!’ When they came to the house of Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi, Gadadhar Pandit lost the enthusiastic faith he had had before coming. He saw that Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi was a householder devotee: dressed in a costly dhoti and a fine kurta, he sprawled leisurely on his opulent bed and was chewing pan. Gadadhar Pandit had come to see a sadhu, but it turned out that the ‘sadhu’ looked just like a gross materialist. Thinking in this way, he actually made an offence. He wondered, ‘Who is this man? Why does he behave like a gross materialist if he is a Vaishnav?’ Mukunda Datta understood what had gone through Gadadhar Pandit’s mind, so he recited a verse from Srimad Bhagavatam (3.2.23) describing Krishna's pastimes:

aho baki yam stanakalakutam
jighamsayapayayad apy asadhvi
lebhe gatim dhatry-uchitam tato ‘nyam
kam va dayalum saranam vrajema

‘Oh! Even though wicked Putana nursed Krishna with her poison-smeared breasts, intending to kill Him, Krishna granted her a position befitting His mother! Of what merciful Lord shall we take shelter other than Him?’

(Srimad Bhagavatam, 3.2.23)

Hearing Mukunda sing about Krishna’s pastimes in a very sweet voice, Sri Pundarik Vidyanidhi immediately started crying, ‘Krishna! Krishna!’ – tears flowed from his eyes and he fell unconscious. Seeing this, Gadadhar Pandit thought, ‘I have mistaken this great Vaishnav for a materialist! I have made an offence! Unless I take the mantra from him, I will not become free – this offence will not go away.’

Why did Mahaprabhu call Pundarik Vidyanidhi ‘Father’? There is a reason behind it. In Dvapara-yuga, this Pundarik Vidyanidhi was Raja Vrishabhanu, Srimati Radharani’s father. And who is Gadadhar Pandit? He is the incarnation of Srimati Radharani. So, when Gadadhar Pandit told Mahaprabhu what had happened, Mahaprabhu approved of it, ‘Yes, to remove your offence, you must take initiation from him. He is your guru!’

When Mukunda Datta intimated Sri Gadadhar Pandit’s peculiar identity to Pundarik Vidyanidhi, Pundarik Vidyanidhi was very happy:

suniya sasilen pundarika vidyanidhi
“amare ta’ maharatna milaila vidhi
karaimu ihate sandeha kichhu nai
bahu janma-bhagye se e-mata sisya pai

“Hearing it, Pundarik Vidyanidhi smiled and said, ‘I have got hold of a precious jewel. There is no doubt that I have got such a disciple by many lifetimes of good fortune.”

(Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, 2.7.117-118)

‘It is my great fortune to accept him as a disciple! So, it is not I who has bestowed mercy on him; rather, by getting a disciple like him, I think it is he who has bestowed his mercy on me!’ Then, Gadadhar Pandit came in front of Pundarik Vidyanidhi and offered his obeisance to him, and Pundarik Vidyanidhi gave him the mantra. After Gadadhar Pandit returned home, he manifested a new life: he became inundated with transcendental love for Lord Krishna and floated continuously, day and night, immersed in it.

Gadadhar Pandit and Mahaprabhu performed their Nadia pastimes together, and when Mahaprabhu showed the pastime of accepting sannyas, Gadadhar Pandit accepted ksetra-sannyas (the vow of a renounced person to stay in one place the whole life) on the order of Mahaprabhu and settled in Nilachal (Sri Puri Dham) – he lived there like Mahaprabhu’s shadow.

Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj composed the pranam-mantra about Gadadhar Pandit:

nilambhodhi-tate sada sva-virahaksepanvitam bandhavam
srimad-bhagavati katha madiraya sanjivayan bhati yah
srimad-bhagavatam sada sva-nayanasrupayanaih pujayan
gosvami-pravaro gadadhara-vibhur bhuyat mad eka gatih

‘On the shore of the ocean in Nilachal, Sri Gadadhar Pandit would read Srimad Bhagavatam to his Friend (Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu), who suffered from deep pain of separation from Himself (Krishna). Sri Gadadhar Pandit would supply the wine of Krishna-lila to intoxicate his afflicted Friend and thus give Him some relief. As he read, tears always fell from his eyes like flower offerings onto the pages of Srimad Bhagavatam. May this great personality, Sri Gadadhar Pandit, the best of the goswamis, always remain my only shelter.’

When Gadadhar Pandit took ksetra-sannyas on the order of Mahaprabhu, he started serving the Deity of Sri Tota Gopinath. ‘Tota’ means ‘garden’ in the Oriya language.

One day, Mahaprabhu came to Gadadhar Pandit.

‘Gadadhar, I will give you today a great gift!’ He said.

‘Give, Prabhu, give!’ Gadadhar Pandit got excited.

Then Mahaprabhu took him to a garden. When they came there, Mahaprabhu began to dig the sand and suddenly found a beautiful Deity there. Then, He said, ‘Here is your gift!’

From that day, Gadadhar Pandit served that Deity of Sri Tota Gopinath.

One time, Gadadhar Pandit thought, ‘Mahaprabhu always goes out to different places for preaching, and I never get to go with Him. I always stay here and do puja…’ Desiring to go with Mahaprabhu, he felt sad. So, one day, when Mahaprabhu was going away, Gadadhar Pandit started walking behind Him. Mahaprabhu turned round and, seeing Gadadhar Pandit, said, ‘Where are you going?’

‘I am coming with You!’ Gadadhar Pandit said.

‘Do you have no service? Who gave you permission? Do you think you will go with Me and eat nice things staying at different people’s houses?’

Then, Gadadhar Pandit decided to be clever, ‘No, no, actually I am not going with You at all. I am going to see Ai (Mother Sachi Devi)!’

‘Listen, you have your service. You cannot go away from here leaving your service. Serve Gopinath!’

What did Gadadhar Pandit say then? He said openly, ‘If I serve You, then millions of services to Gopinath are accomplished through that! Actually, millions of services to Gopinath cannot compare to the darshan of Your holy feet.’

‘Quiet! Be quiet! Not another word!’ Mahaprabhu replied.

He did not take him along… When He got on the boat, Gadadhar Pandit fainted. Such was his love.

Srila Gadadhar Pandit never left Sri Puri Dham. He served Gopinath every day, and when he became old, he prayed to Gopinath, ‘Prabhu, I have become very old now, I cannot do Your service any more! I cannot dress You, I cannot put a garland on You. I cannot do anything properly. Prabhu, please give me relief from this service.’ Then, hearing the humble prayer of His beloved servitor, the Lord sat down to accept His devotee’s service! This is ‘loving search for the lost servant.’ Next day, when Gadadhar Pandit came to the temple offer the mangal-arati, what did he see? He saw Gopinath sitting down to take Gadadhar Pandit’s service.

There are different stories told about how Mahaprabhu disappeared. Some say that He went to the temple of Jagannath and merged into the temple, and some say that He entered the temple of Tota Gopinath and never came out again – that He had merged into Gopinath through Gopinath’s thigh. Even now you can see also that there is a blood mark on Gopinath’s thigh. There are two versions, and both are correct.

Gadadhar Pandit cooked spinach called abona sak almost every day, and he would invite Mahaprabhu to take prasadam. Mahaprabhu loved coming to him and taking prasadam prepared by him. One day, Gadadhar Pandit thought, ‘What if I cook sak today and not invite Him? Will He come or not? How much does He think about me? How much does He love me? I want to see it.’ So, that day he cooked abona sak and invited Nityananda Prabhu and the devotees – and everybody came – but he did not invite Mahaprabhu thinking, ‘Will He come Himself or not?’ Suddenly, Mahaprabhu came and said, ‘What is it, gosai? You are cooking such nice things and not inviting Me? Are You trying to cheat Me? Do not cheat Me!’ Then, Gadadhar Pandit was very pleased. He told Mahaprabhu to sit down and gave Him prasadam.

Jay Sri Tota Gopinath ki jay.
Jay Sri Gadadhar Pandit Goswami Prabhu ki jay.

Devotees entering the courtyard of Sri Tota Gopinath's Temple.

His Divine Grace seated in front of Sri Tota Gopinath, speaking Hari-katha.

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