19940224 Śrī Nityānanda Trayodaśī Lecture

The following is a class given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami Mahārāja on February 24^th, 1994 in Śrī Māyāpur dhāma, India. The class was given on the auspicious appearance day of Lord Nityānanda.

[…] To be a perfect example for his son; he have to, according to his high standard of morality, he have to fulfil his agreement and give Nityānanda to sannyāsī devotee. So great tears pouring out of his eyes, with torrents of tears he gave Nityānanda to the sannyāsī, and the sannyāsī walked off and Nityānanda went with him. Hāḍāi Ojhā was standing, following and standing at the edge of the village until they were out of sight and then he collapsed. He left his body out of separation for Nityānanda.

Many years later after Nityānanda left the world, Jāhnavā devī was on a pilgrimage to Vṛndāvana, enroute she went to Ekacakra. There in Bhakti Ratnākara, it explains how she met one elderly man walking down road with his cane, leaned over and he was… they just saw tears in his eyes, he was chanting something, he was speaking something to himself, as they got close they heard he was saying, “Nityānanda! Nityānanda! Nityānanda! Nityānanda!”

They said, “What is this!” “Sir why you are chanting Nityānanda?”

“Why not? What else one can think about He was the life and soul of this village. He was everything. You don’t know Nityānanda?”

He was telling so much of the childhood pastimes of Nityānanda, “How everyone love Nityānanda, how everything was, indeed was giving everyone transcendental joy. Then Hāḍāi Ojhā gave Him to that sannyāsī… why did he do that? Any one of us could have given our children instead of Nityānanda. Nityānanda was dear to us than any of our children. But he gave Nityānanda, the whole village became lifeless, no long had any purpose for living, and the children all wanted to leave, soon people migrated to Navadvīpa and different places. Oh Nityānanda! Nityānanda! When will we see Nityānanda again?” He went on… Whole life he spent meditating on Lord Nityānanda’s childhood pastimes.

Nityānanda Prabhu after the age of twelve went wondering through out India to all the holy places, throughout south India with that sannyāsī; purifying all the sacred rivers, who were waiting for His association. Just like Balarāma had gone out for pilgrimage, also Nityānanda went on the pilgrimage. Then finally, He reached Vṛndāvana. There all the vraja-vāsīs, the cows, deer,  they were coming and licking His body, welcoming Lord Balarāma back again to Vṛndāvana. Then He had a vision that, “Now Kṛṣṇa has come as Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu and He has started His saṅkīrtana-yajña, now it is the time for Me to go to Navadvīpa. The Lord is waiting for Me.”

Then He quickly went to Navadvīpa, and He was in the house of Nandana Ācārya, right next to our temple the next temple is said to be the house of Nandana Ācārya. Lord Caitanya announced to all of His devotees that, “My eternal associate, My counterpart, My brother is here, in Navadvīpa today. Go out and find Him! Bring Him here.” So all the devotees went looking door-to-door everywhere looking for Nityānanda. Finally, it was getting very late at night, still they were knocking on peoples’ house doors, “Hello…! Is a…” “What do you want, it is so late, what’s wrong with you?” “We are looking for Nityānanda!” “What let us sleep, there is no Nityānanda here!” “What’s wrong with these devotees associating with Mahāprabhu? They don’t people take rest.” Finally, they all came back empty handed to Caitanya Mahāprabhu after searching everywhere they could think of in the city. They said, “We could not find Him!” Then Lord Caitanya said, “Of course, you cannot find Him! You cannot find God by looking for Him. He has to reveal Himself to you. He has not revealed Himself. Only by devotion can one realize the Lord, when He desires to reveal Himself. But I can find Him. I will go out tomorrow. I will find Him! He cannot hide from Me.”

Of course, in the next day, Lord Caitanya took the kīrtana party, He went all over Navadvīpa town. Finally, as they were approaching near the house of Nandana Ācārya, Lord Nityānanda could hear the sound of the kīrtana. “Ching, ching, ching! Ching ching ching!” Karatālas and mṛdaṅgas “Bamm, bamm, bamm!” He jumped up hearing the kīrtana and suddenly Lord Caitanya turned in to the courtyard of the house and there was Lord Caitanya in a saṅkīrtana party and there was Nityānanda. Then when Lord Caitanya, when He saw Nityānanda opened His arms, “Nityānanda!” What did He say? “Nityānanda!” Then Nityānanda put out Him arms, “Gaurāṅga!” “Nityānanda!” “Gaurāṅga!” “Nityānanda!” “Gaurāṅga!” They ran to each other, embraced and tears were pouring from Their eyes and all the devotees were chanting “Nitāi Gaura Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!” Louder than that. [laughter] So loud that all the devas, they came to see this reunion of Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, and they were showing flower petals from the sky on this great reunion of the two Supreme Personalities of Godhead. The Original Personality and His direct expansion, who have come to this earth planet as devotees to give out love of Kṛṣṇa unto all the conditioned souls. Then They together went throughout the entire town of Navadvīpa. And people were saying, “Wait a minute! Before there was one Gaurāṅga! Now who is there with Him? Looking very similar.” “Yes! What is this?” Everyone was making comment, “He looks like a deva or something, I never seem someone so beautiful.” And all people were gathering out to see for the first time Nitāi Gaurāṅga dancing together in the town of Navadvīpa, Māyāpur dhāma.

So, of course, after that all the pastimes here in Navadvīpa were with Nitāi and Gaura together. So many pastimes in the house of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura, Lord Nityānanda’s childish pastimes, when He goes into bālya-bhāva. Then sometime… One time, Lord Caitanya… Mother Śacī woke up and she was crying and she just called Nimāi. “Nimāi, what is that I am having some kind of dream, I don’t understand, can You tell me what is it mean? In my dream I was offering food to my Deities of Kṛṣṇa Balarāma. When I went to bring the offering… there Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma, in front of Them, there were two little baby forms of You and Nityānanda! And Nityānanda was speaking to the Deities that, “This offering is not meant for You. You are Dvāpara-yuga and this is Kali-yuga, this is for Caitanya Mahāprabhu, this is for Gaurāṅga! This is not for You.” Then my dream broke, I don’t know, I couldn’t understand what is it mean?”

“Oh Mother! It must mean Nityānanda is hungry. We should invite Lord Nityānanda for lunch today. And you Deities are very active or some pastimes, who can understand all these things. So I am going to go out and invite Lord Nityānanda for lunch, you prepare the lunch. I see that He come.”

She was so happy to be able to cook for Gaura-Nitāi. She forgot everything and went into the kitchen and began to prepare. So Lord Caitanya was looking for Nitāi, finally, He found Him swimming across the Ganges to the other side. He was playing with children, getting them to chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. And He called Him, “Nityānanda!” Nityānanda swam back, “Hey! Look, You have to come and take lunch with Me today! Mother Śacī is preparing a feast.” He said, “Alright!” “You come along, but listen no funny business!” “Me! I don’t do funny business! You are the one who does the funny business. You always joking around.” “No!” Like this the two brothers, They were having Their friendly discussions. Lets see who does the funny business. Then they went to the house of mother Śacī, she offered the bhoga to Kṛṣṇa Balarāma Deities and then set out the plates for Lord Gaurāṅga and Nityānanda and in her ecstasy, she put out the third plate. No one knows why? [inaudible] ecstatic. She was losing track of certain things, so she put out three, although there were only two of Them. Then she went in and she cooked so many byañjana, so many vegetables, so many different preparations. She came in and brought somethings and she went back to get others. When she came back, instead of seeing Gaurāṅga and Nityānanda, she saw her Deities Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma sitting there taking the prasāda, taking the offering. When she saw, she said, “What! Oh…” She just fainted. They are too much! After the dream, now no more Gaura-Nitāi, now Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma. Lord Gaurāṅga jumped up, “Mother! Mother! What is wrong?” She woke up and looked, now it is Gaurāṅga and Nityānanda. She just started crying ran into her room and closed the door, wouldn’t talk with anyone rest of the day. Looks like Lord Caitanya didn’t listen to Nityānanda about doing of with other way, funny business. So like this they were having so many pastimes.

One day, of course, Lord Caitanya asked Nityānanda, “What are we going to do Your Vyāsa-pūjā tomorrow? Where are we going to do Vyāsa-pūjā?” And He said, “Here in Śrīvāsa’s house we can do.” On the day before they had a big adhivāsa, the big kīrtana. Lord Caitanya said, “Don’t let the outside people come to this, have [only] devotees.” They did a big kīrtana in the house of Śrīvāsa. And they were dancing and dancing and sometimes Lord Nityānanda was trying to get a dust from Lord Caitanya, sometimes Gaurāṅga was trying to get from Nityānanda. And They were, neither to get from other, They were so expert in avoiding other… sometimes They were rolling in the ground in ecstasy, sometime they were embracing each other. There was a very ecstatic kīrtana going on for a long time. Then all of the items for the pūjā were gathered there for worship. Then Lord Caitanya went and took rest. Then Lord Nityānanda, that night He broke, His brahmacārī daṇḍa, smashed His kamaṇḍalu and threw it out. Nobody knows exactly why. In the Caitanya-Bhāgavata, it gives several options, how one is prematurely think that they are qualified to discuss rasika subjects is a great offense. Therefore, to show that He broke the daṇḍa. Some people, they thought this is just to show that He is above varṇāśrama, He is Lord Himself. Like that there are different ideas they are trying to commentaries are there by different ācāryas. Why did He break? The next morning, Rāma Paṇḍita, brother of Śrīvāsa saw the broken kamaṇḍalu and daṇḍa. He showed to Śrīvāsa, he showed to Gaurāṅga. Gaurāṅga very affectionately, He took the daṇḍa and He went, with His own hands He threw it in to the Ganges. They went back and He set through the Vyāsa-pūjā. So Śrīvāsa, he went and offered a garland to Nityānanda, He took it in His hands and He offered it to the source of Vyāsadeva. To the source of all the incarnations Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Then Lord Caitanya showed the ṣaḍ-bhuja form, which also included the daṇḍa, kamaṇḍalu, the flute and also it had Nityānanda’s hala, muṣala – that plough, paraphernalia of Nityānanda. When Nityānanda saw that, He fell-down in ecstasy. Actually, night before what happened, Lord Caitanya went into the Balarāma ecstasy and He started to imitate Balarāma saying, “Give me Varuṇī! Give me honey!” And the devotees don’t know what to do, they ran, someone ran with the whole pot of Ganges water and gave then He was giving out the honey to everyone. Then after the pastime He went to Nityānanda’s and said, “Please don’t take any offense.” Lord Caitanya is the origin of all avatāras, so Balarāma is in also. So He also manifested Balarāma-līlā for the pleasure of Nityānanda. But this day when Nityānanda saw the ṣaḍ-bhuja with the form of Balarāma included, He fainted immediately. He went deeply in samādhi, then nobody could revive him and the devotees became very worried and Lord Caitanya started the kīrtana, then Nityānanda came back to consciousness. Like that He had so many pastimes that day. So showing that the guru is worship on behalf of Vyāsadeva, we offer to Vyāsadeva, ultimately the worship is all meant for Kṛṣṇa. Anyway, at the end Lord Caitanya said, “Well, today is the Vyāsa-pūjā is completed…”

Anyway, today is Lord Nityānanda’s appearance day. So we are taking the opportunity to worship Lord Nityānanda on His appearance day. Also for different devotees to offer their respect to Lord Nityānanda. There are so many devotees have felt the mercy of Nityānanda in various ways. Therefore, at the end of this program Nityānanda will take, Gaurāṅga will bath here, and different devotees can make their offerings of respect and philosophy to Lord Nityānanda. We will do the other ceremonies from here. Of course, we can go on, but my time is up, I think. There are so many other speakers.

So Nityānanda was here and He went to with Mahāprabhu to Katwa, came back. And brought Śacīmātā to meet Lord Caitanya in Śāntipur. Then He went to with Lord Caitanya to Jagannātha Purī broke His daṇḍa. Then He was sent back to Bengal, preached here. Like that so many pastimes. So this way we can remember Nityānanda’s transcendental mercy, how He delivered Jagāi and Mādhāi, how he delivered the conditioned souls. Lord Caitanya said, everyone can have kṛṣṇa-prema by the mercy of Nityānanda. Of course, those who commit Vaiṣṇava-aparādha, there is a big obstacle. So somehow, we have to avoid Vaiṣṇava-aparādha, get the lotus foot dust from Nityānanda Prabhu, Gaurāṅga Mahāprabhu and then in this lifetime you can get kṛṣṇa-prema by Their mercy. By the mercy of guru and Gaurāṅga. Nitāi Gaura Premānande… Hari Haribol!