20201030 Nityānanda Prabhu Breaks the Sannyāsa Rod (Part 1)

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānandaṁ mādhavaṁ śrī caitanya iśvaram

Hariḥ oṁ tat sat!

Introduction: Today we are continuing with Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya Book compilation, todays chapter entitled is:

Nityānanda Prabhu Breaks the Sannyāsa Rod

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.116

sindhurā rāga–diśā

bhāi re gāo gāo
gaurāgosāñira guṇa śuni

Jayapatākā Swami: Oh my dear brother please sing, please sing and hear the glories of Lord Gaura Gosāñi.

aho aho aho gaurāṅga caraṇakamala kara icchā
jagate yateka dekha, āpanā kariyā lekha,

Jayapatākā Swami: O! O! Oh! Lord Gaurāṅga’s lotus feet desire to attain them O! O! O! O! Whatever you see, whatever you see in this material world is all false.

ho ho ho ho ho ho re bhāi re,
se punaḥ sakala kāla michā, bhāi re gāo gāo śuni

Jayapatākā Swami: O! O! O! O! O! O! O! O! my dear brothers, again I say please sing the glories of Lord Gaura and hear the glories of Lord Gaura.

eimane gorācānda cali yāya pathe
yekhāne ye debasthala dekhite dekhite

Jayapatākā Swami: In this way, Lord Gauracandra walked on the path and wherever He could see a temple, He would visit.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.117

rahi’ rahi yāya prabhu prati grāme grāme
narttana kariyā yāya debatāra sthāne

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya would going from village to village He would stop, and while He would dance, He would go to the temple.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.118

eka adabhuta kathā śuna tāra mājhe
ye karilā nityānanda abadhūta rāje

Jayapatākā Swami: One wonderful description, please hear what happened meantime, what Lord Nityānanda, the king of avadhūtas did? Lord Nityānanda He is being called avadhūta because He would do things unexpected, He was very spontaneous and He would do whatever He felt like and therefore he is called as the King of avadhūtas.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.5.10

Once the guru of the universe placed His daṇḍa in the avadhūta's hand and went ahead, while Nityānanda walked slowly behind.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.119

nityānanda kare daṇḍa diyā gaurahari
kichu āgāilā nityānanda pāchu kari’

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Gaurahari gave His sannyāsa-daṇḍa to Lord Nityānanda. Lord Gaurahari went ahead, and Lord Nityānanda followed somewhat behind.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.120

premāya bihbala prabhu yāya mahābege
āpanā pāśare kṛṣṇaprema anurāge

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya being overwhelmed with pure ecstatic love; He went ahead very quickly. Being spontaneously absorbed in pure love of Kṛṣṇa, He forgot Himself.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Antya-khaṇḍa 2.202

nityānandera nikaṭa prabhura dagubāhī jagadānandera daṇḍa rākhiyā bhikṣārthagamana—

nityānanda-svarūpe thuiyā eka-sthāne
calilā jagadānanda bhikṣā-anveṣaṇe

Jayapatākā Swami: Keeping Lord Nityānanda Prabhu at one place, Jagadānanda Paṇḍita went out to search for alms.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Antya-khaṇḍa 2.203

ṭhākurera daṇḍa śrī-jagadānanda vahe
daṇḍa thui nityānanda-svarūpere kahe

Jayapatākā Swami: Śrī Jagadānanda Paṇḍita generally carry Lord Caitanya’s daṇḍa. He handed that daṇḍa to Lord Nityānanda Svarūpa and said,

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Antya-khaṇḍa 2.204

“ṭhākurera daṇḍe mana dio sāvadhāne
bhikṣā kari' āmiha āsiba ei-kṣaṇe”

Jayapatākā Swami: “Lord Caitanya’s sannyāsa-daṇḍa should be carefully cared for. I will return here after begging alms.”

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Antya-khaṇḍa 2.205

daṇḍera prati nityānandera ukti—

āthe-vyathe nityānanda daṇḍa dhari' kare
vasilena sei sthāne vihvala-antare

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Nityānanda holding Lord Chaitanya's sannyāsa-daṇḍa he sat down with a heart overwhelmed with ecstasy.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.121

gadādhara-ādi yata gaṇa saṅge yāya
dekhi’ nityānanda āro dūre pāchu haya

Jayapatākā Swami: Gadadhara and other devotees were going with Lord Caitanya. They kept pace with Lord Caitanya. Seeing this, Lord Nityānanda, he lagged farther behind.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.5.11

Munificent Nityānanda, His mind fraught with anguish, thought, "Even in My presence, Prabhu carries a daṇḍa.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.122

guṇite guṇite prabhu yāya dhīre dhīre
mora bidyamāne prabhu daṇḍa dhare kare

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Nityananda while thinking and walking slowly, He thought: In my presence, the Lord Caitanya carries the sannyāsa-danḍa in His hand.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.5.12

"It is seen directly that He is the Supreme Lord, His presence is brilliant like fire, the abode of the goddess of fortune, and holds conch, disc, club and lotus. Therefore, enough of this stick!

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.5.13

"At present Śrī Hari displays the behaviour of an ordinary man, and therefore He holds the staff of a renunciant. In His previous avatāra, He played upon the muralī flute and His form enchanted the mind of all living beings.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.5.14

Thus He enjoyed pleasure pastimes with Śrī Rādhā. Lord Nityānanda prabhu he could not tolerate Lord Caitanya playing the part of an ordinary human being. He is carrying a daṇḍa which is a type of sacrifice that a renunciant does. Lord Nityānanda doesn’t think that this is appropriate for Lord Caitanya.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.123

se hena sundara bāṁśī trailokya-mohana
chār̤iyā dharila daṇḍa–sahiba kemana

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Nityānanda was thinking how can I tolerate when He was holding that beautiful flute which attracts and enchants the three world and now, he holds a daṇḍa so how can I tolerate this?

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.124

sannyāsa karila prabhu muṇḍāila māthā
janmābadhi rahila dāruṇa ei byathā

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Caitanya accepted sannyāsa and shaved off His hair that was there since the birth. This is great intolerable pain.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.125

cintite cintite duḥkha bār̤hila bistara
bhāṅgilena thuñā daṇḍa ūrura upara

Jayapatākā Swami: Thinking and thinking in this way, Lord Nityananda’s pain increased profusely. He broke the sannyāsa-danḍa on his thigh.

Caitanya Maṅgala, Madhya-khaṇḍa 15.126

bhagna daṇḍa tuliyā phelila lañā jale
prabhura tarāse pāchu dhīre dhīre cale

Jayapatākā Swami: Lifting the broken danḍa, He threw into the water. Afraid of Lord Gaurāṅga, Lord Nityānanda walked behind and slowly, slowly walked.

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 11.80

On the road, Gaurāṅga gave his daṇḍa to Nityānanda and went ahead, his heart overflowing with bliss. Following behind, Nityānanda, whose actions cause joy, began to think deeply. With great joy, he then broke the daṇḍa.

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 11.81

Approaching Nityānanda with some worry, the Lord said, “Tell me where my daṇḍa is.” Nityānanda answered, “By chance, I stumbled and fell on the ground. The daṇḍa broke.” The Lord became very angry.

Caitanya Carita Mahā Kāvya 11.81

Disturbed in mind, thinking deeply, Mahāprabhu continued travelling, while joyfully chanting the name of the Lord. Constantly looking at the devatās on the path, he went in joy to the fortunate, beautiful town of Yāja-nagarī.

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.5.14

At that moment, Nityānanda came alongside Śrī Gaura Hari, who seeing Him, said, "Now give back My daṇḍa."

Murāri Gupta Kaḍaca 3.5.15

The avadhūta fearfully replied, "By Providence, while walking my foot slipped upon the ground, and Your daṇḍa snapped and is broken."

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Nityananda he tried to cover up what had happened, so Lord Caitanya doesn’t get angry with Him but it doesn’t seem so simple.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Antya-khaṇḍa 2.206

daṇḍa hāte kari' hāse nityānanda-rāya
daṇḍera sahita kathā kahena līlāya

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Nityānanda holding the daṇḍa in His hand, laughed. In His pastime then, He spoke to the daṇḍa.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Antya-khaṇḍa 2.207

“ohe daṇḍa, āmi yāṅre vahiye hṛdaye
se tomāre vahibeka e'ta' yukta nahe”

Jayapatākā Swami: “O dear daṇḍa, the person whom I carry within My heart, it is not proper that He should carry you.”

Purport (by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura): From the time Śrī Gaurasundara accepted sannyāsa, He was keeping His daṇḍa with Him. But sometimes Jagadānanda Prabhu would carry Mahāprabhu's daṇḍa while going out to beg alms. Accepting the responsibility of carefully protecting Mahāprabhu's daṇḍa, Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu took the daṇḍa from Jagadānanda and said to the daṇḍa, “We always carry Śrī Kṛṣṇa, the Lord of the fourteen worlds, within our hearts. We are His eternal servants. You are committing an offense by making that Lord your carrier. Therefore, it is most appropriate for us to carry whatever symbols of accepting rules or renouncing restricted things that Śrī Kṛṣṇa in the form of a devotee has taken in His hand and on His shoulder. O daṇḍa, do not try to become the lord of My Lord. Do not engage Mahāprabhu in carrying you anymore.” The prākṛta-sahajiyā, so-called devotees engage Kṛṣṇa in supplying their sense gratification by demanding religiosity, economic development, sense gratification, and liberation from Him. This is not the mentality of devotees. Lord Nityānanda is instructing us that we should just want to serve the lord since the daṇḍa is accepting the service of Lord Caitanya, it’s not the proper mood, it’s not the proper role of daṇḍa of that he becoming the master of Lord Caitanya and Lord Caitanya carrying him just as Gauruda carriers Lord Kṛṣṇa so Lord Caitanya is carrying the daṇḍa. Lord Nityānanda cannot tolerate that.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Antya-khaṇḍa 2.208

nityānanda-kartṛka tina khaṇḍe mahāprabhura daṇḍabhaṅga—

eta bali' balarāma parama pracaṇḍa
phelilena daṇḍa bhāṅgi' kari' tina khaṇḍa

Jayapatākā Swami: Saying these words Lord Nityānanda who is non different from Balarāma, the supremely powerful broke the daṇḍa into three parts and threw it. We see since Lord Caitanya has accepted sannyāsa from Keśava Bharathi who had taken sannyāsa from saṅkarite school, so he had the ekadaṇḍa which is normally carried by the impersonalist. Lord Nityānanda broke it into three parts and turned it into a trīdaṇḍī.

Purport (by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura): […] Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu transformed Śrī Gaurasundara's ekadaṇḍa into tridaṇḍa to display the irrelevance of the Māyāvādī Apyaya Dīkṣita's future writing against devotional service in his books Nyāya-rakṣā-maṇi and Śivārka-maṇi-dīpikā. Śrī Baladeva Prabhu transformed the ekadaṇḍa of the sannyāsī-dressed Śrī Caitanyadeva into a tridaṇḍa to reveal that the impersonalists' acceptance of ekadaṇḍa, which is the symbol of Māyāvāda, and the current and former practices of accepting sannyāsa in the śuddha-dvaita (purified dualism) disciplic succession are not approved by the Madhva-Gauḍīya-sampradāya. This is fully approved by the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, and it is the conviction of the Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas. Without becoming a tridaṇḍī, no one can control himself. In the principle of tridaṇḍa found in karma-kāṇḍa, the indra-daṇḍa, vajra-daṇḍa, and brahma-daṇḍa are combined with the jīva-daṇḍa. In his explanation on tridaṇḍa, Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī Prabhu has revealed to the transcendental tridaṇḍīs the topics of controlling one's body, mind, and speech. When tridaṇḍa is combined with jīva-daṇḍa, then according to the external conception of tridaṇḍa, ekadaṇḍa becomes the principle of paramahaṁsa-dharma. But since in the principle of ekadaṇḍa, the transcendental state beyond the three modes of nature attributes faults in the process described in the Pañcarātras, ekadaṇḍa in the form of tridaṇḍa has been accepted in the process described in the Pañcarātras.

Jayapatākā Swami: So this is the system of sannyāsa that is accepted by the Brahma-Madhva-Gauḍīya-sampradāya following Śrī Rūpa and Sanātana Gosvāmīs.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Antya-khaṇḍa 2.209

daṇḍabhaṅga-līlā jībabuddhira agamya—

īśvarera icchā-mātra īśvara se jāne
kena bhāṅgilena daṇḍa, jāniba kemane

Jayapatākā Swami: Only the Supreme Lord can know the will of the Supreme Lord. Why Lord Nityānanda broke the daṇḍa, How will I know?

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Antya-khaṇḍa 2.210

nityānanda jñātā gauracandrera antara
nityānandere o jāne śrī-gaurasundara

Jayapatākā Swami: Lord Nityānanda knows the mind of Lord Gauracandra, and Lord Śrī Gaurasundara knows the mind of Lord Nityānanda.

Caitanya-Bhāgavata Antya-khaṇḍa 2.211

nityānandai ekamātra marmajña—

yuge yuge dui bhāi śrī-rāma-lakṣmaṇa
doṅhāra antara doṅhe jāne anukṣaṇa

Jayapatākā Swami: In every yuga, They appear as two brothers, such as Lord Śrī Rāma and Lord Lakṣmaṇa. They always know each other's mind. In the previous Dvāpara-yuga Lord Caitanya came as Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa and Balarāma were two brothers and in Caitanya-līlā it is Lord Caitanya and Lord Nitāi.