20230104 Pañca-krosa Parikramā

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: So, I am very glad you are all doing this Pañca-krośa parikramā again. We know that in Navadvīpa dhāma if you perform parikramā, you get more benefit than performing aśvamedha-yajña at every step. Now, I think you must have heard the glories of Lord Jagannātha just now. Here also the Deity of Lord Caitanya and Sīmantinī are there. Somewhere here is a line which separates Sīmantadvīpa and Antardvīpa. Because the Śrīdhara Aṅgana which is just a few hundred meters in Antardvīpa. This is Sīmantadvīpa, that means therefore there is a line somewhere here. Anyway, principally the Pañca-krośa idea is that we should be circumambulating around the Antardvīpa. Technically, I think that Rādhā Mādhava are in Rudradvīpa and Pañca-tattva are in Antardvīpa. And Lord Narasiṁhadeva is on the line between the two islands. Anyway, you are going around the Antardvīpa and getting a lot of mercy.

It is here you can see that Lord Jagannātha, and this Jagannātha is very merciful! Now, here used to be the old Lord Jagannātha temple. And we saw that Lord Jagannātha, He was in the temple and we went to the temple and He was gone! Where is Lord Jagannātha? Where is Jagannātha? Where is Baladeva? Where is Subhadrā? Then we saw that They were walking through the boundary of the land, on the field. They said, we are going to accept bhoga with Rādhā Mādhava. Because the original land of Lord Jagannātha had 21 or 23 shareholders. And of the 23 only 2 or 3 are left. So I had told the pūjārī that we are just about to get the last three people to sign and don’t start the pūjā until we get their sign as well. But here he had already started the pūjā, and he did not tell me. Then, he stopped it. Lord Jagannātha thought that oh, they started feeding us by bringing a tiffin from the Rādhā Mādhava temple but now they have stopped it. I said, once we start, we don’t stop. He was afraid that he had started without permission and so he stopped, but that was the wrong decision. Anyway, it is just that these Deities, in Bengali called ‘jāgruta’ very active. You could hear many, many, many pastimes of these Deities.

I don’t know what he told you, I will just tell you one where I had a personal experience.

One time a pūjārī came and by accident he put salt in the caraṇāmṛta. And he was returning to the Rādhā Mādhava temple by bicycle. And one mad man was lying on the road. As he went by the mad man jumped up and threw him off his bicycle. The pūjārī was lying down on the ground and thought, I must have committed some offence to Lord Jagannātha. Then he came and after going through many things he understood that he had put salt in the caraṇāmṛta. These Deities are very nice and will reciprocate, but if you make a mistake then They will also reciprocate! Any way you are going to many holy places on the way, and you are circumambulating Antardvīpa. And if we want to remember Lord Caitanya, this is a good chance to intensely remember Him. I will let others speak, just that this is a very sacred sacrifice you are doing.