20250210 Nityānanda Prabhu Appearance Day Address

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-gurun dina tāriṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
hariḥ oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: So today is Nitāicāṅda’s appearance day. We understand that Lord Caitanya is the original Person and His first expansion is svayam-prakāsa, is Lord Nityānanda. One devotee left Kṛṣṇa consciousness, and he came back and Śrīla Prabhupāda forgave him. And then some devotee asked, “Why did you forgive him?” He said, “Lord Nityānanda’s mercy is unlimited!!” Lord Caitanya talked with Lord Nityānanda in Jagannātha Purī. He was explaining that Lord Nityānanda should go to Bengal and start where they left off. So, Lord Nityānanda said He needed some people. Lord Caitanya gave about 45 devotees.

Actually, I was thinking how Lord Caitanya descended from the spiritual world, and He came with Nitāi, Advaita Gosāñī and so many devotees! I mean, Kṛṣṇa, He comes in different avatāras. Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityānanda are mercy avatāras. How much mercy They can give!! It is unlimited! And I mean, Mādhāi hit Nitāi, he caused blood to come. Then Lord Caitanya appeared there and called for the Sudarśana cakra. Lord Nityānanda said, “In Kali-yuga there will be so many like this. If We don’t give them love of Kṛṣṇa, then Our mission is not fulfilled.” Jagāi told his brother, “Bow down! He is not an ordinary person! He talks about love, He is bleeding, He is still talking about love! Bow down, bow down!” So then Jagāi and Mādhāi bowed down. And Lord Caitanya said, “Okay, I will forgive you if you bathe in the Ganges and promise not to do any more nonsense – which they did.” Later Mādhāi came to Nitāi Prabhu and he said, “I offended You, I caused You to bleed. Please forgive me!” And Lord Nityānanda said, “You are like My child. If the child kicks the mother, she doesn’t care. So, I don’t accept your offence.” But he said, “I offended so many Navadvīpa dhāma-vāsīs. I feel really bad! So what can I do?” So, Lord Nityānanda said, “You can dig in the hottest months of the year, and build Mādhāi-ghāṭa.” So there was Mādhāi, with gāmchā, he was sweating like anything, building the Mādhāi-ghāṭa. The government has agreed to build us the Prabhupāda ghāṭa, which costs about 15 crore rupees, about two million dollars. But in two years they cannot finish it. Mādhāi in one month, working hard, he finished it! So, Lord Nityānanda’s idea was those people who use Mādhāi-ghāṭa to bathe in the Ganges, by using it they would absolve Mādhāi of his offences.

Then Lord Nityānanda, He came back from Jagannātha Purī and He stopped at Pānihāṭi. So, Rāghava Paṇḍita asked him, “How many devotees are You?” So Nitāi said, “About 50.” “You take a bath in the Ganges and come and take lunch,” Rāghava Paṇḍita told Him. So how many cooks can make a feast for 50 people in less than an hour? Rāghava Paṇḍita and his sister Damayantī, were very expert cooks! So, every year Rāghava Paṇḍita would send bags of prasāda to Lord Nityānanda and he was cooking for Lord Nityānanda. So they came back and took prasāda. They started a kīrtana. When Lord Nityānanda dances, Lord Caitanya wants to be there and see it. Lord Caitanya, He came and was there amongst the devotees, but no one could see Him. But they could smell He was wearing a south Indian garland. So it was informed by Lord Nityānanda and they started sniffing. Ha! Ha! Ho Ho! Ha Ha Ha! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! It was a kind of love gas! And as it came to the people, they fell on the ground and started to roll in ecstasy!

So Lord Nityānanda, He went to Ādi-saptagrāma, and then He went back to Navadvīpa. Then He saw Śacīmātā. Śacīmātā requested Him, “please stay some time in Māyāpur. That would be very pleasing to me.”

So, there was one brahmacārī who had his house, I think he was a brahmacārī. And Lord Nityānanda was wearing jeweled rings and diamond earrings, pearl necklace, silver ankle-bells, all kinds of decorations. So one brāhmaṇa, he was fallen he was the leader of a gang of armed robbers, and He always associated with criminals. He called his band up. He said, “Mother Caṇḍī has blessed us with all the wealth in Lord Nityānanda. We don’t have to search everywhere, we just have to take from Lord Nityānanda!” Then they went armed with swords, shields and tridents. So he sent a spy to see what was happening. And the spy came back and said, “Lord Nityānanda is taking His rice.” Crude people! So he said, “bhāth kācche!” We say anna-prasāda pācche! But the uncultured people say other things. So, the gang leader, he said let us rest under the tree and sooner or later they will get tired and lay down. Under the tree they were discussing, “I want the pearl necklace, I want the diamond rings,” everyone was aiming for different parts of the wealth from Lord Nityānanda. And by Lord Nityānanda’s potency they all fell asleep. Snore…. Even the crows came in the morning, they did not wake up. They were deep in sleep. One woke up, “Hey, you are all sleeping!” “What were you doing?” the others asked! So, then it was already daylight, they hid all their arms, and they went home. Next day they came and got their weapons, but there were all soldiers around the house. They looked like extraterrestrials, they were very strong! One guy could take on hundred dacoits, so they were very afraid. So they speculated but no one knew why the soldiers were there. They said, “We will go home and after a week, the soldiers will be gone.” After a week they came again and this time, the clouds in the sky were completely dark. And there was some ditch with refuse, and some fell into it. It started to rain hailstorms and some of the dacoits broke their bones, and then the leader he realized that Lord Nitāi is not an ordinary person. So many difficulties were coming up for them, He must be a very special person! So he went in and fell down and offered his obeisances. I surrender to You, he said to Lord Nityānanda! The other devotees said, “He is a thief, he must be lying because thieves can lie.” So Lord Nitāi he told him, “Explain yourself.” He said, “I, with my dacoit gang, we wanted to harm You! We wanted to steal Your jewels. I should go in the Ganges and take my life! But we understood You are not an ordinary person. So first I wanted to beg forgiveness.” Nitāi said, “You don’t have to take your life. You could help Me spread Kṛṣṇa consciousness. Bring your other armed robbers here and have them surrender.” Śrīla Prabhupāda said, Nitāi’s mercy is unlimited!! How the whole gang of armed robbers came and surrendered to Lord Nityānanda! So, most devotees do not know about this. Nitaicāṅda, He was so merciful!

Anyway, I wanted to speak a little bit about Lord Nitāi. My blessings to everyone! Kṛṣne matir astu!