20260305 Message to Spiritual Safari Devotees

Jayapatākā Swami: [Live started abruptly] So the Deity is there since the time of Lord Caitanya. So the pastime goes like that – Lord Caitanya was travelling with Govinda Ghoṣa, he was a brahmacārī. Govinda Ghoṣa, he was born across the river from Agradvīpa. And his brothers are Vāsu Ghoṣa and Mādhava Ghoṣa. So these three brothers are very famous in caitanya-līlā. Now, Lord Caitanya felt some indigestion, so he wanted some harītakī (myrobalan) from the previous village. So Govinda Ghoṣa, he went into that village and begged some harītakī and got that for Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya took it and His indigestion was cured. Then He went to Agradvīpa. Again He felt some indigestion. Then He asked Govinda Ghoṣa for some harītakī! Now Govinda Ghoṣa had some harītakī in his bag. So he took it out and gave it to Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya was curious – He said, “Yesterday you had to go to the village and had to beg some harītakī and gave it, but today you just gave it within a few seconds! So what is your secret?” “Well, I kept some harītakī from the previous village thinking that You might need it!” Lord Caitanya said, “This is a gṛhastha mentality – save for a rainy day! So you should become a gṛhastha.” He was shocked, because he was a brahmacārī! Suddenly his guru, Lord Caitanya told him, he should get married! But he accepted whatever Lord Caitanya said. So he got married, had a son, but then his wife got bitten by a snake and died. Later on, his son died also. Then he became very morose. His Deity service was disturbed. The Deity complained, “Why you are not offering the regular bhoga to Me?” He said, “Lord Caitanya thought I was not fit to be a brahmacārī, so He told me to get married and I got married. Then I had a son. Now my wife is gone, my son is gone. So who will do the tarpaṇa? Who will do the śrāddhā for me when I am gone? So now I am concerned!” The Deity said, “I am your son!” But then Govinda Ghoṣa said, “You are not that kind of son.” The Deity said, “Every day on your death anniversary I will go to your tomb and do śrāddhā and tarpaṇa.” So all the village leaders were brought and the Deity spoke to them. “I want to go to the tomb of Govinda Ghoṣa and offer him tarpaṇa, śrāddhā.” So that was written in the village manuals.

One year, I went there on the death anniversary of Govinda Ghoṣa and sure enough they brought the Deity, they carried Him to the tomb of Govinda Ghoṣa. The pūjārīs were very merciful on me! They brought me inside the tomb and they performed the śrāddhā ceremony, offering, slipping the rice cakes from the hands of the Deities to over the tomb of Govinda Ghoṣa. Meanwhile outside, it was unbelievable. Hundreds of thousands of people were fighting, violence! To see the Deities. Ladies on one side, they were bringing their heads to the window, other ladies grabbing their hair and pushing them away! On the other said men were going. I remember, Gaṅgā dāsa, I was inside and he was at the doorway, he knew what was going on. And he knows what was happening. He was trying to keep the people away and on his watch he had so many scratches. So it was wild! And they said maybe the Deity changed His color during this ceremony. This was a very amazing situation. So the Deity was talking to the village elders, 400 or 500 years ago. And still, they observe the ceremony every year. People setup booths, for little parties. Political parties, I mean everybody, we know that hundreds of thousands of people go there. I don’t know if you are going at that time. But it is just like after Gaura-Pūrṇimā. But you may be missing that. That is one place you can see the Gopīnātha Deity, right? So that is very wonderful! And the Deity used to be taken by boat I don’t know if they do that now to Krishnanagar. There they stay some time at the house of the Krishnanagar king, Kṛṣṇacandra. That is why it is called Krishnanagar.

So from there we went to Cākhandī. It is the place of the birth of Śrīnivāsa Ācārya. His father was later known as Caitanya dāsa. His name was Gaṅgādhara Bhaṭṭācārya. He was present at the sannyāsa ceremony of Lord Caitanya at Katwa. There Lord Caitanya told His sannyāsa guru to give Him the name Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya on Lord Caitanya’s order. So then Gaṅgādhara Bhaṭṭācārya, he was so enamored by that name, he kept chanting, “Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya! Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya, Caitanya! Caitanya! Caitanya!” So he became known as Caitanya dāsa because he kept chanting. “Caitanya!” Although he had no material desires, he felt a strong desire to have a son. He told that to his wife. His wife Lakṣmīpriyā said, “We should go and ask Lord Caitanya and see what He say.” So they went to Jagannātha Purī to see Lord Caitanya. And before they could say anything, the Lord Caitanya called them and said, “You want to have a son. Your son will be My special devotee! So go back and have a son and you have My full blessings.” So this way, Śrīla Prabhupāda was saying in his lecture in London in 1973 that all his gṛhastha devotees should have ācāryas as their children. Because we need a lot of ācāryas in ISKCON. So with this intention, it is quite bona fide for gṛhasthas to have children, with the desire to produce ācāryas. So this Caitanya dāsa and Lakṣmīpriyā they produced Śrīnivāsa Ācārya. Now I can tell many pastimes about Śrīnivāsa Ācārya. We have Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura in the Pañca-tattva and we have Śrīnivāsa Ācārya. So Śrīnivāsa Ācārya is a very great devotee and his glories are mentioned in the books of Lord Caitanya’s associates.

Tomorrow in the Safari you are going to visit these two places. Tomorrow night I will speak on your next day’s places. Meanwhile let us read from the Jaladhuta diary.