T oday is the auspicious appearance day of Srila Gadadhara Pandita. At Mayapur, we had a special Bhagavatam class on the glories of Sri Gadadhara Pandita, followed by kirtans, Maha abhisheka at 11 am, Pushpanjali and Maha arti. After Sandhya Arti, there will be special kirtan in the temple. One of the members of Pancatattva, Sri Gadadhara Pandita represents Bhakta Sakti. Sri Kavi Karnapura states that in Vraja lila Gadadhara Pandit is the daughter of King Vrsabhanu–Srimati Radharani. Gadadhara Pandit served as Lord Gaura’s chief assistant during His Navadvipa-lila. Sri-Sri Radha Krishna in Vrindavana appear as Gaura-Gadadhara to perform pastimes in Navadvipa in the forest groves beside the Ganges.
Please visit here for today’s special darshan pictures: https://www.mayapur.com/2017/daily-darshan-apr-262017/
HH JAYAPATAKA SWAMI LECTURE ON CAITANYA LILA DAY2- 16 MARCH 2011 AT SRI DHAM MAYAPUR
“….I am studying poetry. Lord Caitanya said, oh you are reading poetry, let
us hear some poetry. Ha! Ha! Then Gadadhara composed some poetry and Nimai
Pandit said , well what are the characters of liberations? Or tell us something
about liberation. So he said, well you have to suffer first and then only you can
get liberation and he quoted some verse and Lord Caitanya He said that is not
real liberation and told him like you go should go back home study again and I
will see you tomorrow. And like this every day He was defeating him. He is the
Lord of Saraswati the goddess of learning, so naturally He would defeat everyone.
Later when He took initiation in Gaya, He came back and He was a devotee and
from that time this Gadadhara joined His sankirtan party and Pundarik
Vidhyanidhi was there. So Lord Caitanya, He would call out: Pundarik!
Pundarik! Pundarik! And devotees thought that well, He is just calling the name of
Lord Vishnu.
But actually He had such great love for His devotee who in Krishna
Lila is the father of Radharani, King Vrishabhanu and He took birth as Pundarik
Vidhyanidhi. So Mukunda Datta said to Gadadhara let us go and meet my friend
Pundarik? He is PURE DEVOTEE. Gadadhara said, Oh, let us go as he always
wanted to meet a pure devotee! So then they went and in Chittagong they speak a
special dialect of Bengali called ‘chitkaal kotha’ . Mukunda
Datta was speaking with Pundarik Vidhyanidhi and he was speaking in the
local dialect and they were laughing and talking and making small talk. Meanwhile
Gadadhara Pandit he saw that Pundarik was a very rich person and he had two
people were fanning him and two people were serving him – and on the wall he
had tapestries, he was sitting on a cushion with three pillows and a big
band playing and at that time he thought that Pundarik was very opulent. So he
thought, where have I come, this is a visaya – a sense gratifier – I thought
I was coming to the house of a pure devotee, but he is a sense gratifier. He
lives so opulently! Meanwhile Mukunda could understand that Gadhadara was
uneasy, so he began to chant a song about Putana witch, how Putana expressed
a little bit of motherly affection, too bad I have to kill You, and said I
would like to be your mother, but what to do, Kamsa asked me to kill you. So she
put poison on her breast and she was going to kill Krishna by giving her
poisoned breast in the mouth of Krishna. But because she had expressed some motherly
affection therefore she was already in Vaikuntha in the position as mother
of Krishna. So when Pundarik Vidhyanidhi heard this he became so much ecstatic
he started to rip his clothes and threw them and shouted: Krishna! Krishna!
Krishna! You are so merciful! Oh Krishna! I am so fallen and obviously he
had so much love for Krishna that he did not care for all the material things –
throwing the lamp and other things. So Gadhadara realized that I made a big
mistake – this devotee is really advanced! He loves Krishna so much and he
doesn’t care about these material things. Now I committed a Vaishnav
aparaadh, I should get forgiven. So how will I get forgiven? If I take him as a guru,
then the guru always forgives the disciple very easily, so I should take
Pundarik Vidhyanidhi as my guru and so he told this to Mukunda. And Mukunda
conveyed this to Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya approved and said, okay, it is
a very good idea! So he arranged a yajna and Pundarik Vidhyanidhi gave the
Ishta mantra to Gadhadara Pandit. So Vrishabhanu of Krishna Lila became the guru
of Gadadhara of Caitanya Lila! Hari bol! Hari bol! Hari bol!
Later Lord Caitanya had sent all the devotees off to preach. So Gadadhara
had gone close to Khatwa – I think the place is called Barackpore – I may be
wrong – but he went to this village and everybody there attended the program and
they all said we want initiation, we want to follow you. We are surrendered to
you.
So Lord Caitanya thought and told Gadadhara since they are all surrendering,
you should stay here and guide them. Gadadhara said but, but, I can’t leave
you! No, you have to stay here and guide them said Lord Caitanya. Gadhadara
said I don’t have any deities. Lord Caitanya around His neck he carried a
deity of Krishna … Lord Caitanya said I have this deity which is dearest to me,
I will give this to you. Then Gadhadara said I don’t have any book, how will I
teach them? Lord Caitanya gave him a manuscript of the Bhagavad Gita, it was
signed by Lord Caitanya, okay I will give you My Bhagavad Gita signed by
Lord Caitanya. The Bhakitvedanta Charity Trust we did some repairs of the temple
and the same deities and the same manuscripts are still there. And that was
quite a number of years. The whole village is following Vaishnava dharma. On
turns they cook the noon day meal for the deity where the deity comes in a
procession and in his house they have a triple altar, Lord Caitanya,
Pundarik Vidhyanidhi and this deity of Gadadhara, they put the deity there and the
husband will put the leaf and the food cooked by his wife and they will
offer prasad to the deity and the deity would eat and they would take the deity
home.
To this day, after 500 years they still follow this system. Hari bol!
So I have seen how Gadadhara was in the preaching mood , when Lord Caitanya
sent everyone out to preach, he went to Jagannath Puri and took a vow of
kshetra sanyas. So there he was worshipping the Gopinath deity which was so
beautiful that He looked like Krishna in Vrndavan and Lord Caitanya also
embraced Him and He was very, very beautiful. So one day when Nityananda
came from Bengal he brought some special rice paddy, a very fine rice, and
Gadadhara said, you brought this rice from the spiritual world??! Is to be given to
Gopinath? Please, you have to stay here and take prasad he told Nityananda.
Gadadhara cooked an offering for Gopinath – rice, some dal, cooked some
tender leaves of spinaches, and he cooked some tamarind leaves – now cooking
tamarind leaves is not very easy, you have to be very expert cook but he knew how to
cook it and he was cooking. Gadadhara embraced Nityananda and he had taken a
vow that anyone who criticizes Nityananda, he would not see his face, anyone
who did not like Nityananda, he would not associate with him. So he had so
much love for Nityananda. So the two were together and they were hugging each
other and crying glorifying Krishna and so this was a very rare moment. In the
middle somehow Lord Caitanya, He appeared. He said, both of you tell me now, why
did you not invite Me for the feast? Even if you don’t invite Me, I will
forcibly take prasad! You cannot deprive Me of this mercy! Divide the prasad into
three equal equal parts. I want to take prasad with you Nityananda and Gadadhara.
So the three, Lord Caitanya, Nityananda and Gadadhara took prasad after it was
offered to Gopinath. So this was a very special pastime. Lord Caitanya He
was praising Gadadhara – you are such an amazing cook, who can cook tamarind
leaves? Cooking tamarind leaves is very difficult but you are good at
cooking anything! I don’t know who you are but you are able to cook and what you
cook tastes like nectar! Because Gadadhara is Radharani who came as Gadadhara in
Caitanya Lila and so he was also an expert cook. So it is said that if you
hear this pastime that Lord Caitanya took prasad with Nityananda and Gadadhara,
how the Lord is so kind, so merciful, and hear how the three exchanged their
love of Krishna so much that certainly you will get very soon the lotus feet of
GAURANGA! GAURANGA! GAURANGA!
Later in the Caitanya Caritamrita, there is also the pastime where the Lord
Caitanya, He tries to go to Vrindavan and Gadadhara Prabhu he goes with him.
So Lord Caitanya told him, please, don’t leave Jagannath Puri , you have taken
a vow of Kshetra Sanyas and you will now be in Jagannath Puri. But Gadadhara
said, that seeing Your lotus feet, wherever You are is Jagannath Puri! I
will stay with You! Lord Caitanya said I will be responsible for this, I will be
the guilty one to let you break your vow and leave Nilachal Kshetra and also
leave the service of Gopinath. Gadadhara said, simply seeing Your lotus feet is
more than millions of worship of Gopinath, so I will stay with You! But if You
say You are responsible, I take all the guilt, I take all the responsibility on
myself, Gadadhara said. I will just take a little peak of you sometime, that
is all! So they crossed over the river. Then Lord Caitanya said, you are now we
are at the end of Nilachal Kshetra – go back! You go back, I wont take you!
You have to go back! You have to go back and you have to worship Gopinath
and you have to stay in Nilachal! But then Gadadhara fainted. So then Lord
Caitanya called and told Saarvabhauma Bhattacharya You take him back with
you. You take him to Jagannath Puri. So then Vaasudev Saarvabhauma he said, to
Gadadhara, these are Caitanya pastimes, Caitanya Lila, who can understand
His pastimes? Then Gadadhara he returned back with Saarvabhauma Bhattacharya.
One more pastime, Gadadhara he said to Lord Caitanya ever since I gave my
mantra to some devotee who was not qualified, my mind has been very
disturbed, so I want to get the mantra again. So please give me the mantra. Lord
Caitanya said, well listen your mantra guru is Pundarik, so are you sure you have not
committed some offence? While the mantra guru is present you should only get
the mantra from him, not from Me. Otherwise My spiritual life will be
affected and also yours. So I should not give you. Gadadhara asked, if You give me,
what is the problem? Lord Caitanya said, well, in another 10 days he will be here
as Pundarik wants to see Me and I think you are also like a magnet and you are
attracting him. So he is coming and you can get the mantra from him. Because
Lord Caitanya was antaryami, He is the Supersoul, He knows everything past,
present and future, He knows all the things. So He knew that Pundarik was
coming. So Pundarik came and then on Odana Shasthi, that is the first day
of winter he gave re-initiation to Gadadhara prabhu because he told his istha
mantra to someone who was not qualified. That means we should also be
careful not to give our mantras away to people who are not qualified. So Pundarik
gave the mantra again to Gadadhara Prabhu. I think in Caitanya Caritamrita it
says that those who hear these pastimes of Lord Caitanya they will very soon get
bhakti – Krishna bhakti. Hari bol!
When Gadadhara, when he was very old he thought I cannot worship Gopinath, I
have to have some disciple worship because I cannot lift up my arm, so at
that time next day Gopinath, He was sitting so like Gadadhara could give Him
bath. So a rare pose of Krishna sitting deity is there, the stone deity sat down
to let Gadadhara worship Him and now He is known as Tota Gopinath – the sitting
Gopinath. Jai! Before He was standing.
When Srinivas Acarya he came to see Lord Caitanya and Lord Caitanya had left
before, so he was mad and Lord Caitanya had told him you should see
Gadadhara and hear from him the Bhagavat. So regularly, Lord Caitanya would come and
hear the Bhagavatam from Gadadhara and Gadadhara would read hundreds of times
may be thousands, the pastimes of Prahlad and Dhruva Maharaj. Srinivas Acarya, he
went to see Gadadhara as at that time he was feeling great separation from Lord
Caitanya. But at that time Gadadhara was not seeing anyone but when he heard
the name Srinivas was outside, he said he would see him. Srinivas said he
would like to learn the Bhagavatam, I would like to learn the Bhagavatam from you.
Gadadhara said I am happy to teach you Bhagavatam but our Bhagavatam is now
washed out and is covered with tears and it is not visible any more. So he
saw the Bhagavatam the tears had washed off the words and the Bhagavatam was not
visible. So he said if you want me to teach you the Bhagavatam, you have to
get me a fresh copy. In those days copies were handcopied by scholars, brahmanas
who would hand write it. So Srinivas went back to Navadweep with the
Bhagavatam written as all the scholars were here and then came back to Jagannath Puri
and heard the Bhagavatam. With that we will end the story here! Hari bol!
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