19940405 Gaura Mandala Bhumi Parikrama Śrīnivasa Acarya's Birth Place

The following is a talk given by His Holiness Jayapatākā Swami on April 5^th 1994. The talk occurred during the Gaura-maṇḍala-bhūmi Parikramā and occurred at the location of Śrīnivāsa Ācārya’s birthplace.

Jayapatākā Swami: Here we are at the birthplace of… Śrīnivāsa Ācārya ki!

[Devotees: Jaya!]

Śrīla Srīnivāsa-Ācārya is one of our previous Ācāryas. The present sevaite of this temple is Rādhā-Govinda dāsa Bābājī, excuse me. He is welcoming everyone. The Bhakti-Ratnākara explains how Śrīnivāsa Ācārya came to the world, that Gaṅgādāsa Bhaṭṭācārya and his wife Lakṣmīpriyā Devī, they were living here and one-time Lakṣmīpriyā told the husband that she had a dream and she felt that it was the desire of the Lord that they should have a child. That time they were already a bit advanced in age, and the husband was thinking, why at this age?

“I know you are thinking that this is some material thing, but, I'm feeling this is inspired by Lord Kṛṣṇa that we should have a child.”

But the husband wouldn't believe it, so they made an agreement that, “Alright, we'll go to see Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and if he tells us to have a child then we'll have one.” Otherwise, they were not interested at that age. So then, they went together down to Jagannātha Purī, and when they reached Jagannātha Purī the day they reached that time just as they were on the main road before the Jagannātha temple, Lord Caitanya came out of the temple with His associates. So, immediately, Gaṅgādāsa Bhaṭṭācārya and his wife Lakṣmīpriyā, they paid their obeisance’s to Lord Caitanya Gaṅgādāsa flat daṇḍavata on the ground. When Lord Caitanya went by with Svarūpa Dāmodara and so many other big sannyāsīs and devotees. So, when He stopped and looked at them and turned to a secretary and said, "These are My devotees, see that they can come to see Me, and that they get the darśana of Jagannātha and jagannātha-prasādam and they get settled.” And then they went on. So, the devotees were amazed because ... Lord Caitanya, He recognized some unknown gṛhastha, lying there flat on the ground. So, this was a major recognition, to get so much mercy from Lord Caitanya. So immediately all the devotees wanted to know, who are you? And they came and embraced him and ... associates of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. So, then he got very nice accommodation, nice place to see nice darśana of Jagannātha. And then, they went to have darśana of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, to ask Him whether they should have a child. When Govinda dāsa brought them in to see Lord Caitanya, at that time, and that time, and Lord Caitanya, before they could say anything, He said that, "You should have a child. He will be a great devotee of Mine. Give him the name ‘Śrīnivāsa’.”

Hariiiibol! (Devotees: "Haribol!")

So, He instructed them to go back to the village and to have a child. So, they stayed sometime with some association and then they went back. And so, in this way, Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya was born, especially sent to preach the movement of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. We'll be visiting several places of Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya in this Gaura-Maṇḍala Parikramā. Of those that followed after Jīva-Gosvāmī, especially here in Bengal, especially after the departure of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and his immediate associates, Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya became the senior-most person for protecting the sampradāya. And, other than any other immediate personalities that were associates of Lord Caitanya, or directly the sons of Lord Caitanya's associates like Bircandra, Acyutānanda. But at one period, the entire responsibility was on Śrīnivāsa Ācārya. He was entrusted with many important services. He was entrusted with bringing all the books of the gosvāmīs back to Bengal, and we will see the place where the books were stolen and recovered later at the end of the tour, in Visnupur. So here, Śrīnivāsa, he remained until maybe ten, or eleven, or twelve years of age; his father passed away, and then he moved over to Jajigram, where we'll also be visiting in two days. And that's where he lived when he returned back from Vṛndāvana. He went to Vṛndāvana and he was ... you know, there's the story how Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya, he wanted to go to meet Caitanya Mahāprabhu, when he's completed studying all the śāstras and he was in his, say, late teens, or just a young man, then he was very eager to go see Caitanya  Mahāprabhu. So then, he went to Jagannātha Purī, but when he reached there, Caitanya Mahāprabhu had already, the day before, entered into the Jagannātha Purī temple and did not come out. So, Śrīnivāsa, when he heard that, when he arrived there, people told ... were ... overheard them commenting how, “There’s a big festival going on."

"What's the festival?”

“You don't know? Lord Caitanya has gone back to Godhead.”

And he couldn't believe it. He fainted, he was pounding his head on the trees, his whole life he was waiting to see Caitanya Mahāprabhu, and he arrived the day after He had left the world. But Lord Caitanya appeared to him in a vision and said, "You cannot take your life, your life belongs to Me. You go to Gadādhara-Prabhu, and he will teach you Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. So, then he went to see Gadādhara-Prabhu, but Gadādhara-Prabhu was overwhelmed with separation, he wasn't seeing anyone. But somehow when he heard Śrīnivāsa was there, he said, “Alright, he can come and see me.” Śrīnivāsa fell at his feet and begged him for blessings and to teach him the Bhāgavatam. He needed a bonafide guru. Gadādhara said, "I can teach you the Bhāgavatam, but my Bhāgavatam is ruined because we've been reading it and we cannot help but cry when we read the beautiful pastimes of the Lord, so the Bhāgavatam pages have become washed out." And you can see that tears had fallen on the hand-written palm parchments and had wiped out most of the letters. They said, "You have to go and get a new Bhāgavatam." But that didn't mean you go down to the corner store and buy a book; it meant he had to go to Navadvīpa by walking, he had to hire some brāhmaṇas who spent several months by hand writing the eighteen thousand verses of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Then he can come back to Gadādhara with his hand-written Bhāgavatam for studying. So, he did that. By the time he came back to Jagannātha Purī, some considerable time had passed. When he finally reached Jagannātha Purī, then there was also a big festival going on to Toṭa-Gopīnātha temple. He asked, “What happened?”

“Well, Gadādhara Prabhu has just gone back to the world the day before.” Then again, he couldn't believe, he was just overwhelmed, crying and rolling in the ground and, “No, no!” He was so eager, so desperate to find a bonafide spiritual master to teach him the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. Gadādhara Prabhu came in a vision and told him to go back to Navadvīpa. There he could find Advaita, Nityānanda. So, he'd been in Navadvīpa, but he'd gone back to Jagannātha Purī. Now again he went back to Navadvīpa, walking, six-hundred kilometers. When he reached Navadvīpa, people were commenting how it wasn't the same without Nitāi, without Advaita, since they left the world. All at that time their associates were leaving. Again, he fainted on the ground and he was dazed, stumbling around like a madman. Then, Vaṁśīdāsa, or Vaṁśīvadana, who he went to his one of his  he went somewhere ... connected with him. This Hāḍāi Paṇḍita, his Deity of Prāṇavallabha was worshiped by Vaṁśīvadana. At Baghnapara. So then he requested, “You please come, the Ṭhākurāṇī wants to see you.” Viṣṇupriyā wanted to see Śrīnivāsa, cause Śrīnivāsa was brought in to see Viṣṇupriyā. She was not seeing anyone. She was just taking, since the disappearance of Lord Caitanya, she was following a special vrata, where on the full moon, she would take fifteen grains of rice, and the next day she'd take fourteen, then thirteen, down to the ... dark moon, she'd fast the whole day, then take one grain of rice. So, she was very very thin. She was just chanting and just overwhelmed in separation of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. But she called in Śrīnivāsa, who paid his obeisance’s flat on the ground, and although she was physically emaciated, he could see that she was unlimitedly effulgent, and that she was so beautiful, although she was keeping it hidden. She spoke to Śrīnivāsa that, “I'm not seeing anyone now, but last night Gaurāṅga came in my dream, he sat down next to me, he held my hand, he told me, ‘My dear, there is a very very dear devotee of mine, who is suffering a lot, trying to find a bonafide guru, trying to get someone to teach him the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam. He will come here to Navadvīpa, his name is Śrīnivāsa. You please give him your blessings and you tell him to go to Vṛndāvana, where he can find Rūpa and Sanātana.’ And then Lord Gaurāṅga disappeared. So therefore, I am telling you this, you're very dear to my Lord." So, this way she gave blessings to Śrīnivāsa, and Śrīnivāsa took some association from the devotees in Navadvīpa and proceeded to Vṛndāvana. When he reached Vṛndāvana, he took bath—I believe at the Akrūra Ghāṭa—and he overheard some people walking by, talking to each other. “Vṛndāvana is not the same without Rūpa and Sanātana.” He jumped out of the water and said, "What?? Where's Rūpa, where's Sanātana gosvāmīs?"

"You don't know? They just left. Three days ago, two days ago. The festival is going on now at the Rādhā-Govinda Temple.” So, he ran to the Rādhā-Govinda Temple. There was a big festival going on for the disappearance of Rūpa and Sanātana, and he was… he just collapsed at the back of the temple. One Vaishnava was calling him, “Śrīnivāsa? Are you Śrīnivāsa? I am Jīva, you please come with me.” He took Śrīnivāsa to his house, “I know you have been going through difficult time. I am Jīva Gosvāmī. Lord Caitanya came in a dream to me last night and told me that you should take initiation from Gopāla-Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī and I should give you instruction about the science of Kṛṣṇa consciousness.” So, in this way, Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya accepted Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī as his dīkṣā-guru and Jīva Gosvāmī was his śikṣā-guru. There are many pastimes of Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya in Vṛndāvana. He got the special mercy of Rādhārāṇī. Finally, he was ordered by the Deities of Govinda, “Take all the books back to Bengal.” That's another pastime we'll discuss when we get to Visnupur. Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya, as I said, we'll be going to many of these places, so I'll discuss other pastimes when we get to the other places. But here, this is the place he appeared in the world. It's not frequently visited by people. They've probably never seen, never in the history of this village have so many foreigners ever been here, I mean, foreign bodies. Your atmās may not be foreign. He said sometimes they come from Katwa, Navadvīpa, you know. Foreign places. Then I said ... no no this is the first time. Who has come from China? Who has come from Poland? Russia? (asks devotees which countries they are from) Israel? America? Vṛndāvana? What others we got? Czechoslovakia? Whatever I don’t know. Croatia? New Zealand? Malaysia? Then what else we have got here? Venezuela? Argentina? Peru? Columbia? Canada? Germany? Chile? (Speaks in Bengali) Ecuador? Other lands I didn't mention? Sweden? Cuba? Very close friend with India. (Speaks in Bengali).

They all want to get the mercy of Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya (devotees respond "Haribol") And, when Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya was born, you know they had to cut the umbilical cord? The umbilical cords samādhi is put here. This small, little temple. So, the samādhi of his umbilical cord. The Deities, the pūjārī says that the Gaurāṅga was personally served by Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya, but the Nitāi was added later. Yes, Any questions?

Devotee: Why Lord Caitanya’s hands are up?

Jayapatākā Swami: He's saying, “Chant Hare Kṛṣṇa!”

Devotees: Jaya!

Everyone should chant Hare Kṛṣṇa. Usually when the hands are up it means dancing. When the hands are like this *extended out*, it means accepting all the fallen souls. This also, up and down, is another form of dancing. [Break] ... the day of Māgha is a big festival here. And the appearance day of Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya in the month of. Māgha is January, Karthik is November. These are apart from all the Janmāṣṭamī, the other festivals, the big festivals here are like that.

Hare Kṛṣṇa, Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare
Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare Hare

(*Spoken in Bengali*: You all are fortunate to be living in a holy place. A great saint had appeared here. If we chant Hare Kṛṣṇa here, the benefits are multiplied. Caitanyadeva ordered everybody to chant the mahā-mantra – “kali kālera dharma nāma-saṅkīrtana”. That’s why many devotees have come here from different parts of the world. They are preaching the holy name in their countries. The Hare Krsna movement is continually expanding worldwide. No other dharma expands this fast. Lot of dharmas from ancient times are now fading away. But Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s saṅkīrtana movement keeps expanding rapidly, all around the world.

If all of you—staying in Mahāprabhu’s own land, in the land of His associate—if you chant the holy names ecstatically, then we can get a lot of devotees here to take your association and sing the Lord’s glories.)

*some more conversation in Bengali about Nāmahaṭṭa*

(On the umbilical cord) The part that falls off when you are born, that is kept, this little piece.

(On separation: Never saw a commentary like that. Sometimes Lord Kṛṣṇa, He enjoys putting His devotees in separation. Of course, in the end He gives them the mercy. That's also mercy. Specific reason why, I didn't see mentioned.)

They're very old Deities, from as long as anyone can remember, they are here. They're assumed to be. At the same time, may have been worshiped by him, but there's nothing recorded specifically like there's for the Caitanya Mahāprabhu Deities, but they're very old Deities.

No, no, no, Śrīvāsa-Ācārya. There are Śrīvās Paṇḍita and Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya, are two different people.

śrī kṛṣṇa caitanya prabhu nityānanda
śrī advaita gadādhara śrīvāsādi gaura bhakta vṛnda

Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, of the Pañca-tattva, is born in Śrīhaṭṭa and he was living in Navadvīpa, in Kumārahaṭṭa. There's the Pañca-tattva. And this is ... much, he appeared before Lord Caitanya. And Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya appeared after Lord Caitanya, at the very end of Lord Caitanya’s pastimes. Similar name. They're distinguished—one is called Śrīnivāsa Ācārya, and the other is called Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita. So, don't get them confused. Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita, is Nārada Muni, and Śrīnivāsa Ācārya ... [Break] to offer a little sweet was then against the devotees who liked to get their mahā-prasāda with Deities ... Someone could sing a bhajana while I do some more research on Śrīnivāsa Ācārya? [Break]

Lord Caitanya, we read yesterday how he worked through people, as āveśa or ‘empowered’. So the point that’s repeated was how Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya preaching, promoting the Vaiṣṇava-Dharma, that Lord Caitanya was working through him. And, he wrote only five short works. But he spent most of his time traveling, and preaching, and he also promoted the use of padāvalī or special līlā-kīrtana, glorifying the pastimes of Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa and Lord Caitanya, which Narottama Dāsa Ṭḥākura had perfected. So, like this they were intertwined. He was in charge of the first Gaura-Pūrṇimā festival at Kheturī Grāma. Narottama Dāsa Ṭḥākura requested him to organize the festival and see that everyone came, so he took that responsibility. So, if we get the mercy of Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya, then we can get pure bhakti, then we can also preach the saṅkīrtana movement. He was a pure goṣṭyānandī, expanding the message of Caitanya Mahāprabhu.

Śrīnivāsa-Ācārya ki

Devotees: Jaya!