Meeting Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
1 January 2011

When Mahaprabhu said He wanted to continue His journey alone, Nityananda Prabhu thought, "If we go first and Mahaprabhu goes behind, then we will not be able to see where He goes." So, Mahaprabhu walked first, but He went so fast that they had to run behind Him, and soon they could not see where He had gone. The Atharnala bridge is about 4.5 km away from the Jagannath temple, and the devotees thought that Mahaprabhu could have gone to see Jagannath.

In the meantime, Mahaprabhu reached the Jagannath temple. Chanting "Jagannath, Jagannath," He entered the Garba mandir. There is something like a barrier inside the temple, and the security, the pandas, quickly stopped Mahaprabhu near it. Mahaprabhu fell on the floor, and, not being able to see Jagannath, He kept crying, "Ja-ja ga-ga, ja-ja ga-ga," and foam came from His mouth.

Everybody was surprised and wondered who He was. They called Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, who was the leader of the temple. Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya said it did not matter who the Person was and, seeing that Mahaprabhu was no ordinary man, asked the pandas to take Mahaprabhu to his house. Several men lifted Mahaprabhu and took Him to the house of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. Mahaprabhu was senseless.

Soon afterwards, Mukunda, Nityananda Prabhu and the rest of the devotees who had been walking behind Mahaprabhu and were now looking for Him everywhere, found out where Mahaprabhu was and went to the house of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. Nityananda Prabhu knew what had happened and told the devotees to chant the Holy Name loudly. Mahaprabhu came back to His senses and sat up, looking around in surprise.

After a while, Acharya Gopinath, a relative of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, came home and asked Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, "Do you not know who this Person is?"

"Well, I heard He is a sannyasi..."

"He is Jagannath Mishra's son and the grandson of Nilambar Chakravarti! He took sannyas from Keshav Bharati and His name is Sri Krishna Chaitanya. He is the Lord Himself!"

"I do not think so and I cannot accept that He is the Lord."

"That is because you have no mercy."

"How do you know I have no mercy?"

"I have mercy and can understand who this Person is, and you have no mercy, that is why you cannot understand it."

Later on, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya asked Mahaprabhu,

"You are a new sannyasi, what have You studied? Have you read Vedanta?"

"No, I have never read Vedanta. My Gurudev told Me I had no qualification to read it. He said I was murka, foolish and ignorant. He told Me to only chant the Holy Name, and that is what I am doing."

"What? You must study some Vedanta!"

"I am crazy. I have just taken sannyas—you can protect My sannyas."

"All right, no problem. I am going to teach You Vedanta."

After seven days of teaching, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya asked Mahaprabhu,

"You have been listening to me for seven days already, but You are not asking me any questions... I do not know whether You understand or not what I am saying."

"Prabhu, when you read, I can understand everything very nicely, but when you give explanation, I cannot understand anything."

In the course of that conversation the meaning of the sloka "Atmaramas cha munayo" was discussed—Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya gave nine kinds of explanation, and Mahaprabhu gave eighteen more, without touching the first nine explanations. When Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya heard it, his eyes bulged and turned red. He was perplexed, "I have been teaching this boy for seven days, and He can give such explanations! Who is He? Who is this sannyasi?" He still could not believe Mahaprabhu was the Lord Himself; only after Mahaprabhu showed him His form (His Treta-yuga, Dvapar-yuga, and Satya-yuga forms) did he fully surrender and fall at His lotus feet. He lay motionless at His feet. Mahaprabhu cried, "Sarvabhauma, wake up, wake up!" When Sarvabhauma looked at Him, he saw that He was a sannyasi again. "What did I see just now? Who is He?" He was surprised. At that time Mahaprabhu gave him mercy, and he could understand who Mahaprabhu was.

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