(1/1) At Sri Vidyanagar

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Sri Nabadwip Dham Parikrama, Day Three
19 March 2019, parikrama, part 4
Translated from Bengali

The place we have come is known as Saradapith (an abode of Saraswati Devi). All rishis and munis took shelter of avidya (ignorance) here. 'Avidya' means everything that is not transcendental knowledge (para-vidya), not devotional line. Vaisesik and yoga sastras, various Puranas and treatises were composed here. Dhanvantari came here and learned ayurveda; Visvamitra and others learned archery, and so on.

You all know the name of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya Vidyavachaspati. His house is in this area. After taking sannyas, Mahaprabhu went with a few devotees to Puri, but when Nityananda Prabhu broke His danda, He showed some anger and decided to go to Puri alone. When Mahaprabhu entered Jagannath Puri, He became overwhelmed with divine ecstasy. All the servants of Lord Jagannath wanted to beat Mahaprabhu (because He had stormed into the temple). He tried to say something but could not – He was overcome with ecstasy. At that time, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya was in charge of the temple, so he asked the servitors of Lord Jagannath to carry Mahaprabhu to his house.

Then, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya had a conversation with his brother-in-law, Gopinath Acharya.

'Sarvabhauma, do you not recognise Him?' Acharya Gopinath asked him. 'He is the Lord! The Lord Himself has come to your house! Can you not recognise Him? He is not an ordinary sannyasi.'

'I cannot see that He is the Lord,' Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya replied.

'That is because you have no mercy, that is why you cannot understand that this boy is the Lord.'

ঈশ্বরের কৃপা-লেশ হয় ত' যাহারে ।
সেই ত' ঈশ্বর-তত্ত্ব জানিবারে পারে ॥

isvarera krpa-lesa haya ta' yahare
sei ta' isvara-tattva janibare pare

'The Lord can be known only by those who have got at least a drop of His mercy.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.6.83)

Gopinath Acharya had told Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, 'He is the son of Jagannath Misra. His Name was Nimai Vishvambar, and after He took sannyas from Keshav Bharati, He became Sri Krishna Chaitanya. The Lord Himself has come to your house! But because you do not have mercy, you cannot understand it.'

In the meantime, Nityananda Prabhu with the devotees arrived in Puri. Mahaprabhu went first, and they could not keep up with Him, so they went behind, searching for Mahaprabhu everywhere. Nityananda Prabhu asked the servitors at the temple of Lord Jagannath if they had seen Mahaprabhu, and they told Him that, yes, a person like that had come and had been taken to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's house. Mahaprabhu was lying unconscious, but Nityananda Prabhu knew what to do in this situation, so He chanted the Holy Name, and Mahaprabhu came round.

When Mahaprabhu spoke to Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, He told him, 'Prabhu, I became crazy and took sannyas, but you can teach Me My duty.'

'Do You know Vedas and Vedanta?' Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya asked.

'No, I do not know anything. I only know some primary grammar.'

So, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya began teaching Vedanta to Him. He had been teaching Mahaprabhu for seven days. During this time, he explained the 'Atma-ramas cha munayo' sloka and many other things. After seven days, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya asked Mahaprabhu, 'You are only sitting quietly without asking any questions. I cannot understand whether You understand what I am saying or not.'

'Well, when you are reading,' Mahaprabhu replied, 'I can understand everything; but when you start giving explanation, I cannot understand anything.'

Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya was very surprised, 'What is going on?!' Then, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya explained the famous 'Atma ramas cha munayo' sloka in nine different ways, and Mahaprabhu gave other eighteen kinds of explanation, avoiding Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's mayavadi conception.

That pastime happened at the house of Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya.

It is also said that if your heart is polluted by the impersonal conception, you cannot attain the darshan of the Lord through that conception. If you can get the right to chant the Holy Name when the Lord manifests His pastimes in this Nabadwip Mandal in Kali-yuga and receive the darshan of His beautiful pastimes, the Lord will bestow upon you faith in His eternal Names, beauty, qualities, pastimes and associates.

Knowing that Sri Gaurasundar was going to appear in Sri Mayapur, the guru of demigods, Brihaspati, left his service to Indra (the King of Heaven) and appeared as Vasudev Sarvabhauma in Vidyanagar within Sri Gaura Mandal. He established a school, but, becoming overwhelmed with scholarly knowledge, he was deprived of service to Gaurasundar. To prove that Mahaprabhu was his Lord, he went to Puri before Mahaprabhu appeared in Nabadwip. He thought, 'If I can be a genuine servant of Gauranga, the Lord must certainly bestow His mercy on me – He will bring me to His holy lotus feet.' You have heard the rest of the story. In the end, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya became Mahaprabhu's devotee.

When Mahaprabhu was going to travel to South India, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya told Him, 'There is one rasa-bhakta (madhura-rasa bhakta) like You there. His name is Ramananda Ray. Meet with him on the bank of the Godavari.'

At first, Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya preached mayavada-bhasya, but after getting Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's association, He became Mahaprabhu's devotee. One time, somebody asked Srila Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj about the reason for Mahaprabhu's advent, and Srila Sridhar Maharaj replied that Mahaprabhu appeared not just to rescue fall souls – Mahaprabhu actually came to rescue Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya.

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