(5/9) Deity and His Devotee

His Divine Grace Om Vishnupad
Srila Bhakti Nirmal Acharya Maharaj
Mejhiari, temple inauguration programme,
21 April 2019, noon, part 5
Translated from Bengali

I will tell you now something about Mahaprabhu's adolescent pastimes.

One of Mahaprabhu's associates was Mukunda Das. You must have heard about Mukunda Gosai and Narahari Thakur form Srikhanda. Have you been there? Have you seen the Deity holding half of a sweet?

An elderly devotee: Yes, it is Raghunandan's Deity. Raghunandan was Mukunda's son.

Yes. The Lord ate from this Raghunandan's hand. The Lord eats from all His devotees' hands, but it actually depends on one's faith.

'শ্রদ্ধা' শব্দে—বিস্বাস কহে সুদৃঢ় নিশ্চয় ।
কৃষ্ণে ভক্তি কৈলে সর্ব্বকর্ম্ম কৃত হয় ॥

'sraddha'-sabde—visvasa kahe sudrdha nischaya
krsne bhakti kaile sarva-karma krta haya

'Sraddha is a firm, determined faith that by serving Krishna all actions are accomplished.'

(Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.62)

'Sraddha-anusari bhakti-adhikari (শ্রদ্ধা-অনুসারী ভক্তি-অধিকারী). The quality of your devotion depends on your faith' (Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, 2.22.64).

One day, Mukunda Das and his wife went to the market. In those days, the market was a little far from their house, so they had to walk a long distance to get bhoga for their Deity. Before leaving, they asked their son, Raghunandan, to offer bhog. The plate was all set – the rice and vegetables were arranged on the plate, so the boy only had to offer it. He actually did not know any mantras, but all he had to do is to make the offering. His parents told him that they would take prasad when they returned.

Raghunandan went to make the offering.

'O Lord, eat! Mother feeds You every day, but today I am giving You food.'

Raghunandan did not see any response.

'Hey, I am saying eat! If You do not eat, I will hit you with this stick!' he said taking a gong stick in his hand.

'All right, all right, do not beat Me! I will eat!' the Lord said and took some food.

'Eat up!'

'Must I eat everything?' the Lord asked.

'Yes, eat everything up.'

Then, Raghunandan saw that the Lord had finished everything that was on the plate and went to his room closing the altar room. Soon after that, his mother came home.

'Raghunandan, where is our prasad?'

'You must have cooked less today. The Lord has eaten everything I gave Him.'

'What? Do you think the Lord eats? You must have either eaten it yourself or given it to somebody else!'

'Mother, I have not done anything. I am not lying.'

Still, his mother did not believe him. Later that day, when she was going to make a late-afternoon offering, she called Raghunandan and told him, 'Here, take this to the Deity. Let me see how the Lord eats!'

Raghunandan went to the Deities' room again to offer some fruit and sweets.

'Here, eat this!'

'What is going on? I listened to you and ate everything at noon. Do I have to eat again?'

'Yes! Eat otherwise mother will never believe me, she says I have eaten everything.'

At this time, Raghunandan's mother heard some voices in the Deities' room, she thought, 'He went into the prayer room alone – it is only he and the Deity. Who is he talking to?!' She opened the door of the Deities' room slowly and saw the Deity eating a sweet – half of the sweet was in His mouth and half of the sweet was in His hand. She fainted when she saw it.

ভক্তের জিনিষ প্রভু লুটিপুটি খায়
অভক্তের জিনিষ প্রভু উলটি নাহি চায়

bhaktera jinisa prabhu lutiputi khaya
abhaktera jinisa prabhu ulti nahi chaya

'The Lord eats anything and everything when a devotee offers it, but the Lord does not want to take anything from a non-devotee.'

(Based on Sri Chaitanya-bhagavata, 2.9.185)

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Size: 28 Mb
Length: 58 min
Language: Bengali

READ OTHER PARTS:

1) Gaura-Nitai's Mercy
2) Faith in Deity
3) Madan-Mohan's Miracle (Part One)
4) Madan-Mohan's Miracle (Part Two)
5) Deity and His Devotee
6) Lord Jagannath's Appearance (Part One)
7) Lord Jagannath's Appearance (Part Two)
8) Lord Jagannath's Appearance (Part Three)
9) Eternal Deities of Eternal Servants