SRI PURI DHAM MAHATMYA-MUKTA-MALA

(14) Devotees’ Annual Meeting at Sri Ksetra

When Mahaprabhu left Nabadwip, He ordered Nityananda Prabhu to take care of all the devotee from Gauda-desh. Following His wish, Nityananda Prabhu preached all over Gauda-desh, and when it came to Ratha-yatra, every year He would take a group of devotees and walk with them to Sri Puri Dham. Sivananda Sen would also come from his village Kulin, bringing many devotees with him, and help Nityananda Prabhu on the journey. Besides, there is also Raghav Pandit’s house in Panihati. There, during the whole year, his sister Damayanti cooked different dishes for Mahaprabhu, and Raghav Pandit would send all those preparations to Puri with the devotees and carried something himself, too. To this day devotees prepare many things at Raghav Pandit’s house (various achars, chutneys, etc.) and send them to Puri at the time of Ratha-yatra.

When we go to Sri Puri Dham, we go quickly by car or by train, but in those days, it would take devotees at least two months to reach Puri on foot. When they arrived, they did not go to the temple of Lord Jagannath – they would go straight to Mahaprabhu in Gambhira (Kashi Misra’s house) to get the Lord’s darshan. Seeing all the Vaishnavs arrive, Mahaprabhu would welcome them with much excitement. He would ask at once, ‘Oh, have you got a place to stay at?’, ‘Have you got a room?’, ‘Has this and that been arranged?’, ‘O Nityananda! Arrange everything! Bring them prasad!’

King Prataparudra took care of everybody’s accommodation. Nityananda Prabhu would ask him, ‘Has everybody got a room?’ He would say, ‘Yes, everybody went to the same place where they stayed last year.’ The devotees from Bardhaman stayed at a place for Bardhaman, The Murshidabad devotees stayed at a place for Murshidabad, and so on. Everybody knew where their people stayed.

When Puri people saw devotees, they would laugh and treated them with some contempt, ‘Those Bengalis only come to eat!’ Why did they say that? Because when the devotees came, they were only excited and eager to see Mahaprabhu. During the darshan, Mahaprabhu would say, ‘You have come from so far! O Govinda, O Nityananda, give them something to eat. Where is prasad?’ First of all, He would arrange for Lord Jagannath’s prasad for everybody. They did not go to bathe in the ocean, they did not shave their heads, they did not do anything – everybody just came straight to Mahaprabhu and He would feed them. Mahaprabhu also chided them gently, ‘Hey, what is the matter? You have come to Puri, why are you not going to take Lord Jagannath’s darshan?’ And all the devotees replied, ‘Prabhu, we have got Your darshan, so we have already go Lord Jagannath’s darshan.’ What is Mahaprabhu to say to that?

In this way devotees would come to see Mahaprabhu every year.

At the Sevak Bhavan, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Sri Puri Dham: in his scarce free time, His Divine Grace would often been seen seated on the veranda, happily conversing with the devotees and making arrangements for their stay.

At the Sevak Bhavan, Sri Chaitanya Saraswat Math, Sri Puri Dham – starting the parikrama.

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