SRI PURI DHAM MAHATMYA-MUKTA-MALA

(18) About Sri Alarnath

On the shore of the ocean, about sixteen miles to the east of Sri Purusottam Dham, there is a beautiful ancient town called Brahmagiri, or Alarnath. Because Lord Brahma worshipped Lord Vishnu here in Satya-yuga, the place became known as Brahmagiri. In the Tamil language they call devotees ‘alowar’ or ‘alabar’, so the town’s other name Alarnath means ‘the Lord (nath) of devotees (alwar)’.

When several devotees came to live at this place, they were so charmed by its seclusion, purity and service to the Lord that they installed a four-armed Deity of Lord Narayan and engaged a brahman in His service. This Deity of Lord Narayan is Alarnath. When we go to the temple of Alarnath, we will have His darshan: on the right, He holds a lotus in His lower hand and a disk in His upper hand; and on the left, He holds a conch in His upper hand and a club in His lower hand.

One time, the brahman who served the Deity had to go away. Before leaving, he left his small son in charge. He told him, ‘Son, I need to go away, please take care of the Deity’s worship and service today.’

Soon the time came to offer bhoga to the Deity. The boy’s nature was very simple – he did not know any mantras that should be recited to offer bhoga, so he simply came to the Deity and said, ‘O Lord, Father has gone away. I am an ignorant little boy, I do not know any mantras. Please accept this offering.’ He kept the offering in front of Alarnath and went away, closing the door behind him. Then, he went to play with other boys.

When the boy’s mother saw him come back all covered in dust, she asked him,

‘What is this? Have you not offered bhoga to the Deity? Or have you already done it?’

‘Yes, I have.’

‘Then where did the bhoga go?’

‘Oh, it is in the temple.’

‘When you offer bhoga at the temple, you must keep it there and after some time bring it back to the house. Then, you distribute prasad to everybody. Do you not know it?!’

‘Oh, all right, I am going.’

Following his mother’s order, the boy went back to the temple to take the bhoga away, but when he came there he did not see any bhoga – the bhoga that he had offered earlier was not there. He told him mother about it, but his mother did not believe him. She went to the temple herself and, seeing that there was no bhoga anywhere, thought, ‘This naughty boy must have eaten everything, and now he is lying because he is scared to be punished!’

‘Have you eaten everything?’ she asked the boy. ‘Are you not ashamed of yourself?’

‘Mother, I have not eaten anything! The Deity has eaten all the bhoga! I have not done anything! Please believe me.’

‘Your father worships Alarnath with utmost care, following all strict rules, and the Deity has never actually eaten what he offers Him. You know nothing about Deity worship, do not know any mantras, but when you come to offer bhoga one time, the Lord suddenly eats everything? How can that be true? Are you kidding me?’

After a while, the boy’s father returned home. His wife told him everything, and the brahman said, ‘All right. Cook again and I will send him to offer bhoga again. Then we can see with our own eyes whether the Deity takes it or not.’

When all the cooking was done, the brahman called his son and told him, ‘Listen, son. Take this bhoga to the temple and offer it to the Deity. Your mother does not believe you, so go and make an offering again.’

‘All right, Father,’ the boy replied and added, ‘Please believe me, I did not eat anything.’

So, he went to the temple again. In the meantime, the brahman crept up to the door and peeked from behind the corner. He saw that his son kept the bhoga in front of the Deity and told the Deity, ‘O Lord, I do not know any mantras or anything. I do not know how You must be offered bhoga. Father is not here now, so until he is back please accept this offering from my hand.’ Saying this, the boy closed the altar door. Then, his father saw that Alarnath ate all bhoga with His four hands!

When he saw it, he could not check himself. He told the Lord, ‘O Lord, You have eaten all the bhoga – what are we going to do now? Are we going to starve?’

’Out of love for your son, I have eaten everything. Tell Me, what boon would you like to get from Me?’ the Lord replied.

‘What boon can I ask for?’ the pujari brahman replied. ‘You have eaten everything that we have offered You, so now we will have to die of hunger. What boon can I want? All our food is gone! You have eaten everything!’

‘Listen, brahman,’ Lord Alarnath said then, ‘from this day, I will not accept anything from you. Everything that exists in this world exists for My pleasure – whenever I provide anything for you, you can only take it as My remnants. This is your only right. But you are so proud that you think “My food”, “My clothes”, “My Deity”, “My house”, “My car” – you are only thinking about “my”, “my”, “my” – that is why only your son will be able to reach My abode, and you and your wife and other relatives will lose all religion soon.’

When you offer something to the Deity, He accepts everything and leaves it then for His devotees – it is necessary to have faith in this.

This is the glory of Lord Alarnath’s temple.

Why did Mahaprabhu come here? If you come some time before Lord Jagannath’s Ratha-yatra, you will not be able to have Lord Jagannath’s darshan because during fifteen days before Ratha-yatra He shows the pastime of ‘sickness’. During this time, He is offered some medicinal herbs and the devotees also prepare for the chariot festival. During these fifteen days, the temple of Lord Jagannath is closed, and it opens again only on the day before Ratha-yatra.

During this time, Mahaprabhu felt very deep pain because He went to Lord Jagannath’s temple every day but during this time He could not do it. Then, one day Lord Jagannath told Him, ‘Go to Alarnath, You will be able to see Me there.’ Mahaprabhu immediately ran there with tears streaming from His eyes. He felt extremely perturbed. He was so overwhelmed with divine sentiments that when He reached Alarnath and fell down in a prostrate obeisance, the stone beneath His body melted! There remained marks on the stone in the places that touched His limbs.

That stone is still there. If you go to Alarnath, you can see the dents in the stone left after Mahaprabhu’s body touched it.

This is how much devotion and love for the Lord He had…

dekha ore bhai, tribhuvane nai,
emana dayala data
pasu-pakhi jhure, pasana vidare,
suni’ yara guna-gatha

‘Look, brother, in all the three worlds there is no other benefactor as merciful as They are. Even birds and animals begin to shed tears and stones melt just by hearing about Their glories.’

(Srila Lochan Das Thakur)

Even animals and birds started crying when they heard about the glories of Nitai and Gaura, but we are so cruel – our hearts are harder than stone because we do not cry when we hear about Krishna, about Gauranga and Nityananda Prabhu.

Why do we come here? We come to serve Lord Alarnath and also because Gauranga Mahaprabhu came here.

gaura amara, ye saba sthane,
karala bhramana range
se saba sthana, heriba ami,
pranayi-bhakata-sange

‘In the company of loving devotees, I behold all the places my Gaura visited during His pastimes.’

(Srila Bhaktivinod Thakur)

We visit together with devotees all those places that were visited by Gaura. We must not come here on our own; we have come here today in the company of worshippable Vaishnavs. We have brought you all here on the order of our gurudev, and we tell you what we have heard from his holy mouth. If you listen to these things, it will bring you benefit.

In the courtyard of Lord Alarnath's temple.

The six-armed form of the Lord and the stone, melted by the touch of Mahaprabhu's body, in front of Him.

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