ADVAITA PRABHU'S DISAPPEARANCE FROM THE WORLD

 

Advaita Prabhu remained manifest on earth for anoth¬er 25 years after Mahaprabhu's disappearance, feeling great separation from His Nimai and Nitai, constantly remembering Them. One day Prabhu called out 'Where is Nimai?!' in the ecstasy of mate bteva. After a long time He regained external consciousness and called together His sons, telling them: "Listen, My boys: Wicked people blaspheme My Gaurahga. My heart cannot tolerate this, and as an atonement I will cer¬tainly give up My body. Now go and bring all of Sri Gaurahga's beloved devotees here on My order.After saying this, Advaita Prabhu became stunned. Sri Acyuta quickly sent news to everyone. Vlracandra Prabhu came from Khardaha, Gauridasa Pandita came from Ambika Kalna, Narahari Sarakara Thakura came from Khanda, and Prabhu Sltanatha's leading disciples Yadunandanacarya, Syama dasa, Visnu dasa and others all came to Santipura and offered prayers and obeisances at His lotus feet. The great scholar Kavi Karnapura, a disciple of Advaita Prabhu's disci¬ple Srinatha Cakravarti, also came.Advaita Prabhu told them: "You are all most dear to Me. Please follow this one order of Mine: Preach the religion and attributes of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as much as you can. You must certainly give up the association of any atheist and heretic who is hostile to Sri Gaurahga. Now all of you per¬form gaura sanklrtana and thus fulfill My long-standing wish.Hearing this, all the devotees felt great love and they commenced a sahklrtana of Gaura's names and attributes. Seven devotees — Sri Acyuta, Krsna Misra, Gopala Thakura, Prabhu Vlracandra, Narahari Sarakara, who is like a flood of rasa, Gauri dasa Pandita and Damodara Pandita began a great¬ly captivating dance. When Prabhu heard the glorifications of Gaura His prema surged and He began to dance. Gradually the waves on the ocean of sahklrtana began to billow and Sri Advaita,. who entered the stage of maha bhdva, drowned in them. Prabhu wore all kinds of ecstatic jewels like inertia on His body as He began to weep: "Where is the Lord of My life?" Ordinary living beings cannot develop such wonderful ecstatic symptoms as Advaita Prabhu. The devotees all wept as they surrounded Advaita Prabhu, when He suddenly cried out: "I have attained Gauranga!" His entire body was studded with goosepimples the size of Kadamba-blossoms as He suddenly stormed into the deity room of Sri-Sri Radha-Madana Gopala, never again to return. This was the disappearance-pastime of Sri Advaita Prabhu in Santipura in 1559.The devotees ran here and there looking for Prabhu, and when they could not find Him anymore they wept and rolled in the dust. Sri Acyuta understood that His father Advaita had disappeared from the manifest world and, weep¬ing, he told all the devotees of Gaura: "One branch of the wish-yielding tree of love for Gaura had remained manifest after Gaura's disappearance. Today Gaura's pastimes have ended completely.

 

Hearing this, all the devotees wept unceasingly — 'ha gauranga! ha gauranga! ha. nityananda! haya bhakta avatara sri advaita candraVThey could say nothing else but this. That day and night they spent weeping in this way, oblivious of everything external and causing even stones to melt. The other day they all went for a bath in the Gahga and Sri Acyuta arranged for a grand festival in Advaita Prabhu's memory. After taking maha prasada everyone went to their own homes.Thus Advaita Prabhu was manifest on earth for 125 years, just like Sri Krsna, performing innumerable pastimes, that are like a boundless ocean of nectar of which even the boundless Lord Ananta cannot find the end. According to biographer Sri Haricarana dasa Advaita Prabhu's manifest pas¬times are divided into five phases. As in Sri Krsna's lila, Advaita's lila had the three fases kaumara (childhood), pau-ganda (boyhood) and kaisora (adolescence), but there were also the fourth and fifth stage of yauvana (adulthood) and varddhakya (or transcendental old age).Apart from the abovementioned riddle, Sri Advaita Prabhu wrote a stava describing the beauty and love of Sri Gauranga in 41 anustup slokas, named 'Sri Gauranga Pratyahga Varnanakhya Stavaraja

Jaya Prabhu Sitanatha !