Chapter Fourteen: The Lord’s
Travel to East Bengal and the Disappearance of Lakshmipriya
This
chapter describes Gaura-Narayana’s enactment of a householder’s pastime of
serving guests; His visit to East Bengal; the offensive activities of some
sinful atheists who imitated the Lord and of a brahma-daitya of Radha-desha-all
of them being contemporaries of the author; the disappearance of Lakshmidevi;
the inquiries of Tapana Mishra to the Lord regarding the goal of life and the
process for achieving it; the Lord’s reply and teachings; and the Lord’s return
from Bangladesh.
Nimai
Pandita was greatly honored by the wealthy people of Navadvipa as well as by
all those who were accustomed to perform religious rituals. In order to
establish an ideal example of the principles of household life, the Lord did
not encourage the fault of miserliness, rather He showed compassion towards
needy and distressed persons. Guests were always properly served at the Lord’s
house in Shri Mayapur-Navadvipa. Though the Lord, who is the teacher of people
in general, personally displayed the pastimes of a poor householder, He
nevertheless constantly endeavored to serve renounced Vaishnava sannyasis. As
soon as mother Shaci noticed a shortage of ingredients required for feeding the
sannyasis, Gaurasundara would immediately bring from somewhere the necessary
ingredients for the service of the Vaishnavas. Lakshmidevi engaged in cooking
for the service of the Vaishnavas, and the Lord personally sat with the
Vaishnava sannyasis and fully satisfied them by feeding them sumptuously. The
principle duty of householders is to serve guests; those householders who do
not serve guests are lower than animals and birds. Even if a householder is
bereft of wealth due to past karma, he should without duplicity serve his
guests with at least some water, a sitting place, and sweet words. Knowing that
Shri Lakshmi-Narayana had appeared in Navadvipa, Lord Brahma, Lord Shiva,
Shukadeva, Vyasadeva, and Narada visited the Lord’s house at Shri Mayapur in
the guise of sannyasis.
From
early morning, Shri Lakshmidevi continually engaged in various services in the
temple room, arranged the paraphernalia for worshiping the Lord, and served
tulasi. She gave more attention to the service of Shacidevi, her mother-in-law
and mother of her Lord, than to the service of tulasi. Shacidevi sometimes saw
blazing flames of fire under the feet of her son, and she sometimes smelled the
fragrance of lotus flowers throughout her house.
After
some time Nimai Pandita went with His students to earn some wealth in
Bangladesh, where He stayed on the banks of the Padmavati River. Overwhelmed by
the Lord’s ingenious scholarship, innumerable students came to study from Him
and within a short time mastered various subjects.
At
this point the author says that simply because the Lord went to Bangladesh, the
young, the old, and the women there are even today intoxicated in Shri
Chaitanya’s sankirtana movement. But sometimes in order to fill their stomachs
some atheists declare themselves to be Narayana, or the Supreme Lord, and they
thus ruin the people of that country. In Radha-desha also there was a great
brahma-daitya who externally dressed as a brahmana but who internally had the
nature of a demon and declared himself to be “Gopala.” Due to his cowardliness,
however, people called him a hated jackal. There are no greater offenders than
those sinful living entities who want to declare themselves or other living
entities to be the Supreme Lord instead of declaring Shri Chaitanya, the Lord
of innumerable universes, as the Supreme Lord. Moreover, even today it is found
that simply by remembering the servants of Chaitanyacandra a living entity
attains all auspiciousness.
While
the Lord was residing in Bangladesh, Shri Lakshmidevi, being unable to tolerate
separation from the Lord, left this world from the bank of the Ganges while
meditating on the lotus feet of the Lord. When the people of Bangladesh heard
that the Lord was returning to Navadvipa, they brought various gifts for Him. At
that time one pious brahmana resident of Bangladesh named Tapana Mishra, who
was unable to ascertain the goal of life and the process to achieve it,
received instructions late one night in a dream to approach Nara-Narayana in
the form of Nimai Pandita, who appeared in the age of Kali to deliver the
fallen souls. When Tapana Mishra arrived before the Lord, Shri Gaurasundara
instructed him that the only religious process for the age of Kali was
shri-krishna-nama-sankirtana, which awards all perfection and which is to be
followed by all people of all countries at all times. He further instructed
Tapana Mishra to give up all duplicity and always chant the sixteen word,
thirty-two syllable maha-mantra with full attention. When Tapana Mishra asked
permission to accompany the Lord, the Lord ordered him to immediately go to
Varanasi and indicated that they would again meet there and elaborately discuss
the goal of life and the process to achieve it. When Tapana Mishra then related
the topics of his dream, the Lord forbid him from disclosing those topics to
anyone.
Thereafter
the Lord returned home from Bangladesh with His wealth and offered everything
to His mother. Many students accompanied the Lord to Navadvipa in order to
study from Him. Hearing about the disappearance of Lakshmidevi, the Lord
imitated ordinary people by exhibiting grief for a short time and then
instructed His mother about the temporary nature of this material existence.
Commentary and Chapter Summaries of His
Divine Grace Om Vishnupada Paramahamsa Parivrajakacarya Shri Shrimad
Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada.