śrī śrī guru-gaurāṅgau jayataḥ |
17th Phālguna, 1334, Thursday |
Dayāler Āhvāna |
“Call of the Merciful”
“Come today all, get free and come!
Nectar of mercy, flooding the world,
Flows in hundreds of streams!
Leave thy home orbit and come today,
Leave doubts, petty fear and shame,
The Vaiṣṇava king calls all
Abode of compassion, merciful Lord
Come today, come O world-wayfarers!
Pained and tired of life’s struggle
Be pacified in the waters of grace
Drink nectar and conquer death
Wherever you are, tormented by pain
Squished beneath the feet of the mighty
Churned by a hundred desires
Come, get free, come! Come all!
Quench thy thirst, O eternally thirsty
The Ganges of mercy flows!!
Shadow of death along life’s journey, Youth’s splendor crushed by age
Birth and death, the endless tide,
All are enduring the repetition.
Heart melted by souls’ sorrows,
So the infinitely merciful calls out:
“Forget the world and come today!”
Face serene, kindness in His voice.
To mitigate thirst for just two days,
His invitation is not, ever for anyone
That fullest ocean for distribution to all
No equal in fourteen worlds, none
That invitation call enters the heart
The anxious hearts of pious souls
A hundred shackles rent from the feet
Breaking free to new consciousness
Center of ninefold bhakti, Antaradvīpa
Pristine form of (His) soul-supplication
Spiritual form of eternal, fresh splendor
Glory to Gaura’s abode, Śrī Māyāpura
Where, at Yogapīṭha, below a neem tree
Hari mercifully appeared on Earth
In that invaluable dust
sought by demigods
Rolling on the ground,
crying incessantly
Eternally resplendent there, Śrī Gaura
The Lord of all souls, Viśvambhara
(And) His eternal pastimes
with Śrīvāsa and others—
the devotees behold with pure vision
In the nectar of saṅkīrtana,
Gorā, the finest dancer
Where, with devotees,
absorbed in prema
He wanders that land, lost in prema
Heart and mind flooded with ecstacy ||
Then—
Crooked world, like a dream,
Painful memories, full of poison, alas!
Heart does not want to leave the dhāma
Chanting: “Glory to the shelter of the fallen!”
Hear again the deep, merciful call—
“Stay at home, be swept away in work,
Remain in a hundred traps, stay far, or…
Proceed to the root of the forever goal
(Where) Lord Śrī Caitanya—
Lord of mercy, form so sweet
He grants nectar of immortality.
Come, come quickly, all—
It is time for the Lord’s worship
Why tarry in decorating thyself?
Whatever anyone has, bring.
Jewels, gems, pearls, diamonds
Have no purpose.
The bell has rung—
Come pūjārī, bring all the lamps
Ārati will be soon.
Whatever you have left, bring.
Little does not mean trivial.
Only pure devotion is required
to please Kṛṣṇa’s mind.
Devotion cool, white jasmine
(Blossoms) like autumn in the mind, Morning ablaze
With those pure blossoms,
Worship Vanamālī
To worship the Lord of the heart,
Offer your soul.
Nadīyā’s Previous Glory
Pāṇini Muni has mentioned Gauḍapura in his writings. Pāṇini Muni’s time was long ago. Some say, he was a native of where the ancestors of the brāhmaṇas hailed from almost three thousand years ago. The geographical location where we ought to find that Gauḍa-rājendra-pura mentioned by Pāṇini, we can learn from legend, which states that the place known as Suvarṇa-vihāra, which is near the Āmaghāṭā station on the short rail line between Kṛṣṇa-nagara and Navadvīpa-ghāṭa, was, long ago, the capital of Gauḍadeśa. It was known as Suvarṇa-vihāra during the spread of Buddhism. From here to Karṇa-suvarṇa, near Maldah district, and to the Suvarṇa-grāma in the Dhaka district—the land situated in this triangle has been described in the Middle Ages as being Gauḍa, with these aforementioned settlements as its three provincial capitals. The Pāla kings lived for some time in Suvarṇa-vihāra. At present, the traces of their kingdom lie hidden in the earth. These kings expanded their kingdom for a time in Magadha. Gauḍa’s capital during the reign of the Śūra kings was Śora-ḍāñgā, or what is presently called Śara-ḍāñgā. Another name for this Śora-ḍāñgā is Śabara-kṣetra. The deity of Śrī Jagannātha-deva was brought to Śabara-kṣetra from Śrī Kṣetra due to the atrocities of Kālāpāhāḍa. Eventually, over time, the Upādhyāya families living on the banks of the Ganges took over the service of Jagannātha, directed to do so in a divine dream. Adjoining this Śora-ḍāñgā or Śabara-kṣetra is a place called Śyena-ḍāñgā. Some say the Śyena kings took the image of the śyena bird to be their royal emblem and so earned the title Śyena. In later times, the word Sena or Senā came to be synonymous with the Persian word for army. Now this place is known as Śyena-ḍāñgā or Śoṇa-ḍāñgā. At one time, within this region of Gauḍa-deśa, in these places like Suvarṇa-vihāra, Śūra-ḍāñgā, Śyena-ḍāñgā, and Śrī Māyāpura, the city of Gauḍa-rājendra-pura was manifest. In time, due to the onslaught of Yavana invasion, this whole place was deserted, and that too was a matter of 750 years ago. Although ancient Gauḍapura has sunk to the fathomless depths of time, and though the rule of the warrior types in those places disappeared, with the manifestation of brāhmaṇa disposition, the bygone glory of this place was mostly preserved. Though the changing course of the Bhāgīrathī and, along with that, the different streams of the Sarasvatī have rebirthed all those ancient places over time, real archeologists do not just throw their hands up in defeat. Many portions of Śrī Māyāpura were not too long ago known as Bela-pukuriyā. The outskirts of Prācīna Navadvīpa were referred to Rāmajīvana-pura, Koriyāṭi, Tāraṇa-vāsa, Vāmana-pukura, and other names not too long ago. If you examine the history of Nadīyā’s kings, you will find ample evidence of all these topics.
All the places the parikramā went to the day before yesterday in śravaṇākhya Sīmanta-dvīpa can provide much historical information. The prowess of valiant men does not last forever, but the memories of the learned brahminical types remain burning for a long time in the form of words and establish the existence of those powerful leaders. These ancient places were once inhabited by a population brimming with scholars. At one time, the author of Gīta-govinda, Śrī Kavi Jayadeva, was the radiant gem of the royal assembly of the Śyena kings in Śrī Māyāpura itself. During a later era, the Haituka–nyāya (causal logic) school of thought shifted from Mithilā to the banks of the Gaṅgā in Śrī Māyāpura. Here, the students of the other six mokṣa-bestowing cities would make their blessed arrivals and be initiated into the Navya-nyāya school. Today, however, those days of bygone glory have been interred in the bottomless depths of forgotten memories and turned into something people in general have no idea about.
Dear Gauḍīya brothers, those of you who have hearts, it is to rekindle that memory of those learned circles that the task of creating once again a vidyāpīṭha (seat of learning) in Gauḍa-narendra-pura has begun. Come, brothers all, we will all come together and make cooperative efforts to reestablish the various sporting arenas of our supremely revered teachings. In this there can be no disparity of views between the natives of the five Gauḍa regions. The Jains of Magadha have made tremendous efforts to promote Sanskrit literature. The Buddhists of Kīkaṭa established the Nālanda library and other places and are to this day awakening the sleeping intellectual propensities of learned society.
Gauḍīya brothers, does the glorious memory of all those intellectual pastimes not appear on the canvas of your heart even once? Does the brilliance seen during Śrī Caitanya-deva’s time and prior to him, in the nyāya scriptures of Kāṇa Bhaṭṭa not stimulate your mind? Will you spend all your energy on other endeavours because you have not been established in the brahma-vṛtti (brahminical tendency) for such a long time? Look, by the will of the Lord, Māyāpurī, one of the seven mokṣa-bestowing cities, was covered by the darkness of ignorance due to the forces of time and no one was able to access any trace of it. But Śrī Gaurāṅga loves His true homeland, and out of a desire for the supreme auspiciousness of His own, of those who live in His homeland, He preached the message of supreme welfare and made efforts to formally expand that spiritual dharma. From the sprouts of that, now trees have grown. In time, the lost appetite of the Gauḍīyas can be revived by the flowers and fruits of these trees.
Gauḍīya brothers, we submit to you this humble invitation: help in whatever way you can to restore this seat of learning in order to reestablish that lost glory. We regard your sympathies to be the only real support and resource in that regard. In doing so, the fragrance and solidity of your own fame will increase, and you too will be more than rewarded as a result. O selfless bhagavad-bhakta śāktas, you are not beggars for prestige, so to you our request is that you strive to illuminate the altar of knowledge of the supreme truth day after day. The foul stench of pig-stool pratiṣṭhā can never give you any trouble.
Dhāma Parikamā
(continued from last issue)
The Kājī said, “I was very scared. Then that king of lions became somewhat merciful and said, ‘I have forgiven you today, but don’t cause so much trouble. If I see you try anything like this again, I will kill you and your family.’ Saying this, the lion disappeared. I was utterly terrified by this. Look I still have the lion’s scratches on my chest. Everyone saw the scratches and was amazed. The Kājī began to say, “That day all the soldiers that went to shut down the kīrtana came back and said that when they tried to stop the kīrtana, they were suddenly hit in the face with balls of fire and all their beards were burnt; they had burns on their faces, so they were all scared and no more soldiers went to ban the kīrtanas. The mlecchas of the town came and began making so many complaints. Some were saying that the Hindus’ religion has increased. ‘The sound of ‘Hari, Hari’ has started to resonate incessantly in our ears.’ Some were saying, ‘The Hindus just say ‘Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa’ and laugh, weep, dance and roll around in the dust.’ Some said, ‘If the Badshah hears the Hindus have started to create such disturbance, he could punish you for it.’ I asked one of them, ‘It is normal for Hindus to be saying ‘Hari’, but you are a Muslim, so why are you chanting the names of Hindu gods all the time.’ That person answered, ‘I told the Hindus, ‘When you lot say ‘Hari, Hari’ you’re addressing someone named ‘Kṛṣṇadāsa’ ‘Rāmadāsa’ or ‘Haridāsa’, but ‘Hari, Hari’ means ‘I steal, I steal’; it sounds like you are saying ‘Hari, Hari’ because you steal a lot of people’s money.’ Since I joked with them like this, my tongue just says ‘Hari, Hari’ even though I don’t want it to. I haven’t been able to do anything about it.’” The Kājī said, “Gaurahari, I think you are the chief God of the Hindus whom they call Nārāyaṇa.” Mahāprabhu started laughing and touched the Kājī, saying, “I have gotten to hear the name of Kṛṣṇa from your mouth. This is quite amazing. Your sins have been cleansed. You have become pure. You chanted three names: ‘Hari’ ‘Kṛṣṇa’ and ‘Nārāyaṇa’. You are very fortunate, very pious now.” The Kājī drenched himself in streams of his own tears and began to say, “By your grace, my evil mentality has been eradicated. Have this mercy on me that I may develop bhakti for You.” The Lord said, “I have one favor to ask of you. See to it that the saṅkīrtana in Nadīyā is not impeded in any way.” The Kājī siad, “Whoever is born in my dynasty, I will ensure that they be made to swear to never pose any obstacle to the performance of kīrtana.” Cāñda Kājī received the mercy of the Lord and became blessed.
This is that ancient samādhi site of Cāñda Kājī. There is a goloka-cāṁpā tree on top of the samādhi that is four hundred years old. Cāñda Kājī’s twelfth generation of descendants still live in this village.
7 | Śrīdhara Aṅgana:
In mentioning the host of virtues possessed by Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s supremely dear devotee Śrīdhara, Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī Prabhu has said:
kholabecā śrīdhara prabhura priyadāsa |
jā̃hā sane prabhu kare nitya parihāsa ||
prabhu jā̃ra thoḍa-mocāphala |
jā̃ra phuṭā lauha-pātre prabhu pila’ jala ||
Śrīdhara maintained his life with whatever little he earned from selling banana tree bark, cores, and flowers, and spent the whole night performing loud kīrtana of Hari’s names. When Śrīman Mahāprabhu was manifesting His pastimes as a young student in Navadvīpa, He would go to Śrīdhara’s shop every day and spend no less than an hour and a half there on the pretext of buying banana tree bark and flowers, having fun at Śrīdhara’s expense in a variety of ways. Sometimes Mahāprabhu would only pay him half-price for his goods or sometimes even not at all. He would take kholā (the edible inner skin of the banana tree), mocā (banana flower), and lāu (bottle gourd) home and take great satisfaction in eating the preparations made from those items.
bhaktera padārtha prabhu hena mate khāya |
koṭi haile abhaktera ulaṭi nā cāya ||
Thus the Lord enjoys what the devotee has, but will not even look at millions of gifts given by non-devotees.
Śrī Gaurasundara showed His mercy to the Kājī and, on His way back, enacted a pastime of feeling tired, thereby arriving at Śrīdhara’s door. Śrīdhara had a dilapidated little home with thatch missing from his roof and no furniture whatsoever. The Lord began performing saṅkīrtana and dancing in Śrīdhara’s courtyard. On the tiny veranda of Śrīdhara’s house, there was a broken, cracked metal cup. It had patches all over it. Prabhu saw it, picked it up, and began drinking the water that was in it. Śrīdhara saw Him doing this from afar and began to cry, “No, no! I have died, I have died,” and began lamenting in a piteous tone. “The Lord came to my house just to kill me.” Saying this, Śrīdhara fell unconscious. The Lord picked him up in His arms and said, in a soothing tone, “Drinking Śrīdhara’s water has purified my body. Today I have obtained devotion for the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa.” The Lord, who is affectionate to His devotees, thus demonstrated that even drinking water in the home of a Vaiṣṇava grants one devotion to Viṣṇu. Thus Mahāprabhu preached the glories of the Vaiṣṇavas in front of everyone.
8 | Bāra-koṇā (Twelve Corner) Ghāṭa on the banks of the Gaṅgā:
Śrī Gaurasundara sat with His students here atop this ghat and pulverized the pride of the Digvijayī Keśava Kaśmirī, whereby He also extended His mercy to him.
9 | Mahāprabhura Ghāṭa:
At this ghat, the Lord would engage in watersports with His students and the devotees on the pretext of going for a bath in the Gaṅgā.
10 | Jagāi Mādhāi’s Ghāṭa:
At this ghat, Śrīman Mahāprabhu showed His mercy to Jagāi and Mādhāi, obliterating all their sins and intoxicating them in divine love of the holy name.
11 | Ballāla-dīghi:
A final vestige that is a vast manmade lake here hearkens back to the majesty of the last independent king of Gauḍa-baṅga-deśa, Mahārāja Ballāla-sena of the Sena dynasty, bearing witness till this day to the historic significance of this place.
12 | Ballāla Ḍhibi:
A mound of the remnants of the Sena kings’ palaces has survived hundreds of years through a pastime of destruction and thus sticks its finger in the eyes of those who would oppose the ancient historical significance of this place.
During Śrīdhāma Navadvīpa Parikramā it is essential that we remain particularly aware of one more thing. The Śrī Dhāma is not a material object like any ordinary village or town. It is tangibly a spiritual substance (cid-vastu). If one does not serve Śrī Dhāma without deceit, one cannot behold Śrī Dhāma’s true form. Each and every island of Śrīdhāma Navadvīpa is a place dedicated to the sādhana of one of the nine limbs of bhakti. Of them, Antara-dvīpa is the place to practice sādhana of the limb of bhakti called ātma-nivedana (self-surrender). Unless one sincerely offers oneself at the feet of Śrī Bhagavān or Bhagavān’s manifesation as śrī gurudeva, one cannot obtain qualification to perform any of the other limbs of bhakti! When we submit our very selves to the lotus feet of śrī gurudeva, we can earn the qualification to hear the śrauta-vāṇī (aural message) issuing from his mouth.
adyāpi-o sei līlā kare gaura-rāya |
kono kono bhāgyavāna dekhibāre pāya ||
Those who have truly offered their souls at the feet of śrī guru and obtained the fortune of serving śrī gurudeva are fortunate. Only they reap the qualification to witness Śrī Gaurāṅga-sundara’s eternal pastimes.
Description of Kola-dvīpa
Kola-dvīpa, or the city of Navadvīpa, is on the western bank of the Gaṅgā. This Kuliyā is referred to as Aparādha-bhañjana Pāṭa (the place where offenses are forgiven). In this place, Śrīman Mahāprabhu forgave the brāhmaṇa Gopāla Cāpāla as well as the Bhāgavata speaker Devānanda Paṇḍita, who had both made offenses at the feet of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita. That is why this is called Aparādha–bhañjana Pāṭa, Devānanda Pāṭa, or Kuliyā in Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, and other authoritative books. This place is also known as Śrī Kuliyā Pāhāḍa. In Satya-yuga, Vāsudeva, the son of a brāhmaṇa, was weeping piteously here to obtain darśana of Varāhadeva when Varāhadeva appeared before him in the form of a boar that was the size of a mountain. In this place, in Satya-yuga, in the yajña of Brahmā, Bhagavān Viṣṇu appeared and destroyed the demon Hiraṇyākṣa with His tusks. The devotees doing parikramā of Śrī Koladvīpa follow behind Śrī Śrī Rādhā Govinda and Their associates as They are served atop the back of an elephant decorated with a beautiful canopy, flags, and cāmaras, to the accompaniment of a variety of musical instruments and kīrtana. Thus the devotees visit the bhajana and samādhi sites of Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Śrīla Gaurakiśora Prabhu and Oṁ Viṣṇupāda Vaiṣṇava Sārvabhauma Śrīla Jagannātha Prabhu.
Kola-dvīpa’s Location
Mahāprabhu stayed in Vidyānagara for five days. Seeing a huge crowd of people gathering, He went to the village of Kuliyā in the middle of the night. In Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, Antya-khaṇḍa, third chapter, the following is written:
gaṅgā prati mahā anurāga bādāiyā |
ati śighra gauḍa-deśe āilā caliyā ||
sārvabhauma-bhrātā vidyā-vācaspati nāma |
ācambite āsi uttarilā tāra dhāma |
navadvīpa ādi sarva-dike haila dhvani |
vācaspati ghare āilena nyāsi-maṇi ||
kuliyāya āilena vaikuṇṭha-īśvara |
sabe gaṅgā madhye nadīyāya kuliyāya |
śuni mātra sarva-loke mahānanda dhāya ||
If you read this chapter of Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata along with the description by Locana Dāsa, it is clearly understood that the place known as present-day ‘Navadvīpa’ is what was then known as Kuliyā-grāma, on the opposite bank from Prācīna Navadvīpa. At that time, to go from Vidyānagara to Navadvīpa, you had to cross a stream of the Gaṅgā, and to cross from Kuliyā to Navadvīpa, you had to cross the main course of the Bhāgīrathī. Even today, when you look at all these places, it is evident that Kuliyā-grāma at that time contained ‘Cīnāḍāñgā’ and other neighbourhoods and Kulīyā-gañja, which is now called ‘Koler-gañja’. All those places are remnants of what was then Kuliyā.
At that time, the rumour was that Mahāprabhu would go to Vṛndāvana from Kuliyā. At that time, Mahāprabhu’s supreme devotee, Śrī Nṛsiṁhānanda began to decorate the path from Kuliyā to Vṛndāvana in his meditation. He decorated the path up to Kānāi Nāṭaśālā, where his consciousness wavered and his meditation broke. At that, Nṛsiṁhānanda said, “This time Mahāprabhu will only go as far as Kānāi Nāṭaśālā, not Vṛndāvana.
Mention of “Aparādha-bhañjana Pāṭa Kuliyā” is seen very clearly in numerous ancient texts:
In the 9th Aṅka of Śrī Caitanya-candrodaya Nāṭaka, we see (statements made by persons sent by Rāya Rāmānanda who returned from Navadvīpa and Cuttack): “tataḥ kumāra-haṭṭe śrīvāsa-paṇḍita-bāṭyām abhyāyayau | * * * tato’dvaita-bāṭīm abhyetya haridāsenābhivanditas tathaiva taraṇī-vartmanā navadvīpasya pāre kuliyā-nāma grāme mādhava-dāsa bāṭyām-uttīrṇavān | * * evaṁ sapta-dināni tatra sthitvā punas-taṭa-vartmanā eva calitavān |” In Śrī Caitanya-carita Mahā-kāvya, we find: “anyedyuḥ sa śrī navadvīpa-bhūmeḥ pāre gaṅgaṁ paścime kvāpi deśe | śrīmān sarva-prāṇināṁ tat-tad-aṅgair-netrānandaṁ samyag-āgatya tene ||” In Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata (Antya, sixth chapter), there is a description of Nityānanda Prabhu performing kīrtana with His associates while staying in Navadvīpa:
“khānā-joḍā, baḍagāchi āra dogāchiyā |
gaṅgāra opāra kabhu jāyena kuliyā ||”
In Śrī Caitanya-maṅgala:
“gaṅgā snāna kari’ prabhu rāḍha-deśa diyā |
krame krame uttarilā nagara kuliyā ||
māyera vacane punaḥ gelā navadvīpa |
bāra-koṇa-ghāta nija bāḍīra samīpe ||
Prema-dāsa:
“nadīyāra mājha-khāne, sakala lokete jāne,
kuliyā pāhāḍa (pura) nāme sthāna |”
Śrī Narahari Cakravartī, or Ghanaśyāma Dāsa, writes in Bhakti-ratnākāra (12th Taraṅga):
tat-kṛta navadvīpa-parikramāya—
“kuliyā pāhāḍa-pura grāma |
pūrve kola-dvīpa parvatākhyā nāma ||”
The modern town of Navadvīpa was established in what was Kuliyā-grāma, or Pāhāḍa-pura, during Mahāprabhu’s manifest presence, and during that same time, the present Navadvīpa municipality was part of what is known even today as Bāhira-dvīpa. This is where the current city of Navadvīpa has been established. Though names like Cīnāḍāñgā, Pāhāḍapura, and others have disappeared, Tegharī Kola, Kola Āmoda, Kuliyāra Gañja and other places of today’s Navadvīpa town are even today bearing testimony to the ancient settlement of Kola-dvīpa.
Received Letter
To the revered editor of Nadīyā-Prakāśa,
After reading the deliberations on Śrī Śrī Caitanyābda (year) in the introduction of 1335’s Gupta Press calendar, there are a few topics I would like address. I will be delighted if you, sir, will be so kind as to publish this letter in your well-knowned newspaper.
I was very distressed to see that to research the veracity of Śrī Caitanyābda, the publisher of the Gupta Press calendar has adopted a logic of “taking the advice of a Muslim cleric about Hindu holy days”. He has been so eager to approach a person who has forever been opposed to daivic horoscope scriptures and has never even heard of the book Karaṇa-prakāśa. The Siddhānta-ratna time calculations of the late Gokulacandra Gosvāmī and his son, Śrīyukta Satyānanda Gosvāmī, are not accurate and verifiable. All the Gupta Press publisher has done by taking this question to them and putting that [their answer] in the calendar is simply the transgression of logic.
The Śrī Caitanyābda that has been rectified in P.M. Bagchi’s pañjikā calendar is correct. Gupta Press’s pañjikā publisher has actually understood this. However, he has decided it is better to follow his Bhāgavata-dharma Mahā-maṇḍala “Gosvāmi Sampradāya”, wherein the wrong Caitanyābda is written. When I read this, I thought of a story Paṇḍita Śrīyukta Nīlakānta Miśra told about the scholarship of a certain Gosvāmī paṇḍita: “Upon finding the words ‘tumi se kevala prabho, tumi se kevala – You are the only one, Lord, You are the only one’ printed in a Vaiṣṇava edition of a text, a stubborn, ox-headed Gosvāmī type started saying, ‘This was not written this way in my Gosvāmī father’s book. There it was: ‘Bhusi se kābala prabho, bhusi se kābala – That husk is Kabul, Lord, that husk is Kabul.’ That is the right reading.’ Hearing the bull-headed Gosvāmī’s reasonings, his son or disciple corrected the tumi se kevala reading in the printed book with bhusi se kābala.” How does the publisher of the Gupta Press calendar think it is better to follow a so-called gosvāmī–sampradāya that reasons like this? No teacher of the Vedic scriptures who is acquainted with kāla-tattva (the calculation of time) can understand why he has done this. The Śrī Caitanyābda in P.M. Bagchi’s pañjikā has been corrected, but I am worried its founder sir will get rid of Śrī Caitanyābda and put in Śrī Advaitābda. The other fear is that the publisher of the Gupta Press pañjikā will follow the Nityānanda-vaṁśa gosvāmī-sampradāya of Kāśīnātha Mallika’s school and put Śrī Nityānandābda instead of Śrī Caitanyābda.
The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava community, Śrīdhāma Pracāriṇī-sabhā, Śrī Viśva-Vaiṣṇava Rājasabhā, and other learned committees have long disregarded the calculation error proliferated by the late Dīnabandhu Sena of Nawabganj, who was following the Christian year and Western models of calculation. However, because Śrīyukta Rasika Mohana Cakravartī Mahāśaya has not entered into the procedure of Indian year calculation, because of his obstinacy, the error that the sampradāya in Mallika Mahāśaya’s town has followed can be corrected in future editions of Gupta Press’s pañjikā, leaving behind the ‘Sahib-borrowed [English]’ calculations and return to the authoritative tradition of the ācāryas. The words “śrī-caitanya-prakaṭātītābdādayaḥ” refers to this year that has passed and is as misleading as a mother saying her child is two years old only a year after the child is born. The Indian calculation system first writes the year that has passed, then the number of months that have passed. After that comes the number of days that have passed and then the daṇḍas [twenty-four minute units] and palas [seconds], etc., are mentioned. In the system the Sahibs [English] have brought, first hours, minutes, then the ongoing date are written. In other words, they add ‘one’ to the date, add ‘one’ to the past month, and add ‘one’ to the past year, jumping ahead.
Just as we do not say that 6 o’clock and five minutes is 7 o’clock, how can you tack an extra year onto poor ol’ Śrī Caitanyābda and change it from 443 to 444?
According to Śrīdhara Svāmī’s explanation, the meaning of the word ‘go’ is senses. The meaning of the word ‘svāmī’ is one who can conquer. The word ‘gosvāmī’ refers only to those who have left their homes, not hereditary Jāti Gosvāmīs. Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava Gosvāmīs are all renounced. They introduce themselves as part of the āmnāya-paramparā [Vedic lineage] of ācāryas instead of as part of the lineages of the various Ṛṣis. Therefore, to say “Gosvāmī Sampradāya” in Gauḍadeśa refers only to Śrī Rūpa, Sanātana, and other Gosvāmīs. This term does not apply to householder Smārta scholars. Therefore, Śrī Satyānanda Gosvāmī’s Siddhānta-ratna cannot be classified as a medium of the “Gosvāmī Sampradāya”. Since the Śrī Advaita-vaṁśa system has found its place in Bagchi Mahāśaya’s pañjikā, “Gupta Press Pañjikā” has decided to solidify its Gosvāmī-ness with the aid of the Nityānanda-vaṁśa. The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava community does not honor such conceptions. The notions of the Smārta Rṣis are not the ‘Gosvāmī mata [conception]’. Publishers of pañjikās should know well that the Gauḍīya Gosvāmīs are Paramahaṁsa Vaiṣṇavas—not Smārtas. Only the Paramahaṁsa Vaiṣṇava mata is the mata of the Gosvāmī Sampradāya. As per the mata of the Gosvāmī Sampradāya, the “pāṣaṇḍī hindu-mata – conceptions of heretical Hindus” and “viśuddha hindu-mata – conceptions of pure Hindus” are different. It is imperative to find out the proper information regarding Śrī Caitanyābda from the Gosvāmī Sampradāya. The Smārta society called “Bhāgavata-dharma Maṇḍala”, which is inimical to the Gosvāmīs, is not to be consulted in this. The Gosvāmī mata is not confined to the Nityānanda-vaṁśa or Advaita-vaṁśa. This information can only be had from the Gosvāmīs who followed Śrī Caitanya-candra, who was the worshipful Lord of those two Prabhus.
Śrī Kuñjabihārī Jyotirbhūṣaṇa,
Teacher
Jyotiṣa-ṭola, Gādigāchā
Śrī Navadvīpa |
Acknowledgement of Error and Obtaining Forgiveness
The editor of the “Sādhanā” magazine, Śrīyukta Rādhā-Govinda Nātha, who published unfounded libel against Śrī Gauḍīya Maṭha, have been charged in the courtroom of Calcutta Jorabagan Court’s fourth presidency magistrate. After a few days of proceedings, when he truly, truly came to realize that his misplaced accusations were flawed, then he disavowed the statements he had made and retracted the accusations published in Sādhanā Patrikā. Repentant, he begged forgiveness. The Gauḍīya Maṭha sādhus then had him acquitted of the charges brought against him. For the past ten or twelve years, a person named Vraja-mohana Dāsa, who wears tilaka, mālā, and Vaiṣṇava dress, has established an ashram of sorts with several ladies in the Kākuñḍa field in Rāmacandra-pura, which is part of Bāhira-dvīpa [the outer island] and Moda-druma-dvīpa. After some time when there was a lack of food and clothing for his female companions, he came up with a clever plan and began circulating a certain story to collect money. Based on total fabrications of his own, he started saying that Mahāprabhu’s temple is beneath his ashram in Rāmacandra-pura, that Mahāprabhu’s home was in a Rāma-Sītā temple there. He started telling people the temple needed to be excavated and started to collect money from people for that. But Mahāprabhu did not live in a temple and it is mentioned in Śrī Caitanya-candrodaya that Śrī Māyāpura, on the Gaṅgā’s eastern bank, is Mahāprabhu’s birthplace. But this man would not even register any of these arguments! He had referred to the village of Māyāpura as an allegory. He circulated all manner of falsities like this, turning reasoning into nonsense, and from time to time, came up with stories about the Gauḍīya Maṭha to slander it. In this way, he was simply showing society his lack of character. Till this day, there are the sites of Kholabhāñgā Ḍāñgā, Vrajapattana, and half a mile from there, Cāñda Kājī’s samādhi, where a 400-year-old golaka-cāṁpā tree presides, bearing witness to Mahāprabhu’s pastime places. Many know of the farfetched falsehoods this bābājī concocted some time ago and circulated via various newspapers. Rādhā-Govinda Bābu, induced by various envious persons, believed in these stories for a spell, but once he came to know the truth, he expressed deep regret. We know that Rādhā-Govinda Bābu saw nityā-līlā-praviṣṭa Śrī Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s comrade, Navadvīpa’s Bhaṭṭācārya Mahendra Bābu, establish Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s worship in Śrī Māyāpura and wrote: “Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura is a personal associate of Mahāprabhu; he is forever beholding the appearance place of Mahāprabhu. By his grace, today human society has been enabled to see Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s worship manifest at this Māyāpura Yogapīṭha. Just as Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmīpāda and Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmīpāda revealed the pastime places of Śrī Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in Śrī Vṛndāvana, Śrīmad Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has revealed the appearance place and pastime places of Śrīman Mahāprabhu in Śrī Māyāpura.
Nātha Mahāśaya retracted all offensive statements and conveyed that he was repentant, thereby obtaining the forgiveness of those who had filed charges on behalf of the Gauḍīya Maṭha and was acquitted. The next week, the aforementioned Vraja-mohana Dāsa also followed in Rādhā-Govinda Bābu’s footsteps and retracted various libelous statements, expressed his regrets, received forgiveness, and was acquitted of charges.
Nānā Kathā |
(Local)
Disturbances in Rādhāgrāma
The day before yesterday, on the 11th of Phālguna, around noon, almost two hundred Muslims from Kalowa and Sultanpur, armed with sticks, swords and firearms, attacked the home of Lalita-mohana Khamaria in Rādhāgrāma, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Kaya Union Board as part of the Kumarkhali police station.
3–4 Hindus in the home resisted and word spread through the village and Hindu villagers arrived from the surrounding fields. The attackers then fled and set fire to a nearby sugarcane field and sugarcane processing facility. Seeing fire everywhere, the villagers did not know what to do. Taking advantage of the situation, a group of dacoits made off with valuable oxen. Lalita Khamaria went to great difficulty to report the incident to Kaya, at which point numerous respected individuals of Kaya came to the scene of the incident; but the damage had already been done and the dacoits had fled.
Meanwhile, the news was given to the Kushtia district magistrate and the Kumarkhali police station. The magistrate sahib immediately dispatched the Kushtia station inspector bābu along with as many armed police they could muster to the scene. By 6 p.m., a total of 12 armed police personnel arrived at the scene and were posted through the night to maintain the peace. Kumarkhali’s head constable, a Muslim sahib, rejected depositions and concluded his involvement in the matter by showing plainstiffs the road straight to the court. Yesterday the villagers telegraphed the Nadīyā district magistrate and police officials. All the Hindus are agitated. In a Muslim majority region, Rādhāgrāma is the only Hindu-majority settlement. There are 32 Hindu votes here, which, on this day, is precisely what led to a dacoity in the afternoon.
Yesterday had been fixed as the election day by the Kaya Union Board, but because of this incident in Rādhāgrāma, Hindu voters were not present. Though a few people were present and though they wanted to vote in favor of Hindus, they demonstrated reluctance to do so because they were scared, and even a few Muslims eventually came to vote for Hindu candidates, but then changed their minds due to fear of social punishment. Groups of Muslims, who were not voters, gathered in large numbers at the polling station. They were informed that Hindus themselves had set the fire and were ridiculing Muslims for offering prayers and observing fasting. With this provocation, all the Muslims voters turned to supporting the communal Muslim leaders. Seeing this situation, Hindu candidates got together to inform the polling officer via petition that Hindus were unwilling to come out of their homes to vote and were unable to vote freely, due to fear. Therefore, they requested that the election be halted for the day. If communal tensions could calm down, the election could take place later. After much debate and discussion, and after seeing the Kushtia inspector bābu’s report, and after personally examining the whole matter, the polling officer decided to suspend the election.
At this, Maulvi Afsar Uddin gathered all the members of his party and requested the assembled Muslims to boycott Hindus in the future and give their votes to his party’s Muslim candidates. Fuming like Rudra, he then returned home.
In connection to the incident, there are reports that the previous night, Kalowa’s Miajan Jamaddar and Oshman Vishwas, two candidates (both belonging to Maulvi Afsar’s party), went to Rādhāgrāma and urged Hindus to vote for their six candidates in the civil election. Later, Maulvi also went there. The Hindus communicated that though they would be compelled to give votes to three Muslim candidates, the rest of their votes would go to the Hindu candidates. At this, a well-known dacoit of Kalowa threatened that if they did not vote the Muslims in, no good would come to them. This remark left the Kuri community displeased, and they decided that they would only give one vote to Afsar Maulvi and the rest to the Hindu bābus. Lalita Khamaria was the leader in this exchange. Receiving this news, the Muslims were angered and devised this devastation to force the votes they wanted. Reports are that candidate Miajan Jamaddar had a gun in his hand and Osman arrived at the scene of the incident with known dacoits Tamiz and Meṭana and their gangs.
This past Friday, a brāhmaṇa lad from the village of Asadabad in the Ahmedabad district who had converted to Islam some ten months ago converted back to his native religion after hearing a lecture at the Calcutta Hindu Mission.
Society members of the Vārendra Brāhmaṇa community from Howrah, Calcutta, and outlying regions met this past Sunday at Howrah’s Duke Library. The purpose of their meeting was communal wellbeing.
Death by Hanging:
Devendranath Ray, son of the late Krishnanagar Khottapar, Jugolchandra Ray, left his body last Friday afternoon around 3 p.m., by hanging himself from a crossbeam in a room on the second floor of his residence. He had been suffering from a severe stomach illness for some time now; perhaps the unbearable agony of the illness led to this suicide.
Stick to Your Own Job:
Śrīyukta Bābu Śivendranātha Caṭtopādhyāya, head clerk at the Krishnanagar Hospital, hired two horse carriages from Anandamoyi-tala this Saturday for him and his family. Along the way, he got into one of the coachboxes and started driving one of the carriages himself, instigating a race between the two carriages. The carriages were going so fast that the carriage he was driving suddenly crashed into the verandah of a house. Śivena Bābu, his mother, and the coachman sustained serious injuries. The injuries sustained by others involved in the accident were not any less serious.