Navadvipa-mandala Parikrama—Samudra Garha, Vasudeva Datta (Mam Gachi)

Giriraj Swami: We have come now to [Unintelligible 00:01:40:27] is on the border of Nabadwip. It corresponds to [Unintelligible 00:01:51] in kṛṣṇa-līlā, and also to Dwarka dhāma. Dwarka dhāma is famous because Lord Gauranga gave darshan to one devotee here name [Unintelligible 00:02:12] was a king in Bengal and his talent was killed in [Unintelligible 00:02:26]. He was residing there during the time of Maharaja Yudhisthira and the Pandavas. Maharaja Yudhisthira wanted to perform the Rājasūya sacrifice, but in order to perform the Rājasūya sacrifice; he had to be the emperor of the world, and all other kings had to bow down and and offer tributes to him. Maharaja Yudhisthira, sent his four brothers in four directions, and if any king did not bow down and offer tributes to Maharaja Yudhisthira, one of the brothers, with his army, would defeat the King and force him to surrender to Maharaja Yudhisthira. 

So Bhimasena was sent to the east and along the way, with his mighty army, he conquered all the kings, and finally he came here to [Unintelligible 00:03:49]. Now, Samudra sena was a great devotee of Lord Krishna. And when he understood that Bhima, who was another great devotee of Lord Krishna had come, he became very jubilant because one great devotee always takes pleasure in greeting another great devotee. Bhimasena, was one of the eternal associate of Lord Krishna and although Samudra sena was also a great devotee, he had not yet had darshan of Lord Krishna. He had an idea that instead of surrendering to Bhima and Maharaja Yudhisthira, if he fought very ferociously with Bhima, and Bhima was actually in trouble, then definitely Bhima would pray to Lord Krishna to come, and help him. So Samudra sena thought, In this way, Lord Krishna would come to my kingdom and I will also have his darshan. So Bhima was quite surprised, when Samudra sena came forth with his army, so many elephants, horses, chariots, soldiers, and they fought so heroically with Bhima that Bhima actually started to lose the battle. And the forces of Samudra-sena were gradually closing in on Bhima. So Bhima became quite horrified that, “How it is possible? I defeated so many great kings and warriors and I have come to Bengal, this low king of Bengal is defeating me. It will be a great disgrace for me, if he defeats me.”

So the opponents were coming closer and closer, and finally he had no recourse but to surrender to Lord Krishna. And he gave up all his efforts, and just concentrated [Unintelligible 00:06:20–22) on Lord Krishna. “Oh Krishna, Krishna, save me, save me. Come quickly otherwise I will be defeated by this little king of Bengal.” Hearing the furious cry of Bhimasena, Lord Krishna immediately came, but invisible to Bhima and all the warriors on the battlefield. He was seen only by Samudra sena whose desire was fulfilled by the mercy of Bhimasena. Actually, every devotee knows that you cannot get the mercy of Krishna directly, you can only get the mercy of Krishna, through the medium of mercy of another devotee. So Samudra sena thought, I have no qualification to see Krishna. I have no qualification to serve Krishna directly, but by the mercy of Bhima, if Bhima prays for Krishna to come, then Krishna will come, and I can also have darshan of Krishna.

So Lord Krishna appeared just as a king on a chariot and gave pleasure to the eyes, and hearts of Samudra Sena. But Samudra Sena, even to experience the glories of Lord Krishna, was not satisfied, just by having darshan of Krishna as a king. He also wanted to see the pastimes of Krishna in Vrindavan. So Lord Krishna immediately manifest a beautiful scene in Vrindavan, where He was dressed as a cowherd boy, with His blue buffalo horn, golden stick, and all the paraphernalia of a cowherd boy. And he was with his other cowherd boyfriends, and [Unintelligible 00:08:40–46) in the forest of Vrindavan. Then suddenly, the picture of Krishna and the cowherd boys disappeared, and suddenly Lord Krishna in Vrindavan was surrounded by so many young, teenage girls, gopikas. And some of them were playing musical instruments, some of them were picking flowers, some of them were stringing flower garlands, some of them were making sandalwood [Unintelligible 00:09:24), some of them were making tulsi garlands. And it was a very attractive vision. Then by the causeless mercy, Lord Krishna manifested Himself as Lord Gauranga, and all the young gopikas became associates of Lord Chaitanya and they were all engaged in ecstatic hari-nāma saṅkīrtana. 

Gauranga! Gauranga! Gauranga!

Then Lord Chaitanya revealed himself to Samudra sena, that he was actually the combined form of Radha and Krishna, and that later in Kali-yuga, he would advent himself here in Nabadwip dhāma, and give kṛṣṇa-prema to all fallen souls, through the holy name. Then suddenly Lord Gauranga disappeared and Samudra sena was overwhelmed with grief, in separation from Gauranga! Gauranga! So he began to weep, feeling so much separation from Krishna and Vrindavan and Gauranga. Meanwhile, Bhimasena was seeing the sight that Samudra sena was weeping. He thought, What happened to him? Maybe he has become afraid. Finally, Samudra sena having his desire fulfilled by the mercy of Bhima, surrendered unto Bhimasena, offered tribute to Maharaja Yudhisthira, and thus enabled Maharaja Yudhisthira to perform the Rājasūya yajña. 

Another significance of Samudra dasa, is that the ocean, ocean means samudra, samudra means the ocean; also wanted to have darshan of Lord Chaitanya, and do some service to Lord Chaitanya, as the ocean had served Lord Krishna in Dwarka, and Lord Ramachandra in Lanka. But there was no chance, because Nabadwip does not border on the ocean. So the ocean felt so eager to serve the lotus feet of Gauranga, he came up through the Ganges. In other words, the ocean tide, came up through the Ganges, up to this point, right after this tree here, to serve Lord Chaitanya in his pastimes, and behold the beauty of Lord Chaitanya. And ocean prayed to Lord Chaitanya that, “Please, please don’t deprive me of the opportunity to serve you. Let me reside here in Nabadwip dhāma and also please come to my shore, and let me serve you there.” So the all merciful Lord Chaitanya agreed to the appeal of the ocean and he said, “Do not worry. I will fulfill your desire. I will come to Jagannatha Puri, and I will perform pastimes, by the side of the ocean. And sometimes, I will take bath in the ocean, and your desire to serve me will be fulfilled.”

So not only to fulfill the desire of Mother Saci, that Lord Chaitanya should be nearby, but also to fulfill the desire of the ocean to serve Lord Chaitanya, Lord Chaitanya took residence in Jagannatha Puri. 

Nitai-Gaura premānande

jaya jaya śrī-caitanya jaya nityānanda
jayādvaita-candra jaya gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

You have come to the most auspicious place of Mamgachi, which is the residence of Vasudeva Datta. Vasudeva Datta was one of the most beloved devotee of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. His heart was always melting with compassion for the fallen souls. One time in Jagannatha Puri, he approached Lord Chaitanya and said, “My Lord, I have one request. Please fulfill my desire. There are so many fallen souls suffering in this material world. They are suffering without any limit for their sinful misdeed. So my request is that you give me all their sinful reaction, and let them be liberated. And I will stay in the material world, and suffer for them.”

When Lord Chaitanya heard the appeal of Vasudeva Datta, his heart melted. Tears began to flow from his eyes, his body began to tremble. Then he embraced Vasudeva Datta. We cannot imagine the mercy of a Vaishnava like Vasudeva Datta. Srila Prabhupada quotes Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura in the purport to these verses in Caitanya-caritāmṛta that, Lord Jesus Christ is very famous in the Christian religion, because he agreed to accept the sinful reaction of all who surrendered unto him, and took shelter of him. But Vasudeva Datta was prepared to accept the sinful reaction of every living entity, in the whole universe. And therefore, a compassionate Vaishnava like Vasudeva Datta is considered to be thousands and millions of time more merciful, even when compared to a devotee like Jesus Christ. He was so merciful. 

Actually, if we think of ourselves, we know how we are suffering from our own sinful reactions, and how we are always thinking, how we can get relief from our own suffering. We are trying so hard to become free from our suffering; we are not thinking how to accept someone else’s suffering. In fact if someone is suffering greatly, sometime we think we want to stay away from him. So our mood, our happiness, will not be disturbed. Valmiki was a robber and a murdered, but Narada Muni gave him the chance to understand the mood of materialistic persons, and materialistic relationships. He asked Valmiki’s wife and children, that Valmiki is committing so many sins for your sake, to get money and facilities for your sake, and he will have to suffer so many sinful reactions. So will you share in his sinful reaction. They replied, “No, why should we? We never committed any sin. Why should we suffer? He committed the sins.”

So every materialistic person is very selfish. He wants to have more enjoyments, and less misery. But a compassionate Vaishnava like Vasudeva Datta, is just the opposite. He is ready to take the misery of others without any limit, so that others can be liberated. So Lord Chaitanya heard the appeal of Vasudeva Datta, his heart melted and he embraced him and he said, “You are the incarnation of Prahlada Maharaja.” Because Prahlada Maharaja also had the same mood of mercy.

And Srila Prabhupada also has the same mood of mercy. And he always instructed us that we should adopt the spirit of Prahlada. Prahlada Maharaja prayed to Lord Nṛsiṁhadeva that, “For myself I have no difficulty, because wherever I am, I can become merge in the ocean of transcendental bliss, merged in the ocean of hearing and chanting your glories. So for myself I have no difficulty or anxiety. But still I do have one anxiety, that so many fallen souls are suffering in the material world, and they cannot be happy unless they come to the shelter of your lotus feet. So I am anxious for them, and I am always thinking of the ways and means to bring them to the shelter of your lotus feet.” So Srila Prabhupada said this is the decision of the Vaishnavas, and Srila Prabhupada showed by his personal example, how he was ready to accept any risk, and any difficulty for the sake of delivering others. 

When Lord Chaitanya heard the request of Vasudeva Datta, he replied that, “My dear Vasudeva Datta, you should know that for Krishna to deliver all the living entities in the entire universe is not difficult. Because for him, each universe is just like a mustard seed, in a bag of mustard seed. So if one mustard seed is lost, what is the significance?” He said that, “Lord Krishna has no other desire except to fulfill the desire of His pure devotee. And since you are his pure devotee, and you desire to deliver all living entities, Krishna can deliver all living entities, just to fulfill your prayer. And you will not have to suffer any of the sinful reaction.”

Then Lord Chaitanya quoted one verse from Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, by the personified Vedas to the supreme Lord that, “My dear Lord, by Your will You have put the living entities in maya, so similarly by Your will, if You desire their deliverance, You can order their release from maya. So please be merciful upon us and all living entities, and release us from the grip of maya. So this is the mercy of the devotees. As we discussed yesterday, the mercy of the Lord follows the mercy of the devotees. So when the devotee wants to show mercy to some living entity, or to all living entities, he prays to the Lord, and then the Lord to fulfill the desire of the devotee, will bestow mercy. 

I have some little experience of how Srila Prabhupada also followed in the same mood of Vasudeva Datta. My first association with Krishna consciousness came when Srila Prabhupada was in Boston for about one week. And I had Prabhupada’s association and he left. After about two months, the temple president and the devotees there suggested that I should be initiated, because they needed someone to do deity worship. So I wrote to Srila Prabhupada, and Srila Prabhupada wrote back in his letter that, “I marked it in your presence when I saw you and I prayed to Krishna that He may make you aware of the value of Krishna consciousness.” So without Srila Prabhupada’s prayer how would it be possible, that fallen souls like us could ever take to Krishna consciousness. So if we can come in contact with a merciful Vaishnava like Vasudeva Datta, who is still present here today, or his representative in disciplic succession like Srila Prabhupada, then by their mercy, everything can be fulfilled.

They know what mercy the living entity needs. If he has some problem, some anartha, some tendency toward aparādha, then by his mercy he can free him from offences, and anartha. And in the positive sense he can give him mercy to get more love for Krishna. So whatever mercy the Vaishnava needs, the devotee needs; in whatever category the person is in, the Vaishnava can help him. So when we go to Vasudeva Datta’s place, we should prostate ourselves in the dust there. He is the most merciful Vaishnava and we should pray to him, to give us his mercy, to take us out material existence, and situate us in the service of Sri Sri Radha and Krishna. And we can also pray to him that wherever we may be in this material world, we get the association of Vaishnavas like him, because by such association, we can actually advance in service to our spiritual master, to Srila Prabhupada, to Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu, and ultimately to Sri Sri Radha and Krishna in Vrindavan. So we offer our obeisance to the Vaishnavas.

vāñchā-kalpa-tarubhyaś ca kṛpā-sindhubhya eva ca

patitānāṁ pāvanebhyo vaiṣṇavebhyo namo namaḥ

Nitaichandra Swami Maharaja informed us that Vasudeva’s deities are here, the large deity is here. Radha Madana gopal.

Hare Krishna