Murari Gupta, still dazed by the encounter, rushed to Jagannath Mishra’s house and saw little Nimai being loving caressed by his mother. He came back stunned and sobered by this instructive lesson he had learnt. He offered his heart felt obeisances to Nimai, understanding him to be the supreme controller of all- the supreme lord.
Often, many residents of nawadwip who loved Lord Chaitanya realized he is the supreme lord. Yet, by his yoga maya potency, no sooner they would realize his godhood, they would also immediately forget this reality. They’d be covered by their love for the lord. Their love would mask their knowledge of his supreme position.
Nimai also played many games with his friends daily. The boys would also invent ever new games. Vrindavan das thakur says that any game that was ever invented in history or that would ever be created in future, was known to Lord Chaitanya and his friends and they played these sports in nawadwip during the lord’s childhood pastimes. Thus the origin of all sports- be it baseball, tennis, cricket or football- was in nawadwip.
One of the games was the boys would run a race to Ganga and as they ran, they had to count the footprints of the birds. Once Nimai asked his friends to play the hari naam game – he would be in the centre and all his friends, surrounding him would loudly chant ‘hari hari’. As they chanted, Nimai would dance in a circular and other attractive formations. The boys were wonderstruck to see this beautiful display. Soon the word spread and many residents came to see this event; they felt they were watching Krishna on the banks of yamuna playing picnic sports with his cowherd boyfriends. The same pastimes of Krishna in vrindavan were enacted by Nimai and his friends – but in a different time and space, with the holy names of Krishna as the centre of all games. Nimai induced all the children to dance with their arms raised, to the chants of ‘hari hari’. It was addictive and grown up men who saw this sight were stunned in ecstasy. Some distinguished and cultured brahmana scholars who were walking on the banks of Ganges saw this event and they were pulled like an iron filing to a magnet.
To be continued…
