The prelude to Lord’s descent
Firstly, Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sent his special devotees to this
world, and they appeared in far off places. But by a divine providence
they came together at Nawadwip district of modern day West Bengal.
Amongst these were Madhavendra Puri, Ishwara Puri, Advaita Acharya,
Murari Gupta, Srivas, Sriram, Srindihi and Sripati (the four
brothers), Paramananda Puri, Haridas Thakur, Pundarik Vidyanidhi and
many more.
Vrindavan Das Thakur explains the reason for the birth of these
devotees in remote areas where God consciousness wasn’t prevalent.
It’s to ensure that by the presence of these special devotees, the
place and people therein would get purified. This is the design of the
Lord; He arranges for all lost souls to get benefits of the Krishna
consciousness movement.
Meanwhile Nawadwip had become a famous centre for learning, something
like modern Harvard or Oxford. Scholars, academicians and students
from all over South Asia flocked to Nawadwip and the place’s
reputation was matched also by its opulence and material splendour.
People wallowed in intoxication, elaborate rituals to please different
gods, opulent marriages of children, and ostentatious display of
wealth. There was no mention of pure devotional service and people
didn’t care to worship or love God.
Kind hearted and compassionate devotees led by Advaita Acharya felt
pained to see this degraded condition of Nawadwip. All devotees
gathered at Srivas Thakur’s and Advaita Acharya’s house and performed
sankirtan (congregational chanting of Hare Krishna mahamantra), to
petition the Lord to deliver these materialistic people. Advaita
Acharya especially took a vow of worshipping Krishna and mother Ganga
to ensure that the Lord personally descended to deliver the souls of
Kali Yuga. His chanting and praying was so intense and sincere that
the sound of his helpless cry for the Lord to descend, penetrated all
layers of material existence, and melted the heart of Krishna in the
spiritual abode of Goloka Vrindavan. This appeal of Advaita was one of
the main reasons why the Lord descended to personally inaugurate the
sankritan movement.
Meanwhile the materialistic people were fed up with Srivas. They
scolded him for performing loud kirtan of Krishna’s Holy Names,
because that disturbed their sense gratification. They even threatened
to complain to the Muslim king and destroy Srivas and his family, and
dump his house in river Ganga. Silently, the Vaishnavas tolerated
these insults, knowing that only the Lord could soften the hard heart
of the non-devotees, and make them also Vaishnavas.
Devotees are never satisfied by their own ecstasies. They want to
include as many people as possible in the embrace of Lord’s love. A
Vaishnava or a devotee of God is therefore called as ‘para dukkha
dukhi’- ‘sad at others sadness’. While materialistic people bless for
the expansion of families and material happiness, devotees like Srivas
Thakur pray that the family of Vaishnavas expands and the whole world
could be inundated with love of Krishna. That’s because devotees
understand the Lord’s mission, and desire that living entities get out
of the cycle of birth and death, and go back to the spiritual world.
It’s in these circumstances that the Lord sent one of His most special
devotees Upendra Mishra to this world who had many sons, and one of
the most illustrious being Jagannath Mishra who settled at Nawadwip
and married the very mother of the universe, Srimati Sachi devi. Sachi
was the daughter of the renowned astrologer and scholar Nilambar
Chakravarthy.
The scene was now set for Lord Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to descend to
this world.
To be continued…
