Sharanagati

“On the way toward Jagannātha Purī, Caitanya Mahāprabhu performed many other pastimes. He visited various temples and heard the story about Mādhavendra Purī and the installation of Gopāla. From Nityānanda Prabhu, Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu heard the story of Kṣīra-curī Gopīnātha and of the witness Gopāla. Then Nityānanda Prabhu broke the sannyāsa rod belonging to Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu.”[1]

So we enter the last section of the life story described by Krishna das Кaviraj, the life story of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And our Chaitanya is standing here and now we understand and investigate His last pastimes on this planet Earth. He started to become a monk in a secret place that is called Jagannatha Puri. He accepted sannyas in Bengal, and then He wanted to go to Vrindavana, but finally he went in Jagannatha Puri – that was a famous pilgrimage place. And here His journey starts. While going to Jagannatha Puri He visited many different temples. And you know, if you visit the temples in India, you will hear many stories. Just like here, if you visit the monasteries, in each and every monastery – who was this freedom fighter? – Levski was hiding in each and every monastery and had some caves and hidden places to hide… So you have the stories. In the same way in India all the temples they do have stories also.

And two very famous stories are mentioned here. One is Kshira Chora Gopinath and the other is Gopal the Witness. If next time we shall have some more energy, we shall dedicate more attention to these stories. Actually these are stories of two temple Deities in India – Gopinath and Gopal – these are names of Krishna. And Kshira Chora means person who steals khir. Khir is a very nice sweet made of milk. How it happens? But I don’t want to start the story, because then we have to analyze it deeply, but to put it very, very short: you know, as we offer food to our Lord on the altar, in this temple – it is in Remuna – they always offer these very sweet preparations. And this Gopinath understood that one very good devotee arrived, so He preserved some of the sweets to him. Again we came to the previous topic when God serves His devotees, the servants. Then there is a very nice, elaborate story, describing how it happened. This is one miracle – when God saves food for His devotees. But the other is an even greater miracle – this is the story of Gopala. When two pilgrims made a vow, like contract in front of the Gopala deity (Krishna), and later on the elder person did not want to keep his word. It happens sometimes, right – you agree on certain points and then somebody changes his mind. But as they had Gopal, or God Himself, as a witness, the younger one invited Him. So this making vow happened in a very far, distant place from their living village, in Vrindavana. And the younger one went back to Vrindavana, to pray to Gopal again: “Something is happened, please come and testify for me.” So he was praying very sincerely so much so that Gopal started to answer. He said: “I am a statue, how can I walk such a big distance?” And the boy said: “If You can speak, then You can walk also. Please, come!” And then God agreed: “All right, I will come with you on two conditions. What are the two conditions? The first is that every day you offer one kg. rice cooked for Me, because when I walk I am hungry, I have to take something.” “All right – said the young man, I will keep this promise. What is the second?” “The second is never look back if I am following you or not.” “Yes, I will do that.” And God made a little excuse for the young man, He said: “But you will hear always My ankle-bells.“ So they were walking the long distance, every day one kg. rice plus never turning back. But when they approached the village then the boy did not hear the ankle-bells, so he was frightened: “Maybe my Lord is not following me! Where are You?!” and he turned. And Gopal said: “Sorry, I will not move anymore. I will stay here.” So on that spot He testified later on for the young man.

Actually to listen to these stories gave much happiness to Mahaprabhu.