Today is the 4th day of the parikrama. At 7.15am Guru Maharaja came down to
the temple hall to take darshan. He comes down from His quarters to the
temple hall through the Caitanya exhibition hall using the newly installed
elevator. Unfortunately an embarrassing incident took place this morning.
The key for the grill gate which divides the temple hall and exhibition hall
was misplaced. Guru Maharaja waited for almost five minutes and while He was
waiting, I saw the devotee who was pushing the wheelchair slowly stepped far
away from Guru Maharaja, fearing he may get scolded. This is the second time
such thing has happened. It was very embarrassing for me because at least 8
of us were there with Guru Maharaja but none made sure if the key is with us
or went ahead to open the gate. Guru Maharaja kept himself quite and decided
to leave without darshan. Guru Maharaja has very high level of tolerance. He
tolerates our mistakes so much. But one should not take advantage of His
kindness. Anyway let’s get back with the parikrama now.
We left Iskcon Mayapur at 7.30am. We drove towards Simantadwip which is
about 20 minutes drive to meet the Hindi party. Guru Maharaja spoke about
the pastime of Simantini Devi (Parvathi Devi) who got the darshan of Lord
Caitanya. Simantadwip was named after this pastime.After spending 30 minutes
with the Hindi party, we headed towards Pancaveni to meet the Bengali party.
Guru Maharaja had his breakfast on the way to Pancaveni (Gauranga Bridge).
Half way through our journey, we met the Bengali party who
were streaming along the main road with loud kirtan and colourful flags.
They were stretched for almost 3 kilometres. We reached Pancaveni before
them. While waiting for them, Guru Maharaja took a walk along the bank of
Pancaveni.
Half an hour later as the kirtan was resounding near by, we knew the Bengali
party which has 3000 devotees, were approaching us. As soon the party
entered the road leading the downhill from the Gauranga Bridge to the bank
of Panceveni, thick dust clouded the whole atmosphere. After the devotees
settled down in front of the small stage, Guru Maharaja spoke for 30mins. By
now it was already 10.15am and none had their breakfast. Understanding the
situation, Guru Maharaja stopped the class and requested Satya Narayanan
Prabhu to chant the prasadam prayers… sarira avidyajal….. We departed
from Panceveni to Pratap Nagar at 10.45am to meet the Russian Party. Again
we were ahead of the Russian party too. The Russian party arrived in Pratap
Nagar at 11.10am and had their breakfast. After breakfast, Guru Maharaja
narrated few pastimes which are significant to Koladwip. He mentioned, in
Satya Yuga Lord Varaha appeared in this place and told Vasudeva Brahmana the
following, “Whoever resides in Navadvipa will attain the results of residing
in all other tirthas. There is no place in the three worlds equals to
Navadwip Dham. Koladwip is also known as ‘Aparadha Vanjan Kuliyapad ’the
island which forgives all the offences… Guru Maharaja asked the devotees
if anyone asked forgiveness for their offences committed against Vaishnavas
knowingly or unknowingly while being in Koladwip. When devotees replied
‘nyet’ (no in Russian) he repeated ‘Nyeeeet?’ (Noooo) why? and
told them to beg for forgiveness right here because this is the last spot
for the Russian party in Koladwip. Immediately a loud prayers of Vanca
kalpa…erupted. From Russian Party we left to meet the international party
at Vidyanagar.
At this point of time the weather was little cloudy and started drizzling
too. As we reached Vidyanagar, we saw some last batches of devotees still
walking into the ground of Gaur Nitai Temple.At 2.20pm Guru Maharaja started
his speech by thanking His Holiness Lokanath Swami for leading the
International party so nicely. He mentioned in His class that all the
knowledge from the Vedas was given from here…. Lord Ramachandra is expert
at using the weapons, Lord Krsna is expert at herding the cows and Lord
Caitanya is expert at Knowledge…He has so much knowledge that even
attracted Brhaspati who was very eager to see the pastimes of the Lord where
he is giving out knowledge….. His eagerness forced him to appear as
Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya in Caitanya Lila much before than Mahaprabhu’s
appearance. At 3pm all Srila Prabhupada’s disciples were invited to take
lunch at HG Meenakshi Radha Mataji’s house. She lives in Vidyanagar and
feeds all the senior Vaishnavas every year during the parikrama. All Srila
Prabhupada’s disciples who attended the parikrama were served with
traditional Bengali lunch feast.
Your Servant,
Ys,
MAha Varaha D