Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura

1. ŚrīvāsaṬhākura

2. śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya prabhu-nityānandaśrī-advaitagadādharaśrīvāsādi-gaura-bhakta-vṛnda

3. There are innumerable devotees of the Lord, of whom Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura is the foremost.(purport CC Ādi 1.38)

4. Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura and his wife Mālinī worshipped the Lord when He appears

5. ŚrīvāsaṬhākura’s identity In the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (90), ŚrīvāsaPaṇḍita (ŚrīvāsaṬhākura) is described as an incarnation of Nārada Muni, and ŚrīRāmaPaṇḍita, his younger brother, is said to be an incarnation of Parvata Muni, a great friend of Nārada’s. ŚrīvāsaPaṇḍita’s wife, Mālinī, is celebrated as an incarnation of the nurse Ambikā, who fed Lord Kṛṣṇa with her breast milk, and his niece Nārāyaṇī, the mother of ṬhākuraVṛndāvanadāsa, the author of Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata, was the sister of Ambikā in kṛṣṇa-līlā. We also understand from the description of Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata that after Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s acceptance of the sannyāsa order, ŚrīvāsaPaṇḍita left Navadvīpa, possibly because of feelings of separation, and domiciled at Kumārahaṭṭa. (purport CC Ādi 10.8)

6. Main pillar of Lord Caitanya's movement All of Navadvīpa was surcharged with His saṅkīrtana movement, and His headquarters were situated at the house of ŚrīvāsaṬhākura and ŚrīAdvaitaPrabhu, two of His chief householder disciples. These two learned heads of the brāhmaṇa community were the most ardent supporters of Lord Caitanya's movement.

7. Āvirbhāva is a manifestation of the Lord that appears even though He is personally not present. For example, when ŚrīvāsaṬhākura performed saṅkīrtana, everyone felt the presence of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, even in His absence. (purport CC Ādi 10.56)

8. 21 hours of ecstasy

9. ŚrīvāsaṬhākura worshiped Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu by the process of abhiṣeka.

10. Sitting on a cot, the Lord exhibited transcendental opulence. (CC Ādi 17.11)

11. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu blessed a maidservant named Duḥkhī with the name Sukhī. He called for KholāvecāŚrīdhara and showed him His mahā-prakāśa. Then He called for Murāri Gupta and showed him His feature as Lord Rāmacandra. He offered His blessings to HaridāsaṬhākura, and at this time He also asked AdvaitaPrabhu to explain the Bhagavad-gītā as it is (gītārasatya-pāṭha) and showed special favor to Mukunda.

12. Reaction to blasphemy

13. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu regularly led congregational chanting of the Hare Kṛṣṇamahā-mantra in the house of ŚrīvāsaṬhākura every night for one full year. This ecstatic chanting was performed with the doors closed so that nonbelievers who came to make fun could not gain entrance. Thus the nonbelievers almost burned to ashes and died out of envy. To retaliate, they planned various ways to give trouble to ŚrīvāsaṬhākura.

14. GopālaCāpāla placed all the paraphernlia for worshiping the goddess Durgā outside ŚrīvāsaṬhākura’s door.

15. On the upper portion of a plantain leaf he placed such paraphernalia for worship as oḍa-phula, turmeric, vermilion, red sandalwood and rice. He placed a pot of wine beside all this

16. ŚrīvāsaṬhākura called for all the respectable gentlemen of the neighborhood and smilingly addressed them as follows. “Gentlemen, every night I worship the goddess Bhavānī. Since the paraphernalia for the worship is present here, now all you respectable brāhmaṇas and members of the higher castes can understand my position.”

17. Then all the assembled gentlemen exclaimed, “What is this? Who has performed such mischievous activities?” They called for a sweeper who threw all the items of worship far away and cleansed the place.

18. After three days, leprosy attacked GopālaCāpāla, and blood oozed from sores all over his body. Incessantly covered with germs and insects biting him all over his body, he felt unbearable pain, burning in distress. GopālaCāpāla left the village.

19. “My dear nephew, I am Your maternal uncle in our village relationship. Please see how greatly this attack of leprosy has afflicted me. “As an incarnation of God, You are delivering so many fallen souls. I am also a greatly unhappy fallen soul. Kindly deliver me by Your mercy.”

20. “O sinful person, envious of pure devotees, I shall not deliver you! Rather, I shall have you bitten by these germs for many millions of years. “You have made ŚrīvāsaṬhākura appear to have been worshiping the goddess Bhavānī. Simply for this offense, you will have to fall down into hellish life for ten million births.”

21. Śrī Caitanya, after accepting the renounced order, went to JagannāthaPurī and then came back to Kuliyā. Then that sinful man took shelter of the Lord, who told him, “You have committed an offense at the lotus feet of ŚrīvāsaṬhākura. You must beg for his mercy, and if he gives you blessings and you do not commit such sins again, you will be freed from these reactions.”

22. Then the brāhmaṇa, GopālaCāpāla, went to ŚrīvāsaṬhākura and took shelter of his lotus feet, and by ŚrīvāsaṬhākura’s mercy he was freed from all sinful reactions.

23. ŚrīvāsaṬhākura’s son dies

24. One night while Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu was dancing with His devotees at the house of ŚrīvāsaṬhākura, one of ŚrīvāsaṬhākura’s sons, who was suffering from some disease, died.

25. ŚrīvāsaṬhākura did not allow anyone to cry, for he did not want the kīrtana going on at his house to be disturbed. Thus kīrtana continued without a sound of lamentation.

26. When the kīrtana was over, Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who could understand the incident, declared, “There must have been some calamity in this house.” When He was then informed about the death of ŚrīvāsaṬhākura’s son, He expressed His regret, saying, “Why was this news not given to Me before?”

27. He went to the place where the son was lying dead and asked him, “My dear boy, why are you leaving the house of ŚrīvāsaṬhākura?”

28. The dead son immediately replied, “I was living in this house as long as I was destined to live here. Now that the time is over, I am going elsewhere, according to Your direction. I am Your eternal servant, a dependent living being. I must act only according to Your desire. Beyond Your desire, I cannot do anything. I have no such power.”

29. Hearing these words of the dead son, all the members of ŚrīvāsaṬhākura’s family received transcendental knowledge. Thus there was no cause for lamentation.

30. Lord Caitanya assured ŚrīvāsaṬhākura, “You have lost one son, but NityānandaPrabhu and I are your eternal sons. We shall never be able to give up your company.”

31. Aṣṭa-kālīya-līlā meditation

32. In ecstasy the Lord asked ŚrīvāsaṬhākura to deliver His flute, but ŚrīvāsaṬhākura replied, “Your flute has been stolen away by the gopīs.” Thus Śrīvāsa described the transcendental mellows of the pastimes of ŚrīVṛndāvana. In the morning, the Lord embraced ŚrīvāsaṬhākura and satisfied him.

33. Nṛsiṁha-devalīlā

34. One day the Lord ordered ŚrīvāsaṬhākura to read the the thousand names of Lord Viṣṇu. When Caitanya Mahāprabhu heard the holy name of Lord Nṛsiṁha, He became fully absorbed in thought.

35. In the mood of Lord Nṛsiṁha-deva, Lord Caitanya ran through the city streets, club in hand, ready to kill all the atheists. Seeing Him appearing very fierce in the ecstasy of Lord Nṛsiṁha, people ran from the street and fled here and there, afraid of His anger.

36. Seeing the people so afraid, the Lord came to His external senses and thus returned to the house of ŚrīvāsaṬhākura and threw away the club. He said to Śrīvāsa, “I stopped, since causing fear among people is an offense.”

37. ŚrīvāsaṬhākura replied, “Anyone who takes Your holy name vanquishes ten million of his offenses immediately. “There was no offense in Your appearing as Nṛsiṁha-deva. Rather, any man who saw You in that mood was immediately liberated from the bondage of material existence.” After saying this, ŚrīvāsaṬhākura worshiped the Lord, who was then greatly satisfied and returned to His own home.

38. DevānandaPaṇḍita

39. Devānanda was expounding the Māyāvādī interpretation. ŚrīvāsaṬhākura was once present, and when he began to cry, Devānanda’s students drove him away. When Caitanya Mahāprabhu met Devānanda He chastised him severely because of his Māyāvāda interpretation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. At that time Devānanda had little faith in Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa, but one night VakreśvaraPaṇḍita was his guest, and when he explained the science of Kṛṣṇa, Devānanda was convinced about the identity of Lord Caitanya. Thus he was induced to explain Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam according to the Vaiṣṇava understanding. (purport CC Ādi 10.77)

40. at Rathayātrā

41. While the King beheld the dancing, ŚrīvāsaṬhākura, standing in front of him, became ecstatic as he saw the dancing of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Seeing ŚrīvāsaṬhākura standing before the King, Haricandana touched Śrīvāsa with his hand and requested him to step aside.

42. Absorbed in watching Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu dance, ŚrīvāsaṬhākura could not understand why he was being touched and pushed. After he was pushed again and again, he became angry. ŚrīvāsaṬhākura slapped Haricandana to stop him from pushing him.

43. In turn, this made Haricandana angry. As the angered Haricandana was about to speak to ŚrīvāsaṬhākura, PratāparudraMahārāja personally stopped him.

44. King Pratāparudra said, “You are very fortunate, for you have been graced by the touch of ŚrīvāsaṬhākura. I am not so fortunate. You should feel obliged to him.”