Leela_2

Lord Nityananda plays role of Laksmana

[taken from Caitanya-bhagavata]

One day Lord Nityananda became Lord Ramacandra and built a bridge across the ocean to Lanka. All the young boys dressed as monkeys to form a monkey-army for the Lord. Shouting "Jai Raghunatha!" they felled some castor oil trees and threw them on the water, imitating Lord Rama's monkeys throwing rocks in the water to build a bridge.

Another time, Lord Nityananda played Sri Laksmana. Taking His bow in hand, He stalked off angrily to meet Sugriva. "O you wretched monkey, My Lord is in anguish. If you care for your life then come right now. Ramacandra awaits us anxiously in Malyavan Mountain, and here you are enjoying in the midst of women."

On another day He chastised Sri Parasurama with mounting fury, "I am not to be blamed for this, O brahmana. Now run away, immediately!"

Lord Nityananda was extremely adept when accepting the role of Laksmana, but the young boys thought it was all in fun. They were unable to grasp its recondite significance. The young boys dressed up as the famous five monkeys and the Lord as Laksmana enquired from them, "Who are you? I see all of you belong to the monkey race, but why are you roaming in the forest? I am the servant of Raghunatha, Lord Ramacandra, please introduce yourselves

They replied, "We are roaming in the forest in fear of Bali. Please take us to Lord Ramacandra so that we may accept the dust from His lotus feet.

After embracing everyone, Laksmana brought them to Lord Ramacandra, and all of them fell at the Lord's lotus feet, offering Him their prostrated obeisances.

One day Lord Nityananda enacted the pastime of killing Indrajit, and another day he lost Himself in the emotions of Laksmana.

After dressing one boy as Vibhisana, Nitai brought him to Lord Ramacandra and the Lord appointed him the King of Lanka.

One boy approached Nitai and said, "I am Ravana, the demon King. I shall discharge my most powerful sakti sila weapon at you. Avert it if you can, Laksmana." Challenging Laksmana with these words the boy threw a lotus flower at Nitai. Engrossed in Laksmana's battle mood, Nitai fell back and dropped to the ground unconscious. Despite the boys' efforts to rouse him, Nitai lay there unmoving.

The Lord lay without a trace of consciousness in His entire body while His friends sat around holding their heads and lamenting. Nitai's mother and father rushed to the spot but when they saw their son's lifeless body they both fainted and dropped to the ground. Whoever observed the situation was certainly astonished.

The young boys described the details to a crowd that had gathered and someone said, "I think I understand the reason for Nitai's loss of consciousness.

"Previously Nitai expertly enacted the role of King Dasaratha who suffered tremendously and finally died when he heard of Rama's banishment to the forest.

"He is simply play acting," explained the man, " and if Hanuman gives Him medicine, He will become well again."

Before the drama Lord Nityananda had instructed all His young friends, "If I should fall then surround me and weep. After waiting for a few moments send for Sri Hanuman and when he holds the medicine to My nose My life will be revived once again."

The Lord fell unconscious simply experiencing His own mood as Sankarsana, Laksmana. Naturally this confounded His young friends.

The boys had become confused by Nimai's seeming unconsciousness and forgotten the Lord's instructions to them. They simply repeated, "Wake up dear brother", and wept in loud voices.

When the boys heard the man's suggestions they remembered the instructions of the Lord. A boy dressed as Hanuman and ran off to gather the medicinal herbs.

Another young boy, dressed as an ascetic but actually the demonic maternal uncle of Ravana, met Sri Hanuman on his way and invited him to share some fruits and food. "Please remain here, dear Hanuman, and grace my humble hermitage. I feel greatly fortunate to be able to meet a personality like your good self."

"My mission is urgent and grave," replied Hanuman. "I must hasten; I cannot remain. You must have heard that Laksmana, Lord Rama's younger brother, is lying in a coma hit by the powerful Satkisela weapon of Ravana. So I must rush to the Gandharva hills to get medicine and save His life."

The ascetic persisted, "If you must leave then at least take your bath, and after eating something you can continue your victorious journey."

By the potency of Lord Nityananda, His young friends played their individual parts so eloquently that the entire crowd watched in amazement.

On the prompting of the ascetic, Hanuman went to the big lake for his bath. A young boy dressed as a crocodile caught hold of Hanuman's feet and dragged him into deep water. But mighty Hanuman pulled the crocodile onto the bank of the lake.

He fought a short battle with the crocodile and after vanquishing him, Hanuman, who is also known as Mahavira, moved on toward his destination.

Another young boy dressed as a demon chased Hanuman with the intent of eating him.

"You have killed the crocodile, but how do you propose to kill me? I shall devour you. Then who will save Laksmana's life?" roared the demon.

Sri Hanuman retorted, "Your Ravana is a dog. I despise him. You had better run far away." They hurled abuses at each other in this manner for sometime and then tearing at each others hair, they broke into a fist fight. Soon Sri Hanuman destroyed the demon and continued toward the Gandharva Hill where he entered the forest.

Some young boys dressed as Gandharvas put up a fight and Hanuman was obliged to battle with them.

When they were defeated, Hanuman carried the Gandharva mountain on his head to Laksmana.

Another young boy dressed as a physician, placed the medicine next to Sri Laksmana's nose thinking of Lord Sri Ramacandra.

Lord Nityananda, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, then stood up, to the great relief of His parents and all others present there.

Sri Hadai Pandita hurried to Nitai and took Him fondly on his lap. The young friends felt light hearted and jubilant.

Everyone was impressed with the drama and enquired, "Dear boy, where did you learn to play all these pastimes?"

Nimai smiled and replied, "These are all My transcendental activities."

Like two moons, the two Lords walked about

taken from Caitanya Bhagavata, by Vrindavan Dasa Thakur

Lord Visvamvara who is the most munificent Supreme Personality and who fulfils all desires perceived in his heart Advaita Acarya's desire. One day He was promenading the streets of Navadvipa with Nityananda Prabhu, observing His own creation. Lord Brahma the creator of this universe was watching all these activities of the Lord and feeling very fortunate and elated he thought to himself, " The Supreme Lord is appreciating my artistry in engineering this creation."

The two of them looked like two full moons sailing across the sky as they moved about with charming gracefulness. The residents of Navadvipa could see them each according to his own devotion.

The demigods were also surveying the movements of the two moonlike Lords but remained unseen to the human eyes, and they wondered in their minds. They thought they were seeing two moons and because of this they mistook their own heavenly abodes as the earth and the earth as the heavenly planet. They also erred that they were the earthly beings and the earthlings were the residents of heavenly planets. They began talking with each other about the mystery of the two moons. Someone said, "Two moons together were never permitted entry in the heavenly planets." Someone else said, " Let me tell you that one of them is the original moon and the other is His reflection." Yet another said, "The son takes to the father in all respects, so one is the father moon and the other is his son. Mars?" It is not in the least bit surprising that the demigods are bewildered by the Lord's beauty for even the Vedas finds itself inadequate to fully describe the Supreme Lord's extraordinary charming looks.

So the two lords moved about in Navadvipa when Lord Visvamvara said to Lord Nityananda, "Let us go to Shantipur to Advaita Acarya's house." Both Lords were always ready engage in pleasurable pastimes so they immediately headed for Advaita Acarya's house.

Almost halfway to Santipur They came across a village called Lalitpura situated on the banks of the Ganga. There in a hut by the river lived a householder sannyasa. Lord Visvamvara enquired from Nityananda Prabhu, "Please find out whose abode this is." Nityananda Prabhu replied, "Lord, this is a sannyasi's residence." Lord Visvamvara said, "If our fortune permits we might see him. Let us go." Happily they went in and offered obeisances to the sannyasi. The sannyasi was taken in by Lord Visvamvara's charming appearance, perfectly shaped limbs and radiant smile; the sannyasi being extremely pleased and blessed Him saying, "May you be blessed with wealth, fame, learning and a beautiful wife." The Lord immediately replied, "Dear Sir, Gosvami, this is really not a blessing. Please tell me, `May you receive Krsna's blessings.' Such a blessing brings one to the platform of devotional service to Lord Visnu and is eternal, inexhaustible and infallible. It is not becoming of your position to bless me with these other materialistic advantages."

With a false laugh, more out of displeasure than anything else, the sannyasi replied, "Now I have direct proof of the axiom I have so often heard before that if you try to do good to people they take it in a bad way. This is exactly the manner in which this young brahmin has reacted. I was very pleased and I wished Him all success but He turned my words around and even started blaming me."

The sannyasi enquired, "Tell me, O young brahmana, why do you fault my blessings? If a man is born into this world and has not enjoyed the company of an attractive woman, or has not collected sufficient wealth, then what is the use of his living? I was wishing you success in this kind of pleasurable life but you are ashamed and reluctant to receive it well. You may be a devotee of Lord Visnu but how will you maintain Yourself without earnings?"

The Lord simply smiled at his words and placed His hand on His forehead in a gesture of sheer fatigue at the sannyasi's gross foolishness.

The Lord utilized this situation to teach everyone that one should not ask for my blessings other than devotional service to the Supreme Lord. He said to the sannyasi, "Listen, O Gosvami, whatever food we eat comes automatically due to our karma or as a result of our previous activities-whatever is destined for us.

If people take birth for the sole purpose of family life with wife, children and earnings, then why is he forced to leave everything at death? No one desires to be sick and ailing, so why do various diseases attack us and make us suffer? The reason for all this is karma; everything is a result of our previous activities, only the elevated and knowledgeable persons have full understanding about these facts. Some persons point out that the Vedas say that the final goal of human life is to be elevated to the heavenly planets; the real understanding of this Vedic injunction is that the Vedas have so enunciated out of extreme leniency towards the ignorant people. Materialistic and ignorant people are naturally inclined to a life of luxury and physical pleasures, so knowing this well, the Vedas have recommended accordingly - the Vedas are not to be blamed for this.

The general mass of people think that by chanting God's name and taking ablutions in the Ganga one acquires wealth and success in family life, and so they respect and take shelter of the Vedic injunctions; but the real result of such performance is that one quickly develops devotion to the Supreme Lord. And so the ignorant people who do not understand the purport of the Vedic injunctions reject the fruit that leads to devotional service to Krsna and endeavor after materialistic pleasures. Please consider well all these points O Gosvami, because there is no goal or activity superior to devotional service to Lord Krsna." Thus the Supreme Lord, the Supreme instructor -aiming these instructions toward the whole world - spoke to the sannyasi and pointed out that devotional service to Lord Krsna is the ultimate purpose of the Vedas. All these instructions of Lord Visvamvara are indeed the absolute truth, and those whose hearts are contaminated due to sinful activities cannot receive them to heart.

The householder sannyasi smiled and thought to himself, "This young brahmana must have become a lunatic due to the effect of some mantra; it may also be that the person dressed as a sannyasi who is accompanying him has somehow mesmerized him." The sannyasi spoke out loud, "Finally it has happened. In front of a mere child, I suddenly know nothing. I have traveled around the world - Ayodhya, Mathura, Badrikasrama, Gujarat, Kasi, Vijayanagar, Ceylon, and to many other cities - and now I am not supposed to know any longer what is good and bad. I have to learn all this from a suckling baby."

Still smiling Lord Nityananda replied, "Listen Gosai, You don't have to unnecessarily argue with a mere child. I am well aware of your position and fame; please just consider my proposal as I am older and forgive us for whatever has happened." Hearing his own praises being sung, he became once again amiable and requested his guests to take food. Lord Nityananda said, "We must leave right away since more urgent business must be attended to, but you can pack some eatables for us which we can eat after our bath on the way. The sannyasi insisted, "Take your bath here, take your meal and after a cooling rest you can be on your way again." The two Supreme Personalities have descended to this mortal world for the sole purpose of delivering the most fallen souls, and so they spent some time with the householder sannyasi.

They washed away their weariness in the cooling waters of the Ganga and then returned to the Sannyasi's dwelling. They offered some ripe mangos, jackfruit and milk to Lord Krsna and then relished this Krsna prasadam in the presence of their pleased host.

The sannyasi was following the left-handed school of sakti worship and they are used to consuming liquor. The sannyasi indirectly made this known to Lord Nityananda. He said, "Listen Sripad, shall I bring us some `happiness'? How often will I get guests like You?" Lord Nityananda who has Himself traveled widely and has seen much, understood that this sannyasi was addicted to alcohol. The sannyasi repeated several times whether she should bring `happiness' or not and Nityananda replied each time, "We must leave right now."

The sannyasi's wife was sitting inside looking at the two Lords, who she saw were more charming than cupid. She stared at them as if in meditation. She corrected her husband saying, "Why do you disturb them during eating?"

Lord Visvamvara enquired aside, "Of what happiness is he speaking?" Lord Nityananda replied, "I think he means liquor."

Lord Caitanya immediately remembered Lord Visnu and called out His name. Quickly rinsing His mouth and hands, they left the house. They walked to the riverside and jumped into the water of the Ganga and swam all the way to Santipur to Advaita Acarya's house. The Lord shows His mercy to a licentious drunkard but annihilates Vedantists if they are offensive to the devotees of the Lord and the Lord Himself. Although this so-called sannyasi was a drunkard and intimately associated with women, still the Lord visited this dwelling. He conversed with the sannyasi and gave him instructions, rested and ate in his house. This sannyasi may not become fully purified in this life but has to wait for another birth; the agnostics who criticize the Lord and His devotees will never become eligible to receive the Lord's mercy. Even if one is a sannyasi still that does not make him eligible to see or meet the Supreme Lord. This is evident from the incident, which occurred in Varanasi with the sannyasis there.

more pastimes of Lord Caitanya-
Sri Caitanya's March on the Kazi

Krishna pastime- Sri Giriraja

The complete passage of Lord Nityananda's Lila- Sri Nityananda Rama