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Sri Bhakti Ratnakara Aug 17, CANADA (SUN) — A serial presentation of Sri Bhakti Ratnakara by Srila Narahari Cakravarti Thakur.
From that time on many boys would come to Nityananda's house to play with him. Nityananda was a very gentle child. Gradually he grew to the age of ten and with his friends he would play only those sports which Lord Krsna had played with his friends. He would choose a particular type of sport and then teach his friends. Sometimes, for example, he would want to re-enact a pastime from the birth of Krsna. They would create the prison where Krsna was born and act out each of the events related to Krsna going to Gokula to live with Nanda. He also enacted other pastimes like birthday of Krsna in Nanda's house, various incidents which proved the love of mother Yasoda for Krsna, the killing of Putina, the breaking of the cradle, the killing of Trinavata etc. Sometimes he chose to act out the pastime where mother Yasoda tied Krsna to a mortar and later Krsna uprooted the Yamalarjuna trees. During each pastime Nityananda would dress in different types of clothes and play just like Krsna had played in Gokula. He would assign the roars of Baka and Aga to his different boyfriends and then as Krsna he would mockingly kill them. He would build a snake-shaped structure and put it in the water so that they could re-enact the pastime of Kaliya danana. Just like Krsna, Nityananda would sometimes kill Dhanuka or Pralambra while playing in the grazing grounds. Just like Krsna he would play in the pasturing grounds, occasionally killing a demon like Arisasura or rescuing Braja by lifting Govardhana. Sometimes they enacted the pastime of stealing the dresses of the Gopis and other times they pretended to kill kamsa. But when they staged the drama of Krsna leaving Vraja where the Gopis lamented pitifully, Nityananda also cried in hopeless despair. He also enacted the various pastimes that Krsna had performed in Mathura. Sometimes Nityananda taught his boyfriends the pastimes of Sri Ramacandra. For his drama he arranged everything as an exact replica of the places and incidents which had been described by Valmika in his book the Ramayana. In th mood of Krsna Nityananda also played the role of Vamana, the incarnation of Visnu who tricked King Vali. He also played the role of Nrsimha and mockingly killed Hiranyakasipur. Whatever pastimes Lord Krsna had performed to please his devotees were also performed by the son of Padmavati as he played with his village friends. The boys of Ekchakra liked to be with Nityananda and could not leave him for a second. The parents of Ekchakra never forbid their children to associate with Nityananda; rather, they would decorate them with ornaments and encourage to take part in Nityananda's transcendental play. At the time for taking the sacred thread, Nityananda was just stepping into his adolescent period and the village people were enchanted by his beauty. In his boyhood he became a scholar in all Sastras and Vyakanas and when he was twelve years old he looked like a boy of fifteen. Because of this Harai Pandita anxiously sought out a wife for Nitai. The brahmin gentlemen of Ekchakra agreed to the idea and someone took the initiative to select a bride from a good brahmin family. Unfortunately, none of them could know the future.
One day a travelling Gosvami came as a guest to the house of Harai Pandita. Harai Pandita offered him alms and they passed the night together discussing Lord Krsna. At the time of parting, the sannyasi requested Harai Pandita to give him Nityananda and Harai Pandita was obliged to give him, thinking that there must be some divine plan behind the request. When the sannyasi left with Nityananda Harari Pandita fell on the ground unconscious and his wife dropped just like a dead body. Even the villagers of Ekchakra became half-dead when they heard the news. The friends of Nityananda fell on the ground and the entire village was lifeless in grief. People assembled at the house of Harai Ojha and tried to revive the Pandita and his wife. But regaining their consciousness, the parents of Nityananda simply cried and called out the name of Nityananda. Their profuse tears could have melter the hard stones. The younger brother of Nitai also lamented, wanting to know why the sannyasi had not also taken him. One brahmin anxiously asked the crowd which direction the sannyasi had taken. He would catch up with them and fall at the feet of the sannyasi, begging him to release Nimai. After all, the boy did not know how to cook or other household duties. The brahmin would offer the sannyasi his own son who knew how to perform all types of service, and then he would bring Nityananda back. People searched in all directions for the sannyasi but he was not to be found. The astrologers of Ekchakra met in a solitary place and discussed the prophecy of the astrologer who had predicted that Balarama would take his birth in Ekchakra. They realized too late that the prophecy had been fulfilled when Nityananda took birth in the house of Harai Pandita. "At the time of Nityananda's birth all misfortunes vanished," said one man. "There have been no famines, the people are happy and there is adequate rainfall." "Now I understand why flowers were showered from heaven at the time of Nitai's birth," said another man. "Only a God could possess such divine beauty," said another. "I have never seen the type of sports which Nitai used to enact with his friends," said one gentleman. "Once I saw Nitai in the role of a sannyasi. He wore a saffron colored dhoti and held a dhanda in one hand with a kamdalu in the other. The children were all wearing Vaisnava clothes and danced joyfully with Nitai in the center. Now Nityananda has made the play in reality." "Oh, I am an ignorant person, lamented another villager. "How could I know that Rumini Kumara and Nityananda were the same person." "We have no ability to understand the wish of the Lord," consoled another man. "The arrival of the sannyasi was only a pretext under which the Lord would leave home. Just as Balarama had visited all the holy places on foot, so also Nityananda would go on pilgrimage." "But this is not proper behavior," criticised another person. "Nityananda should not have gone while his parents were still living." Then the poor man broke down and cried loudly while calling out the name of Nityananda.
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