Homepage
Gallery
Blog
Atishaya Bazaar
Site Search
Site Map




Lord Caitanya Taking Darshan of Jagannath Deities



"Let me briefly describe some of the devotees of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu in Jagannatha Puri. Among the devotees who accompanied the Lord in Jagannatha Puri, two of them--Paramananda Puri and Svarupa Damodara--were the heart and soul of the Lord. Among the other devotees were Gadadhara, Jagadananda, Sankara, Vakresvara, Damodara Pandita, Thakura Haridasa, Raghunatha Vaidya and Raghunatha dasa. All these devotees were associates of the Lord from the very beginning, and when the Lord took up residence in Jagannatha Puri they remained there to serve Him faithfully. All the devotees who resided in Bengal used to visit Jagannatha Puri every year to see the Lord."


"Now let me enumerate the devotees of Bengal who first came to see the Lord at Jagannatha Puri."

1. Paramananda Puri

2. Svarupa Damodara

3. Sarvabhauma Bhattacarya

4. Sri Gopinatha Acarya

5. Kasi Misra

6. Pradyumna Misra

7. Bhavananda Raya

8. Bhavananda Raya's Sons: Ramananda Raya, Pattanayaka Gopinatha, Kalanidhi, Sudhanidhi and Nayaka Vaninatha

9. King Prataparudra

10. Krsnananda

11. Sivananda

12. Paramananda Mahapatra

13. Bhagavan Acarya

14. Brahmananda Bharati

15. Sri Sikhi Mahiti

16. Murari Mahiti

17. Madhavidevi

18. Brahmacari Kasisvara

19. Sri Govinda

20. Ramai

21. Nandai

22. Krsnadasa

23. Balabhadra Bhattacarya

24. Bada Haridasa

25. Chota Haridasa

26. Ramabhadra Acarya

27. Simhesvara

28. Tapana Acarya

29. Raghunatha

30. Nilambara

31. Singabhatta

32. Kamabhatta

33. Sivananda

34. Kamalananda

35. Acyutananda

36. Nirloma Gangadasa

37. Visnudasa



"The prominent devotees at Varanasi were the physician Candrasekhara, Tapana Misra and Raghunatha Bhattacarya, Tapana Misra's son. When Lord Caitanya came to Varanasi after seeing Vrndavana, for two months He lived at the residence of Candrasekhara Vaidya and accepted prasada at the house of Tapana Misra. When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu stayed at the house of Tapana Misra, Raghunatha Bhatta, who was then a boy, washed His dishes and massaged His legs. When Raghunatha grew to be a young man, he visited Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu at Jagannatha Puri and stayed there for eight months. Sometimes he offered prasada to the Lord.

Later, by the order of Lord Caitanya, Raghunatha went to Vrndavana and remained there under the shelter of Srila Rupa Gosvami. While he stayed with Srila Rupa Gosvami, his engagement was to recite Srimad-Bhagavatam for him to hear. As a result of this Bhagavatam recitation, he attained perfectional love of Krsna, by which he remained always maddened.

I list in this way only a portion of the innumerable devotees of Lord Caitanya. To describe them all fully is not possible. From each branch of the tree have grown hundreds and thouands of subbranches of disciples and granddisciples. Every branch and subbranch of the tree is full of innumerable fruits and flowers. They inundate the world with the waters of love of Krsna. Each and every branch of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's devotees has unlimited spiritual power and glory. Even if one had thousands of mouths, it would be impossible to describe the limits of their activities. I have briefly described the devotees of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu in different places. Even Lord Sesa, who has thousands of mouths, could not list them all.

Praying at the lotus feet of Sri Rupa and Sri Raghunatha, always desiring their mercy, I, Krsnadasa, narrate Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, following in their footsteps. Thus end the Bhaktivedanta purports to Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila, Tenth Chapter, in the matter of the main trunk of the Caitanya tree, its branches and its subbranches.

Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi lila, Chapter 10

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust. HDG A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada.




Back