Verse 1.8.96

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.8.96:

মিশ্র বোলে,—“আজি মুই দেখিলুঙ্ স্বপন নিমাঞি কর্যাছে যেন শিখার মুণ্ডন ॥ ৯৬ ॥

मिश्र बोले,—“आजि मुइ देखिलुङ् स्वपन निमाञि कर्याछे येन शिखार मुण्डन ॥ ९६ ॥

miśra bole,—“āji mui dekhiluṅ svapana nimāñi karyāche yena śikhāra muṇḍana || 96 ||

misra bole,—“aji mui dekhilun svapana nimani karyache yena sikhara mundana (96)

English translation:

(96) Jagannātha Miśra replied, “Today I dreamt that Nimāi had shaved His head.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

The ekadaṇḍi-sannyāsīs burn their sacred threads in the sacrificial fire and shave off their śikhās. This was the practice at that time of those sannyāsīs, who imitated the Buddhist monks. Vedic sannyāsīs, however, have always accepted the tridaṇḍa and kept their śikhās. Although the ekadaṇḍi-sannyāsīs follow Buddhist tradition by giving up their śikhā and sacred thread, they still generally call themselves Vedic sannyāsīs.

There is no necessity for paramahaṃsas to wear saffron cloth and keep their śikhās and sacred threads, but kuṭīcaka sannyāsīs are prohibited from accepting the dress of paramahaṃsas. During the manifest pastimes of Śrīmān Mahāprabhu the ekadaṇḍi-sannyāsīs who followed Śaṅkarācārya were prominent in North India. The ordinary people of that time accepted that shaving one’s śikhā was a symptom of the sannyāsa order.