Chaitanya Bhagavata
by Bhumipati Dāsa | 2008 | 1,349,850 words
The Chaitanya Bhagavata 1.9.121, English translation, including a commentary (Gaudiya-bhasya). This text is similair to the Caitanya-caritamrita and narrates the pastimes of Lord Caitanya, proclaimed to be the direct incarnation of Krishna (as Bhagavan) This is verse 121 of Adi-khanda chapter 9—“Nityananda’s Childhood Pastimes and Travels to Holy Places”.
Verse 1.9.121
Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.9.121:
প্রতিস্রোতা গেলা যথা প্রাচী-সরস্বতী নৈমিষারণ্যে তবে গেলা মহামতি ॥ ১২১ ॥
प्रतिस्रोता गेला यथा प्राची-सरस्वती नैमिषारण्ये तबे गेला महामति ॥ १२१ ॥
pratisrotā gelā yathā prācī-sarasvatī naimiṣāraṇye tabe gelā mahāmati || 121 ||
pratisrota gela yatha praci-sarasvati naimisaranye tabe gela mahamati (121)
English translation:
(121) The Lord visited Pratisrotā, where the Sarasvatī River flows in the opposite direction. The most magnanimous Nityānanda then went to Naimiṣāraṇya.
Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:
The word pratisrotā refers to the Sarasvatī River. In this connection one should refer to the explanations on Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (10.78.18) by the various commentators such as Śrīdhara Svāmī. In ordinary language the word pratisrotā refers to a river that is flowing in the opposite direction. In other words, at Prabhāsa-kṣetra the River Sarasvatī flows west and enters into the ocean. Śrīmad Vallabhācārya, who visited various holy places of northern and western India, described Śrī Baladeva’s travel to the holy places in his Subodhanī commentary on the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (10.78.18) as follows: “Śrī Baladeva went to Prabhāsa and after taking bath and offering oblations, He departed. Śrī Baladeva took bath at Prabhāsa in the place known as Agni-kuṇḍa as well as at the confluence of the Sarasvatī River and the ocean. He went to the place known as Pratisrotā, on the bank of the Sarasvatī, where the river flows in the opposite direction.” In the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (11.30.6) it is clearly stated: vayaṃ prabhāsaṃ yāsyāmo yatra pratyak sarasvatī—“We shall go to Prabhāsa-kṣetra, where the river Sarasvatī flows west.” According to Śrīdhara Svāmī’s commentary, the word pratyak means “flowing towards the west,” and according to the Bhāgavata-candra-candrikā of Śrī Vīrarāghava Ācārya: “We shall go to the place known as Prabhāsa, where the Sarasvatī River flows in the opposite direction and enters into the ocean.”