Introduction to chapter 9

This chapter describes the various dramas related to Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Rāma, and Vāmana that Śrīmad Nityānanda Prabhu enacted up to His twelfth year and His subsequent travel to the holy places up to the age of twenty. On the order of Śrī Gaura-Kṛṣṇa, Śrī Anantadeva personally appeared in the village of Ekacākā, in the district of Rāḍha-deśa, from the womb of Padmāvatī, the wife of Hāḍo Ojhā, as Śrī Nityānanda-candra. In the wake of His appearance, all the prevalent inauspicious symptoms were totally uprooted.

In His childhood pastimes, Śrīmad Nityānanda Prabhu and His associate childhood friends remained engaged in imitating various pastimes of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Sometimes He and His friends would form the assembly of the demigods, and someone dressed as mother earth, burdened by the atrocities of the demons, would come before that assembly and offer prayers. At that time Śrīmad Nityānanda Prabhu and the boys who were part of that assembly would go to the bank of a river and pray to Lord Kṣīrodakaśāyī. Thereafter, a boy acting as Kṣīrodakaśāyī would announce from a hidden place, “I will soon appear in Mathurā Gokula in order to diminish the burden of the earth.” At other times they imitated the various Dvāpara pastimes of Kṛṣṇa like the marriage of Vasudeva and Devakī, the birth of Kṛṣṇa in the prison cell, Vasudeva’s taking Kṛṣṇa to the house of Nanda, Vasudeva’s return with Mahāmāyā, the daughter of Yaśodā, the killing of Pūtanā, the breaking of Śakaṭa, Kṛṣṇa’s stealing butter and milk from the house of the cowherds, the killing of Dhenuka, Agha, and Bakāsura, tending the cows, lifting Govardhana, stealing the gopīs’ clothes, Kṛṣṇa’s bestowing mercy on the wives of the sacrificial brāhmaṇas, Nārada’s giving advice to Kaṃsa in a secluded place, and the killing of the elephant Kuvalaya, the wrestlers Cāṇūra and Muṣṭika, and Kaṃsa. Sometimes in the form of Vāmana, He deceived Bali; sometimes while enacting the pastimes of Rāma, He would gather His friends to form an army of monkey soldiers and build a bridge; He would personally play the role of Lakṣmaṇa and approach Sugrīva with bow and arrows in His hands; in the form of Rāma, He would diminish the pride of Paraśurāma; and while enacting the killing of Indrajit, He would fall unconscious in the mood of Lakṣmaṇa having been hit by Indrajit’s powerful arrow until Hanumān brought medicine, under His previous directions, and revived Him. In this way He exhibited pastimes of the various incarnations of the Lord.

In this way Śrīmad Nityānanda Prabhu engaged in enacting various pastimes up to the age of twelve. Thereafter, on the pretext of purifying Himself, He traveled to the holy places of Āryāvarta and Dākṣiṇātya up to the age of twenty. He then came to Navadvīpa and met His own Lord, Śrī Gaurasundara. In the course of visiting the holy places, Nityānanda Prabhu met Śrīman Mādhavendra Purī, Śrīpāda Īśvara Purī, and Śrīla Brahmānanda Purī. In this way Śrīmad Nityānanda Prabhu passed a few days discussing topics of Kṛṣṇa with Śrīman Mādhavendra Purī, who was accompanied by his disciples. Thereafter He proceeded to Setubandha, Dhanus-tīrtha, Māyāpurī, Avantī, Godāvarī, Jiyaḍa-nṛsiṃha, Devapurī, Trimalla, Kūrma-kṣetra, and many other holy places before arriving in Nīlācala. At Nīlācala, He saw Śrī Jagannāthadeva, the source of the catur- vyūha, and became overwhelmed in ecstasy. From Śrī Kṣetra, He returned to Śrī Mathurā. This chapter ends with an explanation of why He did not exhibit the pastime of distributing the holy names and love of God at that time and a glorification of Śrī Nityānanda Prabhu, who is nondifferent from the omnipotent Baladeva.