Introduction to chapter 14

This chapter describes Gaura-Nārāyaṇa’s enactment of a householder’s pastime of serving guests; His visit to East Bengal; the offensive activities of some sinful atheists who imitated the Lord and of a brahma- daitya of Rāḍha-deśa—all of them being contemporaries of the author; the disappearance of Lakṣmīdevī; the inquiries of Tapana Miśra to the Lord regarding the goal of life and the process for achieving it; the Lord’s reply and teachings; and the Lord’s return from Bangladesh.

Nimāi Paṇḍita was greatly honored by the wealthy people of Navadvīpa as well as by all those who were accustomed to perform religious rituals. In order to establish an ideal example of the principles of household life, the Lord did not encourage the fault of miserliness, rather He showed compassion towards needy and distressed persons. Guests were always properly served at the Lord’s house in Śrī Māyāpur-Navadvīpa. Though the Lord, who is the teacher of people in general, personally displayed the pastimes of a poor householder, He nevertheless constantly endeavored to serve renounced Vaiṣṇava sannyāsīs. As soon as mother Śacī noticed a shortage of ingredients required for feeding the sannyāsīs, Gaurasundara would immediately bring from somewhere the necessary ingredients for the service of the Vaiṣṇavas. Lakṣmīdevī engaged in cooking for the service of the Vaiṣṇavas, and the Lord personally sat with the Vaiṣṇava sannyāsīs and fully satisfied them by feeding them sumptuously. The principle duty of householders is to serve guests; those householders who do not serve guests are lower than animals and birds. Even if a householder is bereft of wealth due to past karma, he should without duplicity serve his guests with at least some water, a sitting place, and sweet words. Knowing that Śrī Lakṣmī-Nārāyaṇa had appeared in Navadvīpa, Lord Brahmā, Lord Śiva, Śukadeva, Vyāsadeva, and Nārada visited the Lord’s house at Śrī Māyāpur in the guise of sannyāsīs.

From early morning, Śrī Lakṣmīdevī continually engaged in various services in the temple room, arranged the paraphernalia for worshiping the Lord, and served tulasī. She gave more attention to the service of Śacīdevī, her mother-in-law and mother of her Lord, than to the service of tulasī. Śacīdevī sometimes saw blazing flames of fire under the feet of her son, and she sometimes smelled the fragrance of lotus flowers throughout her house.

After some time Nimāi Paṇḍita went with His students to earn some wealth in Bangladesh, where He stayed on the banks of the Padmāvatī River. Overwhelmed by the Lord’s ingenious scholarship, innumerable students came to study from Him and within a short time mastered various subjects.

At this point the author says that simply because the Lord went to Bangladesh, the young, the old, and the women there are even today intoxicated in Śrī Caitanya’s saṅkīrtana movement. But sometimes in order to fill their stomachs some atheists declare themselves to be Nārāyaṇa, or the Supreme Lord, and they thus ruin the people of that country. In Rāḍha-deśa also there was a great brahma-daitya who externally dressed as a brāhmaṇa but who internally had the nature of a demon and declared himself to be “Gopāla.” Due to his cowardliness, however, people called him a hated jackal. There are no greater offenders than those sinful living entities who want to declare themselves or other living entities to be the Supreme Lord instead of declaring Śrī Caitanya, the Lord of innumerable universes, as the Supreme Lord. Moreover, even today it is found that simply by remembering the servants of Caitanyacandra a living entity attains all auspiciousness.

While the Lord was residing in Bangladesh, Śrī Lakṣmīdevī, being unable to tolerate separation from the Lord, left this world from the bank of the Ganges while meditating on the lotus feet of the Lord. When the people of Bangladesh heard that the Lord was returning to Navadvīpa, they brought various gifts for Him. At that time one pious brāhmaṇa resident of Bangladesh named Tapana Miśra, who was unable to ascertain the goal of life and the process to achieve it, received instructions late one night in a dream to approach Nara-Nārāyaṇa in the form of Nimāi Paṇḍita, who appeared in the age of Kali to deliver the fallen souls. When Tapana Miśra arrived before the Lord, Śrī Gaurasundara instructed him that the only religious process for the age of Kali was śrī-kṛṣṇa-nāma-saṅkīrtana, which awards all perfection and which is to be followed by all people of all countries at all times. He further instructed Tapana Miśra to give up all duplicity and always chant the sixteen word, thirty-two syllable mahā- mantra with full attention. When Tapana Miśra asked permission to accompany the Lord, the Lord ordered him to immediately go to Vārāṇasī and indicated that they would again meet there and elaborately discuss the goal of life and the process to achieve it. When Tapana Miśra then related the topics of his dream, the Lord forbid him from disclosing those topics to anyone.

Thereafter the Lord returned home from Bangladesh with His wealth and offered everything to His mother. Many students accompanied the Lord to Navadvīpa in order to study from Him. Hearing about the disappearance of Lakṣmīdevī, the Lord imitated ordinary people by exhibiting grief for a short time and then instructed His mother about the temporary nature of this material existence.