Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur’s vision of Ratha Yatra in Sri Nabadwip Dham.

By Srila Bhakti Raksak Sridhar Dev-Goswami Maharaj

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur has written in his aspiration for Dham-lila, “When will the day come when, from near Srivas Angan, I shall look at the sannyasi clad Sriman Mahaprabhu and try to bring Him back to Srivas Angan just as Mahaprabhu looked at Jagannath in Puri and the gopis looked at Krishna in Kuruksetra?” In Kuruksetra, Krishna is not on the gopis’ level, and they aspire only for union with Him in Vrndavan. Mahaprabhu in Puri also, while taking Krishna from the Jagannath Temple to the Gundicha garden, had the same aspiration—taking Krishna to Vrndavan—as Krishna promised in Kuruksetra, “I will come very soon to Vrndavan.” Similarly, Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur expressed his aspiration, his inner earnestness: “The sannyasi clad Chaitanyadev is not desirable to us. We want the Gauranga who continued sankirtan day and night in Srivas Angan. When will we get that Gauranga? The Gauranga of our home, not the sannyasi Gauranga. It gives much pain to the hearts of the devotees to see Him practising the penances as a sannyasi. The devotees cannot tolerate it. So, we aspire for the Gauranga who was with the devotees of Nabadwip, who always continued Nam-sankirtan.”

bahirange sange kare nama-sankirtana
antaranga sange kare rasa-asvadana

[“With the public, the Lord performed Nam-sankirtan, and with His intimate associates, He tasted rasa.”]

“We want the grhastha Gauranga, and not the sannyasi Gauranga.”

Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur has mentioned this aspiration in his bhajan-lalasa. If chariot Pastimes should take place in Nabadwip, then they should take place from Vidya Nagar to Srivas Angan, not otherwise, as this is in consonance with the eternal lila of Nabadwip. A chariot, as it is done in Puri, may take sannyasi Gauranga, that is, Dvaraka Krishna, to Srivas Angan, which is Rasa Sthali of Vrndavan. That was the idea of Srila Bhakti Vinod Thakur. He has explained it in his bhajan-lalasa, that these things are his inner aspiration. You can go through that booklet. It is a songbook. I do not know if anyone will come to satisfy that hint for practice.

Student: He wanted to have a Ratha Yatra from Vidya Nagar to Srivas Angan?

Srila Sridhar Maharaj: Yes. You can find reference for that one of his books, perhaps the name of the book is Bhajana-lalasa.

Sannyasi Gauranga has been compared to Dvaraka Krishna. He is not desirable to the residents of Nabadwip or the associates of the Lord there. They feel, “We lost Gauranga.” As Mahaprabhu left to help others—the many souls in bondage—so Krishna left His Vrndavan-lila to organise help, political help, for the people at large. The Kamsa administration, Jarasandha administration, and other administrations at that time were very bad, demonic. To release the public from that sort of maladministration, Krishna left Vrndavan to help. Similarly, Mahaprabhu left His Nabadwip-lila to help ordinary souls get out of their bondage. But just as the gopis did not like that Krishna will leave to help the public by improving the general administration of the country, so also the people of Nabadwip did not want that Mahaprabhu would leave Nabadwip and go to work for the public throughout the world, leaving them alone here.

Source

Spoken on 8 July 1982.

References

dekhiya kanaka-kanti sannyasa-murati
bhumi padi’ vilokiba kariya akuti
dvarakaya raja-vese sri-krsne dekhiya
kadila yemana gopi yamuna smariya
(Sri Navadvipa-bhava-taranga: 69)

“Seeing the golden lustre of the Lord’s sannyasi form, I will fall to the ground and longingly gaze at Him like the gopis, who cried remembering the Yamuna upon seeing Sri Krishna of Dvaraka in the garb of a king.

ami chai gaurachandre la-ite mayapure
yathaya kaisora-vesa sri-angete sphure
yathaya chachara kesa trikachchha-vasane
isodyane lila kare bhakta-jana sane
(Sri Navadvipa-bhava-taranga: 70)

“I want to take Gaurachandra back to Mayapur, where His youthful dress, dhoti tucked in three places, and wavy hair shine on His divine form, where He performs Pastimes in the garden with the devotees.

sei vate ei yati ami sei dasa
prabhura darsana sei ananta vilasa
tathapi amara chitta prthu-kunda-tire
prabhure la-ite chaya srivasa-mandire
(Sri Navadvipa-bhava-taranga: 71)

“In truth, Gaurachandra is this sannyasi, I am His servant, and this appearance of the Lord is one of His infinite Pastimes. Still, my heart longs to take the Lord back to the home of Srivas on the bank of Prthu Kunda.”