92. Lord Jagannath and Chaitanya

Lord Jagannath and Chaitanya:

In text 137 of the first chapter of the sesa khanda of Sri Caitanya-mangala, Srila Lochana das Thakur quotes the following verse, which he accredits to the Vayu Purana:

kaleh prathama-sandhyāyām 
laksmi kanto bhavisyati 
daru-brahma samipantah 
sannyāsau gaura-vigrahah

In the beginning of Kali-yuga, Lord Narayan will appear on the earth in a golden form. Taking sannyasa, he will reside in Purushottama Kshetra near Lord Jagannath.

There is a special relationship between Jagannath and Sri Chaitanya. It is significant that Jagannath was the main deity worshiped by Mahaprabhu. Many of His associates in Puri had deities that they worshiped there, including Tota Gopinath, who was worshiped by Srila Gadadhar Pandit, Sri Sri Krishna Balaram, worshiped by Bhagavan das and Chota Haridas, Madhavi devi's Radha Gopinath; the Radha Damodar deities of Swarup Damodar Goswami; Radha Giridhari worshiped by Jagadananda Pandit; Sri Sri Radha Vrindavan Chandra worshiped by Kahnai Khuntia; and Sri Sri Radha Madan Mohan worshiped by Srila Raghunath das Goswami, etc. Yet aside from some brief mention of Mahaprabhu going to receive the darsana of Tota Gopinath and Alarnath in Brahmagiri, there is no description found of His going for darsana of deities other than Jagannath. However, the biographies of Sri Chaitanya in Puri describe extensively about His daily and often multiple daily darsana with Lord Jagannath. Srila Lochana das Thakur states in his Sri Caitanya-mangala, (madhya 42.213), that Gaurasundar was going for darsana of Jagannath 3 times a day.

In this connection, it is interesting to analyze Gaura's stay in Sri Rangam, South India. Caitanya-caritamra states that while there Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was going daily to receive the darsana of Lord Ranganath, the presiding deity of Sri Rangam. However, there is also a temple in Sri Rangam of small deities of Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra that, according to the local tradition, were personally worshiped by Mahaprabhu during his stay there. There are two local histories regarding these deities. Some hold that Mahaprabhu made them with His own hands; others say that He brought them with Him when He came to Sri Rangam. Judging from their forms which are quite different from the general form of Jagannath deities in Orissa, it is clear that they were specially made.

Two facts are significant about these deities. One is that even while visiting this major pilgrimage site and receiving daily darsana of the famous and ancient deity of Ranganath, Mahaprabhu was still absorbed in worshiping Lord Jagannath. And, aside from these Jagannath deities in Sri Rangam and the Govardhan Shila that was given to Mahaprabhu by Shankarananda Saraswati, worshiped by Sri Chaitanya, and later given to Raghunath das, we are not aware of any other deities that are said to have been personally worshiped by Mahaprabhu.

Why did Mahaprabhu place so much stress on the deity of Jagannath? Why not Radha Krishna?

In Caitanya-candrodaya-natakam (page 321) Srila Kavi Karnapur relates a discussion wherein Maharaja Prataparudra asked Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya. "Since Vrindavan is the dearest place to the Lord, why did He stay there such a short time and then return here to Puri?

Sarvabhauma replied, 

jagannathena tad-viraham 
asa- hamänena samakṛsta iva

"He was drawn back because He could not bear the separation of Lord Jagannath."





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