'Brahmāṇḍa bhramite kono bhāgyavān jīva guru-kṛṣṇa-kṛpāya pāya bhakti-latā-bīja' (CC. Madhya 19.151) means we are aimlessly moving from one body to the next, one universe to the next, and then, by the grace of Kṛṣṇa, one gets a guru, by the grace of the Guru, one gets Kṛṣṇa. And so, Lord Nityānanda is the original guru, and he reveals the importance of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu to all the devotees and reveals that He's the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Caitanya Mahāprabhu took sanyāsa and He headed for this place, Jagannātha Puri. And this is a stop before you get to Puri. It's about six miles away. Of course, they were walking; this is pretty far along from Navadvīpa when they stopped here. From the Caitanya Charitāmrita you will note that they stopped in various places and what did they do? They engaged in Kṛṣṇa Kathā.

In fact Nityānanda had heard from others the story of Kṣīra-corā gopīnātha. He told that story here, and the devotees just enjoyed it. Everything was going fine until Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu asked Nityānanda to hold his dandā. You know when you ask somebody to hold your bead bag and say you'll be right back? Then you come back and say, "Where's my bag?" "Oh, I don't have it anymore." I never had that happen, but somebody actually cut off my śikhā when they were helping buzz me up. Since then, I learned how to do it myself. They thought it was funny. I didn't think it was that funny. They were like, "ha ha ha, it'll grow back." It's a big deal to a brahmacārī, okay? So, Nityānanda had broken his dandā in three parts and threw it away, apparently in this river.

When Caitanya Mahāprabhu came back and asked for His dandā, Nitai said, "You know, you broke it because you were in ecstasy. I tried to save you from fainting, and we both fell on the dandā and it broke and now it's gone." He had different excuses for why the dandā was gone. Now both Vṛndāvana Dāsa Ṭhākura and ā Dāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, and then our ācāryas like Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura, mention the importance of this pastime.

It is still enigmatic, even though they give different descriptions, because it's enigmatic in and of itself that Supreme is one, but He expands Himself into many. That's why I brought up that verse 'Vadanti tat tattva-vidas

tattvaṁ yaj jñānam advayam' in an attempt to build a foundational basis for this talk today. Because there’s a way in which it's incomprehensible how the Supreme is everything and He is one, advaya but at the same time he has variety. But it makes a lot of sense to me anyway because the Supreme is all-cognizant, full of bliss, eternality, and ānanda. and that's why I also mentioned that for there to be ananda there has to be loving relationship.

So, how is this a significant and loving relationship between Caitanya Mahāprabhu and Lord Nityānanda? Why did He break the dandā? Even more mysteriously, why did Caitanya Mahāprabhu dictate from within that Nityānanda should break the dandā? It is even more curious why Caitanya Mahāprabhu then became angry if he's the one, as Vṛndāvana Dāsa Ṭhākura says, who inspired Nitāi to break it the first place?

To connect with His Grace Vaiśeṣika Dāsa, please visit https://www.fanthespark.com/next-steps/ask-vaisesika-dasa/

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