Śrīla Prabhupāda Says - [Regarding Lord Nityānanda]

Śrīla Prabhupāda Says - [Regarding Lord Nityānanda]

Now what is important to us is that we have to understand Lord Chaitanya as the same Personality as Krishna whereas Nityānanda Prabhu is the same Personality as Ramachandra. And in the present context of Leela or pastimes Shri Nityānanda is meant for fulfilling all the mission of Lord Chaitanya.

The author says that it is not an easy task to know the glories of Lord Nityānanda but he has just tried to explain it in fragments of such glory by the mercy of the Lord.
He tries to explain another incidence of His (Lord Nityānanda's) causeless mercy in connection with his personal affairs. By this incidence it is experienced as to how Lord Nityānanda can raise a fallen soul to the highest standard of spiritual life. They are not to be expressed because of their confidential nature as the Vedas and yet a sense of conferring personal gratitude(?) they are to be exposed to show how much merciful is Lord Nityānanda towards His devotees. He begs therefore pardon of Lord Nityānanda for this disclosure of confidence but he wants to expose it on account extraordinary ecstatic feeling of the mercy of Lord Nityānanda. The incidence is as follows:—

"Minketan Ramdas is the name of one of His ( Lord Nityānanda's) devotees. He used to visit the residence of the author now and then and was absorbed in the acts of singing and chanting of the holy name of the Lord. One day he was invited at his residence for dinner and the transcendental devotee came and sat on the courtyard of the house. And all the Vaishnavas present there showed their respect for Ramdas. In his jollymood he used to get up on somebody's person and sometimes he used to beat others with his flute rod or by his hand. But he was always full in tears in both the eyes and any one and every one could see Him always in that state. He was so transcendentally situated that one could see him dull at one part of his body while in the other part it was severely palpitating. And the most astonishing effect was seen as soon as he used to roar like a lion in chanting the holy Name of Lord Nityānanda.

"A priest of the name Guṇārṇava Miśra was engaged there for the service of the family deity. And it was peculiar that while other Vaishnavas showed their respective mood of obeisances, this Guṇārṇava Miśra was reluctant to do it for reasons best known to him. This was observed by Śrī Rāma das with reluctance and he compared the priest with the son of Romaharsan Sūta who did not leave his lecture-chair (called Vyāsāsana where scriptures are recited by some speaker) even at the presence of Valadeva the Personality of Godhead. This is a reference from an incidence occured at Naimiṣāraṇya some thousands of years before. Rāmadāsa could understand it that the priest Guṇārṇava Miśra had less respect for Lord Nityānanda and he did not like that attitude of the priest. The priest, however, did not protest the insult offered to him by Rāmadāsa but later the authors elder brother had some discussion with Ramadas.

From that discussion it appeared that the elder brother of Kavirāj Goswami also had more respect for Lord Chaitanya Mahāprabhu than that for Lord Nityānanda. By such attitude of the elder brother, Ramdas was not satisfied and the author Kavirāj Goswami also protested this attitude of his elder brother. Kavirāj Goswami said there is no difference between the two brothers (Lord Chaitanya and Lord Nityānanda). They are one and the same Person and therefore to show respect to one and minimise the other is something like the logic of begging the question. The conclusion is that if one of them is showed respect excluding the other it becomes an object of hypcrisy and if both of them are not accepted then it becomes an act of infidelity. So in both ways the elder brother stands to be in fault.

And on the point of this remonstrations Meenketan Ramdas became angry and broke his flute resulting in the degradation of Kavirāj Goswami's elder brother. That is the story of the power of His (Śrīla Nityānanda's) devotee. The next incidence is how he (the author) was favored by the Lord. The author chastised his elder brother on account of his rigidity in the dealings of his one sided faith and this was approved by Lord Nityānanda, as He appeared before him (the author), in that very night.

The residence of the author is situated at village Jhamatpur (near Naihāṭī) about four miles off from Katwa in the district of Burdwan W. Bengal The author was fortunate to have an audience of Lord Nityānanda there in dream. And on His appearance the author fell prostrate on His feet and the Lord in return kept His feet on his head. The Lord asked him to stand up again and again and he then stood up to see Him clearly. The author saw an wonderful feature of the Lord. He appeared to be in the lusture of His body as polished blackish with well built tall figure seeming to be as attractive as the cupid in a martial spirit. The hands were beautifully moulded, so also the legs and lotus eyes. He wore a turban of glittering silk on head and he was clothed in silken dhotī. Golden rings were hanging on His ears and golden bangles encircled His wrist. Sounds leg bells rang and were heard from His lotus feet and His neck was garlanded with heaps of flowers. The whole body was smeared with the pulp of sandalwood and the forehead was decorated with marks of devotion. His movements were as grave as that of an elephant. His face was as beautiful as the moon and His teeth were as beautifully set as the seeds of pomegranate. He was waving left and right in a mode of ecstacy and He was uttering the sounds of Krishna and Krishna. There was a red stick in His hand commanding like a lion and His beautiful legs were crowded by dones...

[Essays and Articles: CC - adi līlā Chapter 5 (handwritten)]