2024.11.14 (Vrindavan Today News): As Kartik draws to an end, devotees are severing these last lamplit nights while eagerly awaiting the arrival of the full moon of Kartik Purnima.
Kartik Purnima is cherished by devotees for several reasons. It is the night of Shri Radha and Krishna’s Maha Raas. It is also the night when, only five centuries ago, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu entered Vrindavan.
Mahaprabhu’s Vrindavan Yatra
sharat kaal aaila prabhur chalite hoilo mati
ramananda-swaroop sange nibhrite jukati
mor sahaay karo jadi tumi duijon
tabe aami jaai dekhi shri vrindavan
When Autumn came, Shri Chaitanya called his closest companions Swaroop Damodar and Ramananda Ray and said to them, “If both of you will help me, only then will I get to see Shri Vrindavan Dham. Please give me your permission to leave for Vrindavan.”
Mahaprabhu always yearned to go to Vrindavan, but something always came in the way. Even after becoming a sannyasi, his mother Shachi Devi requested him to stay in Puri instead of Vrindavan, because it was nearer to her home in Bengal. He never got the chance to go to the place where his heart yearned to be. Now the time had finally come. Taking the blessings of his dear most friends, Mahaprabhu started off on foot from Puri to the holy homeland of Shri Krishna.
Dancing and singing the holy name as he went, he crossed Eastern and Northern India. As he passed through the thick forests of Jharkhand, he granted sacred love (prem) to the birds and wild animals there. All the animals started chanting “Krishna! Krishna!” when they saw him. Even the deer and the lions kissed each other in the ecstasy of love.
Mahaprabhu first saw Mathura and wandered the twelve forests of Braj, before finally coming to Vrindavan on Kartik Purnima. That night, immersed in the ecstasy of Radha’s love, he searched for Shri Krishn all over Vrindavan.
Kartik Purnima and Amiya Nimai
Even more recently, Kartik Purnima was the day when the Amiya Nimai deity came to Vrindavan. The gorgeous deity of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu first came under the care of the great acharya of the Shri Radharaman Temple, Sarvabhaum Madhusudan Goswami. The sage entrusted the service of Amiya Nimai to his disciple, Radha Govinda Goswami, who lived in Kolkata.
Radha Govinda Goswami served Amiya Nimai as the living form of Shri Chaitanya. He was a talented musician and used to sing for him every day. One day whilst he was singing to Amiya Nimai from Jayadeva’s Gita Govinda, his heart suddenly stopped and he left for the eternal Abode.
The devotees were grief-stricken at Radha-Govinda Goswami’s passing, but they were even more distressed when the police sealed off the temple with Amiya Nimai inside.
Radha-Govinda Goswami had no successor; thus, it was unclear what should be done with his property when he passed away. The devotees had to offer bhog to Amiya Nimai on the doorstep of the temple and perform his seva through meditation.
At last, the authorities found letters that proved that Shri Radha-Govinda Goswami had wanted Amiya Nimai to be sent to Vrindavan, to his guru’s son Shri Krishna Chaitanya Goswami.
And so, on the last day of Kartik in 1926AD, a group of mahatmas including Shri Krishna Chaitanya Goswami, Shri Ramdas Babaji of Pathbari Ashram, and others brought Amiya Nimai from Kolkata to Hathras by train. From Hathras, he was transported to Vrindavan by truck.
When Amiya Nimai reached Vrindavan, it was like Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had come again, just as he had done in his prakat lila. It was November 26, 1926, when he arrived and was seated in Radharamanji’s Raas Mandal, just in front of the Shri Radharaman Temple. Four or five years later, Amiya Nimai moved to a small room in the garden of the Shahji Mandir.
Amiya Nimai’s current temple in Gopinath Bazar was completed in 1956. After Shri Krishna Chaitanya Goswami left this world, his son Shri Vishwambhar Goswami looked after Amiya Nimai with the greatest care. His sons Shri Padmanabh Goswami and Padmalochan Goswami continue the seva to this day.
The Kartik Purnima Procession
Since that day in 1926 when Amiya Nimai came to Vrindavan, Shri Ramdas Babaji and his followers have led a very special kirtan through the streets of Vrindavan. The kirtan depicts how Shri Chaitanya felt as he wandered through the sacred forest for the first and only time in his life.
At around 4pm on Kartik Purnima, the kirtan begins at the Amiya Nimai temple. Next to Amiya Nimai on the outer part of the altar, a chitrapat (portrait) of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu sits upon a decorated palanquin, waiting to be taken out by the devotees.
Shri Ramdas Babaji left this world in 1953, but he still comes to perform the kirtan in the form of a chitrapat, which is carefully tied around the neck of one of devotees of his lineage. The chitrapat of the saint is worshipped year-round, from morning to night, as if the saint himself is still present. He is awakened in the morning, “bathed”, dressed and taken out for darshans. He is fed prasad and his adharamrit is honored. And he is present at all the major festivals of the lineage, like this one. In this way the love of Ramdas Babaji’s disciples has kept his presence very much alive over the last sixty-odd years.
As the Kirtan begins, the devotees gather around in a circle in front of Amiya Nimai. Ramdas Babaji in the form of the chitrapat stands in the center. The Vaishnava who is holding the picture will act as Babaji Maharaj’s own body throughout the procession. As the kirtan reaches its first crescendo, he lifts his arms and begins to dance. Then the other Vaishnavas start to sing and dance as well, circling around around Babaji Maharaj.
Soon the whole kirtan party pours out of the Amiya Nimai temple’s front doors. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s chitrapat is then taken out on the shoulders of devotees and seated upon a chariot. The procession moves through the streets of Vrindavan, passing by the same places Mahaprabhu visited during his Vrindavan yatra. It moves through Gopinath Bazar, past Radha-Gopinath, Radharaman, Radha-Gokulananda, the Yamuna riverbank, Dheer Sameer, Gopeshwar Mahadev, Lala Babu Temple, Mathura Road, Nagar Palika, Seva Kunj, Radha-Damodar, Radha-Shyamsundar, Loi Bazar and Nidhivan before returning to the Amiya Nimai temple. The kirtan usually ends around one o’clock in the morning.
This article is sponsored by ‘Krishna Bhumi Group’
