Sri Nityananda Das Babaji of Govardhan

Jai Nitai!

I am currently doing some translations from Sri Haridas Dasji’s Sri Sri Gaudiya Vaishnava Jivan, and I plan to post as I go. Sri Oudh Bihari Lal Kapoor has alreay presented many of these stories in his beautiful books The Saints of Vraja and the Saints of Bengal.  Although GVJ was OBL Kapoor’s main source for his books, he included info from other sources as well, and likewise GVJ contains many stories not found in Kapoor Ji’s books – both extra info on the more famous mahatmas as well as short but sweet stories of lesser-known saints.  Here I will try to highlight the information not in Kapoorji’s books, for the sake of those who already know the stories well.

Although I was not around to see Sri Haridas Das  or Sri OBL Kapoor, I am well aware of my debt to them and pray continually for their blessings.  Kapoorji and I share sambandha, too, in that our gurus were gurubhais; his Gurudev, Sri Gauranga Das Babaji Maharaj, was one of the eldest disciples of our paramgurudev  Srimad Ramdas Babaji Maharaj.  My Gurudev was one of  his youngest.

Here we go with our first story…

Sri Nityananda Das Babaji Maharaj (Goverdhan)

Sri Nityananda Das Babaji Maharaj lived at his guru’s place in Sri Vrindavan, learning Harinamamrta Vyakaran, and studying Srimad Bhagavata and other scriptures under the tutelage of Srila Madhusudan Goswamipad of Sri Radharaman Mandir. His Gurudeva was then over one hundred years old, and he was totally blind. He had Deities to serve – Sri Nityananda Dasji served Them, cooked, offered the food and served Prasad to his Gurudeva. Two of Gurudeva’s female disciples were there to perform the other services. Those two disciples were young women, and Nityananda Dasji was a young man – and Babaji Maharaj was blind. Nobody else lived in the house. Thinking, “How can I maintain my vairagya?” he asked the advice of many holy men. They all said, “Your Gurudev is a mahapurush, a Great Soul; he doesn’t accept water from the hand of a woman. If you leave, he will fast to the point of forsaking water. Your service to your Guru will itself protect you.” Sri Nityananda Dasji was then only twenty five years old. By remaining in this situation, little by little his mind became more and more disturbed. One day in a state of extreme agitation he started pacing back and forth in front of the women’s room until at last he headed right out the door, towards the back side of Goverdhan and through the forest near Pucchari where he fell into a deep hole in the ground and could not get out. After three days, in the middle of the night someone came and grabbed him, and pulled him right out of the hole, saying, “Why should you die like this? Do Nam kirtan as you go.” So saying, he disappeared, and Nityananda Dasji’s body was filled with a new power. Singing Nam Kirtan in a loud voice, he went to the banks of Manasi Ganga and started living there in a humble kutir. After about three days a Vaishnava came there and said, “Your Babaji Maharaj has sent me. The morning after you left, two Brahmin boys came from Bengal and took bhek from him, and now they are doing his seva. He told me to bring you back today – come, let’s go.” These words stunned Sri Nityananda Dasji. He thought, “Nobody knows that I left, what I’ve been doing, or what I had been doing; but Gurudev is the omniscient ishwar. By his mercy alone I have been saved from this crisis, and by Giriraja’s grace I attained a revelation of the Holy Name.” And he went with that Vaishnav back to his Sri Gurudev. The old Babaji had invited many of the old, old Vaishnavas whom he knew, and that day he held a festival. At the end of the festival he had those Vaishnavas sit down and, calling Nityananda Dasji, he had him do dandavat at the feet of each of them, and taking the hand of each mahatma, he placed it on Nityananda Dasji’s head and said, “All of you please bless Nityananda Das that he may be able to do intense bhajan and attain Sriman Mahaprabhu’s lotus feet.” Then he said to Nityananda Das, ‘Go to the foot of Giriraja and do bhajan in seclusion.” After that he went to stay at the foot of Giriraja and did nama sankirtana without stopping. One day as Pujyapad Sri Advaitadas Babaji Mahashay was doing parikrama, he stopped at Sakhitharatala and sat atop the bridge. He heard the sound of that Nam Sankirtan and was charmed. He followed the sound for about a hundred yards, and found a person in a dilapidated kutir doing Namkirtan enrapt in prema. Sri Advaitadas Babaji stayed in a neighboring kutir for five to seven days, and witnessed that Nityananda Dasji was always doing Nam Kirtan; he could not tell when he bathed, went for madhukari or answered nature’s call.
Pandit Sri Advaita Das Babaji MaharajIn this way Nityananda Dasji was chanting Nam Sankirtan with complete absorption; the Lila was revealing itself in his heart. Then one morning a Babaji came and said to him, “Your Babaji Maharaj will leave his body tonight. He is calling you, for he wishes to see you.” But Nityananda Dasji thought, “This is a game of Maya. Maya or Kali is coming after me to shatter my bliss.” So he thought, and he did not go. But that night at midnight all of a sudden the Name stopped coming from his mouth, and his heart was filled with darkness. In a panic he went running to his Gurudev, only to find that in truth, Babaji Maharaj was gone. After that, Nityananda Dasji became just like a madman wandering from one place to another. He asked many mahatmas what could be done. They told him, “Guru and Krishna were your support, but you did not take shelter of the Vaishnavas. ‘Azray loiYA bhaje, tAhe kRSNa nAhi tyaje, Ar sab sare akAraN.’ Ashray means Vaishnava-ashray. Now go to some lonely place; sit and worship your Gurudev and try to do Nam Sankirtan. Spread a mat and meditate that your Gurudev is sitting on it; circumambulate him, bow down to him, pray to him and try to chant the Holy Name.” Sri Nityananda Das Ji did this for one year, and on completion of one year, on that very day, his Gurudev appeared to him.

As he placed his head at Gurudev’s feet, a stream of tears began to flow from Gurudev’s eyes; he cried, “Oh my child! Why didn’t you come that day? Now what more can I do?” With these words, Gurudev disappeared. From that day on he observed mauna (a vow of silence), and chanted 100,000 Holy Names every day, sleeping only at two in the morning – he used to chant the syllables of the Holy Name in a very clear, very sweet, and deep voice. For the last five years of his life he lived at Govinda Kund in Goverdhan. One year before he left his body, he told Srila Advaitadas Babaji Maharaj, “Gurudev appeared to me in a sphurti and told me, “Your pain will last one year more.” That year in the month of Kartik, after niyam-seva, he said goodbye to Sri Advaita Das Babaji Maharaj and went to the banks of Manasi Ganga where he left his body on Ras Purnima day. (Gaudiya Vaishnav Jivan, p. 159-162)

Advertisement