apare yajïa-patnau çré-jagadéça-hiraëyakau
ekädaçyäà yayor annaà prärthayitvä’ghasat prabhuù
The wives of the sacrificing Brahmins in Vraja took birth as Jagadish and Hiranya. The Lord (Mahäprabhu) asked for and ate their prasad on the Ekadasi day.
(Gaura-gaëoddeça-dépikä 192)
äséd vraje chandrahäso nartako rasa-kovidaù
so’yaà nåtya-vinodé çré-jagadéçäkhyaù paëòitaù
In Vraja there was a dancer named Candrahasa who was very expert in the tasting of rasa. In Chaitanya-lila, he became Jagadish Pandit who also took great pleasure in dancing for the Lord.
(Gaura-gaëoddeça-dépikä 143)
Jagadish Pandit is simultaneously considered to be both Nityananda-çäkhä and Chaitanya-çäkhä, a branch both of Chaitanya as well as Nityananda Prabhu in the desire tree of devotion. He was born in the town of Guwahati (Pragjyotishpur) in east India. His father’s name was Kamalaksha Bhatta. Both of his parents were devotees of Viñëu. When they left the world, he came with his wife Duhkhini and his brother Hiranya to Mayapur on the shores of the Ganga where they built a home near that of Jagannath Mishra. Jagadish Pandit was a very close friend of Jagannath Mishra.
Jagadish and his wife Duhkhini had the same kind of parental affection for the little Nimai as Jagannath Mishra and Sachi Devi themselves. Duhkhini was like a mother to Him and even sometimes acted as His wet-nurse. Nimai, the son of Sachi, is none other than the son of Yashoda, the supreme Lord Kṛṣṇa incarnate. It is not possible for anyone but an eternal associate of the Lord to have the good fortune to treat Him like a son in this way.
NIMAI BEGS FOR JAGADISH’S OFFERING
Mahäprabhu showed through His pastimes just how dear He considered Jagadish Pandit to be. Sriman Mahäprabhu is the father of sankirtan and even as a child He tricked everyone into chanting the Holy Names. Sachi and all the other neighbors would clap their hands and sing the names of the Lord in order to make Him stop crying. One Ekadasi day, however, Nimai kept on crying despite Sachi Mata and Jagannath Mishra’s chanting the Names in the usual way. Confused and anxious, His parents finally asked Him out of desperation, “What do you want, child? What must we give you to make you to stop crying?”
Nimai answered, “They have made a rice offering to Lord Viñëu at Jagadish Pandit’s house. I want to eat some of that prasad. Give me some of that prasad and I will stop crying.”
Jagannath Mishra was amazed to hear Nimai say such things. How could He know that Jagadish Pandit was making a rice offering on Ekadasi? Jagannath Mishra immediately went to his neighbor’s house and was surprised to see that a large offering of rice and other dishes had indeed been made to their Viñëu deity. Jagannath Mishra told Jagadish Pandit of Nimai’s request, adding that he was worried that it would not be correct for Him to eat rice on Ekadasi day. But Gauranga’s eternal associate Jagadish Pandit knew that this was little Gopal in the form of Nimai who was hungry. Without any hesitation, he gave the entire offering to Jagannath Mishra. As soon as Nimai received the plate, He immediately stopped crying and joyfully started to eat.
The merciful Lord gave Jagadish Pandit and Hiranya Pandit His grace when He was a little boy. He ate the offerings to Viñëu at their house on the Ekadasi day.
(Chaitanya Charitamrita 1.10.70-71)
Jagadish Pandit purifies the entire universe because the nectar of love for Kṛṣṇa pours from him like torrents of rain.
(Chaitanya Charitamrita 1.11.30)
The above mentioned pastime is described in the Chaitanya Bhagavat, Ädi-khaëòa, chapter 4.
The Lord grabs the things of the devotee even if he doesn’t offer them, but He shows no interest whatsoever in the gifts of the non-devotee.
Just as Mahäprabhu was conquered by the devotion of Jagadish Pandit, so too was His dearest companion Nityananda Prabhu who considered him to be one of His own intimate associates. Nityananda Prabhu was Jagadish Pandits’s life and soul. Jagadish Pandit was present in Panihati for the Chira-dadhi Mahotsava (the great chipped rice and yogurt festival).
JAGADISH AND LORD JAGANNATH
Before taking sannyas, Mahäprabhu ordered Jagadish Pandit to go to Nilachala to preach Kṛṣṇa-bhakti and the religious practice of the age, Harinama-sankirtan. The son of Nanda, Çré Kṛṣṇa and the son of Jagannath Mishra, Çré Gaurasundara, are the same supreme divinity as Lord Jagannath. When Jagadish Pandit arrived in Puri, he went for Lord Jagannath’s darshan and melted with love when he saw Him. On his way back to Bengal, however, he felt extreme separation from Lord Jagannath. Thousands and thousands of people go on pilgrimage to Puri every single day. All of them take darshan of Lord Jagannath, but how many of them are overcome by feelings of separation when returning home? Perhaps once in a while some fortunate individual is able to feel such emotions. If one truly feels such pangs of separation, then this is a sign of Lord Jagannath’s mercy; if not, then one has not truly received the grace of the Lord.
Lord Jagannath saw Jagadish Pandit crying and so mercifully appeared to him in a dream and told him to take His vigraha and serve. Simultaneously, He appeared to the king of Orissa and ordered him that at the time of the nava-kalevara, when the wooden deity of Lord Jagannath is renewed, the outgoing form should be given to Jagadish Pandit. As a result of this dream, the king felt greatly honored to meet Jagadish Pandit and gave him Lord Jagannath’s outgoing form, which is known as the samädhi-stha-vigraha.
Jagadish Pandit prayed to Lord Jagannath, asking Him just how he could possibly carry the heavy figure of the deity all the way back to Bengal. Lord Jagannath answered him that for his sake He would become as light as a cork. Then Jagadish was to cover Him with a new cloth and then carry Him suspended at the end of a staff. Lord Jagannath further told him that he would would have to make permanent arrangements to stay wherever He was set down on the ground. Jagadish Pandit Prabhu took the aid of two Brahmins to carry Lord Jagannath as far as the village of Jashora on the banks of the Ganges, near the town of Chakdaha. Jagadish Pandit left Lord Jagannath with one of the Brahmins and went to take his bath in the Ganges and to perform oblations of Ganga water. While he was gone, the Brahmin found that Lord Jagannath was suddenly becoming very heavy and that he was no longer able to hold Him up. When Jagadish Pandit came back from his bath, he saw Lord Jagannath sitting on the ground and realized that the Lord wanted to stay in that very spot.
Chakdaha is a historical site and an ancient holy place. During the Puräëic age, it was known as Rathavarma. Sri Kṛṣṇa’s son, Pradyumna, killed the demon Sambara there at the end of the Dväparä age and since then it was known as Pradyumna-nagara. Later when Bhagiratha was bringing down the Ganga in order to save the Sägara dynasty, the wheel of his chariot got stuck here. Thus the town has to come to be known as Chakradaha, which in time has been changed into Chakdaha. When the local people heard that the Lord Jagannath deity from Puri had come to stay in Jashora, they flocked there in thousands to seek His darshan. This is how Jagadish Pandit decided to remain in Jashora rather than return to his home in Mayapur.
Being attracted by Jagadish Pandit and his wife’s parental devotion, Nityananda Prabhu and Chaitanya Mahäprabhu visited the Lord Jagannath temple in Jashora on two different occasions. The two Prabhus held sankirtan and a feast both times. As the Lord was about to leave Jashora to go to Puri, Duhkhini began to cry from the imminent separation so intensely that the Lord agreed to remain behind in the form of the Çré Gaura-Gopal deity. In the course of the couple’s householder life, they had a son named Ramabhadra.
THE JASHORA TEMPLE AFTER JAGADISH PANDIT
At first, the Jagannath deity was kept under a baöa tree near the Ganges, and later the king of Krishnanagara, Kṛṣṇa chandra, had a temple built there for Him. When the temple became old and dilapidated, Umesh Chandra Majumdar’s wife Mokñhada Devi arranged for repairs to be made. The temple building has no spire, but has been constructed in the manner of an ordinary house. Along with Lord Jagannath, it houses Çré Çré Radha Vallabha and Gaura-Gopal deities. The staff that Jagadish Pandit used to carry the deity from Puri continues to be kept there. Devotees for the service of the Lord Jagannath deity donated a large amount of land, but over the course of time, Jagadish Pandit’s descendants sold it off in order to keep the service of the deity alive. No Rathayatra festival is held here, though His Snana-yatra is celebrated with great pomp. On that occasion, the deity is carried from the temple to an altar built in a large field not far from the temple for the purpose of the bathing ritual. A mela or fair is also held in the field, attracting countless people. This Jashora Lord Jagannath Snana Yatra fair is still very well known. There is also a 500 year-old dais (wooden platform) for Dolayatra at the site that is used to swing the Radha Vallabha on Phalguni purnima.
Siddha Bhagavan Das Babaji of Khalna stayed in Jashora for some time to do his bhajana. There is an annual festival celebrating Jagadish Pandit’s disappearance day on the third day of the waxing moon (sukla trtiya) in the month of Paush (December-January). His appearance day is the twelfth day of the waxing moon (sukla dvadasi) in the same month.
Jagadish Pandit’s temple is currently under the management of the Çré Chaitanya Gaudiya Math. How this came to pass was described in the Chaitanya Väëé magazine (2.9) in the following way:
”The Supreme Lord is most affectionate to His devotees and is conquered by their love. How many different stratagems He engages in just to accept the service of His devotee! Though served in Goloka by hundreds of thousands of goddesses of fortune, Govinda still seems not to have enough people to serve Him. It is as though He feels the service is not being conducted as it should. How many tricks He plays in order to engage the devotee He wants in His service!
Just look at the ploy that Govardhana-dhari Gopal used to engage Madhavendra Puri. Lord’s previous pujari had hidden Him in the jungle on top of Govardhana out of his fear of Muslim marauders. Gopal waited there patiently until Puripada happened by. He said to him, “I have been waiting impatiently for you for many days, just wondering when Madhavendra Puri will come to render Me service?” The Lord is playing His cosmic game, and these are all different aspects of His pastimes.
So now, the very same Lord Jagannath and Gaura Gopal deities who were worshiped by Nityananda Prabhu’s dear associate, Jagadish Pandit, have similarly displayed the wonderful pastime of voluntarily offering Themselves to the great devotee, Tridandi Swami Srimad Bhakti Dayita Madhava Mahäräja, in order to accept his service.”
Due to increasing monetary difficulties, three of Jagadish Pandit’s descendants, Vishvanath Gosvämé, Shambhunath Mukhopadhyaya, Mrityunjaya Mukhopadhyaya, had come to realize that they were no longer able to maintain the day-to-day service nor undertake the annual festivals of their ancestral deities. The condition of the temple buildings had also deteriorated and they were unable to make the necessary repairs. As a result, they decided to take the counsel of Çré Panchu Öhäkura of Jashora and Santosh Kumar Mallik of Ranaghat, and eventually surrender the temple, without conditions, to our most revered spiritual master, the founder acharya of Çré Chaitanya Gaudiya Math, Om 108 Çré Srimad Bhakti Dayita Madhava Gosvämé Mahäräja. Guru Mahäräja immediately spent a large sum of money on making the needed repairs and improvements to the temple, adding electric lighting and a new hostel building.
In the first year after taking over Lord Jagannath’s service, Guru Mahäräja came to the annual festival and personally sat several thousand men and women in the neighboring field and fed them with maha prasad. Whoever witnessed that event still feel goose bumps when as they remember the ecstasy that flooded over Jashora on that day.
