Nityananda Visits Vrndavan and Ayodhya 1450s AD

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Nityanada travells to India's holy tirthas

 

"Nityananda Prabhu visited Siva-Kanchi and Visnu-Kanchi and laughed

upon seeing the bitter schism between the followers of Vishnu and

the followers of Siva."

 

(Excerpt from Chaitanya Bhagavat - The first Bengali biography of

Sri Krishna Chaitanya, Bengali saint-poet (1486-1532) by Brindaban

Das Thakur. Composed in verse in mid-16th century.)

 

Nityanada travells to India's holy tirthas

 

Nityananda Prabhu delivered the whole world. He is an unparalleled

ocean of mercy. Only by his mercy do I understand the truth about

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Only by his means has the greatness of Sri

Caitanya Mahaprabhu been proclaimed. Listen to how Nityananda

Prabhu, the best beloved of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, traveled to all

the holy tirthas in India.

 

The Lord first visited the holy place known as Vakreswara. From

there he traveled all alone to the grove of Vaidyanatha. After

visiting Gaya, he went to Kasi, the seat of Lord Siva, where the

current of the Ganges begins to flow northwards. Nityananda Prabhu

became filled with joy at the sight of the Ganges. At Kasi he bathed

in the Ganges, and with an unsatiated thirst drank its sweet waters.

He performed his morning bath at Prayaga in the month of Magha and

from there went to the place of his previous birth in Mathura.

Having sported in the waters of the Yamuna at Visrama-ghata, the

Lord wandered about Govardhana Hill in great ecstasy and in this way

he walked through all twelve forests of Vrindavana.

 

The Forests of Vrindavan

He visited the house of Nanda Maharaja at Gokula, and sitting down

at that holy place, he wept out of emotion. Offering his obeisances

to Madana Gopala the Lord journeyed to Hastinapura, the home of the

pandavas and beholding the place of those great devotees, the Lord

shed tears. All those who loved there, being nondevotees, could not

understand. He bowed down, beholding the glories of Balarama in the

city of Hastinapura and in his ecstasy, shouted, "May Balarama, the

holder of the plow, deliver us all."

 

Then, Nityananda Prabhu went to Dvaraka where he bathed in the sea

in great joy. He went to Siddhapura, the seat of Kapila, and at the

holy place known as the tirtha of the fish, Matsya-tirtha,

distributed large quantities of cooked rice at a great festival.

Nityananda Prabhu visited Siva-Kanchi and Visnu-Kanchi and laughed

upon seeing the bitter schism between the followers of Vishnu and

the followers of Siva.

 

He went to Kuruksetra, Priti-daksa, Bindhu-sarovara, Prabasa, and

Sudarsana tirtha, and after paying a visit to the holy tirtha of

Trita-kupa, he went to Nisala and from there to Brahma-tirtha and

then to Cakra-tirtha. The Lord visited Pratisrota which is near the

Saraswati of the West. And from there, that great magnanimous

personality, Nityananda Prabhu, travelled to Naimisaranya.

 

Ayodhya

At that time, Nityananda Prabhu went on to the city of Ayodhya and

wept much upon beholding the holy birthplace of Sri Rama. Then he

went to the kingdom of Guhaka, the candala, where Nityananda Prabhu

fell unconscious out of ecstasy. Remembering the devotion of Guhaka-

candala, Nityananda Prabhu was unconscious for three days. In all

those forests, where the Supreme Lord Rama had stopped to spend a

few days, Nityananda Prabhu rolled on the ground in the agony of

separation.

 

He went to the banks of the Sarayu river and bathed in her waters

and from there went to Kausaki and from there to the sacred retreat

of Paulastya the sage. After bathing in all the holy tirthas of the

Gomati, Gandhaki and Soma rivers, he climbed to the summit of Mount

Mahendra, and having paid his obeisances there to Parasurama, he

proceeded to Hardwara, where the flow of the Ganges originates on

this Earth. He then visited Pampa, Bhima-rati and Sapta-Godavari,

after bathing in the Tirthas of Benva and Bhipasa.