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KC Nectar - Feb 28 | |
| Deliverance
of Jagai and Madhai Submitted by Krsna Caitanya Das Here is one of the beautiful pastimes of Lord Nityananda Prabhu: Deliverance of Jagai-Madhai *************************** Five hundred years ago, Sri Krishna descended as Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in His most merciful incarnation, to deliver the fallen souls of Kali yuga. Principal amongst His associates was Lord Nityananda, Who was none other than Lord Balarama, the incarnation of Anata-sesa. Even though Caitanya Mahaprabhu distributed the love of Godhead freely to any one willing to partake, Lord Nityananda was more merciful and gave His mercy even to unwilling, sinful and atheistic people. Jagai and Madhai **************** One day Lord Caitanya instructed Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakur to go to every one's house in Nadiya and request them to chant Krishna"s name. The two great devotees eagerly set forth and began to knock on each and every door with the request, "please chant Krishna"s name, worship Krishna and teach others about Krishna." They were happily received by the pious people, while the envious would blaspheme them. Completely unconcerned by favorable or unfavorable reactions they proceeded around the town. In Nadiya there lived two very sinful brothers called Jagai and Madhai. Though they born in pious Brahman families, by bad association they had become meat eaters, drunkards, thieves and arsonists. There was no crime that they had not committed, including the most abominable sin of killing cows and Brahmans. The entire town was terrified of these two persons who seemed to be the very personification of all sinful activities. On the day Nityananda Prabhu and Haridasa Thakur were moving in the town, these two brothers, completely intoxicated were alternatively fighting and embracing each other. After observing them for some time Nityananda Prabhu compassionately decided to deliver them and thus approached them. Despite the warnings of the town people Lord Nityananda and Haridasa Thakur, approached the two drunkards instructing them to chant the holy name of the Lord. Hearing these words the two sinners looked up and seeing the two saintly figures roared in anger. They leapt up and ran to catch the two sannyasis. Playing their pastimes, the two devotees fled at the sight of the attacking brothers. Apparently terrified they shouted, "Krishna! Save us!! Govinda!," and ran. Haridasa complains about Nityananda Prabhu ****************************************** While running, Haridasa Thakur proclaimed that all this trouble was because he was in the company of a trouble maker, a charge that Nityananda Prabhu hotly denied. In this way, pursued by the cursing Jagai-Madhai, Lord Nityananda and Haridasa Thakur, laughed and ran. They finally disappeared into the home Srivasa Acarya, leaving the bewildered brothers searching for them in vain. The pastimes of these exalted devotees are full of sugar and spice. While they all understood each others exalted positions, they would also have many loving and teasing exchanges. This was specially true for Nityananda Prabhu and Advaita Acarya. In this mood, Haridasa went to Advaita Prabhu to complain about Lord Nityananda. He recounted how in the past Nityananda Prabhu would calmly swim the waters infested with crocodiles, or how he would milk other's cows and drink the milk, or steal their butter and yogurt leaving Haridasa to face the angry crowd. When Advaita Prabhu heard about the pastime with the two drunkards, He laughed and commented, "it is all right that these three drunkards should stay together." However in their hearts they knew that Nityananda Prabhu was only intoxicated by the love of Godhead and that Jagai-Madhai were already delivered by His mercy. Nityananda Prabhu attacked ************************** In the meantime the two brothers began to reside near Ganga where Caitanya Mahaprabhu bathed. Constantly drunk, they started harassing and terrorizing the devotees. At night, they could hear the sounds of the kirtans coming from the house of Srivasa Acarya and would playfully sing and dance with the melody. One day while Nityananda Prabhu was returning in the dark He was accosted by the two brothers. On learning His identity, Madhai became furious and struck Him with a broken earthen pot. When Jagai saw the blood flow from the wound, he became compassionate and restrained his brother. While Nityananda Prabhu patiently stood, looking at the brothers with compassion, tolerating the pain and humiliation, people ran to tell Caitanya Mahaprabhu about the incident. Hearing that Nityananda Prabhu had been hurt by the brothers, Caitanya Mahaprabhu ran towards them with the intention to kill them. He summoned His chakra which looked like death personified to the two terrified brothers. However Nityananda Prabhu quickly intervened and begged Caitanya Mahaprabhu to stop. He reminded Him of His mission to kill the sinners by saturating them with love of Godhead. Thus appeased the Lord took back His chakra. Jagai-Madhai delivered ********************** Nityananda Prabhu told Caitanya Mahaprabhu that it was Jagai who had saved Him from further harm at Madhai's hand. Hearing this Caitanya Mahaprabhu said to Jagai, "Lord Krishna be merciful to you. By protecting Nityananda you have purchased Me. You may ask any desire you have in your heart. From today on you will have pure love and devotion for Krishna" Hearing this Jagai fell at the feet of the two Lords and grasping the feet of Caitanya Mahaprabhu wept. Seeing the wonderful transformation in his brother, a remorseful Madhai begged for the mercy of the Lord. However, since he had committed the worst of all offenses, that of attacking a Vaishnava, the Lord did not even consider all his pitiful pleas for mercy. Only after Madhai grasped the feet of Nityananda Prabhu and received His mercy that Caitanya Mahaprabhu agree to deliver Madhai also. Jagai-Madhai become devotees **************************** Having received the mercy of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Nityananda, both the brothers became completely transformed. They would chant 200,000 names of the Lord every day, offer every one humble obeisances and constantly berate themselves for their past sinful activities. Madhai in particular was very remorseful at the fact that he had caused physical harm to Nityananda Prabhu and would shed many tears for this. Finally he approached the Lord and begged for some act of atonement. The compassionate Lord assured him that he was completely forgiven, but if he wanted to atone for his other past sins then he could build a bathing place on the banks of the river Ganges to help people take a bath. Madhai enthusiastically built this place which still exists with the name of Madhai ghata. He would constantly be present there, humbly offering any and all services to devotees. In this way the two brothers spent the rest of their lives singing the glories of Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Nityananda Prabhu. The demigods rejoice ******************** It is said that when Yamaraja asked Chitragupta, the demigod responsible for recording the sinful activities of people, how many sins had been committed by Jagai-Madhai, he was told that it would take one hundred thousand scribes one month to complete the record. On seeing Lord Caitanya take all these sinful activities into Himself and deliver Jagai-Madhai, Yamaraja fainted with ecstasy. When he was revived, he began to dance, glorifying the Lord for delivering the most fallen. Attracted by his dancing, Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma, Narada Muni, Sukhadeva Goswami, Indra and other demigods also began to dance in ecstasy at the mercy of the Lord. In this way the heavenly planets, all the way to Brahmaloka became completely immersed in the love of Godhead. Lessons in this pastime *********************** In this pastime the Lords revealed many instructions for future generations to follow. While Jagai-Madhai had committed many sinful activities, they had never offended a Vaishnava. Since Jagai had protected Nityananda Prabhu, Lord Caitanya immediately absolved him of all sinful activities and gave him Krishna prema. However since Madhai hit Nityananda Prabhu, he did not receive this mercy until he was forgiven by Nityananda Prabhu. This is in line with a lesson that Caitanya Mahaprabhu repeatedly gave to His followers that while Krishna can overlook offenses committed against Him, He will take any offense against His devotee very seriously. In fact while Caitanya Mahaprabhu readily gave the boon of devotion to Jagai, He had previously refused to give the same gift to His beloved mother, Saci Mata, because of a slight offense she had made against Advaita Acarya. Only when she begged and received the forgiveness of Advaita did she became eligible to receive this gift. The Lord also revealed that there are no material restrictions to performing devotional service. Even though Jagai-Madhai were performing the most abominable activities, even though they were unwilling to chant the holy name, they were still delivered. The pastime also revealed that the devotees of the Lord are even more merciful than the Lord Himself. While Lord Caitanya would ignore these two brothers and had nothing to do with them, Nityananda Prabhu still approached them and ultimately delivered them. The personality of Nityananda Prabhu is most bewildering by material conception. He played the role of an avadhut, one who is completely beyond the material conception of life. So saturated was He with the love of Godhead that He would often loose complete consciousness of His material body and behave in strange ways. However Caitanya Mahaprabhu strongly cautioned about committing any offenses against Him. He emphatically stated that no one can even think of approaching Radha-Krishna without having first received the mercy of Lord Nityananda, the adi-guru or the original spiritual master of the universe. All glories to Nityananda Prabhu! All glories to Jagai-Madhai !! [BACK] |