WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT NAVADVIP DHAM

samsara sinhu tarane hridayam yadi syat

sankirtanamrita rase ramate manascet

premambudhau viharane yadi cittavrittir

mayapurakhya nagare vasatim kurusva

"If you want to cross the ocean of birth and death, if you want to relish the sweet nectar of the holy name of the Lord, if your heart is eager to swim in the ocean of transcendental love, then go and reside in the city called Sri Mayapur."

Why is Navadvip Dham special?

The holy dhams of Krsna, Vrndavana, Navadvip and Jagannatha Puri, are all equally spiritually potent and it is an offense to think that one is better than another. However, the acaryas have pointed out that while all the holy dhams are non different from each other, still there is one important factor that makes Navadvip Dham special.

They explained that Navadvip Dham is where Krsna, as Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, enacted His pastime of inaugurating the sankirtana movement and the chanting of the Hare Krsna maha-mantra. Scriptures describe how chanting the Hare Krsna maha-mantra is the only way of achieving love of Krsna in this age of Kali.

Kalau nasti eva.........................In this age of Kali, there is no other way, there is no other way, there is no other way, for ........................When Gaura Kishore das Babaji renounced material life, he went to Vrndavana and resided in Radha Kunda for many years. The Vaisnavas there regarded him to be an extremely exalted Vaisnava and they were very upset when he was planning to leave Vrndavana and go to Navadvip Dham. They begged Gaura Kishore das Babaji to please stay telling him Vrndavana Dham was the holy dham of his worshipable Lord, Sri Krsna. However, Gaura Kishore das Babaji explained to the assembled Vaisnavas that although Vrndavana Dham was indeed the land of Nandanandana's eternal pastimes, Navadvip Dham was the land of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's eternal pastimes and for someone as fallen as himself, he needed the shelter of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His eternal dham, Navadvip dham, because there one's offenses are not considered and therefore it so much easier to receive Krsna prema.

Gaura Kishore das Babaji was a nitya siddha, an eternal associate of Krsna. Therefore we can understand that his mood of not being qualified is simply his great humility just to show us what our mood should be, and that Navadvip Dham is the dham to take shelter of in Kali yuga. Navadvip Dham is the Dham of our Sampradayah

The present day Gaudiya Madhva sampradayah began with Krsna instructing Lord Brahma from within his heart. Lord Brahma is the original preceptor of our sampradayah and therefore the original name for the sampradayah was naturally Brahma Sampradayah. When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared in the Brahma sampradayah, it became the Gaudiya Madhva Sampradayah. Even Lord Brahma, our original preceptor, took shelter of Navadvip Dham to beg forgiveness for his offenses to Krsna.Once Lord Brahma was returning to his abode riding on his swan when he saw an amazing sight. A little cowherd boy had just killed a terrible demon in the form of a snake. The demon's name was Agha and Lord Brahma knew he was such a terrible demon that even the demigods were terrified of him. But not only had this small cowherd boy killed the demon with ease, but to Lord Brahma's amazement, he saw the soul of Agha, a brilliant spiritual spark, merge into the body of this little cowherd boy.Lord Brahma wondered who this boy could be. Even though he was well aware of the position of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, due to Yoga maya, the transcendental covering potency of the Lord, he could not recognize this little cowherd boy to be his worshipable Lord, Sri Krsna. Lord Brahma decided to check out who this little cowherd boy actually was.After killing Agha, this little cowherd boy went to the bank of the Jamuna along with His cowherd boyfriends with the calves they were looking after. They sat down to eat their lunch while the calves grazed nearby. Using his mystic powers, Lord Brahma stole all of the calves. When this little cowherd boy (Krsna) went to look for the calves, Lord Brahma then stole all of Krsna's boyfriends and hid them in a mountain cave nearby.

For Lord Brahma, it took just one second to do this but when he turned around to see what was happening to the little cowherd boy, he found all the calves and cowherd boys were there again. Lord Brahma then realized that only one person could perform such a wonderful feat Krsna, the Lord of the entire creation.

Brahma felt so sorry to have committed this offense to his worshipable Lord that he immediately went to Krsna and begged forgiveness. Although Krsna excused Brahma, Brahma still felt extremely guilty and went to Navadvip Dham to perform austerities and penances to free himself of this offense.

The Lord was very pleased with Lord Brahma and appeared to him in order to console him. Lord Brahma first saw the Lord in his mind, in a unique golden form of beauty surpassing the beauty of any other form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. When Lord Brahma opened his eyes, he saw the Lord standing in front of him and he fainted in ecstasy. The Lord brought Lord Brahma back to his senses and assured him that He was not at all offended by his actions and to ask for a boon. Lord Brahma said, "My Lord! Please allow me to be present with You when You appear in this world in this most beautiful form."

The Lord granted him that boon and told him to ask for another. Lord Brahma said, "My Lord! As Brahma, as the most exalted personality of this universe, I become so proud and commit offenses at Your lotus feet. Therefore, please grant me the boon that when I come to participate in your pastime, I will be born in a very low class family." This boon was also granted and Lord Brahma appeared in a Muslim family as Thakur Haridas in Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's pastimes.

The place where Brahma performed his austerities and received the darshan and mercy of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, was Antardvip, the central island of Navadvip Dham.

Lord Indra, the son and disciple of Lord Brahma, also took shelter of Navadvip Dham for the offenses he committed to Krsna. Lord Indra knew that Lord Brahma had received the darshan and mercy of Krsna by pleasing Krsna in Navadvip Dham even though he had committed offenses.

In His pastimes in Vrndavana, Lord Krsna persuaded his father, Nanda Maharaja, to perform their annual puja for Govardhan Hill instead of Lord Indra. This made Lord Indra very angry and he tried to destroy Vrndavana with torrents of rain. To protect his devotees and give them shelter, Krsna lifted Govardan Hill for the entire seven days and nights Lord Indra inundated Vrndavana with rain. In this pastime of lifting Govardhan Hill, Krsna also defeated the pride of Lord Indra and showed him who actually was the Supreme Controller.

When Lord Indra realized that he had made a great offense to his worshipable Lord, he went to his father and asked what he should do. Lord Brahma told him to go to Navadvip Dham and perform austerities to please Lord Krsna. Lord Indra did that and offered prayers and the milk of Surabhi cow to Lord Krsna. The place where this happened was Godrumdvip, an island of Navadvip Dham. (what happened then?) Navadvip Dham and our guru paramparah There is an intimate link with our guru paramparah and Navadvip Dham. Bhaktivinod Thakur worked vigorously throughout his life to re establish the true teachings of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and His sankirtana movement. When he came to Navadvip Dham to live, he located the site of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's appearance by researching old maps and the history of the area. Bhaktivinod Thakur was residing in Godrumdvip at that time and one night he saw a bright effulgence emanating from the land across from his house. He became more convinced that this was the actual site of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's appearance, but to be absolutely sure he brought Jagannath Das Babaji to the site.

Jagannatha Das Babaji is the spiritual master of Bhaktivinod Thakur and was regarded as the most exalted Vaisnava of the time. He was so old that he had to be carried in a basket, yet when he arrived at the place he jumped out of his basket and started leaping and dancing in joy, crying out Caitanya Mahaprabhu's names. Since then Jagannath Das Babaji has been worshipped by a prayer that glorifies him as the one who confirmed the actual site of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu's birthplace in Mayapur, Navadvip Dham.

Before Bhaktivinod Thakur left this planet, he instructed his son, Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur, to develop Navadvip Dham parikrama because it would liberate the whole world. Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur organized the first large parikrama of the whole of Navadvip Dham. It was a grand procession of thousand of devotees being lead by elephants.

Bhaktivinod Thakur prayed to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, (Isn't this written in a song?) "When will the day be mine when devotees from Russia, America, France and Europe will sing Jai Sacinandana and dance together in Navadvip?" AC Bhaktividanta Swami Prabhupada, the disciple of Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur and founder acarya of ISKCON, has fulfilled the desires of Bhaktivinod Thakur and Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakur that the glories of Navadvip Dham be spread all over the world and that devotees from every country would come to Navadvip Dham to sing the glories of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Now, the many hundres of ISKCON devotees come from all over the world to do Gaura mandal parikrama as part of our Gaura purnima festival.

NAVADVIP DHAM A SPIRITUAL SPOT IN THIS MATERIAL NATURE

Sri Gaura mandala is like a hundred petalled lotus with a radius of 21 yojanas (168 miles). In the centre of that lotus is the eight petalled lotus of Navadvip. These eight petals are the eight islands that are encircling the central island of Antardvip, the whorl of the lotus.

In Antardvip, everything is arranged by Yoga maya and therefore it is also called Mayapur. In the centre of Mayapur is Yoga pith, where Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu appeared and eternally resides in the house of Jagannatha Misra.

Navadvip Dham is not a place in the material nature, it is the topmost region of the spiritual sky. In the spiritual sky there are innumerable Vaikuntha planets. In the upper region of Vaikuntha is Ayodhya, the abode of Sri Ramacandra. Higher than Ayodhya is Dvarkara, the abode of Vasudev Krsna. Even beyond Dvarkara is Golok, where Krsna, as the son of Nanda Maharaja and Mother Yasoda, enjoys His most loving pastimes with His most intimate associates. In the same region of this Golok, there is another area where Krsna, as Sri Krsna Caitanya, distributes His love in the mood of a devotee. That area is called Mayapur. Just as Vrindavan appears on this planet by the will of the Lord, similarly, Mayapur also appears from the topmost region of the spiritual sky by the will of the Lord. No one can possibly measure the benefit one derives just by being here in Mayapur Dham.

In the Vedic scriptures it has been described that the demons get punishment in Vraja for their offenses. But in Navadvip Dham, inspite of hundreds of offenses, the demons are delivered. In `Navadvip Dham Mahatmya', Bhaktivinod Thakur said, "One who goes to Navadvip Dham becomes free from all his offenses. The spiritual benefit one receives by travelling to all the places of pilgrimage, the same benefit can be obtained just by remembering Navadvip Dham. And one who just sees the holy dham of Navadvip, receives Krsna prema life after life."

It is also described that for each step one takes in Navadvip Dham, one gets the benefit of millions of horse sacrifices. By staying in Navadvip Dham for three nights, one gets the same benefit of the yogi performing mystic yoga in other holy places. Just by taking bath in the Ganges in Navadvip Dham, one is liberated. And by staying in Navadvip Dham for one night, one gets the same benefit of residing in seven tirthas for hundreds of years.Here in Navadvip Dham, the land is made of touch stones, the water is nectar and the trees are desire trees everything here is spiritual. One may ask why don't we see that. The answer is just as we cannot see the sun when our eyes are covered by a cloud, similarly as our eyes are covered by maya, the illusory energy of the Lord, we are not able to see the spiritual Mayapur. Someday, by rendering devotional service to Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and receiving His mercy, we will get spiritual eyes and will be able to see the eternal pastimes of the Lord in His eternal abode Navadvip Dham.