The story of Srinivasa and Raja Biaham Biya
When
Srinivasa Acarya, Dukhi Krsna dasa
(later Syamananda Prabhu)
and Narottama
dasa
Thakur were travelling from
Vrndavana to Bengal with books given to
them
by Srila Jiva Goswami, they were robbed at night at Visnupura
by Raja
Biaham
Biya (the thief king). He had his thieves spying along the road as
the
party
of Vaishnavas came along; he stole their decorated
box when, after
stopping
for the night and having kirtan, they went to
sleep. His astrologer
told
him, before he opened the box, that the contents were priceless. When he
opened
the box he sae the expensive cloth covering the books
and his heart
soared
in anticipation. The first thing he saw
underneath the cloth was
the
writing of Rupa Goswami;
just seeing this freed him of all his sins and
purified
his heart; he experienced love of God and then lamented that he'd
caused
somebody great grief by this theft. He
went to sleep and dreamed a
beautiful
golden person (more beautiful than a gold mountain) was laughing at
him. That person said, "This is all a
pastime. You will soon meet someone
who
will make you exceedingly happy."
In the meantime, Srinivasa was informed
by
the villagers that the king was a great theif and
that it was he who had
stolen
the box of books. Srinivasa
met one brahmin named Krsna
Ballabh, who
became
his disciple, along with others. Srinivasa inquired about the king
from
him, and KB said, "Oh, he's become a very pious man recently ‑ he
daily
hears
SB and is always inviting sadhus to read the SB and
explain." Srinivasa
said,
"Sometime I would also like to go and explain SB to him." KB said, "Why
sometime? Let's go now." So in the assembly of the king, Srinivasa appeared,
and
everyone was impressed with his character.
In a beautiful voice he
recited
SB and gave a stunning explanation that nobody had hdeard
before. The
king
bowed at his feet, wearing a cloth around his neck as a sign of humility.
He
became SV's acharya, and
the king was most glad to be able to return the
books
to him.