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Mukham karoti vacalam pangum langayate girim
Yat kripa tam aham vande sri gurum dina tarinam
Paramananda Madhavam Sri Caitanya Isvaram

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But His father told Him, you don’t need to study, I will maintain You. Lord Caitanya wanted to study. But as a young boy, He was not allowed to study. So He began to hang out with naughty boys! And sometimes He entered into the garden of some householder with other boys and He carried some cloth and two boys, they would make sounds like a bull, (guru maharaj snorted like a bull!!). When the boys put the cloth over Mahaprabhu, He would appear like a bull. Then the householder cried, oh no, a bull! It will spoil my garden! Sometimes Lord Caitanya would lock the door of the householders from outside. In those days they didn’t have attached bath! They had an outhouse. So if the householder got up in the night to go to the bathroom, he could not go out! The householder would then cry, help, help, let me out, somebody has locked the door! So like this Lord Caitanya was playing pranks because He was not allowed to study! In those days, housewives did not wash dishes. We say that now we are advanced and then they were primitive. But they didn’t wash pots! And then they had banana leaves and they didn’t wash plates! So they would cook in clay pots and throw the pots out when they were finished. Bio-gradable pots, ecologically favorable. Lord Caitanya was sitting at the place where there were piles of these pots. Mother Saci came out and said, oh, You are sitting in this asuci place! He said, I don’t know what is suci and asuci, I am not allowed to study! Ha! Ha! Tell My father! So mother Saci took her son down to the Ganges. Then soon after Jagannath Misra, His father, came. And then the householders who were taking bath in the Ganges told Jagannath Misra, our sons, they don’t want to study. Your son wants to study; you should let Him study! So Jagannath Misra said, well, you are my well-wisher. If you all say, then I should let my son study, so I will do what you say, I will let my son study! Then Nimai was very happy! Haribol! Haribol! Haribol!

Like this there are so many pastimes of Lord Caitanya in His childhood. One day Advaita Goswami was giving class. And He made a very good point from the Srimad Bhagavatam. Then all the devotees said, Haribol! Haribol! Lord Caitanya came running. And they said, what do you want boy? You called Me, He said! No, no, we didn’t call you they said. They didn’t know who Lord Caitanya was. Then Lord Caitanya, He matured in His studies. He was known as Nimai Pandit. And He was the greatest scholar in Navadvip. So then Keshav Kashmiri the Digvijay pandit came to Navadvip and challenged all the pandits that he will defeat them in a debate. At that time, he came with elephants, horses, music bands. Digvijay, victorious in all directions, the greatest pandit of India, challenging the Navadvip pandits! Nimai Pandit had thousands of students. So He said to the students that this pandit, he is too proud. Then He thought if I defeat him publicly then people will take away his horses and elephants and disgrace him. So He thought, how will I take out his pride without causing him much suffering? So He waited. Keshav Kashmiri worshipped Saraswati and got her blessing to defeat everyone. Saraswati is the goddess of learning. So Keshava Kashmiri happened to go the Ganges and see Nimai Pandit with thousands of His students. So Nimai Pandit said, “oh, you are the greatest of pandits!” But Keshav Kashmiri said, oh, you are Nimai Pandit, I have heard of You. You are a teacher of grammar to the kids! Lord Caitanya did not pay attention to his criticism. He said you are a great pandit and you are known for your poetic ability. Could you tell us some poetic verses glorifying the Ganges so that I could be blessed hearing those poetic verses! Keshav Kashmiri started to compose verses to glorify mother Ganges. One after another, he composed Sanskrit verses. He was throwing them out like a cyclone! One and a half hours, two hours, continuous! Nimai Pandit’s students were amazed at his great scholarship. So when he finished, then Nimai Pandit glorified him and said “oh, I don’t feel there is a pandit in the three worlds like you! You are very great! Could you please tell me what the good and bad features of your poetry are?” He said, there is nothing bad in my poem. Nitai Pandit said, “no, no, there is something good and something bad, please tell what is bad? So then Keshav Kashmiri said, please tell me what is bad in my poetry? Lord Caitanya, Nimai Pandit, He took verse 57 and spoke exactly as Keshava Kashmiri spoke. So Keshava Kashmiri was amazed, how did He memorize all the verses because he spoke very fast! He asked Nimai Pandit, how did You memorize my verse? Nimai Pandit said, ‘just like you got a blessing to be a great pandit, I also got blessing to be a srutidhara.” But anyway, to make the long story short, Lord Caitanya told the good points and bad points of that verse. One of the defects of the verse He said that Bhavani bhartu – Bhavani means the wife of Lord Siva. Bhartu means her husband. So it is confusing. The husband of the wife of Lord Siva, so there was this confusion, she has two husbands or what? Like this, He told several defects. So Keshava Kashmiri, he was defeated in this way. So he prayed to mother Saraswati, why did you allow me to be defeated by this young pandit? Mother Saraswati told him, see, He is my husband! He is Visnu Himself! So I cannot help you with that. So then next day he went to the house of Nimai Pandit and he paid his obeisances to Nimai Pandit. Tell me, who You really are! Mother Saraswati told me, You are her husband. So then Nimai Pandit showed His form to Keshava Kashmiri as Krsna. Haribol! Haribol! Keshava Kashmiri after that, he converted to be a vaisnava. He became an acarya in the Nimbarka parampara. So like this there are so many pastimes of Lord Caitanya. Lord Caitanya particularly gives His mercy freely. Who wants the mercy of Lord Caitanya? Haribol! So like this we want you all to get Nitai Gaur’s mercy!

Transcribed by Jayaraseshwari devi dasi
09 June 2019