Oct 11, 2022 — CANADA (SUN) — A serial presentation of Sri Bhakti Ratnakara by Srila Narahari Cakravarti Thakur.
Chapter Nine
Sri Vira Bhadra Prabhu, the son of Nityananda
Vira bhadra, the son of Prabhu Nityananda, was an ocean of spiritualism. According to the book Sri Caitanya Caritamrta: Sri Vira Bhadra Gosvami was the great heir of Prabhu Nityananda from whom came many branches. He was a Parama Bhagavata and was always absorbed in the verses of the Vedas. Internally he was a lover of God and externally he was a most humble man. He was the driving horse behind the establishment of the Caitanya cult of devotion.
Because of his efforts people became interested in the doctrines of Caitanya and Nityananda. Prabhu Vira Bhadra was also known as Vira Candra by some people, and he was the source of happiness for everyone. Whoever came in contact with him was thereafter attached to him. While absorbing the way that Vira Candra walked, people of Kantaka Nagara said that Vira candra possessed the beauty of Madana, the God of Beauty. His body was soft and tender but effulgent like golden lightning. His curling hair was silky and black and the beauty of the tilaka on his forehead enchanted the world. His beautiful eyebrows looked like a line of black bumblebees and his large eyes looked like lotuses. With beautiful cheeks, ears and nose, his face looked just like the moon. The Kunda flowers were ashamed of their own beauty when they saw his rows of beautifully white teeth. His broad chest, beautiful neck and long hands, his well shaped stomach and beautiful legs were all above description. He wore bright and decorative clothes. The people of Kantaka Nagara dedicated themselves to the feet of this attractive person Vira Bhadra.
Sri Raghunandana anxiously awaited the arrival of the mahantas, Yadunandana finally reached him with news of the arrival of the mahantas in Kantaka and Sri Raghunandana and his followers went forward to receive them. They met on the banks of the Ganges and in that great gathering of Vaisnavas it appeared is if the ocean of love and devotion had overflooded its banks. They first visited the place from which Mahaprabhu had started his ascetic life. They cried when they saw that place and as their lamentations grew louder they rolled on the ground. Soon all the inhabitants of Kantaka Nagara - even the animals and birds - filled the air with sounds of crying. Thereafter the dust-covered mahantas went to the courtyard of Sri Gauranga where they saw the beautiful deity of Gaura candra and regained their composure. Thereafter they happily they happily went to the houses assigned to them.
Observance of the death ceremony of Dasa Gadadhara Prabhu
Srinivasa Acarya and his followers arranged the great festival and the village residents were enchanted by the grandeur of the daily program. Throughout the day and night the mahants performed san kirtana, filling the air of Kantaka Nagara with the sounds of ecstatic joy. Krsna Misra and Gopala danced in the midst of the san kirtana and they compound where they chanted and danced became crowded with on-lookers. Even demi Gods took human forms to attend the festival. The mahantas sang and danced so intensely that their bodies perspired and quivered in ecstatic love. It seemed that the place was floating in a flood of divine love. Common people who attended the festival could scarcely understand how the mahantas continued three days in such singing and dancing. After the festival, the mahantas remained in Kantaka Nagara a few more days.
