All glories to Sri Narottam Das Thakur whos Disappearance Day Festival is today \o/ Narottama Dasa Thakura was a lifelong brahmacari. He visited all the holy places and the was the best of pure devotees. On the banks of the Padmavati river, in the town of Gopalpura lived King Krsnanda Datta. His older brother was Purusottama Datta. The wealth and fame of these two brothers was beyond compare. King Krsnanandas son was Sri Santosa Datta. In the month of Magha, onthe day of sukla-pancami, Sri Narottama Dasa Thakura took his birth. Seeing many auspicious omens surrounding the birth of his son, Raja Krsnananda was very pleased, and gave lavishly in charity to the brahmanas. The brahmanas, seeing all the auspicious signs surrounding the childs birth, prophesied that the boy was a highly perfected soul and great personality, by whose influence many people would be delivered. Just as a crescent moon gradually becomes full the kings son grew more effulgent and beautiful with each passing day. His bodily luster was just like molten gold. His eyes were large and shaped like lotus petals. His arms extended to his knees and he had a deep navel. All these are the bodily symptoms of a mahapurusa, a great personality. All the local townspeople used to gather to take darsana of the beautiful and saintly child. Soon, the boys anna-prasanna-samskara, or grain-eating ceremony was held. At that time, in order to insure auspiciousness and a bright future for his son, King Krsnananda gave much charity. The kings wifes name was Sri Narayani Devi. Having given birth to such a wonderful son, she was floating in the ocean of ecstasy. She always kept the boy close to her and was always concerned for his well-being, caring for him constantly. The boy was extremely peaceful. Wherever his mother put him, he would quietly stay put. Within the ladies quarters, the ladies used to nurture and care for the child with great ecstasy. Gradually the day of his entrance into school (Hate-Khari) approached. As his schooling went on, everyone was astonished at his amazing intelligence. Simply by hearing a subject once from his gurus he would commit it to memory. In only a short time, he mastered the study of Sanskrit grammar, poetry, rhetoric, and became expert in many different scriptures. But gradually he saw as useless any knowledge which did not promote Hari-bhajan, and soon lost interest in everything but Krishna consciousness. He found that in previous times the learned, who understood what real knowledge is, left everything, renouncing the world of birth and death, and went off to the forest in order to worship the Supreme Lord, Hari. Day after day, Narottama began to think of how he could become free from family life and constantly engage himself in the Lords service. He was indifferent to all material enjoyment; where most children usually like to play, he was uninterested in playing games. At this time, hearing the glories of Shri Nityananda and Shri Gauranga, from the lotus lips of the devotees of the Lord, his heart was filled with spiritual joy. As if he had been given new life, he felt great ecstasy. Within a few days of hearing the wonderful qualities of Gaura and Nityananda, he began to chant their holy names in japa day and night. One night the merciful Shri Gaurasundara, surrounded by his eternal associates appeared to Narottam in a dream and gave him darshan. After this, in order to understand how to become free from family life, Narottam das Thakura began to think day and night of how he could go to Vrindavan. Narottama has prayed, Hari Hari! kabe haba Vrindavanavasi? O Hari, when will I become a resident of Vrindavana? When will I serve the beautiful divine couple in Vrindavana with tears in my eyes? In this way, Narottama would constantly sing. Seeing Narottamas indifference to all sense pleasure and his intense renunciation, King Krishnananda and Narayani Devi began to think about what to do with him. Seeing that he was not inclined towards family life, and that he might soon leave home unexpectedly to go to Vrindavan they became very worried. They employed a guard to watch over him, so that he couldnt leave. Narottama Das saw that the difficulties involved in escaping were becoming more impassable than the Himalayas, and thought that he might never be able to go to Vrindavana and absorb himself in the worship of the holy feet of Sri Gauranga. Thinking only of how to get the mercy of Shri Gaura-Nityananda, he began to pray very earnestly for guidance from them. And so it came to pass that some messengers came from the Ruler of Bengal, informing King Krishnananda that the ruler of Bengal wanted to meet with him. In order to meet with the Ruler of Bengal, Raja Krishnananda and his brother Purushottama Datta set out on a long journey to the court of the Ruler of Bengal. (Cont.)
Posted on: Sun, 12 Oct 2014 14:32:09 +0000