Gita Govinda & Life of Srila Jayadeva Goswami
24 songs
First one is Dasavatara stotra
Bhojadev and Vamadevi
Child to spread cult of Bhakti - beseech Jagannath - spark of Jagannath entered Bhojadev
LCM - Puri - Khendubilva - Chant Gita Govinda
Appeared on Akshaya Tritiya - building of Jagannath Ratha
Lakshman Sena - invite to palace - build hut in Champahatti - 3 reasons
- Satya Yuga - LCM gave darsan to Dwija Maninath
- Champa flowers in Champahatti
- Sadhu-sanga many sadhus there
JAYADEVA AND THE ROBBERS
On another occasion, Jayadeva wished to put on a festival for his deities Radha and Madhava, but he was short of money. He decided to travel in order to collect some funds by using his poetic skills. On his return journey, he was stopped by robbers who not only stole his money but cut up his hands and feet and threw him down a well to die. Despite the pain, Jayadeva shouted out the names of the Lord as loudly as he could.
After Jayadeva had spent three days in this way, the king happened that way on a hunting expedition and heard the sound of the holy names coming from the well. The king approached the well out of curiosity and was horrified to see Jayadeva in this serious condition. He had him taken out of the well and brought back to his palace where he had him treated. Under the queen’s care, Jayadeva was gradually returned to health.
Both the king and queen were charmed by Jayadeva’s sweet singing of the Gita-Govinda as well as by his saintly character. They immediately sent for Padmavati and had her brought to their home. The king and queen took initiation from Jayadeva and heard about Krishna from him and started to make their lives successful through service to the Lord and his devotees. One day, the robbers who had attacked Jayadeva came to the king’s palace as guest disguised as devotees. Even though Jayadeva recognized who they were, he gave them the honor that was due to their outward appearance and arranged for the appropriate hospitality to be proffered them. The robbers, however, did not understand Jayadeva’s forgiving and generous nature and, fearing capture and punishment, thought it best to leave without accepting the royal hospitality. Jayadeva understood their fear and asked the king to give them a large sum of money and an escort and send them on their way.
After they had gone a certain distance, the robbers said to the escort of soldiers, “You need not go any further. We would like to tell you a secret message to convey to the king, however. Prior to becoming Vaishnavas we were the servants of a certain king who for very good reason ordered us to murder this priest, Jayadeva. So we cut up his hands and feet and left him to die. Because he was afraid that this secret would come out, this priest gave us a lot of money and asked us to leave quickly.”
The Earth herself was unable to tolerate the telling of such a great lie and so she opened up and swallowed the entire gang of thieves. When Shukracharya, the guru of the demons, told Bali Maharaj not to give the three feet of land demanded by Vamana Deva, Bali answered that he was the grandson of Prahlad Maharaj. How could he go back on his word like a miser once he had committed himself to giving in charity? He substantiated this by saying,
na hy asatyat paro’dharma
iti hovaca bhur iyam /
sarvam sodhum alam madhye
rte’lika-param naram //
This Earth has said, “There is no greater irreligiousness than untruth. I can bear any burden other than that of a person who constantly lies.” (SB 8.20.4)
The goddess of the Earth was unable to support the weight of these sinful liars and so she swallowed them up. As they blasphemed the great devotee of the Lord, they met their doom in the bowels of the earth.
The servants of the king who had accompanied these robbers were amazed to see them punished for their offense to Jayadeva right before their very eyes. They came back to the king’s palace and told him everything that they had witnessed. The king inquired from Jayadeva about the robbers and he told the entire story. He said, “O king! A saintly man does not seek revenge from those who have done evil toward him. He attempts to satisfy them by polite behavior. Even so, the Lord’s flawless will makes them suffer the consequences of their own sinfulness, as he did in this case.”
PADMAVATI IS TESTED
Jayadeva’s wife became a close friend of the queen. In those days, the custom of a wife dying with her husband was in vogue. After her brother’s death, the queen was mortified that her sister-in-law would have to die on the funeral pyre with him. Padmavati said to the queen, “From the moment that her husband dies, a faithful wife’s life airs leave her body.”
When the queen heard this, she decided to test Padmavati herself. One day she announced to Padmavati that her husband Jayadeva had suddenly died. As soon as this news entered her ears, Padmavati gave up her life. This shocked the queen and she began to cry out of a sense of guilt for being responsible for her death. The king also came to Jayadeva and begged him to return the life to his wife’s corpse. The great devotee Jayadeva whispered the name of Krishna into Padmavati’s ear and she opened her eyes as though she were just waking up. Having seen this manifestation of both Jayadeva and Padmavati’s glories, the king and queen as well as all their courtiers and servants paid their obeisances at their feet.
JAYADEVA GOES TO VRINDAVAN
After this, Jayadeva wanted to see Vrindavan. He took leave of the king and queen and then, taking his deities, Radha and Madhava with him, set off on the long journey. Once in Vrindavan, he began to serve his deities in a spot near Keshi Ghat. When they heard Jayadeva sing the Gita-Govinda in his sweet voice, the residents of the dham were entranced. One merchant built a large temple for the deities on that spot.
It is said that Jayadeva lived in Vrindavan for many years and then returned to his birthplace in Kendubilva. Each day, he would make the long walk to the Ganges to take his bath there. One day, for some reason or another, he was unable to make it. Ganga Devi was so kind to him that she came personally to the village of Kendubilva so that he could take his bath in her waters. It is said that he died there in Kendubilva and every year a large festival is held there in his memory on the first day of the month of Magh.
There is a difference of opinions about where Jayadeva finished his life. Some say Puri, while others say that he returned to Kendubilva, and others say that he went to Vrindavan. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Thakur has stated his opinion that Jayadeva died in Jagannath Puri. Though some people say that Jayadeva returned to Kendubilva to spend his last days, there is no indication anywhere that his Radha-Madhava deities were brought there. In fact, these deities were taken by the king of Jaipur to a place named Ghati sometime after Jayadeva’s death and they are still being served in the Jaipur area. Jayadeva’s disappearance day is on the sixth day of the waning moon of the month of Paush.
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