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The Legend of the Rudraksha

Om Vishnupad 108 Tridanda Swami Sri Srimat Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Goswami Maharaj ki Jai !

By Sunayani Sengupta, from the Harmonist Guru Purnima issue 2002

The 500th birth centenary of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu fell in the year 1985. Sriman Mahaprabhu is Baba’s ishtadevta, as we well know. So it was but natural that Baba wanted to celebrate this historic event in a special way to commemorate the occasion in a way that would help to disseminate the message of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu throughout the country.

In 1984, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister sent a message to Baba asking him for his opinion as to how the occasion could be celebrated in the best possible way.

Baba suggested that there should be a padayatra from Kharagpur to Puri and thence forward towards the southern part of India to Rameshwaram.

This was the route followed by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu during his lifetime as he went about the country spreading his message of love towards all mankind. Mahaprabhu spread the name of God through naam sankirtan or congregational chanting of the Lord’s names in a procession.

The devotees became completely intoxicated with the chanting and in their spirit of devotion, thousands felt uplifted and joined voluntarily. The divine message thus was spread throughout the country in a torrent of an all-engulfing love that healed the souls of men and women.

Baba’s suggestion was accepted by the Prime Minister who suggested that a committee be formed to follow the route suggested by Baba and that Baba should head this committee and should then head the naam sankirtan pilgrims towards their destination.

The procession was to start from Navadweep, the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and wind its way via Puri down to Rameshwaram. Baba happily agreed.

When he was asked by Mrs. Gandhi why he wanted to follow this method of commemorating the 500th birth centenary of Mahaprabhu, Baba gave two intrinsically valuable reasons.

First of all, during Mahaprabhu’s time there were various pilgrimages on this route which over time had become obscure and had fallen into disuse.  People had forgotten about them.  These ancient routes could be revived and the pilgrimages could once more become centres of worship.

Secondly, if the path was retraced then the people of these areas could once again be reunited in a stream where the importance of spreading of the Name of the Lord could regain its significance. People of different castes and creed could once again join in chanting the names of the Lord and be united in prayer.

Mrs. Gandhi was happy with this answer and gave a green signal to start the naam sankirtan pada yatra.

The procession started as scheduled with Baba at its head. It took all of five months to reach its destined place at Rameshwaram.

Marches or processions to spread the name of the Lord have always held a special significance whenever and wherever they have taken place.  It is a unique way of conquering the human spirit through the message of compassion, kindness and love.

As the marchers walk on, the entire procession slowly gathers momentum and surging in numbers from place to place.  Just as a mountain stream starts as a rivulet from its source and gradually forks its way downstream to become a mighty river by the time it reaches the plans, similarly the naam sankirtan pada yatra also gathered momentum and strength on its way.

The marchers chanted the names of the Lord as they walked in a huge procession with Baba in the forefront, and as they reached their appointed destination by mid afternoon, they rested for the day and night, until the next morning, when they restarted their journey.

Slowly and steadily, they reached the temple of Simhachalam, the place in Andhra Pradesh where there is a famous temple of Lord Nrisingha dev.

After reaching the temple, the marchers rested. The temple authorities had allotted rooms adjacent to the temple. The strength of the procession, by this time had reached the phenomenal number of 10,000 plus.

It was evening and everyone was resting. Baba had to oversee everything personally and looked towards the comfort of the pilgrims, to see that the journey could progress smoothly on the following day.

As the pilgrims slept during the night, Baba kept a vigil, mentally keeping tabs on the logistical arrangements. Baba rarely, if ever, sleeps at night.  He has conquered sleep and sometimes spends the entire night in naam japa or katha.  On the veranda of the temple precincts where Baba was to spend the night, he sat doing japa on his japa-malika well past midnight.

Suddenly, in the distance Baba saw a halo of light, which was circular in formation and which seemed to be advancing towards him. But there was no figure visible within that light.  Baba stood up to take a closer look and he could vaguely discern a figure which seemed to be advancing towards him.

As the ball of light came closer, the figure became clearer and the figure of a man stood in front of Baba.

The ‘Man’ smiled and and sat down when Baba had welcomed Him and asked Him to sit down. He then asked for some sweets, smilingly telling Baba that he was always given sweets by devotees so he should share some with his new guest. Baba happily served Him with sweets.

Then He held a long conversation with Baba and they talked for quite a while about various things.

Before leaving, the ‘Man’ gave Baba a present. The present or rather presents, were unique in every way.  They were five very, very large rudraksha beads – the size of a grapefruit or a large orange.

The massive beads were ek-mukhi (one-eyed) rudrakshas and the one eye was marked very clearly.

Just above that mark on top of the rudraksha bead was a perfectly formed shiva-linga - formed naturally – with the marks of Lord Shiva’s “trinetra” or three eyes very clearly visible on the linga.

There was a formed coiled serpent with outspread hoods, standing over the linga. The entire thing was absolutely perfectly formed, even better than any master craftsmen could carve it.

The person who had visited Baba was non other than Lord Shiva Himself and He entrusted Baba with five such ek-mukhi rudraksha beads. Five huge and elegant natural rudraksha beads that were uniquely formed with a shiva-linga, one eye to mark that it was a single-eyed rudraksha, the naga on top and the three eyes of the Lord clearly visible on the linga.

All five were given to Baba in 1985 during the padayatra.  And Baba was given strict instructions to keep them hidden and look after them very carefully.  Lord Shiva instructed Baba that the facts of his visit and gift were to be kept secret until 2001 and no one was to be told about this encounter.

Only after the 2002 Phalguni purnima, which was Baba’s birthday, the world was told about these five giant rudrakshas. Subsequently, Baba was given six more such rudrakshas so that today, he has with him eleven such unique rudraksha beads.

Baba said that such beads are not only very, very rare, but they only grow once in 2000-3000 years on a tree.  And a single fruit grows on one tree after two or three millenniums. They are therefore extremely rare.

When Lord Shiva gave Baba the rudraksha, He asked Baba to test it by floating the massive bead in water. Baba brought water in a vessel and dropped the bead in it. Despite its large size, the bead floated on the water which showed that it was a genuine rudraksha.

Rudraksha trees grow in India, Java, Sumatra, Bhutan, Nepal and other places in the south east asian region of the world. And in all these areas combined, such a rare bead would be produced only once in a few millenniums.

When asked why the beads were given to Baba, who is a Vaishnava, Baba said that Lord Shiva is the King of Vaishnavas.  He is the first and foremost Vaishnava who sang the name of Lord Rama with all his five mouths. 

Lord Shiva therefore chose Baba – on his way to Rameshwaram – to give this unique present to him. It was a fitting tribute to Baba as he was commemorating the 500th birth centenary of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Kalyug advent of Bhagawan Vishnu or Sri Rama.

One rudraksha is being held by Baba in the photograph above.  The strange thing about the picture is that Lord Shiva had told Baba that photographs of the rudraksha could only be taken with Baba’s permission.

On 28th March of 2002, which was Baba’s birthday, several photographers attempted to take pictures of the bead.  However, none of the photographs could be developed clearly.

Then Baba called one particular photographer to take a photograph of the bead which is shown here.

 

Om Vishnupad 108 Tridandi Swami Sri Srimat Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Goswami Maharaj ki Jai !!

Jai Jai Sri Radhey !