At the end of August Padayatra was in Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand, previously known as Jharikhanda. Jharkhand is the famous tract of dense forests through which Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu travelled on His journey from Jagannatha Puri to Vrindavana, accompanied by His servant, Balabhadra Bhattacarya, and an assistant brahmana carrying His waterpot and garments.
Lord Caitanya made wild animals dance and chant in ecstatic love of God
We read with great pleasure the section of the Caitanya-caritamrita describing the amazing pastimes of the Lord in that jungle:
“When the Lord passed through the jungle in great ecstasy, pack of tigers, elephants, rhinoceros and boars came, and the Lord passed right through them. Balabhadra Bhattacarya was very much afraid to see them, but by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s influence, all the animals stood to one side. One day a tiger was lying on the path, and Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, walking along the path in ecstatic love, touched the tiger with His feet. The Lord said, ‘Chant the holy name of Krishna!” The tiger immediately got up and began to dance and chant, ‘Krishna! Krishna!’ Another day, while Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was bathing in a river, a herd of maddened elephants came there to drink water. While the Lord was bathing and murmuring the Gayatri mantra, the elephants came before Him. The Lord immediately splashed some water on the elephants and asked them to chant the name of Krishna. The elephants whose bodies were touched by the water splashed by the Lord began to chant, ‘Krishna! Krishna!’ and dance and sing in ecstasy.” ( Madhya-Lila, Chapter 17, verse 26 to 32)
Once a group of five or seven tigers joined the group of deer following the Lord. Not only did the tigers and deer started to dance and jump in ecstasy, they embraced one another, and, touching mouths, began to kiss! All the forest creatures, animals, birds, trees and creepers, were maddened by the holy name of Krishna vibrated by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. The Lord also awakened ecstatic love of God in the hearts of the jungle people. He was so immersed in pure love of God that He took it for granted that the forest of Jarikhanda was Vrindavana and the rivers He saw the River Yamuna.
Footprints of the Lord, tigers and elephants still visible on a river bed
The exact location of this pastime isn’t mentioned in the Caitanya-caritamrita. The only indication given is that the Lord kept the city of Kataka on His right as He entered the forest (Verse 24). In some biographies of Lord Caitanya, it is mentioned that He performed sankirtana at a placed named Kunja Nagari on the banks of the Chautama River, and that all the wild animals took part by chanting and dancing. The Earth became so ecstatic upon hearing the sweet kirtan of the Lord that she melted in some places, which resulted in imprints of the footprints of Mahaprabhu and the animals around Him. About ten years ago a sage came to perform a yajna within a kilometre of that area, and the following night the exact place of Gauranga’s wonderful pastime was revealed in his dream. Later on the villagers held a huge jajna at that spot. Between least 50 to 70 thousand people came to worship Lord Caitanya and meditate on His amazing pastime in the forest. The villagers built a small sankirtan hall of brick and cement and installed murtis of Radha Krishna.
This site is now assumed to be the place of Lord Caitanya’s lilas with the jungle animals. It is situated deep in the forest just besides a small river, and it exactly matches the description given in the previous quoted verses of the Caitanya-caritamrita, with the elephants dancing and tigers dancing in ecstasy. This could very well be the exact spot as there are imbedded foot prints of Lord Chaitanya Mahaprabhu along with his wild animal associates. I could personally distinguish footprints of tigers and elephants on the river bed. These foot prints are not found randomly on all the large rocks, but in specific places. They cannot be mad-made. We sang Vaisnava Bhajans and performed ecstatic harinam sankirtana to invoke the Lord’s mercy, as He bestowed it on all the wild animals 527 years ago.
Less honking than in Bihar
Jharkhand has a large population of tribal communities living in the jungles, but we did not meet them much, as we stuck to the national highway, visiting the adjoining villages. One of them was populated with semi-tribal people, to whom we taught the maha-mantra by showing them a video of Krishna. We found the people of Jharkhand more respectful towards sadhus than in Bihar. One huge difference between the two states was an almost 90% decrease in the blowing of horns. Trucks would silently follow the cart, sometimes waiting up to five minutes before overtaking us without making a fuss or honking. This was a great relief after our opposite experience of Bihar where our ears were drowning in a constant cacophony. But, whatever situations we encounter, Padayatra India will enthusiastically keep plying through the holy lands of Bharat Varsha, distributing the holy names, books and prasad in every town and village.
Sri Sri Nitai Gaurasundar Ki Jaya!
