3 February

A lwAys E mbr A c E d by K åñë A

Bhägavata däsa was there, Satsvarupa Mahäräja, and Çréla Prabhupäda’s servant. Gargamuni and his travelling party were there, which must have been at least twenty men; and a couple of devotees from the Gauòéya Math. That would have been well over fifty devotees.

Jayadharma däsa: We started chanting on the main street of Puré; that pleased Çréla Prabhupäda very much. We had a big hari-näma in the main street for hours, in front of the Puré temple. Also, a paëòala program was organised. Many, many people were there and the people wanted Çréla Prabhupäda to speak in Bengali, but he did not; he spoke in English because, as he said, ‘They are all my disciples here and it is my duty to enlighten them.’ We really relished Çréla Prabhupäda for that.

A Brief History of the Sākṣi-gopāla Deity

“...Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura gives the following summary of the Fifth Chapter in his Amåta-praväha-bhäñya. After passing through Yäjapura, Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu reached the town of Kaöaka (Cuttak) and there went to see the temple of Säkñi-gopäla. While there, He heard the story of Säkñi-gopäla from the mouth of Çré Nityänanda Prabhu. Once there were two brähmaëas, one elderly and the other young, who were inhabitants of a place known as Vidyänagara. After touring many places of pilgrimage, the two brähmaëas finally reached Våndävana. The elderly brähmaëa was very satisfied with the service of the young brähmaëa, and he wanted to offer him his youngest daughter in marriage. The young brähmaëa received the promise of his elder before the Gopäla Deity of Våndävana. Thus, the Gopäla Deity acted as a witness. When the two brähmaëas returned to Vidyänagara, the younger brähmaëa raised the question of this marriage, but the elderly brähmaëa, due to obligations to his friends and wife, answered that he could not remember his promise. Because of this, the younger brähmaëa returned

C hapter 9 I n p uré w I th Ç réla p rabhupäda

to Våndävana and narrated the whole story to Gopälajé. Thus Gopälajé, being obliged by the young man’s devotional service, accompanied him to southern India. Gopälajé followed the younger brähmaëa, who could hear the tinkling sound of Gopälajé’s ankle bells. When all the respectable gentlemen of Vidyänagara were assembled, Gopälajé testified to the promise of the elderly brähmaëa. Thus, the marriage was performed. Later, the king of that country constructed a fine temple for Gopäla...”19 *

“...After visiting the temple of Kñéra-corä-gopénätha of Remuëä at Balasore in Orissa, the Lord proceeded towards Puré and on the way visited the temple of Säkñi-gopäla, who appeared as a witness in the matter of two brähmaëa devotees’ family quarrel. The Lord heard the story of Säkñi-gopäla with great pleasure because He wanted to impress upon the atheists that the worshippable Deities in the temples approved by the great äcäryas are not idols, as alleged by men with a poor fund of knowledge. The Deity in the temple is the arcä incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, and thus the Deity is identical with the Lord in all respects. He responds to the proportion of the devotee’s affection for Him. In the story of Säkñi-gopäla, in which there was a family misunderstanding by two devotees of the Lord, the Lord, in order to mitigate the turmoil as well as to show specific favour to His servitors, travelled from Våndävana to Vidyänagara, a village in Orissa, in the form of His arcä incarnation. From there the Deity was brought to Cuttack, and thus the temple of Säkñi-gopäla is even today visited by thousands of pilgrims on the way to Jagannätha Puré. The Lord stayed overnight there and began to proceed toward Puré...”20 **

* Çré Caitanya-caritämåta, Madhya-lélä Chapter 5, Summary: The Activities of Säkñi-gopäla. ** Çrémad-Bhägavatam. Introduction by A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupäda.

A lwAys E mbr A c E d by K åñë A

Śrīla Prabhupāda Visits The Sākṣi-Gopāla Temple

“So, at 7.30 p.m. we set off for Bhubaneswar, and as we drove back, we passed through a small town called Säkñigopäla, named after the famous Deity mentioned in the Caitanya-caritämåta, who is resident there. Because of the desire of the devotees Prabhupäda agreed to visit the Deity for darçana. Previously there had been some difficulty with the püjärés, they had not wanted our men to come in, but they relented.” “As we drove in under the big sign over the entrance, I noted it said that this was the Säkñi-gopäla Temple and no admission fee was charged. I thought that if there is no fee then why even advertise it? Why not just allow people to come in without saying, ‘Oh, we are not charging.’ It obviously meant that the püjärés were money conscious. So, we got out and proceeded down the left side of the raised darçana area to the end and then began to make our ascent to the deity room viewing area. As we mounted the first steps, a number of men appeared at the top clearly bent on intimidating us not to come any further. First, they tried to tell us we should go to another temple over to our left for darçana but we insisted, ‘No. Säkñigopäla is this way,’ and were making our way to the top of the stairs. Then they drew a large bamboo pole across their front to block us. We were shocked that they were daring to do this in front of Prabhupäda and the whole situation became very tense. We were concerned that it was Prabhupäda who was coming up for darçana and it was Prabhupäda who was being checked.” “Then another man appeared at the top and seeing Prabhupäda, he immediately dispersed the others and allowed us up. It was very distasteful. “So Prabhupäda was allowed to walk right into the deity room and a few of us that could fit squeezed in and we found ourselves standing only one or two feet from the beautiful