BABY NIMAI STEALS GOPAL’S OFFERINGS

This is the childhood pastime of Supreme Lord Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.

On another day, a Brahmin pilgrim passed through Navadwip (West Bengal, India) with Bala Gopal, his deity of the baby Krishna. Sri Chaitanya Maparabhu was called Nimai, when He was a child. His father Sri Jagannath Mishra offered the Brahmin a place to perform his puja as well as food to cook for an offering. When the pilgrim had finished cooking, he sat down to offer the bhoga to his deity. But as soon as he started meditation on his mantra, baby Nimai came and began eating the offering. The Brahmin saw this and started to shout in distress. Sri Jagannath Mishra was extremely disturbed by the incident and the Brahmin had to intercede to stop him from giving the child a spanking.

Although the Brahmin did not want to cook again, Sri Jagannath begged him to do so. Before he recommenced preparing the offering.

Sri Jagannath took baby Nimai to a neighbor’s house so that He would not do any more mischief. Once again,when the Brahmin sat down to meditate on his Bala Gopal mantra to make his offering, Sri Gaura Gopal appeared out of nowhere and started to enjoy the food-stuffs.

The Brahmin again began to shout in frustration, “Everything’s ruined. Everything’s ruined!” For a second time Sri Jagannath was devastated and once again was about to punish the child, only to be stopped by his guest. The Brahmin said,“He’s only a child and doesn’t understand anything. It’s not His fault. It seems that it is not my destiny to eat today.”

This time, baby Nimai’s older brother Sri Vishvarupa begged the Brahmin to try a third time, and so finally, on his insistence, he began to cook again. This time it was quite late at night and Nimai was fast asleep in His room so no one suspected any trouble.

Even so, the Brahmin waited until the entire household had gone to bed before making his offering; but once again, contrary to all expectation, Sri Gaura Gopal came to consume it. This time, however, He gave the Brahmin a vision of an extraordinary eight-armed form. In four of these hands, He held the conch, discus, mace and lotus flower of Sri Narayana; but in the palm of another hand, He held a lump of butter from which He was taking morsels with another.The last two hands were engaged in playing a flute. When the pilgrim Brahmin saw this wonderful vision, he fainted away completely.

When he came to consciousness, Nimai told him not to reveal this pastime to anyone. He told him, “You have been My servant for many, many births. This very same pastime also took place at Sri Nanda’s house in Gokula.”

The Brahmin decided to stop his travels and remain forever in Navadwip to be close to his Lord. Every evening after finishing his daily activities he would return to Nimai’s house to behold his worshipable lord.

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