Nimai was a little boy. One day, his father placed before him a number of objects like toys, sweets, fruits and books. He told his child lovingly, “Choose whatever you like from these!”
Unhesitatingly, Nimai placed his hand on a book — it was the Bhagavad Gita. When they saw his choice, the people around him exclaimed, “Oh! This child will grow up to be a great scholar and a great devotee of Sri Krishna!”
Nimai grew to be a great scholar — a veritable genius in logic. He started a school, and his students adored their teacher, whose knowledge and wisdom were truly profound.
Once, Nimai went to Gaya to perform a ritual in memory of his father. As he entered the temple, he heard the call of the flute. “Nimai! Nimai! Come unto Me!” it seemed to say. Logic and philosophy, metaphysics and ethics were forgotten.
The path of pride and knowledge and fame was renounced forever. Nimai was God-intoxicated, Krishna-intoxicated. The professor became a prophet. In deep ecstasy, he repeated the words which became his taraka-mantra, “Hari Bol! Hari Bol!”
The gifts of the world he gave up — knowledge, power and fame — to receive the gifts of his beloved Shyama — illumination, tears, ecstasy, ananda. Thereafter, he taught nothing and preached no dogma, but sang, “Hari Bol! Hari Bol! Hari Bol!”
The God-intoxicated scholar, Nimai, is revered today as a great herald of India’s spiritual culture — Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
*March 14 — Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Birth Anniversary, which is also regarded as “Holi”.
Dada J P Vaswani was a humanitarian, philosopher, educator, acclaimed writer, powerful orator, messiah of ahimsa, and non-sectarian spiritual leader.
