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Early Life                            9


           on them. He also initiated Bimalä into a mantra for worshiping Lord Nåsiàha-
           deva.  That same year, a Kürmadeva çälagräma-çilä was unearthed while he was
                *
           building a house (to be named Bhakti Bhavan) in the Rämabägän neighborhood
           of Calcutta. Although according to social custom a thus-discovered çälagräma-
           çilä or deity of Viñëu should be presented to a member of the brähmaëa caste
           (as only “born brähmaëas” were considered fit to worship such forms), Öhäkura
           Bhaktivinoda responded to Bimalä’s desire to worship that çilä, and taught him
           the process and the appropriate mantras. From that time Bimalä started wearing
           tilaka and following other standard devotional practices, marking his formal
           entry into Vaiñëava dharma. †
                 While still very young, Bimalä composed two Sanskrit verses describing
           the impression of Lord Caitanya’s feet melted in stone within the Jagannätha
           temple—the gist being that Mahäprabhu’s heart was so tender in distributing
           love of Kåñëa, and so distressed at the unhappiness of others, that even the stone
           where He placed His lotus feet became soft and melted with love.
                                                                     6 ‡
                 Bimalä Prasäda was clearly not an ordinary boy. He had exceptional ability
           to remember and comprehend all kinds of topics. His voracious reading and his
           ability to exactly recall passages he had read only once, were to earn him the
           epithet “living encyclopedia.” Even in his last days, he could reproduce verbatim


           * There are differing opinions as to which Nåsiàha-mantra was given, but it is generally
           understood to be the one beginning ugraà véraà mahä-viñëum.

           † In Çré-Çréla Prabhupädera Vaiçiñöya-sampada o Samädhäna-sampada (pp. 4–5), Çrémad
           Bhakti Viläsa Bhäraté Mahäräja, a disciple of Çréla Sarasvaté Öhäkura, has detailed
           the significance of Kürmadeva, the tortoise form of Viñëu, in rasa-vicära. Kürmadeva
           is described in  alaìkära-çästra as the deity of  adbhuta-rasa, the mellow of wonder
           that makes other rasas ever newly wonderful. This wonder is most wonderful in the
           lélä  of Çré Gauräìga, who is Kåñëa attempting to taste the wonder of Himself, and
           even more wonderfully, distributing the wonder of His most wonderful pastimes to
           all, including the most fallen. Therefore in  Çré Caitanya-caritämåta, Çréla Kåñëadäsa
           Kaviräja Gosvämé repeatedly uses the words acintya, camatkära, and citra, all of which
           indicate inconceivability and wonder. In Cc 3.17.16 he also describes that when all rasas
           simultaneously appear in Çré Caitanya-deva, He becomes overwhelmed and takes, or is
           overtaken by, the form of Kürma. The importance of Kürmadeva in rasa-vicära is also
           hinted at by His being invoked in the last chapter of Çrémad-Bhägavatam (12.13.2), the
           topmost çästra, which brings all Vedic knowledge to the conclusion of rasa. Thus Bimalä
           Prasäda’s worship of Kürma is not merely incidental, but of deep import.
           For more on astonishment (camatkära) being the essence of rasa, see Kavi-karëapüra’s
           Alaìkära-kaustubha 5.7.
           ‡ Those verses are long-since lost.
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