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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.