Meditation 226: Confidential Exchange with the Deities
August 2, 2010

Only with very intimate devotees will the Deity interact in such a manner as took place between Pundarika Vidyanidhi and Lord Jagannath. A very similar exchange recently took place between Jananivasa Prabhu in Mayapur and the Lord Jagannath Deities. It is a most intimate loving exchange!



{For the contemporary context: see below.}

Also Consider-

"Sri Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura, a great acarya and devotee in the humor of conjugal love with the Lord, remarks very saliently in this regard. He says that the wounds created on the body of the Lord by the sharpened arrows of Bhismadeva were as pleasing to the Lord as the biting of a fiancee who bites the body of the Lord directed by a strong sense of sex desire. Such biting by the opposite sex is never taken as a sign of enmity, even if there is a wound on the body. Therefore, the fighting as an exchange of transcendental pleasure between the Lord and His pure devotee, Sri Bhismadeva, was not at all mundane. Besides that, since the Lord's body and the Lord are identical, there was no possibility of wounds in the absolute body. The apparent wounds caused by the sharpened arrows are misleading to the common man, but one who has a little absolute knowledge can understand the transcendental exchange in the chivalrous relation. The Lord was perfectly happy with the wounds caused by the sharpened arrows of Bhismadeva. The word vibhidyamana is significant because the Lord's skin is not different from the Lord. Because our skin is different from our soul, in our case the word vibhidyamana, or being bruised and cut, would have been quite suitable. Transcendental bliss is of different varieties, and the variety of activities in the mundane world is but a perverted reflection of transcendental bliss. Because everything in the mundane world is qualitatively mundane, it is full of inebrieties, whereas in the absolute realm, because everything is of the same absolute nature, there are varieties of enjoyment without inebriety. The Lord enjoyed the wounds created by His great devotee Bhismadeva, and because Bhismadeva is a devotee in the chivalrous relation, he fixes up his mind on Krsna in that wounded condition." [Srimad Bhagavatam 1.9.34 purport]

Read Assignment: Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya 16.77-81 and the attached file as well.

"Lord Jagannatha said, "Seeing that you are my servant, I have been kind to you. That is why I punished you."

Reading Material: Caitanya Bhagavat Antya 10.50-182.pdf
_____________

{A previous version of this contemporary Lord Jagannath story was circulated, which had errors in the narrative. Below is a corrected more accurate version.}

On July 6, 2010 Jananivas Prabhu, our head pujari in ISKCON Mayapur, was repainting the Lord Jagannath Deity. While he was painting Jagannath, he noticed some paint that was peeling off from the Lord's right cheek. So he carefully scraped off the worn out paint from that part of the deity's body so that he could properly repaint that area. As he was doing this, Jananivas expressed that he knew some reactions will come from this unavoidable scratching of the Lord's cheek.

The following morning Jananivas awoke, finding himself on the wooden floor next to his low bed. It was only a fall of 2.5 feet. However, Jananivas was bleeding from wounds on his head and on his cheeks. He required five stitches. The wound on Jananivas Prabhu's cheek was like a knife wound, and there was nothing sharp in Jananivas Prabhu's room.

source: http://www.romapadaswami.com/?q=node/6255

Confidential Exchange with the Deities