janiya aila jhata navadvipa-pure
asiya rahila nandana-acaryera ghare

“As soon as Lord Nityananda realized that Lord Caitanya had manifested Himself, He quickly went to Navadvipa. When He arrived, He resided in the house of Nandana Acarya.”(Caitanya-bhagavata,Madhya-khanda3.123) 

Lord Nityananda was staying in Vrindavana, waiting until Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu manifested His sankirtana pastimes in Navadvipa.When Lord Nityananda came to know that Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu had started His sankirtana movement, He travelled to Navadvipa-dhama. Nandana Acarya was very happy to receive Lord Nityananda at his house where he offered Him a place to stay and also arranged for His prasada. Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu understood that Lord Nityananda had reached Navadvipa. He felt great happiness within His heart and informed all the Vaishnavas, “O, My dear brothers! Within the next two or three days a great personality will come here.” But no one could understand about whom the Lord was talking. One morning after Lord Gauracandra had concluded His worship of Lord Vishnu, He came to meet with the devotees. The Lord said, “Today I had a very wonderful dream. A great chariot called Taladhvaja came and stopped in front of My house. Sitting on that chariot was a great personality with a huge body. He was holding a club over His shoulder and in His left hand was a kamandalu pot bound to a stick. He was wearing a blue cloth, had a blue turban on His head, and a wonderful earring was hanging from His left ear. Upon seeing this character I felt He had the mood of Haladhara, Lord Balarama. He asked me ten or twenty times, ‘Is this the house of Nimai Pandita?’ He looked like a great avadhuta. I have never seen such a personality. I felt very respectful to Him and asked Him,‘O, great personality! Who are You?’ He smiled and said,‘I am Your brother. Tomorrow We will meet with each other’. From this dream, I think a great person must have come to Navadvipa. I have told you before that very soon we will meet with a great personality. O, Haridasa! O, Srivasa! Please go and find out whether He has already arrived.” By the order of the Lord both Haridasa and Srivasa went to search for Him all over Navadvipa, but they could not find such a personality anywhere. After searching for Him all over for nine hours, they finally came back to Lord Gauracandra and informed Him, “We searched for this personality everywhere, in the houses of all the Vaishnavas, sannyasis and grihasthas, even in the homes of all the atheists, but we could not find Him anywhere. We have searched all over Navadvipa, but we have not gone to other villages.” Upon hearing this Lord Gauracandra smiled and explained to them how this personality, Lord Nityananda, is very confidential. Not everyone can find Him; unless Lord Gauranga Himself reveals Him, He cannot be found. Lord Gauranga said, “All of you come with Me. We will go and search for Him together.” Lord Gauracandra along with all the devotees went to NandanaAcarya’s house.There they saw this great jewel among all persons. He was as effulgent as millions of suns. He was in immense meditative bliss and was always laughing. Mahaprabhu understood His great devotion and along with all His associates offered obeisances to Him. All stood there with respect, no one said a word, they just looked on silently. Lord Visvambhara stood infront of that personality. He recognized Lord Nityananda, the Lord of His life.

Lord Nityananda also recognized His Lord. In ecstasy, Lord Nityananda became stunned and looked upon Lord Visvambhara with undeviated, focused attention in such a way that it seemed as if He was licking with His tongue, drinking through His eyes, embracing with His arms and smelling through His nose.Thus Nityananda became silent and motionless. Everyone was surprised to see this but Lord Gaura Raya could understand everything. In order to reveal Lord Nityananda’s svarupa to everyone Lord Gauracandra devised a plan. He made an indication to Srivasa Pandita to recite a verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam. Understanding the desire of the Lord, Srivasa Pandita recited the following verse:

barhapidam nata-vara-vapuh
karnayoh karnikaram
bibhrad vasah kanaka-kapisam
vaijayantim ca malam
randhran venor adhara
sudhayapurayangopa-vrindair
vrindaranyam sva-pada-ramanam
pravisad gita-kirtih

“Wearing a peacock-feather ornament upon His head, blue karnikara flowers on His ears, a yellow garment as brilliant as gold, and the Vaijayanti garland, Lord Krishna exhibited His transcendental form as the greatest of dancers as He entered the forest of Vrindavana, beautifying it with the marks of His footprints. He filled the holes of His flute with the nectar of His lips, and the cowherd boys sang His glories.” (SB 10.21.5)

As soon as Lord Nityananda heard this verse He immediately fell down and lost His external consciousness. When Lord Nityananda fainted in ecstasy, Lord Gauranga instructed Srivasa to recite more and more. By hearing again and again, Lord Nityananda regained His external consciousness and started to cry. Hearing the verse repeatedly increased His ecstasy and He started roaring like a lion. He was jumping high in the air and falling to the ground. Everyone was thinking that His bones would break. Even the Vaishnavas were afraid, what to speak of others. Everyone prayed to Lord Krishna saying, “Please save Him, please save Him!” Lord Nityananda was rolling on the ground, His whole body drenched with tears. He was looking at the face of Visvambhara and breathing heavily, experiencing ecstasy within his heart and laughing loudly. Sometimes He was dancing, sometimes He was bending down, sometimes He was beating on his arms and at other times He was jumping which was a very amazing sight. By seeing this most wonderful ecstasy due to madness for Lord Krishna,Sri Gauranga cried along with all the Vaishnavas. Constantly the happiness increased. No one was able to catch hold of Lord Nityananda and after their failed attempts Lord Visvambhara Himself took Lord Nityananda onto His lap. As soon as Lord Nityananda reached the lap of Visvambhara He became quiet and surrendered His life to Him. Lord Nityananda was floating in the water of love of Sri Caitanya. He looked exactly like Lakshmana when he was hurt by the sakti weapon of Indrajit, and Visvambhara looked exactly like Ramacandra, holding His wounded brother on His lap. Lord Nityananda fainted, pierced by the arrows of prema-bhakti. Lord Gauracandra was crying, holding Nityananda. Aftersome time Lord Nityananda regained His external consciousness and the devotees started chanting “Hari, Hari”and “jaya, jaya.” Nityananda and Gauracandra just looked at each other without saying anything as tears flowed from Their eyes. Then Lord Gauranga started glorifying Lord Nityananda by saying, “Today is a very auspicious day because I have seen bhakti-yoga in You, which is the essence of all the Vedas. Without the energy of Isvara how can anyone exhibit tears and other symptoms like these? By serving You one will get Krishna-bhakti. You have come to purify all fourteen planetary systems. You are the personification of Krishnabhakti. Now I understand that Krishna has brought You here to give Me Your association which will definitely deliver Me.” After glorifying Nityananda for some time Lord Gauranga asked fearfully, “Kindly tell me, where have You come from?” Nityananda, who has a childlike nature and was talking like a child, said, “I had set off for tirtha-yatra (pilgrimage). I went to see all the holyplaces of Sri Krishna but wherever I went I saw only empty places without Krishna. I asked some gentlemen why this was so,‘Why are all these simhasan as empty? O, my dear brothers! Please tell me in which direction Krishna has gone?’ They replied that Krishna had gone to Gaudadesa.‘Just a few days ago He went to Nadia after visiting Gaya. There is a great hari-sankirtana happening in Nadia.’ Some said, ‘Lord Narayana has appeared there, I heard the deliverer of fallen souls has appeared in Nadia!’Hearing this great news a fallen soul like Me has come here.” Mahaprabhu said, “We are all very fortunate that a great devotee like You has arrived here. By seeing the flow of bliss in You we have been blessed today.” Thus Lord Nityananda and Lord Gauracandra met each other at Nandana Acarya’s house. Whoever listens to this description will become free from material bondage and receive pure Krishnabhakti.

Directions: Turn left outside the main gate of ISKCON and proceed down Bhaktisiddhanta road towards Hulor Ghat. It is the first temple on the left side of the road and has an ornate main gate.

Presiding deities: The temple is at the end of the main hall on the left just inside the front gate.

1. The center altar has beautiful big neem deities of Sri Sri Gaura-Nitai and also Nrisimhadeva.

2. The left altar has two deities of Gauranga Mahaprabhu with their right arm raised and Giri Govardhana.

3. Sri Sri RadhaVinoda Bihari preside on the right side of the altar. It is worth going close to see Them as they are very charming.

This is where Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda first met. Sri Gaura-Nityananda Gaudiya Matha temple is said to mark the site where the house of Nandana Acarya used to stand. This temple is between the ISKCON temple and the boat ghat to Navadvipa. The area from the confluence of the Ganga and the Sarasvati up to the samadhi of Srila Prabhupada is known as Isodyana, the Lord’s garden. This is where Nandana Acarya had his house. Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura explains in his Navadvipa-bhava-taranga: “In the southern portion of Mayapur,on the bank of the River Ganga and very near its junction with the River Sarasvati, is the extensive grove called Isodyana, the Lord’s garden. May that garden be the place of my eternal devotion. In this garden, my Lord Sri Sacinandana performs His midday pastimes along with His devotees. Seeing the brilliance of this grove, I shall be reminded of Radha-kunda in Vraja. May all these areas be eternally visible to my eyes. Huge trees and dark vines appear very dense. Among the foli age there are various types of birds singing the transcendental glories of Lord Gaura. In the garden, there is a large lake and an extremely opulent temple glowing with pure gold laid with diamonds as well as blue and yellow sapphires. The materialists, with their eyes bewildered by the illusions of material sense perception, and who are envious of the Lord, can never see these groves. Rather, they see only a small piece of land covered with thorns, periodically thrown into utter disruption by the forceful flooding of the river.”(Navadvipa-bhava-taranga).

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura states in his Navadvipa-bhava-taranga: “North of Prithu-kunda is the town of Mathura and the holy place known as Shashthi-tirtha, which is within the exquisitely beautiful forest of Madhuvana (in Vraja). This is a very vast area populated by many people. May my eyes become purified by viewing this scene.”

Sri Navadvipa-dhama-mahatmya (Parikrama-khanda) describes:
During the afternoon Srivasa Thakura took Sri Jiva on a tour. He showed him Shashthi-tirtha (the sixty tirthas). Srivasa explained, “Before the advent of Lord Sri Gauranga, the demigods came to know that the Lord would very soon appear in Navadvipa.Visvakarma came to Nadia, realizing that Mahaprabhu would be performing nagara-sankirtana and walking through the streets of Nadia. The architect of the demigods understood that the Lord along with His associates would become very thirsty. In order to relieve them of thirst Visvakarma dug sixty ponds in one night, the last one being in the village of Chand Kazi.”

Directions: One of these kundas is in Chand Kazi’s village and another is here to the side of Sridhara’s place.

sodhitva tam kirtanadau sri-gaurasundarah prabhuh
tirtham dvadasakam tirtva sridharasya griham yayau

“Lord Sri Gaurasundara, during thetime of the first (adi) kirtana purifiedKamsa who had taken birth as ChandKazi and went to the house of Sridharaafter crossing dvadasa-tirtha (thetwelve tirthas).” (Navadvipa-dhamamahatmya,Pramana-khanda 4.35)

Srila Bhaktivinoda Thakura mention sin his Navadvipa-bhava-taranga: “In the center of Madhuvana is the place called Visrama-sthala. There stands the cottage of the Lord’s devotee named Sridhara and also a clear pond. After rectifying the Kazi, the Lord of the three worlds came here with His followers and rested. When will I shout “Ha Gauranga!” at this Visrama-sthala? When will I roll upon the ground and cry in solitude? Overwhelmed with emotions of ecstatic love, will I ever see the beautiful Gauranga-sundara drinking water from Sridhara’s ironpot? And when, by the power of great fortune, will my eyes behold the young son of Saci in the midst of a rousing kirtana along with Nityananda, Advaita, Gadadhara, and Srivasa, dancing and begging for ecstatic love at the house of Sridhara?”(Navadvipa – bhava – taranga)

Sri Navadvipa-dhama-mahatmya (Parikrama-khanda) describes: When Lord Nityananda took Sri Jivaon Navadvipa-mandala Parikrama they reached the house of Sridhara, or Kolaveca Sridhara (the banana vendor). This personality is also known as the cowherd boy Kusumasava in krishna-lila.

Nityananda Prabhu said, “At this placeMahaprabhu would take rest after completing His dancing and chanting. Therefore this place is known as Visramasthana or the place of rest.” When Sridhara heard about the arrival of Lord Nityananda, he immediately came forward and offered prostrated obeisance. He worshiped Lord Nityananda and said, “O, my Lord! You are very merciful towards this menial servant of Yours. I humbly request You to kindly take rest today at my residence.” Lord Nityananda said, “You are a very fortunate person. Lord Gauranga has personally blessed you. Today all of us will stay here and take rest.” Sridhara was extremely satisfied to hear this desire of Lord Nityananda. Immediately he brought all the ingredients for cooking and had a devotee brahmana cook the feast. First Lord Nityananda and Srivasa Thakura took prasada and after they had concluded their meal, Sri Jiva very happily honored prasada. When Nityananda Prabhu reclined on a bed after taking prasada, Sridhara, along with his whole family, massaged His divine lotus feet.

Darsana times: All the time

Directions: Enter the mango grove at the back of Sri Jagannatha temple in Rajapurusing the small gate at the rear of the temple. Ahead of you on the right side you will see a small building situated amongst a cluster of trees. This is the place.

Points of interest:

1. The building indicates the location of Sridhara’s house. This area is nondifferent from Madhuvana forest of Vrindavana where Krishna and Balarama had many pastimes with Their sakhas, cowherd boyfriends. One of these sakhas was Kusumasava Gopala sakha who appeared as Sridhara in Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes.

2. Shashthi-tirtha-kunda: On the rightside of the building you will see a field that is dug out and surrounded by raised edges. This was a kunda in Lord Caitanya’s time. Young Nimai used toplay here and also steal bananas from Sridhara’s near by banana patch.

3. Resting place: This place is also known as visrama-sthala (resting place) as Lord Caitanya would take rest here after performing kirtana.