Text 19] Pastimes of the Lord in His Youth 267

SYNONYMS

tabe—thereafter; sapta-prahara—twenty-one hours; chi/a—remained; prabhu—the
Lord; bhdva-dveSe—in ecstasy; yathad—anywhere; tathé—everywhere, bhakta-gana—
the devotees; dekhila—saw; visese—specifically.

TRANSLATION

After this incident, the Lord remained in an ecstatic position for twenty-one
hours, and all the devotees saw His specific pastimes.

PURPORT

In the Deity’s room there must be a bed for the Deity behind the Deity’s throne.
(This system should immediately be introduced in all our centers. It does not matter
whether the bed is big or small; it should be of a size the Deity room can conveniently
accommodate, but there must be at least a small bed.) One day in the house of
Srivasa Thakura, Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu sat down on the bed of Visnu,
and all the devotees worshiped Him with the Vedic mantras of the Purusa-sakta,
beginning with sahasra-sirsé purusah sahasréksah sahasra-pat. This veda-stuti
should also be introduced, if possible, for installations of Deities. While bathing
the Deity, all the priests and devotees must chant this Purusa-sikta and offer
the appropriate paraphernalia for worshiping the Deity, such as flowers, fruits,
incense, a@ratrika paraphernalia, naivedya, vastra and ornaments. All the devotees
worshiped Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu in this way, and the Lord remained in ecsta-
sy for seven praharas, or twenty-one hours. He took this opportunity to show the
devotees that He is the original Supreme Personality of Godhead, Krsna, who is the
source of all other incarnations, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita (ahari sarvasya
prabhavo matitch sarvarn pravartate). All the different forms of the Supreme Per-
sonality of Godhead, or visnu-tattva, emanate from the body of Lord Krsna. Lord
CaitanyaMahaprabhu exposed all the private desires of the devotees, and thus all of
them became fully confident that Lord Caitanya is the Supreme Personality of
Godhead.

Some devotees call this exhibition of ecstasy by the Lord s@ta-prahariya bhava, or
“the ecstasy of twenty-one hours,” and others call it mahdbhava-prakasa or mahea-
prakG§a. There are other descriptions of this s@ta-prahariyé bhava in the Cajtanya-
bhavagata, Chapter Nine, which mentions that Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu blessed a
maidservant named Duhkhi with the name Sukhi. He called for Sridhara, whose
name was Kholaveca Sridhara, and showed him His maha-prakdsa. Then He called
for Murari Gupta and showed him His feature as Lord Ramacandra. He offered His
blessings to Haridasa Thakura, and at this time He also asked Advaita Prabhu to ex-
plain Bhagavad-gita as it is (gitdra satya-patha) and showed special favor to Mukunda.

TEXT 19

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