Introduction 19
Lord Caitanya met His wife also after taking sannydsa and offered her His
wooden slipper for worship, but the authentic sources give no information
about such a meeting. His mother met Him at the house of Advaita
Prabhu, and when she saw her son in sannydsa, she lamented. By way of
compromise, she requested her son to make His headquarters in Puri so
that she would easily be able to get information about Him. The Lord
granted this last desire of His beloved mother. After this incidence the
Lord started for Puri, leaving all the residents of Navadvipa in an ocean of
lamentation over His separation.

The Lord visited many important places on the way to Puri. He visited
the temple of Gopinathaji, who had stolen condensed milk for His devotee
Srila Madhavendra Puri. Since then Deity Gopinathaji is well known as
Ksira-cora Gopinatha. The Lord relished this story with great pleasure.
The propensity of stealing is there even in the absolute consciousness, but
because this propensity is exhibited by the Absolute, it loses its perverted
nature and thus becomes worshipable even by Lord Caitanya on the basis
of the absolute consideration that the Lord and His stealing propensity are
one and identical. This interesting story of Gopinathaji is vividly explained
in the Caitanya-caritamrta by Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami.

After visiting the temple of Ksira-cora Gopinatha of Remuna at Balasore
in Orissa, the Lord proceeded towards Puri and on the way visited the
temple of Saksi Gopala, who appeared as a witness in the matter of two
brahmana devotees’ family quarrel. The Lord heard the story of Saksi
Gopala with great pleasure because He wanted to impress upon the atheists
that the worshipable Deities in the temples approved by the great dcaryas
are not idols, as alleged by men with a poor fund of knowledge. The Deity
in the temple is the arcd incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, and
thus the Deity is identical with the Lord in all respects. He responds to the
proportion of the devotee’s affection for Him. In the story of Saksi
Gopala, in which there was a family misunderstanding by two devotees of
the Lord, the Lord, in order to mitigate the turmoil as well as to show
specific favor to His servitors, travelled from Vrndavana to Vidyanagar, a
village in Orissa, in the form of His arcd incarnation. From there the Deity
was brought to Cuttack, and thus the temple of Saksi Gopala is even today
visited by thousands of pilgrims on the way to Jagannatha Puri. The Lord
stayed overnight there and began to proceed toward Puri. On the way, His
sannyasa rod was broken by Nityananda Prabhu. The Lord became ap-
parently angry with him about this and went alone to Puri, leaving His
companions behind.

At Puri, when He entered the temple of Jagannatha, He became at once
