240 Teachings of Lord Chaitanya

falling down before the Lord; and he began to explain his past undesirable
behavior. He asked the Lord to say something about devotional service, and
the Lord began to instruct him on the verses of Brihadnaradia Purana, in which
is stated Harer Nama Harer Nama. Lord Chaitanya explained the meaning of
this verse very explicitly. After hearing the explanation of the Harer Nama
from Lord Chaitanya, Bhattacharya became more and more ecstatic. Seeing
his condition, his brother-in-law, Gopinath Acharya, addressed him and said,
“My dear Bhattacharya, what I stated before—‘when he is favored by the
Supreme Lord he will understand about the techniques of devotional service’
—TI am today seeing fulfilled.”

Bhattacharya offered him his due respect and replied, “My dear Gopinath
Acharya, it is through your mercy that I have the mercy of the Supreme
Lord.” The mercy of the Supreme Personality of Godhead can be achieved
through the agency of the pure devotee. Lord Chaitanya’s mercy was bestowed
upon Bhattacharya because of Gopinath Acharya’s endeavor.

Bhattacharya said to his brother-in-law: “You are a great devotee of the
Lord, and I was simply blind with my academic education. So I have achieved
the mercy of the Lord through your agency only.” The Lord was very much
pleased to hear from Bhattacharya that a man can achieve the mercy of the
Lord through the agency of the devotee, and he appreciated the verses and
embraced Bhattacharya, confirming his statement.

The Lord then requested Bhattacharya to go and see Jagannath temple.
Bhattacharya then started out for Jagannath temple, accompanied by Jagada-
nanda and Damodar, two principal associates of Lord Chaitanya. He returned
to his home after seeing Jagannath temple, and brought with him much nice
Prasadam purchased from the temple. He sent all this Prasadam to Lord
Chaitanya through his Brahmin servant, and also dispatched two verses written
by him on palm tree leaves, and requested Jagadananda to do this favor and
deliver them. All of them again came back to Lord Chaitanya and offered
Him the Prasadam and the verses on the palm leaf. But before reaching the
Lord, Mukunda Datta, who also undertook the delivery of the written palm
leaf, had noted the verses down in his book. Lord Chaitanya read those verses
and tore them into pieces, because He never liked to be praised by anyone.
But his devotees had the verses written by Sarbabhouma Bhattacharya, from
the notes of Mukunda Datta.

The purport of the verses written by Sarbabhouma Bhattacharya was
praise of the Lord, the Supreme Original Personality of Godhead. He—Lord
Chaitanya—has descended to preach detachment and transcendental knowle-
