The Sri Shanka Dham of the Heart

Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!

Dear Gurudeva and devotees please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Sri Sri Guru and Gauranga.

Today when I was chanting the Hare Krishna maha mantra I suddenly saw the big round ecstatic eyes of Lord Jagannatha all around me. It is hard to describe but let me try it anyway for the sake of sharing this nectar with all the devotees. I was chanting in the middle of a room facing East and the entire wall in front of me was filled with those two big eyes of Lord Jagannatha. When I turned around to the South, West and North I saw those large wide-open eyes of the Lord superimposed on every wall. When I looked up there were His enormous eyes over the whole ceiling and when I looked down, oh my, I was standing on His blissful eyes! The whole floor was His heavenly eyes! Instantly I got a strange tinkling in my feet thinking I was grossly standing on His holy eyes but at the same time I felt lightness as if I was barely touching the floor. Wherever I looked I saw and was completely surrounded by those beautifully jubilant eyes of Lord Jagannatha. This experience by itself made the whole room I was in completely holy, pure, sanctified, elevated, spiritual and superior. What words can I use? How can the inexpressible be expressed? I can only hint towards the feelings I felt when the Lord was looking at me.

Of course the Lord was not really looking at me. I am too insignificant and don’t deserve to be seen by the Supreme Lord of all the worlds. He was looking into my heart at Lord Nityananda Who is present in His form as Paramatma, the Supersoul. Lord Nityananda contains all the lilas of the Lord the same as Jagannatha Puri, Sri Kshetra Dham contains all the lilas of the Lord. I remembered a lecture of Srila Gour Govinda Swami Maharaja in which he narrated a story from a lost Vaisnava scripture, as sastra named ‘Mahabhava Prakasa’ written by Kanai Khuntia. The story is a slight variation of the same lila described in the Utkala-khanda of the Skanda Purana and portrays how Lord Jagannatha’s form became manifest and why He eternally resides in Purusottam Dham, the place of innumerable pastimes of Sri Gauranga Krishna. But before going into that please let me explain how it unfolded within my heart.

Puri Dham is also called Shanka Dham because its form is like a conchshell. The head of the conchshell is called Bhubaneswar and is the portal of the Dham guarded and protected by Lord Shiva (Bhubaneswar Lingaraj), and the belly of the conchshell lies in the ocean. Shanka Dham is very confidential and is parama pavana, supremely purifying. The Dham is known as Tirtharaja, the king of all pilgrimage, and whoever visits the Kshetra doesn’t have to go to any other places of pilgrimage because it contains all the pastimes of Lord Gauranga Krishna. Following the direction of the beautiful expanded eyes of Lord Jagannatha I closed my eyes and looked within. I saw a striking radiating conchshell from the outside and after I was allowed to enter through Bhubaneswar into the Dham itself I found myself immediately in a tremendous large hall where the more than 16.000 wives of Lord Sri Krishna’s were gathered. The opulence was staggering and the whole hall was illuminated with the jewels the Lord’s wives. There was an atmosphere of wonder and anticipation as if something very special was going to happen. The queens of Dwaraka-Bhumi were about to learn from Rohini Mataji about the gopis and about Radharani. They were wondering that although they took such good care of their husband Sri Krishna why He was during His sleep always crying, ‘gopi gopi, Radha Radha’. They had approached Rohini and inquired what that was all about. Rohini had answered that they could not understand because they are aisvarya-mayi (full of opulence) and cannot enter into madhurya-maya-lila, vraja lila. But the queens insisted getting an explanation and finally Rohini gave in to their request.

The hall fell silent when Rohini entered. Her attractive elegance permeated the entire atmosphere and her simple appearance was more radiant and sweeter then the opulence of all the queens together. The acoustics were amazing: although there were more than 16.000 queens in that large hall every single queen could hear the soft-spoken voice of Rohini perfectly clear and even her whispers could be heard. Rohini ordered Lord Sri Krishna’s sister, Subhadha, to stand at the door to stop Krishna and Balarama from coming in. She knew that They would come being attracted by the narration of the sweet pastimes of vraja-lila. Although Subhadra stood in the door opening when she heard vraja-lila from Rohini’s lips she became extremely ecstatic. Her arms pulled into her body and her eyes went wide, wide open. By the time Lordships Sri Sri Krishna Balarama arrived she was fully in ecstasy. Lord Balarama and Lord Krishna stood beside her and manifested Their ecstatic forms as well: eyes wide-open and hands and arms pulled in. These ecstatic forms of the Lord are eternally known as Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra.

Never missing a divine ecstatic event Narada Muni was approaching. From a distance he saw Their ecstatic forms and our Lordships quickly returned to Their normal forms but Narada Muni happily said: ‘Too late, I saw it, I saw it!’ Then He begged the Lord if He would manifest His ecstatic form somewhere so all the people of the world could worship Him in that form. Since the Lord grants His devotees whatever they ask for He appeared as Lord Jagannatha, Baladeva and Subhadra in Jagannatha Puri.

All the Lord’s pastimes are present within Shanka Dham. Everything is contained in that radiating conchshell Who is non-different from Lord Nityananda. As Supersoul in the heart Lord Nityananda blows that conchshell continuously to bring about the music of all the pastimes of the Lord and to awaken the constitutional position and ecstasy of all souls. His mercy has no end and when we surrender unto Him He opens the sacred doors within our hearts. He bestows upon us the highest tantra, Radha-tantra the process of Radharani’s worship: ‘Gauranga’ ‘Hare Krishna.’ Lord Gauranga’s arms are elongated to reach in the mood of Radharani to Sri Krishna, and Sri Krishna’s arms and hands shorten and His eyes go wide-open while He is drowning in pure ecstasy for Radharani. The elongation and shortening of the arms of the beloved Pair is just one of the many manifestations of Their eternal sacred dance and is glorious. It needs a sastra in itself to even lift a tiny part of the veil of this great mystery.  

When Lord Nityananda opens the sacred door of vraja-lila within our hearts Lord Gauranga Krishna rushes to such a heart and stands in its doorway in ecstasy. Then you witness Lord Jagannatha all around you coming from all directions and the downpour of His ecstasy is falling right into your heart and from there it goes right back to Him. Every wave of loving exchange increases its intensity and there is no shore to that ocean of ever increasing love.

Our Gurudeva lives in that topmost Shanka Dham. He recently invited us to come to that Dham to share his wonderful realizations. We might be limited in our ability to go there physically but Lord Nityananda in His unlimited mercy allows us into Shanka Dham within our own hearts. Today I feel being there with Gurudeva and there is no space and time that separates us. Wherever they might be all the devotees of the Lord are eternally relishing His pastimes. I realized that Gurudeva has opened the holy kshetra within our hearts by spreading the glories of Shanka Dham all over the world. How wonderful our Lordships work through the guru parampara all the way down into our own hearts. It is simply stunning. Here I have to stop and fall down, full dandavats at the lotus feet of all the devotees begging for your mercy and forgiveness for even trying to describe these intimate realizations.

Your servant,

Hadai Nityananda dasa

Nityananda Gauranga Hare Krishna!

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