By: Mahanidhi Swami
One day in Navadvipa when Haridasa went preaching with his partner Sri Nityananda Prabhu, they approached two notoriously violent and degraded drunken brahmins named Jagai and Madhai. Enraged, the drunks chased the divine pair with the intention of beating them to death for disturbing their stupor of intoxication. Haridasa was horrified and after the divine duo reported to Gauranga Mahaprabhu, Haridasa Thakura went to reveal his mind to his best friend Sri Advaita Acarya.
Haridasa Thakura said, “O Acharyaji, Mahaprabhu has sent me out preaching with an extremely restless person. We start out together and then Nitai leaves me behind and who knows where He goes? Sometimes Nitai jumps in the Ganga and tries to catch the crocodiles. I stand on the banks shouting for Him to return, but Nitai just ignores me and floats downstream like a dead man. If He sees some boys on the banks, Nitai comes out of the Ganga and chases them to beat them. And when their parents come with sticks in their hands, I fall at their feet and beg them to return to their homes.
“Sometimes Nitai steals butter and yogurt from the cowherd men and runs away. But I am old and can’t run, so they catch me and want beat me up. Nitai milks other people’s cows and directly drinks it. If the Avadhuta comes across a young maiden, He asks her to marry Him. Absorbed in the bhaava of Shankara Mahadeva, Nitai rides on the back of a bullock and bellows, “I am Mahesh!!!” It seems that everything Nitai does is unreasonable.
“Then when I try to teach Him something, Nitai abuses me and says, ‘What can that Advaita of yours do to Me? And that person whom you call Chaitanya, what can He do to Me?’Acharyaji, I have not said anything about this to Thakura Gauranga, but today I must tell you that my life has been saved by only by the grace of providence.” (CB Madhya 13)
Avadhuta Nityananda Rama ki jai!
Haridasa Thakura ki jai!
Sri Harinama Sankirtana ki jai!
Nitai Gaura Premanande ki jai!