Nandana Acharya bhavan The place where Lord Caitanya and Lord Nityananda first met.

Nandana Acarya was a very elevated devotee and he was very happy to have Lord Nityananda stay with him. He looked after the Lord with great care and attention. He saw that,

- the Lord was very effulgent like the brilliant sun

- the Lord had a large body and was dressed in the clothes of a travelling renunciate.

- He was always grave and equipoised. Day and night He chanted Lord Krishna’s holy name.

- His beautiful, glowing face could have easily defeated a thousand shining full moons.

- A captivating smile played sweetly on His exquisite lips.

- So white and radiant were His teeth that if a pearl were held next to them the pearl would look like a faded and discarded piece of glass.

- His long, languid eyes stole the pinkish tinged of the early rising sun.

- His arms were long and reached down to His knees, and He possessed a robust chest and broad shoulders.

- His lotus feet were soft and His gait was graceful.

- He spoke to everyone with kind words which severed the bonds of material attachment within everyone’s heart.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu understood that Lord Nityananda had reached Navadvipa. Thus He felt great happiness within His heart and informed all the devotees, “Oh, My dear brothers! A great personality will come here in a few days.” But no one could understand whom the Lord was talking about. Then, gathering all His associates together, Gaurasundara told them of a dream He had the previous night. The Lord said, “Today I had a very wonderful dream. A great chariot called Taladhvaja came and stopped in front of My house. Sitting on that chariot, was a great personality with huge body. He was holding a club over His shoulder and in His left hand He held a kamandalu pot bound to a stick. He was wearing a blue cloth, had a blue turban on His head, and a wonderful earring was hanging from His left ear. Upon seeing this character I felt He had the mood of Haladhara, Lord Balarama. He asked Me 10 or 20 times, ‘Is this the house of Nimai Pandita?’ He looked like a great avadhuta. I had never seen such a personality. I felt very respectful to Him and asked Him:

‘O, great personality! Who are You?’ He smiled and said, ‘I am Your brother. Tomorrow We will meet with each other.’

From this dream I think a great person must have arrived to Navadvipa. I have told you before that very soon we will meet with a great personality. O, Haridasa! O, Srivasa! Please go and find out whether He has already arrived.”

By the order of the Lord, two great spiritual stalwarts, Haridasa Thakura and Srivasa Pandita went to search for Him all over Navadvipa, but they could not find such a personality anywhere. After searching for Him all over for 9 hours, they finally came back to Lord Gauracandra and informed Him, “We searched for this personality everywhere, in houses of all the Vaishnavas, sannyasis and grhasthas, even in the homes of all the atheists, we could not find Him anywhere. We have searched all over Navadvipa, but we have not gone to other villages.”

Upon hearing this Lord Gauracandra smiled and explained to them how this personality, Lord Nityananda, is very confidential. Not everyone can find Him; unless Lord Gauranga Himself reveals Him, He cannot be found. Lord Gauranga said, “All of you come with Me. We will go and search for Him together.” All the devotees became very jubilant and chanted, “All glories to Krishna” and they accompanied the Lord. Lord Gauracandra along with all the devotees went directly to Nandana Acarya’s house.

There they saw this great jewel among all persons. He was as effulgent as millions of suns, He was in immense meditative bliss and was always laughing. Mahaprabhu understood His great devotion and along with all His associates offered obeisances to Him. All stood there with respect, no one said a word, they just looked on silently. Lord Visvambhara stood in front of that personality and He recognized Lord Nityananda, the Lord of His life. Lord Nityananda also recognized His Lord. In ecstasy, Lord Nityananda became stunned and looked upon Lord Visvambhara with undeviated, focused attention in such a way that it seemed like He was licking with His tongue, smelling with His nose, drinking through His eyes and embracing with His arms Lord Gauracandra.

Thus Nityananda became silent and motionless. Everyone was surprised to see this but Lord Gaura Raya could understand everything. In order to reveal Lord Nityananda’s svarupa to everyone Lord Gauracandra devised a plan. He made an indication to Srivasa Pandita to recite a verse from the Srimad Bhagavatam. Understanding the desire of the Lord, Srivasa recited the following verse:

barhapidam´ nata-vara-vapuh karnayoh karnikaram´

bibhrad vasah kanaka-kapisam´ vaijayantim´ ca malam

randhran venor adhara-sudhayapurayan gopa-vrndair

vrndaranyam´ sva-pada-ramanam´ pravisad gita-kirtih

“Wearing a peacock-feather ornament upon His head, blue karn?ikara flowers on His ears, a yellow garment as brilliant as gold, and the Vaijayanti garland, Lord Krishna exhibited His transcendental form as the greatest of dancers as He entered the forest of Vrindavana, beautifying it with the marks of His footprints. He filled the holes of His flute with the nectar of His lips, and the cowherd boys sang His glories.” (Srimad Bhagavatam 10.21.5)

As soon as Lord Nityananda heard this verse He immediately fell down and lost His external consciousness. When Lord Nityananda fainted in ecstasy, Lord Gauranga instructed Srivasa to recite more and more. By hearing again and again Lord Nityananda regained His external consciousness and started to cry. Hearing the verse repeatedly increased His ecstasy and He started roaring like a lion. He was jumping high in the air and falling to the ground. Everyone was thinking that His bones would break. Everyone prayed to Lord Sri Krishna, “Please save Him, please save Him!” Lord Nityananda was rolling on the ground, His whole body drenched in tears. He was looking at the face of Visvambhara, breathing heavily experiencing ecstasy within his heart and laughing loudly. Sometimes He was dancing, sometimes He was bending down, sometimes He was beating on His arms and at other times He was jumping, which was a very amazing sight. By seeing this most wonderful ecstasy due to madness for Lord Krishna, Sri Gauranga cried along with all the Vaishnavas. Then the happiness increased. No one was able to catch hold of Lord Nityananda and after their failed attempts, Lord Visvambhara Himself took Lord Nityananda onto His lap. As soon as Lord Nityananda reached the lap of Visvambhara He became quite and surrendered His life to Him. Lord Nityananda was floating in the water of love of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. He looked exactly like Laksmana when he was hurt by the sakti weapon of Indrajit, and Visvambhara looked exactly like Ramacandra, holding His wounded brother on His lap. Lord Nityananda fainted, pierced by the arrows of prema-bhakti. Lord Gauracandra was crying, holding Nityananda. After some time Lord Nityananda regained His external consciousness and the devotees started chanting “Hari! Hari!” and “Jaya, Jaya”.

Nityananda and Gauracandra just looked at each other, without saying anything as tears flowed from Their eyes. Then Lord Gauranga started glorifying Lord Nityananda by saying,

- “Today is a very auspicious day because I have seen Bhakti-yoga in You, which is the essence of all the Vedas. Without the energy of Isvara how can anyone exhibit tears and other symptoms like these?

- By serving You one will get Krishna-Bhakti. You have come to purify all 14 planetary systems.

- You are the personification of Krishna-Bhakti.

- Now I understand that Krishna has brought You here to give Me Your association which will definitely deliver Me.”