Siddha
Bakula
Siddha Bakula is
located behind Kashi Mishra house.
Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu personally arranged for Srila Haridasa
Thakura to reside at this place. Siddha Bakula is
the bhajana
kutir of Haridasa Thakura,
the place where he chanted 3,00,000 names of Krishna
daily.
Mahaprabhu with
Haridasa Thakura
Deity of Srila
Haridasa Thakura
Sri
Chaitanya requested
Haridasa, "Remain
here and chant the
Hare Krishna
maha-mantra. I shall personally come here to meet you daily.
Remain here peacefully, and look at the
cakra on top of
Lord Jagannath's temple and offer obeisances. As far as your
Prasadam, I shall
arrange to have that sent here."
Haridasa Thakura Chanting under
tree
In order to provide shade for
Thakur Haridasa,
Sri
Chaitanya planted a used tooth stick of Lord
Jagannath. All of a
sudden it grew up and appeared as a great shade tree.
Rupa Gosvami
recited
Lalitha Madhava and
Vidagdha
Madhava under this tree before
Sri Gauranga and
his followers. During his stay
Sanatana Gosvami
lived with
Haridasa Thukura
here.
Haridasa
Thakur left his body here and Lord
Chaitanya danced in
ecstasy here.
Hollow trunk of the Siddha
Bakul tree
In course of time, the King of
Orissa ordered his
officers to cut down the tree here in order to construct Lord
Jagannatha's
Ratha yatra cart.
Big amount of wood is needed, since the carts are about 13 m high
and each year new ones are constructed. They come to cut this tree
but
Srila
Jagannatha Gosvami objected, informing them that the tree
had been planted by
Sri Caitanya
Mahaprabhu for giving shade to
Haridasa Thakura.
But they refused and decided to cut this tree in the next day.
Overnight, the tree becomes hollow. The trunk remained standing,
but its insides were empty. The next morning when the royal
officers came they found the tree hollow and returned without
cutting it.
Stones tie on
branchs of Siddha Bakula
The tree was not ordinary tree, having been used as a toothbrush
for Lord
Jagannatha, and
then planted in the ground by Mahaprabhu’s own hand, and acting as
shelter for
Nama Acharya Srila
Haridasa Thakura. The Tree had attained perfection,
Siddha,
and from that day on was known as the
Siddha Bakula by
all the local people.
People tie stones to this
kalpa-taru
(wish-fulfilling tree) and make their wishes.