Sri Chaitanya Charitamrita, Chapter 12
The Cleansing of the Gundica Temple
In his Amrita-pravaha-bhasyya, Srilla Bhaktivinoda Thäkura summarizes this chapter as follows :
The King of Orissa, Mahäräja Pratäparudra, tried his best to see Lord Caitanya Mahäprabhu. Srila Nityänanda Prabhu and the other devotees informed the Lord about the King’s desire, but Sri Caitanya Mahäprabhu would not agree to see him. At that time Sri Nityänanda Prabhu devised a plan, and He sent a piece of the Lord’s outw
gundica marjana (3)
“I request…that everything in the Temple should be kept nice and clean… We should always remember that Krishna is the purest & similarly only the pure can associate with Him. Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
– Letter to: Nandarani, Krsna Devi, Subala and Uddhava, Delhi, 3 October, 1967
Srila Prabhupada always emphasised the importance of cleanliness, and said that cleanliness is essential for making advancement in spiritual life: “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.” In Sridhama Mayapur, the
The observance of Gundica-marjana, the washing and cleansing of the Gundica temple, takes place on the day before Ratha-yatra, in preparation for the arrival of the Lord.
The history of Ratha-yatra goes back thousands of years, to a previous age, but the specific significance of the Ratha-yatra and the cleaning of the Gundica temple for us was shown by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu when He was residing in Jagannatha Puri five hundred years ago. In the transcendental mind of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, t
