10,000 enemy soldiers poised--The King ordered kirtan.
from a lecture by HH Jayapataka Swami, Los Angeles April 17, 2010
There's the deity at Bankura in Bishnupur established by Srinivas Acharya. He is different than Srivas Thakur. After Jiva Goswami he was the next to protect the sampradaya.
About 300 years after Lord Caitanya there was one atheistic so called pandit. He was called Bhaskara Pandit.
At that time the Moghul ruler was a bit weaker. He amassed an army and he was attacking different villages. He had taken control of a large part of Bengal. Many times he attacked Bankura kingdom, but he was not successful.
This time he had amassed ten thousand soldiers, and he was going to lay siege.
The king (Gopal Singh, 1730-45) who is in the line of disciples of Srinivas Acharya, said everyone chant Hare Krishna for one day, to give us a blessing for going out and fighting this huge horde that this man has made.
Bhaskara Pandit, he used to rob the devotees and loot the temples. He was terrible. At that time the Muslims, apart from Aurangzeb, were quite respectful to the Deities, generally speaking.
But he wasn't. When he heard that the king has ordered "No one raise any weapons for one day. Do kirtan." he laughed.
"HA HA HA! I will attack them now! They won't even resist. I'll kill them all! HA HA HA!
I, Bhaskara Pandit, will be the ruler!"
But the king heard, "POW POW POW"--heard the firing of canons, going off one after another like a machine gun. "POW POW POW POW POW." He came out.
The whole ten thousand army of Bhaskara Pandit was killed. And the canons were hot, smoking.
"Who did it? I gave the order that no one should fire."
Well, none of his kingdom did it.
One old man was there, and said, "The Deity came out. The Deity did it. The Deity took one canon in each arm, POW POW POW POW. He shot."
"The Deity?!" asked the king.
So they went in the Deity room and there was smell like gunshot powder. I think the Deity's name was Radha Madan Mohan. Jaya Radha Madan Mohan ki jai!
So interesting, all these pastimes of the Deities.
That canon is still there and the Deity is still there.
Read how Vishnupur became a Vaishnava Kingdom by the mercy of Srinivasa Acharya. www.narasimhalila.com, click World Deity Pastimes, find Bankura Kingdom Saved.
Comments