King Indradyumna goes to invite Lord Bramha

*******************************************************

Then Visvavasu heard Nila-madhava telling him, "You have served Me for a long time. Now I want to take the royal service of a very high class of devotee named Indradyumna Maharaja. Don't be afraid and don't worry." Visvavasu, however, immediately became upset and thought, "Oh, Thakurji will go to Maharaja Indradyumna? I cannot bear the thought of separation. This boy will return and tell the King, and the King will come and take Nila-madhava." He then practically arrested Vidyapati and imprisoned him within one of the rooms of his house.



Vidyapati could not go anywhere, so he told his wife, "Please help me. I want to return to Madhya Pradesh very soon. I have promised my King, who wants to come with his whole family to serve Nila-madhava. Please help me. You are my wife my other half."



Lalita agreed and said, "You can go. I will help you." She then told her father, "If you do not release him from this jail, I will commit suicide at once." She was ready to commit suicide, so her father's heart melted in compassion and he released Vidyapati. Now free, Vidyapati assured his wife, "I will return very soon. Don't worry." He then quickly left and proceeded towards Indradyumna's kingdom.



He walked continually until he finally arrived back in Avanti Nagari. He had been gone for over six months, and King Indradyumna became very happy when he heard from Vidyapati, "I have discovered Nila-madhava. Please come with me." The King decided, "I shall go with my entire kingdom, my wealth, my wife, and my soldiers and commanders." He wanted to bring Nila-madhava to his kingdom, to worship Him for the rest of his life. Proceeding from Ujjain, he reached the place about a hundred miles south of Puri. But when he reached there, there were no mustard seed flowers. There was also no hill and no village, for by the desire of Nila-madhava, the entire village was covered with over a hundred feet of sand. Everything was covered, including the hill, and Nila-madhava was not there.



The King began to weep. He sat down on a straw mat facing the ocean and decided, "I will not take anything to eat until I have darsana of Nila-madhava; if I do not see Him, I will die. I came with my whole kingdom, all my wealth, my wife, and family, but I did not get the darsana of the Lord. Oh, I must give up my life." Then, as he began to chant, "Nila-madhava! Nila-madhava! Nila-madhava!" remembering the Lord, an aerial voice called to him, "I will not come, but do not worry. I will not come here to give you darsana, but you will be able to see Me. I am sending Brahma. You should come with Brahma to Vaikuntha, and there you can take My darsana. In this world I will not give you darsana in the shape of Nila-madhava, but I will manifest in four forms: Jagannatha, Baladeva, Subhadra, and Sudarsana cakra. Wait near the sea where Banki-muhana is located." This place is presently known as Cakra-tirtha, and it is by the part of the ocean known as the Bay of Bengal, where the water moves towards West Bengal. "Go there and wait, and a daru-brahma (Bhagavan in the form of wood) will come. He will manifest in the form of a very large, fragrant, reddish log, and the signs of sankha, cakra, gada, and padma will be seen everywhere on that form. Go there. Take Me out and make four deities from that log. Then you will be able to worship Me."



Brahma quickly came and took the King with him to Vaikuntha, where he could freely gaze at Nila-madhava as He conversed with His associates. The King became even more attached and began to weep, and then Brahma told him, "Let us go. He will not come to Earth in this form, but He will come as four forms. Let us now go to the place that He has designated, and wait for Him there."



In the meantime, while the King was gone, many years had passed and the entire world had now changed. Before going he had constructed a very large and beautiful, high temple, but now it was also covered by sand. The sand had been removed many times, but the temple had become old and dilapidated. A new King had come and repaired it, and he had declared, "I am the builder of this temple." Now that King Indradyumna returned, he told the new King, "This is not yours; I have built it, so I am the owner of this temple. You have only made repairs." There was a crow named Kakabhusundi, who had been witness to the pastimes of Ramacandra and also King Indradyumna's building the temple; and now he testified on the King's behalf. Brahma also came forward and agreed, "This King has built the temple. You have only repaired it." In this way, King Indradyumna again became the master.



Somehow, by Krsna's mercy, the King's wife was there. He had no child at all, so there was only he and his wife. The King and his new associates and army waited for the deity, and at last he saw the red tree-trunk, marked everywhere with sankha, cakra, gada, and padma. He approached that trunk with his soldiers and elephants and they tried very hard to take it out of the water, but they could not do so. Many elephants and strong men, and even his entire army, could not take the tree-trunk out of the water.



The aerial voice came again and told the King, "Bring My old servant Dayita-pati Visvavasu, and his daughter as well. Visvavasu will carry Me from one side, and the brahmana Vidyapati will take Me from the other side. And bring a golden chariot for Me. I will come out easily, and then you can arrange everything." By the power and will of Nila-madhava, Visvavasu, Lalita, and Vidyapati were still alive and now they were brought on a chariot with honor. The King requested the three of them to enter the waters of the ocean and lift the log. Vidyapati and his wife and father-in-law then began to lift and simultaneously pray to the log, "Jaya Jagannatha! Jaya Jagannatha! Nila-madhava! Nila-madhava! O please, please be merciful and come upon our chariot."



The log came out very easily, and it was brought on the golden chariot to the place near to where the Jagannatha Temple is now situated. The King kept the log there in a big hall, and he invited all the carpenters of Orissa, telling them, "I will give you vast wealth if you can make the vigraha." Very famous carpenters came there wanting to make the deity, but their instruments and tools broke as soon as they touched the iron-hard log. An old but beautiful brahmana then came forward. He had brought some tools, and he told them, "My name is Maharana. I am very expert, and I can make you the vigraha." That brahmana was actually Nila-madhava or Jagannatha Himself, in the form of an old brahmana. He continued, "I will complete the vigraha in twenty-one days, but you must promise that the door of this hall will remain closed. I will be alone there with my tools, and after twenty-one days I will open the door so that you can see the deity. At that time you can take Him into the temple and serve and worship Him." The King replied, "Yes, I will obey your instructions. I will not open the door."



The brahmana went inside with his tools, and locked the door from inside. For fourteen days there was no sound, and Indradyumna Maharaja became very worried. He thought, "What can be the matter? The brahmana has not taken a drop of water or anything to eat this entire time. Perhaps he is dead." His Prime Minister then told him, "Don't open the door. There is some mystery behind this. Only open it after twenty-one days; not before." However, his wife pleaded with him, "If you don't open the door now, the brahmana may die and we will be guilty of brahma-hatya (the sin of killing a brahmana). We must open the door. Please hurry."

*******************************************************

(to be continued)