Śrīla Jagadīśa Paṇḍita Appearance Day

Identity in the spiritual world

apare yajña-patnyau śrī jagadīśa hiraṇyakau

ekādaśyāṁ yayor annaṁ prārthayitvāghasat prabhuḥ

The wives of the sacrificing Brahmins in Vraja took birth as Jagadīśa and Hiranya. Mahāprabhu asked for and ate their Prasād on Ekādaśi day. [Śrī Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā 192].

Śrīla Jagadīśa Paṇḍita, deliverer of the entire world

Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā 11.30

jagadīśa paṇḍita haya jagat-pāvana

kṛṣṇa-premāmṛta varṣe, yena varṣā ghana

Jagadīśa Paṇḍita, the fifteenth branch of Lord Nityānanda’s followers, was the deliverer of the entire world. Devotional love of Kṛṣṇa showered from him like torrents of rain.

Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura writes in his Anubhāṣya, “Descriptions of Jagadīśa Paṇḍita are available from the Caitanya-bhāgavata, Ādi-khaṇḍa, chapter six, and the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, Ādi-līlā, chapter fourteen. He belonged to the village of Yaśaḍā-grāma, in the district of Nadia near the Cākadaha railway station. His father, the son of Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, was named Kamalākṣa. Both his father and mother were great devotees of Lord Viṣṇu, and after their death, Jagadīśa, with his wife Duḥkhinī and brother Maheśa, left his birthplace and came to Śrī Māyāpur to live in the company of Jagannātha Miśra and other Vaiṣṇavas. Lord Caitanya asked Jagadīśa to go to Jagannātha Purī to preach the hari-nāma-saṅkīrtana movement. After returning from Jagannātha Purī, on the order of Lord Jagannātha he established Deities of Jagannātha in the village of Yaśaḍā-grāma. It is said that when Jagadīśa Paṇḍita brought the Deity of Jagannātha to Yaśaḍā-grāma, he tied the heavy Deity to a stick and thus brought Him to the village. The priests of the temple still show the stick used by Jagadīśa Paṇḍita to carry the Jagannātha Deity.”

Nimāi asks for food cooked by Jagadīśa Paṇḍita

Sometimes Gaura-gopāla pleaded for His parents to give Him birds flying in the sky or the stars and moon from the sky. When He did not receive these things, He began to cry. Then there was no way to solace the child other than by chanting the names of Hari. One day, however, Nimāi did not stop crying in spite of everyone repeatedly chanting the names of Hari. When they inquired from Nimāi about the cause of His crying, they learned that Nimāi was displaying His pastime of crying in order to eat the foodstuffs offered to Viṣṇu on the day of Ekādaśī in the house of the two brāhmaṇas, Jagadīśa and Hiraṇya Paṇḍita, of Navadvīpa. The relatives of Nimāi solaced Him by promising Him Viṣṇu’s remnants. They then went to the house of those two great devotees and related to them the whole story. Considering Nimāi an extraordinary personality, the two brāhmaṇas then gave Him the foods that they had offered to Viṣṇu. As a result, Nimāi stopped crying.