Pleasing Mahaprabhu

For that [reason] Uddhava said [in a] very nice [way],

tvayopabhukta-srag-gandha-
vāso-'laṅkāra-charchitāḥ
ucchiṣṭa-bhojino dāsās
tava māyāṁ jayema hi
(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.6.46)

And Bhaktivinod Ṭhākur [has] given [a] very simple translation, “kṛṣṇa boḍo doyāmoy, koribāre jihvā jay…”

śorīra avidyā-jāl, joḍendriya tāhe kāl,
jīve phele viṣaya-sāgore
tā’ra madhye jihvā ati, lobhamoy sudurmati,
tā’ke jetā koṭhina saṁsāre

kṛṣṇa boḍo doyāmoy, koribāre jihvā jay,
sva-prasād-anna dilo bhāi
sei annāmṛta pāo, rādhā-kṛṣṇa-guṇa gāo,
preme ḍāko chaitanya-nitāi
(Śrī Prasāda-sevāya Gīti)

[In] my father’s guru’s house there [was a] big festival, twenty-four hours saṅkīrttan etc, etc… And every day [at] noon time maybe thousands of people are eating prasādam and praying, sei kaho… Like that, they are telling so many things. And [a] competition [was] going on. One party telling one [thing], another party telling more, another party telling… another.

Lāphrā… Very taste-full lāphrā… Dāl, lāphrā, maybe samosā, chatni and paramānna. This is simple food, sometimes maybe some spinach. But I remember [the] lāphrā. I like lāphrā also, but that type of lāphrā not happening, only in festival time that type of lāphrā happening.

And I remember I was cooking some lāphrā in Nādānghāṭ. In Nādānghāṭ there was two days hāṭbār, hāṭbār means buying and selling festival.
Audience: Market… two days a week.
Govinda Mahārāj: That time everyone is very busy for their business. And eating that time maybe in our shop. Maybe twelve person. And they are asking me, you can make today lāphrā. And I am making lāphrā there and how much taste-full, I cannot believe.

But that lāphrā is some mustard oil and something bṛddhu. I remember some kochu, some begun, kochu, begun, kumḍā, ālu. Sometimes some palun-śāk, chopped. And put it in lāphrā and [I was] making [it] with mustard oil. Not so many masālā, etc, nothing. But mustard oil [is] working as [the] best masālā.

Goswāmī Mahārāj: When all the devotees went to Purī and so much Jagannāth prasāda was brought to them, fried things… And Mahāprabhu saw… “Distribute to the devotees, I will just take lāphrā. That will be sufficient.”

prabhu kahe,—more deha’ lāphrā-vyañjane
piṭhā-pānā, deha’ tumi āra bhakta-gaṇe
(piṭhā-pānā, amṛta-guṭikā deha’ bhakta-gaṇe)
(Chaitanya-charitāmṛta, Madhya 12.167)

But all the devotees wanted to feed Mahāprabhu. When Mahāprabhu first entered into Purī Dhām, he first conquered [the] heart of Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭāchārya. Then he become famous, within one day, three days. Within three days he became so famous. And when Sārvabhauma is telling, ‘He is Bhagavān’ and Pratāparudra believed it.

“Sārvabhauma, you are so great paṇḍit, you are telling he is Bhagavān, then I must believe. Then I want to see his Divine Form.” And he was so keen to see Mahāprabhu, to meet with Mahāprabhu. But Mahāprabhu did not want to meet with him, that was another history.

Goswāmī Mahārāj: Pratāparudra Mahārāj, he knows something. In that Jagannāth-vallabha garden… He is supplying the, “tava kathāmṛtaṁ tapta…” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.31.9) he is… so he knows Bhāgavatam.
Govinda Mahārāj: He knows Bhāgavatam...
Audience: Sārvabhauma taught him I think…

But Pratāparudra was [a] paṇḍit in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, because we are seeing still, there in Jagannāth Temple, there is one chatuṣpāṭh, they are learning Sanskrit.
Goswāmī Mahārāj: School…
Govinda Mahārāj: Also it is [the] quality of Jagannāth’s servitor, chief servitor Pratāparudra. And he knows Sanskrit very well. And he knows Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and other Scriptures very well. Otherwise, when Sārvabhauma sent him, “Now you can go…” and recite Gopī-gītā,

“Jayati te ‘dhikaṁ janmanā vrajaḥ, śrayata indirā śaśvad atra hi…,” (Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.31.1) Jayati te janmanā, Mahāprabhu hearing that… But we do not know how much Mahāprabhu knows. Everywhere Mahāprabhu entering and defeating others. This [is the] quality of Mahāprabhu.

But he was [a] sixteen years old boy, [and at] that time he was Nimāi Paṇḍit. He had gotten the chance to read, [and his] reading period [had] finished within sixteen years. After that he became Nimāi Paṇḍit. And [he was] always busy to discourse with others and [he was] defeating everyone.

Not only that, after [he] defeated digvijāyī he went to Pūrba Baṅga, East Bengal, now it is Bangladesh, for preaching. Actually Mahāprabhu’s preaching started in Bangladesh. He went not for preaching, he went as a paṇḍit, Nimāi Paṇḍit, digvijāyī-paṇḍit. Nimāi Paṇḍit defeated digvijāyī, that Nimāi Paṇḍit [has] come to us and his father’s house [was in] Sylhet. He went there and [the] whole [of] East Bengal was very much enlightened. At that time [there was also the] preaching of Kṛṣṇa Consciousness, because Tapana Miśra was there. He sent Tapana Miśra to Benares, “Go there, I am going there.” “He told – I shall go…”

Mahāprabhu told,
kṛṣṇa-varṇaṁ tviṣākṛṣṇaṁ
sāṅgopāṅgāstra-pārṣadam
yajñaiḥ saṅkīrtana-prāyair
yajanti hi su-medhasaḥ
(Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 11.5.32)

śrī rādhāra bhāve yini suvarṇa-varaṇa
sāṅgopāṅge nabadvīpe yā̐ra saṅkīrttana
kalite upāsya sei kṛṣṇa - gaurahari
nabadhā bhaktite tā̐ra upāsanā kari
(Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākura, translation of Nabadwīpa-Śataka 1)

Upāsan… upāsan… Anything you will throw, the fire will eat, everything, for that [reason] another name of fire is upāsan.