Sri Gadadhara pandita was one of the most intimate associates of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and Gadadhara’s father, Sri Madhva Misra, appeared in the village named Beleti. On an auspicious new moon day of Baishakh month of 1487, Sri Gadadhara pandita was born to Sri Madhva Misra and Sri Ratnavati-devi. However, there is disagreement on the birth place of Sri Gadadhara pandita. Some say that he was appeared Beleti, but the details are not explicitly described in the 12th Viläsa of Prema-viläsa. There it is mentioned:
baisakhera kuhu dine oti suvakkhone
prosobila ratnavati putra rotone
“Ratnavati give birth a beautiful boy on an auspicious day in the month of Baishakh.”
But in the 24th Viläsa of the same book, it is written:
madhaber ar ek putra nadia majhare
baisakher kuhu dine janmalav kore
rakhila tahar nam çréla gadädhara
çré kåñëa-caitanya dever parsada pravara
“A son of Mädhava was born in Nadia on the auspicious day of Baishakh. He is named as Çréla Gadädhara, who is a foremost associate of Çré Kåñëa Caitanya.”
However, the brother of Çré Gadädhara, Väëénätha, was born in Beleti. Mädhava Miçra was a friend of Çré Puëòaréka Vidyänidhi. Gadädhara stayed in Beleti until his twelfth year, but the following year he moved to Navadvépa, where his maternal relatives resided.
His home was very near of that of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. From early childhood, Gadädhara was very serene, patient, calm, quiet, fond of solitude, and very renounced. Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu used to play with Gadädhara in His courtyard. They were students of the same tol, or school. Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu could not spend a moment without Gadädhara’s association. From chidhood, Gadädhara was expert in all subjects. He was celibate his whole life.
Once he went with Mukunda Datta to meet the great Vaiñëava, Çré Puëòaréka Vidyänidhi. He ignorantly committed the offence of considering Puëòaréka Vidyänidhi an ordinary materialist. As a penance, he decided to take initiation from him.
When Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was to leave for Puri after taking sannyäsa, Gadadhara put forward many arguments against His leaving home. Gadädhara told Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu that one could practice any sort of spiritual sädhana even while staying at home. But Mahäprabhu told him that what He had come to teach would be better accepted by the masses if He became a sannyäsé rather than remain a gåhastha. Gadädhara finally gave in.
After some days, Gadadhara accompanied some devotees from Navadvépa to visit Mahäprabhu in Puré. He stayed on in Puré, never returning to Navadvépa. Gadädhara took up residence in Yameçvara-öoöä on the outskirts of Puré, a small sandy beach with a garden (öoöä). Every day there, Gadädhara would read out loud from Çrémad–Bhägavatam for the pleasure of Mahäprabhu.
Once, while sitting on the beach discussing the pastimes of Kåñëa, Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu decided to bestow His special grace on Gadädhara. Mahäprabhu told him to dig in a particular spot. After some time, Gadädhara unearthed the beautiful deity of Çré Gopénätha, which he then established in a temple in the garden. That deity came to be known as Öoöä-gopénätha.
At the same time, Gadädhara’s brother, Çré Vaninatha, established the Gaura-Gadädhara deity in Champahati, Navadvépa, while Väëénätha’s son, Çré Nayanananda, went to stay with Çré Gadädhara in Puré. There Gadädhara Paëòita initiated him and Nayanananda continued to stay on in Puré-dhäma. Around the year 1535, eleven months after the disappearance of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu and on the new moon day in the month of Jaistha, Gadädhara Paëòita disappeared. Before his disappearance, he gave Çré Nayanananda his handwritten Gétä, and his deity named Meyo-kåñëa, which Nayanananda wore around his neck. Gadädhara also ordered him to go to Bharatpur.
How to Go There
Beleti became known as Vanigram over the course of time. Vanigram is situated in Chattogram district, and can be reached by bus from the Bahaddarhat inter-district bus terminal of Chattogram district. This place is on the route to Bashkhali.
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