Sita Devi, Adwaita Prabhu's wife
So exalted were her devotional activities. We hear about the birth
of Mahaprabhu. Sita Devi, Sita Thakurani, went with Malani Devi
to see Mahaprabhu with the permission of Advaita Acharya. We know
that Sita Thakurani had such an honorable position in society.
Srila Govinda Maharaj during morning darshan |
Adwaita Acharya is an avatara of Mahavisnu; then she is Mahalaxmi.
Her position is like that. But in Gaura-lila, she was like a grandmother
to Mahaprabhu. She was the sixth wife of Advaita Acharya, and her
son Achyutananda was so exalted. Sita Devi was always serving the
devotees in the house of Advaita Acharya. Such great devotees, like
Madhavendra Puri, came to his house.
Kaviraj Goswami said Advaita Acharya was Mahavisnu, but Mahaprabhu
Chaitanyadev said Advaita Acharya was Siva. And Sita Devi's position
was like Mahadevi. Vrindavan Das Thakur explained that Sita Devi
served Sriman Mahaprabhu in her house many times and came to Mahaprabhu's
house many times to meet with Sachi Mata and Mahaprabhu.
At the time when Mahaprabhu took sannyas, by the will of Nityananda
Prabhu, he went to Advaita Acharya's house. Sita Devi made all
the cooking arrangements and was feeding the Vaisnavas. Advaita
Acharya was a wealthy Vaisnava. Not poor. Naturally Vaisnavas
are poor like Srivas Pandit, but Advaita Acharya was wealthy.
Everyone respected him. Even Hiranya Govardan, Raghunath Das Goswami
Prabhu's father, every year gave some offerings to Advaita Acharya.
One day Advaita Acharya made some duplicity. He was thinking Mahaprabhu
was always respecting him, and he could not give proper respect
to Mahaprabhu as his heart wanted. Mahaprabhu came to his house
and saw him explaining the philosophy of Sankaracharya. Mahaprabhu
could not tolerate it and tried to beat him. Beating and beating.
Sita Devi said, "No more beating. This Brahmin will die."
And Advaita Acharya was very happy. "You are always giving
respect to me. Now where has that mood gone?"
Always like a shadow of Advaita Acharya, Sita Devi was serving
Mahaprabhu Chaitanyadev and His devotees. Haridas Thakur was almost
a regular visitor. When Haridas Thakur went to Shantipur, Advaita
Acharya fed him as a super Brahmin. Sita Devi made all the arrangements
for their satisfaction. Madhavendra Puri also stayed in Advaita
Acharya's house. This is some history we understand about Sita
Devi.
In the Chaitanya-charitamrita, the first impression others have
of Sita Devi is like an honorable mother. When Mahaprabhu was
born, Kaviraj Goswami wrote that Sita Devi took permission to
visit Mahaprabhu's house for His birthday, and happily Advaita
Acharya gave that permission. Malani Devi also went with Sita
Devi. She gave her blessings to Mahaprabhu.
Everyone is always fearful of ghosts. I am surprised. Where there
is no God conception there exists a ghost culture. In Russia,
a communist country, they do not believe in God but they believe
in ghosts. And so many ghosts come to me. Ghosts attack people.
One time a devotee was very much disturbed by ghosts. He was seeing
ghosts, coming and going, like that. Then he called me. I said
you immediately come to me and ghost will go. He has a very big
figure, big mind, big everything but he is afraid of a ghost.
I was surprised. He stayed with me a few days and the ghost left,
ghost conception left, and again the ghost not will attack him.
I arranged something for him. Ghost conception is everywhere.
Sita Devi was also fearful of ghosts. Nimai means bitter, for
protection.
Ghosts are very strong. This is samskara -- village culture, village
samskara, like that. They are thinking if we use some medicine
for protection there will be no more difficulty. Disease may come
later, but if we will take a vaccine, then disease will not come
to us.
Transcription by Vrndavanesvari Devi Dasi
