This book is a practical guide on how to approach and appreciate the Holy abode of Navadvipa Dhama which covers in detail the history and its glories. It also gives a succinct account of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s life & pastimes with His personal associates, and His essential teachings, with a special 30 page section on how to chant the Hare Krishna Maha-mantra.

Hardcover
Language: English

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sample Chapter:

Animals of Navadvépa
 
Once in Navadvépa when Çréla Jagannätha Däsa Bäbäjé was taking prasäda, some puppies started eating from his plate. His servant tried to chase the puppies away, but Bäbäjé Mahäräja protested saying, “If you won’t allow them to eat, then I won’t eat. Afterall, they are dogs of the Dhäma!” From this we understand that even the dogs in Navadvépa are special souls. They have the good fortune of living in Lord Caitanya’s holy land, always hearing hari-näma-saìkértana, taking prasäda, and drinking the purifying waters of the Ganges.
 
Despite their elevated status, however, dogs still maintain their material qualities of being dirty, contaminating, and a source of infectious diseases. In Vedic culture gåhastha vaiçyas sometimes maintained dogs. But the dogs were kept outside the boundary wall surrounding their homes. The dogs could freely roam the fields, but they were never allowed within the inner compound. Devotees in ISKCON Mäyäpur should cooperate in order to implement this principle of Vedic culture by keeping the dogs in the fields, and out of Rädhä-Mädhava’s inner compound. 

Parikramä of Navadvépa
 
How to do it? Çréla Bhaktivinoda Öhäkura describes that one of the symptoms of bhäva is to have affection for the places of the Lord’s pastimes.

“When a devotee performs parikramä of Çré Navadvépa Dhäma he will inquire in the following way. ‘O residents of the Dhäma! Where is the birthplace of the dearmost master of our life? By which direction did the kértana party of Mahäprabhu previously pass? Please tell me at which place Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu used to perform His forenoon pastimes with the cowherd boys?’

“The residents of Navadvépa Dhäma will reply, ‘This place where we are standing is Çré Mäyäpur. Directly in front of us on that high place surrounded by a tulasé grove is the very place of the most precious appearance of Çréman Mahäprabhu. Just see the villages of Gaìgänägara, Simuliya, Gagigarha, Majidha, and others. The incomparable saìkértana party of Çréman Mahäprabhu used to pass through these same villages.’

“Hearing these sweet, prema-saturated talks from the mouths of the residents of Navadvépa Dhäma, the devotee’s body will thrill with horripilation, his heart will become overwhelmed with bliss, and tears will trickle from his eyes. In this way he performs parikramä of all the pastime places of Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu within Çré Navadvépa Dhäma. This is called tad väsati sthale priti, affection for the places where the Lord performed His pastimes.” (JD)

“Circumambulation of Navadvépa is ancient practice begun almost at the time of Çré Caitanya. The circumambulation of Çré Dhäma Navadvépa is not an antiquarian performance for showing respect to a great historical personality. Çré Caitanya is Godhead Himself. Çré Navadvépa is the eternally transcendental divine realm. Çré Caitanya, His realm, and His activities are eternal, and capable of being realized as such by devout pilgrims in their performance of the circumambulation of the spiritual sphere, by the grace of those perfectly pure souls who serve Çré Caitanya in the spiritual realm.

“The performance of the circumambulation of Çré Navadvépa under the guidance of the sädhus is thus a purely spiritual function. The spiritual realm is realizable in and through the words of the sädhu. The spiritual realm cannot be seen by the mortal eye, or touched by the hand of flesh. One must listen to the words of the sädhu with the conviction that the words themselves are identical with the object which they signify. True, the description of Çré Navadvépa Dhäma in the literary works penned by devotees who describe the Absolute Truth, is bound to appear to the uninitiated as apparently opposed to the evidence of one’s senses.” (Harmonist, Çréla Bhaktisiddhänta Sarasvaté Öhäkura) 

Çréla Prabodhänanda Sarasvaté Öhäkura explains how to properly do parikramä. “Blind with intoxication from drinking the nectar of Gauräìga-prema, when will I wander through Navadvépa while singing, dancing, laughing, crying, running, rolling on the ground and falling down unconscious.

“Wandering in Navadvépa is the greatest opulence, the highest perfection, the essence of all regulative principles, the best form of worship, the most glorious and most sweet of all oceans of sweetness.” (CS)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------