My Visit to Ekachakra Dhama
    

HARE KRISHNA! JAI NITAI!

This (article) is all about Ekachakra dhama, the birthplace of the most magnanimous Nityananda Prabhu. We hope this site is helpful to you and inspires you to visit Ekachakra Dhama. Note: Please do not use this as a guidebook. These are my own experiences in the dhama.

WHY THE PLACE IS NAMED EKACHAKRA DHAMA:  In the battle of Kurukshetra when Krishna broke his vow of not taking any sides in the war to save his devotee Arjuna, he has rushed with a wheel to hit Bhishmadeva who had been fighting with Arjuna. When Bhishmadeva satisfied him with many beautiful prayers, Krishna lost his anger and tossed aside the wheel. The wheel fell on this tract of land and therefore got the name Ekachakra. Eka means one, and chakra means wheel.

GETTING THERE:  I came there from Mayapur. It is about a 4 and 1/2 ride on an extremely bad road. Next time my parents and I will probably go by train. I suggest that if you go there you go by train. Take a train from Kolkata to Rampurhat and then take a car to get to Ekachakra. It will be so much easier than by coming by car from Mayapur like I did.

WHEN I GOT THERE:

 - ISKCON TEMPLE -  We parked near the ISKCON temple. About 4 or 5 enthusiastic brahmacharis greeted us. They were so excited to see us, and I wondered why. Then I realized they don't get enough visitors and I felt really bad. Please take the time to visit Ekachakra one day they will be so grateful and you will also receive Lord Nityananda's mercy. Anyway, we took darsan of the deities at ISKCON. They have extremely beautiful Gaur Nitai deities and Srila Prabhupada. Srila Prabhupada had visited Ekachakra dhama in the late '70s and was trying to get some land but the authorities were giving some trouble. When he went back to the spiritual world the devotees managed to get a small piece of land where they have built a small but beautiful temple. I have also seen the new temple they are building. The foundation is set but the construction has barely started. Later I learned the devotees there are enthusiastic to build, but they do not have enough funds to do it. Their situation is very touching and I request you to please make a donation. You can send money by visiting the following page: http://www.mayapur.com/main/index.php?q=civicrm/contribute/transact&reset=1&action=preview&id=13. Anyways, a devotee named Madhura Nitai Prabhu decided to become our tour guide. So first thing he did was hurry us up to go to the Garbhavasa because it was going to close soon (the deities sleep from 12pm to 4pm).

- GARBHAVASA -  So we rushed over to the Garbhavasa and went to the main temple. There we saw Garbhavasa Nityananda in the middle...

...Lord Chaitanya on the right, and Advaita acharya on the left. I had seen this Nityananda so many times in pictures and finally I was seeing him face to face! It was too much. I cried to think of how merciful Nityananda prabhu is (yes yes, this is probably just my sentimental nature as I have no devotion for Lord Nityananda). After 5 years of pining to come to Ekachakra I finally was seeing this Garbhavasa Nityananda! So we left the main temple (but we were still in the Garbhavasa complex) and we offered obesiances to Mala tala. This is the tree where Nityananda left his garland before leaving his parents, home and Ekachakra dhama with the unknown sanyasi (some say he may be Lakshmipati tirtha). This is also known as Visvarupa tala because Nityananda prabhu is non different from Visvarupa (Saci Mata's first son). Right across from Mala tala is the place of Padmavati devi's Sasthi Puja. After giving birth it is customary to offer puja to a goddess to protect their child. So Padmavati devi prayed to Sasthi devi at this spot to protect her son Nityananda from any harm. Next to this spot is the EXACT SPOT where Nityananda Prabhu appeared on this planet. It is marked by a small white mandap with a deity of a beautiful kneeling Nityananda. When I saw this small mandap I realized I might have visited Ekachakra dhama in my previous life. Because I recognized the place! I had never seen any picture of it before (photography is prohibited in the Garbhavasa the only thing that was allowed to go on the Internet is a picture of the Nityananda in the main temple). So it was nice having that realization. We did parikrama around that most sacred spot 3 times while chanting Hare Krishna. Next to this is Nitai Kunda, where Nitai used to bathe regularly. The water from this kunda is used to bathe the Nityananda deity in the main temple. We put it's sacred waters on our heads and then left the Garbhavasa.

- PANCHA PANDAVA TALA -  On the way to Siddha Bakula and Nari pota we were able to have darsan of Pancha Pandava tala. When the Pandavas and their mother Kunti came to Ekachakra they had rested under this tree.

Unfortunately we did not have time on this trip to see SIKHANDABI the place where you can still see Bakasura's kneecap. Bakasura was a demon who had been terrorizing Ekachakra and was finally killed by Bhima.

- SIDDHA BAKULA AND NARI POTA -  Siddha Bakula is the tree under which Nityananda Prabhu and his friends would enact Lord Rama/Lakshman and Lord Krishna/Balarama's various lilas. Unfortunately the original tree is no longer present and the present Siddha Bakula is a tree that sprung from the original tree. Behind this is Nari pota. This is a mound of earth under which Nityananda prabhu's umbilical cord is buried. We offered obesiances to both spots and continued on our way.

- JAHNU KUNDA OR HATU KUNDA -  When Nityananda Prabhu's parents wished to bathe in every single holy river, Nityananda Prabhu brought all the holy rivers into this kunda which he dug with his own knees (hatu).

You can see the top of a submerged temple. This was the original temple of Bankima Raya, whom we had darsan of next after putting the waters of Jahnu Kunda on our heads.

- BANKIMA RAYA (BANKA RAI) MANDIRA -  Sri Bankima Raya was manifested from the Yamuna of Ekachakra dhama. Ekachakra is gupta Vrindavana (hidden Vrindavana. Whatever is in Vrindavana is also in Ekachakra. Madhura Nitai prabhu related a nice story while we were walking to the temple. Once there was a sanyasi who came to Ekachakra dhama. When he saw the Yamuna of Ekachakra he was convinced that this was not the same as the Yamuna of Vrindavana. He told everyone that this wasn't really the Yamuna it is just a creek.

So while he was near this "creek" he lost his danda. Then 6 months later he was in Vrindavana and was bathing in the Yamuna when suddenly he realized his danda was back in his hands! He then understood that there was no difference between Ekachakra and Vrindavana. So this Bankima Raya deity was manifested from the Yamuna of Ekachakra and was installed by Nityananda Prabhu Himself in the temple that is now submerged in Jahnu kunda.

So the devotees managed to excavate the temple and put Bankima Raya in a new temple which they built under the direction of H.H. Subhaga Swami. Nityananda Prabhu also disappeared from this world by merging into this deity. In this temple there is also the samadhi temple of Virachandra (Virabhadra) gosai- Nityananda's son. We offered our obesiances here and continued on our way.

- SWETA GANGA -  Ganga devi was merciful and decided to appear here. She is self manifested here. She did this because in Radhadesh (which includes Ekachakra dhama) does not have Ganga manifested. We took her waters on our head and went straight to the Jagannath temple which is right across.

- JAGANNATH MANDIRA -  Nityananda's parents had a great desire to go to Nilachala to have darsan of Lord Jagannatha. But they were wondering how they would be able to travel such a long distance. Then Jagannath personally manifested Himself here so that Nityananda's parents could worship Him without difficulty. A deity of Sakshi Gopal also appeared along with Jagannath. The pujari here is a very great Vaishnava who just would not accept money from us. So finally we just put the money in the hundi. The pujari was extremely merciful towards us and gave us some nectarean Jagannath maha prasadam, a divine payesa. I cannot describe the taste of it, usually I don't like sweets but this Jagannath prasadam was amazing! After honoring the prasadam we continued on our way.

- EKACHAKRESVARA BHANDISVARA MAHADEVA MANDIRA (PATALA SIVA MANDIRA) - Vaishnavanam yatha sambuh. We offered obesiances to the Lord Siva here who is slightly underground. Meaning they dug a little bit under the ground and then placed the Siva linga there. This is why his name is Patala Siva. So Madhura Nitai prabhu, my parents, and I all sat down near Lord Siva and we started to talk. Madhura Nitai prabhu was explaining how during the parikrama time some devotees come but since ISKCON doesn't have a guesthouse, it is very hard to host them properly. Then I heard a sweet voice in my head (I knew it was Lord Nityananda) saying, "You should give money so that they can build a guesthouse and serve the Vaishnavas!" Right after I heard that voice Madhura Nitai Prabhu said, "I am having a divine inspiration that we should build a guesthouse in Sridevi's name." My mind was spinning very fast. This must be divine intervention! However we didn't commit anything though we plan to save our money to give it for this cause. After discussing for a little while we went back through the main Nityananda Janmasthan gate and stopped at Kadamba Khandi Ghata.

- KADAMBA KHANDI GHATA -  Yet again, I recognized this place (even though I never seen it in pictures). More proof that I was here before! In the small temple near the ghat (Kanai Balai temple), there are beautiful deities of Gaura Nitai...

...Krishna Balarama and a very vivid Sadbhuja. After offering obesiances and taking charanamrita and tulasi leaves we went to the actual ghata. This ghata is next to the Yamuna. This is also where Bankima Raya deity manifested Himself. We took Yamuna devi's waters on our heads and went back to ISKCON.

- ISKCON TEMPLE -  We checked out the construction of the new temple and also the gardens were we saw some very dedicated devotees cultivating vegetables to serve to Krishna. Jai Ekachakra dhama vasis! We went back and honored simple but delicious prasadam. Then my grandparents and dad took a nap while my mom and I went back to see Garbhavasa, Pancha Pandava tala, Siddha Bakula, Nari pota and finally Jahnu kunda. On our way to Jahnu kunda we saw in the distance Padmavati Puskarini.

-PADMAVATI PUSKARINI - This is a kunda that was given to Padmavati devi by her father. We only got to see it from a distance, there are many fields to cross to get there but we had no time because after visiting Jahnu kunda, we had to rush back to ISKCON to get in the car and go back to Mayapur.

- ISKCON TEMPLE -  Back to ISKCON again. We took darsan of the deities again and put the dust of the holy dhama on our heads.

LEAVING THE DHAMA:

We got in the car and started to leave when a brahmachari stopped us. He gave us a lot of gajas (Jagannath tounges). I was amazed- we had come there just a few hours ago and in that short time the brahmacharis were busy making gajas for us! The Ekachakra dhama vasis are very loving and caring. And all the dhama vasis say Jai Nitai, just like in Vrindavana everyone says Radhe Radhe. I was very sad to leave and I cried like anything. But then I put my hand in my japa bag and felt the stones I had collected from Jahnu kunda for some of my best friends. I should list their names here. Their names are Brinda, Raga, Anjali, and Omika. They have done a lot for me in this lifetime and I thought it my duty to do at least this much for them. Anyway I was feeling those stones and I felt better because I knew that Ekachakra dhama would always be with me (I brought a stone for myself also). I also knew I would have to come back in the near future. But for now all I can say is: EKACHAKRA DHAMA KI JAYA!

~ Sridevi dasi

For more information specifically on Nityananda Prabhu or Ekachakra Dhama e-mail the following address: ekachakradhama@yahoo.com