One year, as Shivananda Sena's nephew Shrikanta Sena left Jagannatha Puri to return to Bengal, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu gave him a message for the Bengali devotees: they need not make the journey to Puri that year, because He Himself would come to Bengal in the month of Pausha. When Shrikanta arrived with this news, the devotees were overjoyed at the prospect. But as Pausha wore on with no sign of the Lord, Shivananda Sena, Jagadananda Pandita and the others who had been waiting grew disheartened.
A Confident Promise #
Just then Nrisimhananda Brahmachari came by and asked why everyone looked so unhappy. They told him they were grieving because the Lord had not come. Then he made them an extraordinary promise: he would bring Mahaprabhu there himself, within three days. Because Shivananda Sena and Jagadananda Pandita already knew something of Nrisimhananda's spiritual power, they believed him and waited.
Nrisimhananda sat down and remained absorbed in meditation for two full days. When he rose, he told Shivananda Sena that Mahaprabhu had already arrived at Panihati, and that by the following noon He would be at Kumarahatta. He asked Shivananda to give him ingredients for a feast. Early the next morning he began cooking a wide variety of preparations. He divided them onto three plates: one for Jagannatha, one for Nrisimhadeva, and one for Mahaprabhu Himself.
The Feast the Lord Actually Ate #
As soon as Nrisimhananda sat down in meditation to make the offering, Chaitanya-charitamrita records, Mahaprabhu personally appeared and ate all three plates, leaving no remnant on any of them (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila 2.48-75, summarized). Nrisimhananda then did something on purpose, like acting in a play. Instead of showing his joy openly, he pretended to be upset. He reasoned aloud that in Gaudiya theology Mahaprabhu and Jagannatha are non-different in essence, so there was no real fault in the Lord eating Jagannatha's plate. But why had He also taken the plate meant for Nrisimhadeva? "Nrisimhadeva has fasted today," he complained, as if the Deity had been cheated of His offering.
When Mahaprabhu then left for Panihati, Nrisimhananda cried out that all three plates had been eaten and that both Jagannatha and Nrisimhadeva had gone without. Shivananda Sena, uncertain what to make of any of it, nonetheless supplied him with a second round of ingredients, and Nrisimhananda cooked again, this time offering the meal to Nrisimhadeva alone.
Confirmed a Year Later #
The following year, when Shivananda Sena and the Bengali devotees made their annual journey to Puri, Mahaprabhu Himself brought up the incident unprompted, in front of the whole assembly of devotees. "Last year in the month of Pausha," He said, "when Nrisimhananda gave Me varieties of sweetmeats and vegetables to eat, they were so good that I felt I had never before eaten such preparations" (Chaitanya-charitamrita, Antya-lila 2.77). When the assembled devotees heard the Lord confirm the story in His own words, they were struck with wonder. Shivananda Sena had supplied the ingredients without ever being quite sure what had really happened in his own house. Now he was finally convinced that the meal he had paid for had truly reached Mahaprabhu.
This pastime and The Road Built in Meditation make the same point in two different ways. For a devotee who is deeply enough absorbed, the line between what happens in meditation and what happens in the world is not where an outsider would expect it to be.
Why He Offered to Three Plates #
The detail of the three plates is important. Gaudiya theology holds Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Lord Jagannatha and Lord Nrisimhadeva to be non-different at the level of the Absolute, even as They appear in different forms to different devotees for different purposes. Nrisimhananda pretended to complain that Nrisimhadeva had been left to fast while Mahaprabhu ate His plate. He was not confused about this teaching. It was a devotee's way of acting it out, so that everyone present could feel the teaching, not just repeat it. A full year later, without being asked, the Lord Himself confirmed the meal. He spoke of it in specific terms and remembered the taste of the sweetmeats. This is what convinced Shivananda Sena's household. Nrisimhananda's meditation had not just imagined a visit from the Lord. It had actually hosted one.
