In his later years Pundarika Vidyanidhi came to spend long periods at Jagannatha Puri. The Chaitanya-charitamrita notes that at least once he stayed on through the season when the rest of the Bengali devotees went home. During these Puri years his friendship with Svarupa Damodara Goswami grew deeper, and the tradition remembers it as a very special friendship.
An Equal in Krishna-katha #
Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami describes the two as having a warm and close friendship. He says plainly that when they discussed Krishna, they stood on exactly the same level. This is high praise, because Svarupa Damodara was Mahaprabhu's own closest literary companion. He was also the person at Puri most trusted to judge devotional feelings. One meeting between them, after a long separation, is fondly remembered. Each man wanted to take the dust of the other's feet as a mark of respect, and neither would allow it. So what began as courtesy turned into a friendly tussle. Each tried to catch the other's feet while guarding his own. Mahaprabhu laughed at the sight, along with everyone watching.
Splashing at the Chandana-yatra #
The friendship also shows itself in smaller, lighter moments. Each year at Puri's Chandana-yatra festival, Mahaprabhu and His devotees would gather to play in the water of Narendra Sarovara, also called Chandan Pukur. Pundarika Vidyanidhi and Svarupa Damodara are remembered as spending the festival happily splashing water at one another like two boys, laughing all the while. Pundarika Vidyanidhi is also recorded as taking part in the yearly cleaning of the Gundicha temple before Ratha-yatra, together with the rest of Mahaprabhu's Puri devotees. He shared in the mahaprasada that followed the work. This was the same yearly gathering of Bengali devotees at Puri, led by Advaita Acharya and Nityananda Prabhu. The Chaitanya-charitamrita says these devotees would stay with Mahaprabhu for four months at a time, enjoying His company in return.
The Unwashed Cloth #
That same closeness with Svarupa Damodara is the setting for the best-known incident of Pundarika Vidyanidhi's Puri years. Each year, at the beginning of winter, the temple observed a festival called Odana-shashthi, when Lord Jagannatha was given His first winter covering. Correct temple practice required the cloth to be washed free of starch before it touched the Deity. One year Pundarika Vidyanidhi was watching the ceremony. He noticed that the priests had skipped this step, and he unhappily pointed it out to Svarupa Damodara. Svarupa Damodara answered that the Supreme Lord is beyond all rules of purity and impurity, so the priests were not at fault for this. Pundarika Vidyanidhi was not satisfied. He said that this reasoning might be true for the Lord Himself, but His servants were not of the same nature. Their conduct could still be judged by the ordinary standards of scripture.
Jagannatha's Nighttime Correction #
That night, Lord Jagannatha visited Pundarika Vidyanidhi in a dream, together with Lord Balarama. The two brothers, smiling all the while, slapped his cheeks. There is no end to your fault-finding, Jagannatha told him: if there is no question of purity or impurity where I am concerned, the same holds for those who serve Me; if you thought Puri too impure a place, you were free to leave it. In the morning the other devotees saw the marks of the slaps still swollen on his cheeks, and they laughed. Although he had been corrected, Pundarika Vidyanidhi was inwardly delighted, not ashamed. The tradition says this proves how dear he was to Jagannatha, because the Lord takes the trouble to discipline in person only His closest devotees. Krishnadasa Kaviraja notes that Vrindavana Dasa Thakura had already told this incident in full in the Chaitanya-bhagavata. He himself gives only its outline.
The Chaitanya-charitamrita places this episode in the very same year as the story of Gadadhara Pandit's second initiation. It is a reminder that Pundarika Vidyanidhi's last years at Puri were still full of the same mixture that his whole life had shown. He had real devotion, but he could also make real mistakes of judgment. And his Lord loved him enough to correct him without loving him any less.
