The Bhandara Of Raghava Pandit

After Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu accepted sannyasa and, in the years that followed, toured through Bengal to see His mother and His devotees, He stopped at Raghava Pandit's home at Panihati. What He saw there impressed Him enough that He later described it, unprompted, to the whole assembly of devotees gathered at Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya's house: "Just hear about the pure devotional service rendered to Krishna by Raghava Pandita. Indeed, Raghava Pandita's service is supremely pure and highly accomplished."

Coconuts From Twenty Miles Away #

Mahaprabhu's description, as Krishnadasa Kaviraja Goswami records it, is remarkably specific. "Although he already has hundreds of trees and millions of fruits," the Lord said, "he is still very eager to hear about the place where sweet coconuts are available. He collects coconuts with great endeavor from a place twenty miles away, and he pays four panas each for them." Five to seven coconuts were clipped daily and set in water to cool; at the time of offering they were clipped again, holes made at the top, and presented to the Deity, who drank the juice and, Mahaprabhu said, sometimes refilled the pulp inside so that Raghava Pandit found the shell mysteriously full again after the first offering — a detail that, in Mahaprabhu's telling, only deepened Raghava Pandit's faith.

The Coconuts He Threw Away #

One particular day illustrates the standard he held himself to. Ten coconuts, properly cleaned, were being carried to the Deity by a servant who, while waiting at the door for a chance to enter, brushed the ceiling above the doorway and then touched the coconuts with the same hand. Raghava Pandit noticed. "People are always coming and going through that door," he said. "The dust from their feet blows up and touches the ceiling. After touching the ceiling above the door, you have touched the coconuts. Now they are no longer fit to be offered to Krishna because they are contaminated." He had the entire batch thrown over the wall and new coconuts prepared from scratch.

Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura's commentary, quoted in Srila Prabhupada's purport at this point, insists this was not fastidiousness for its own sake: "Raghava Pandita was not simply a crazy fellow suffering from some cleansing mania... He was always absorbed in the transcendental thought of how he could always serve Krishna with everything." The purport goes on to warn against the opposite error — devotees on a lower platform imitating his outward behavior as if cleanliness itself were the point, when the entire episode was really about a very particular, personal absorption in service that cannot simply be copied.

Fruit From Distant Villages, And A Favorite Dish Of Spinach #

The same standard extended to everything else in the kitchen. "From distant villages he collects excellent bananas, mangoes, oranges, jackfruits and whatever other first-class fruits he has heard about," Mahaprabhu told the devotees, "bought at a high price" and trimmed with the same great care. Raghava Pandit prepared spinach, vegetables, radishes, chipped rice, powdered rice, sweetmeats, cakes, sweet rice, condensed milk and pickles such as kashamdi, along with scents, garments and ornaments for the Deity — by tradition, Mahaprabhu was especially fond of the spinach dishes that came from this same kitchen. Mahaprabhu's summary of the whole visit was direct: "Thus Raghava Pandita serves the Lord in an incomparable way. Everyone is very much satisfied just to see him." He then embraced Raghava Pandit before continuing on His tour.

This same household's cooking, on a far larger and more famous scale, is what filled the bags that traveled every year to Jagannatha Puri — a story told in full at the annual pilgrimage to Puri. It was also this house that Nityananda Prabhu filled with kirtan and dancing on a separate visit, described at Nityananda Prabhu at Panihati.