Every account of Sharanga Thakura's life returns to the story of Sharanga Murari, and also to the Bakula tree at Mamgachi. The tree is one of the few parts of his story that is still there to be visited, not only told about.
A Tree Beyond a Devotee's Own Power #
Sharanga Thakura did his daily Deity worship of Sri Sri Radha-Gopinatha under a Bakula tree in his courtyard at Mamgachi. Sources agree that during one of His visits there, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu noticed this tree beginning to wither. By every account, the tree was close to dead. Its leaves were gone or going, and its trunk already showed the effects of age or disease. When he was asked about it, Sharanga Thakura is said to have answered that he saw no way to save it except through Mahaprabhu's own mercy. It was a devotee's honest admission that some things are simply beyond what his own worship or effort can fix.
An Embrace That Still Stands #
Mahaprabhu's response is the same in every telling of this story. He embraced the dying tree with His own arms. Accounts say the tree recovered where it stood. In the story, its green leaves and fragrant flowers came back at once, not slowly over time. This story is different from many Gaudiya devotional tales, because the tree did not disappear into legend afterward. A large Bakula tree still stands in the temple courtyard at Mamgachi. It is said to be well over five hundred years old, and it is now hollow at its core. It is shown to pilgrims on Nabadwip-dhama parikrama today as the very tree Mahaprabhu is said to have embraced. Some devotees who visit collect fallen wood from beneath it to make japa beads. For them, the tree itself is a living relic of the event, not only the place where it happened.
A Tree Still Tended #
The temple beside the tree has gone through periods of neglect and repair. It is remembered that in the twentieth century a sannyasi of the Gaudiya Matha, Bhakti Vaibhava Sagara Maharaja, rescued the Deities and grounds and established them again. His samadhi now stands at the same site. By one recent account, day-to-day care of the tree and the altar beside it has rested for decades with a single long-serving pujari. He began attending the Deities as a boy of about ten and has continued for roughly sixty years since. This is a small, ordinary detail next to the story of Mahaprabhu's embrace. But this care is the reason a five-hundred-year-old tree with a hollow core still has fresh leaves each season, and is more than just a story attached to a name.
As with the story of Sharanga Murari, this episode is known only through Vrindavana Dasa Thakura's Chaitanya-bhagavata and the devotional literature built on it. It is not found in Sri Chaitanya-charitamrita, and no Srila Prabhupada purport or lecture naming Sharanga Thakura directly is known. But we can say this with more confidence. The tree that pilgrims visit at Mamgachi today is very old, and people have pointed to it as this tree for a long time. So the story and the place have supported each other for a very long time.
