Monday, 15 December 2025 [Mayapura, West Bengal, India Time]
Sri Devananda Pandit Disappearance Day
Sri Caitanya-caritamrita Adi-lila, Chapter 10, Text 77 | 1973 Edition
ভাগবতী দেবানন্দ বক্রেশ্বর-কৃপাতে। ভাগবতের ভক্তি-অর্থ পাইল প্ৰভু হৈতে ॥ ৭৭ ॥
bhāgavatī devānanda vakreśvara-kṛpāte
bhāgavatera bhakti-artha pāila prabhu haite
SYNONYMS
bhāgavatī devānanda—Devānanda, who used to recite Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; vakreśvara-kṛpāte—by the mercy of Vakreśvara; bhāgavatera—of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; bhakti-artha—the bhakti interpretation; pāila—got; prabhuhaite—from the Lord.
TRANSLATION
Devānanda Paṇḍita was a professional reciter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but by the mercy of Vakreśvara Paṇḍita and the grace of the Lord he understood the devotional interpretation of the Bhāgavatam.
PURPORT
In the Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-līlā, Chapter Twenty-one, it is stated that Devānanda Paṇḍita was an inhabitant of the same village in which the father of Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya’s, Viśārada, lived. He was a professional reciter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu did not like his interpretation of it. In the present town of Navadvīpa, which was formerly known as Kuliyā, Lord Caitanya showed such mercy to him that he gave up the Māyāvādī interpretation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and learned how to explain Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in terms of bhakti.
Formerly, when Devānanda was expounding the Māyāvādi interpretation, Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura was once present in his meeting, and when he began to cry, Devānanda’s students drove him away. Some days later, Caitanya Mahaprabhu passed that way, and when He met Devānanda He chastised him severely because of his Māyāvāda interpretation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. At that time Devānanda had little faith in Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as an incarnation of Lord Kṛṣṇa, but one night some time later Vakreśvara Paṇḍita was a guest in his house, and when he explained the science of Kṛṣṇa, Devānanda was convinced about the identity of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Thus he was induced to explain Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam according to the Vaiṣṇava understanding.
In the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā it is described that he was formerly Bhāguri Muni,who was the sabhā-paṇḍita who recited Vedic literatures in the house of Nanda Mahārāja.
Read More: https://harekrishnasociety.org/?p=31144
