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ARTICLE : lord Caitanya's childhood
When the Lord was on the lap of His mother, He would at once stop crying
as soon as the ladies surrounfing Him chanted the holy names and clapped
their hands. This peculiar incident was observed by the neighbors with
aawe and veneration.. Sometimes the young girls took pleasure in making
the Lord cry and then stopping Him by chanting the holy name. So from His
very childhood the Lord began to preach the importance of the holy name .
In His early age Lord Dri Caitanya was known as Nimai. This name was given
by His beloved mother because the Lord took His birth beneath a nimba tree
in the courtyard of His paternal house.
When teh Lord was offered solid food at the age if six minths in the
anna-prasana cermony, the Lord indicated His future activities. At this
time it was customary to offer the child both cions and books in order to
get some indication of the future tendencies of the child. The Lord was
offered on one side coins and on the other the Srimad-Bhagavatam. The Lord
accepted the Bhagavatam instead of the coins.
When He was a mere baby crawling in the yard, one day a snake appeared
before Him, and the Lord began to play with it. All the members of the
house were struck with fear and awe, but after a little while the snake
went away, and teh baby was taken away by His mother. Once He was stoled
by a thief who inteded to steat His ornaments, but the Lord took a
pleasure trip in the shoulder of athe beewildered thief, who was searching
for a solitary place on order to rob the baby. It so happened the the
thief, wandering hither and thither, finally arrived just before the house
of Jagannatha Misra and , being afraid of being caught, dropped the baby
at once. Of course the anxious parents and relatives wewe glad to see the
lost child.
Once a pilgrim brahmana was received at the house of Jagannatha Misra, and
when he was offering food to the Godhead, the Lord appeared before him and
partook of the prepared food, The eataables had to be rejected because the
child touched them, and so the brahmana had to make another preparation.
The next time the same thing happened, and when this happened repeatedly
for the third time, the baby was finally put to bed. At about twelve at
nighte when all the members of the house were fast asleep within their
closed rooms, the pilgrim brahmana offered hid specially prepared food to
the Deity, and, in the same way, the baby Lord appeared before the pligrim
and spoiled his offerings. The brahmana the began to cry, but since
everyone was fast asleep, bo one could hear him. At that time the baby
Lord appeared before the fortunate brahmana and disclosed His identity as
Krsna Himself. The brahmana was forbiden to disclose this incident, and
the baby returned to the lap of His mother.
There are many similar incidents in His childhood. As a naughty boy He
sometimes used to tease the orthodox btahmanas who used to bathe in the
Ganges. When the brahmanas complained to HIs father that He was splashing
them with water instead of attnding school, the Lord suddenly appeared
before His father as though just coming from school with all His clothes
and books. At the bathing ghata He also used to play jokes on the
neighboring girls who engaged in worshiping Siva in hopes of getting good
husbands. This is a common practice amongs unmarried girls in Hindu
families. While they were engaged in such worship, the Lord naughtily
appeared before them and said, "My dear sisters, please give Me all the
offerings you have just brought for Lord Siva. Lord Siva is My devotee,
and Parvati is My maidservant. If you worship Me, then Lord Siva and all
the other demigods will be more satisfied. Some of them refused to obey
the naughty Lord, and He would curse them that due to their refusal they
would be married to old men who had seven children by their previous
eives, Out of fear and sometimes out of love the girls would also offer
Him various foods, and then the Lord would bless them and assure them that
they would have very good young husbands and that they would be mothers of
dozens of children. The blessings would enliven the girls, but they used
often to complain of these incidents to their mothers.
