The Chida-dadhi Mahotsava, also known as the Chipped Rice Festival of Panihati, is a yearly celebration of the pastimes of Srila Raghunatha dasa Goswami and Lord Nityananda Prabhu. This astonishing pastime took place on the banks of the Ganges at Panihati, which is just north of Kolkata.
Lord Caitanya and his associates enjoyed many transcendental pastimes here. Chida-dadhi Mahotsava remembers how the Lord mercifully reciprocated with His devotees by arranging, through Nityananda Prabhu and Raghunatha dasa, to provide an ecstatic feast of yoghurt and chipped rice, along with various other nectar foodstuffs.
In the village of Panihati, Raghunatha dasa obtained an interview with Nityananda Prabhu who was accompanied by many kirtana performers, servants and others. Sitting on a rock under a tree on the bank of the Ganges, Lord Nityananda seemed as effulgent as hundreds and thousands of rising suns. Many devotees sat on the ground surrounding Him.
Seeing the influence of Nityananda Prabhu, Raghunatha dasa was astonished. Raghunatha dasa offered his obeisances by falling prostrate at a distant place, and the servant of Nityananda Prabhu pointed out, “There is Raghunatha dasa, offering You obeisances.”
Hearing this, Lord Nityananda Prabhu said, “You are a thief, now you have come to see Me. Come here, come here. Today I shall punish you,” the Lord called him, but Raghunatha dasa did not go near the Lord.
Then the Lord forcibly caught him and placed His lotus feet upon Raghunatha dasa’s head. “Make a festival and feed all My associates yogurt and chipped rice.” Hearing this, Raghunatha dasa was greatly pleased.
Raghunatha dasa brought chipped rice, yogurt, milk sweetmeats, sugar, bananas and other eatables and placed them all around. As soon as they heard that a festival was going to be held, all kinds of brahmanas and other gentlemen began to arrive.
Thus there were innumerable people. Seeing the crowd increasing, Raghunatha dasa arranged to get more eatables from other villages. He also brought two to four hundred large, round pots. He also obtained five or seven especially large earthen pots, and in these pots a brahmana began soaking chipped rice for the satisfaction of Lord Nityananda.
At that time, Raghava Pandita arrived there. Seeing the situation, he began to laugh in great surprise. He brought many other kinds of food cooked in ghee and offered them to the Lord.
This prasada he first placed before Lord Nityananda and then distributed among the devotees. Raghava Pandita said to Lord Nityananda, “For You, sir, I have already offered food to the Deity, but You are engaged in a festival here, and so the food is lying there untouched.”
Lord Nityananda replied, “Let Me eat all this food here during the day, and I shall eat at your home at night. I belong to a community of cowherd boys, and therefore I generally have many cowherd associates with Me. I am happy when we eat together in a picnic like this by the sandy bank of the river. Lord Nityananda made Raghava Pandita sit down and had two pots delivered to him also. There were two kinds of chipped rice soaked in them.
When chipped rice had been served to everyone, Lord Nityananda Prabhu, in meditation, brought Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. When Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu arrived, Lord Nityananda Prabhu stood up.
They then saw how the others were enjoying the chipped rice with yogurt and condensed milk. From each and every pot, Lord Nityananda Prabhu took one morsel of chipped rice and pushed it into the mouth of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu as a joke. In this way Lord Nityananda was walking through all the groups of eaters, and all the Vaisnavas standing there were seeing the fun.
When all the Vaisnavas were chanting the holy names “Hari Hari” and eating, they remembered how Krsna and Balarama ate with Their companions, the cowherd boys, on the bank of the Yamuna. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu and Lord Nityananda Prabhu are extremely merciful and liberal. It was Raghunatha dasa’s good fortune that They accepted all these dealings.
Who can understand the influence and mercy of Lord Nityananda Prabhu.
