Mayapura
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Mayapur মায়াপুর |
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|---|---|
| rural area and city | |
The Ganges river at Mayapur
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 Mayapur
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| Coordinates: 23°26′18″N 88°23′34″E / 23.4382755°N 88.3928686°ECoordinates: 23°26′18″N 88°23′34″E / 23.4382755°N 88.3928686°E | |
| Country |
 India
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| State | West Bengal |
| District | Nadia |
| Languages | |
| • Official | Bengali, English |
| Time zone | IST (UTC+5:30) |
| PIN | 741313 |
| Telephone code | 91 3472 |
| Website | mayapur |
Mayapur is located on the banks of the Ganges river, at the point of its confluence with the Jalangi, near Nabadwip, West Bengal, India, 130 km north of Kolkata (Calcutta). The headquarters of ISKCON are situated in Mayapur and it is considered a holy place by a number of other traditions within Hinduism, but is of special significance to followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism as the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, regarded as a special incarnation of Krishna in the mood of Radha. It is visited by over a million pilgrims annually.
In 1886 a leading Gaudiya Vaisnava reformer Bhaktivinoda Thakur attempted to retire from his government service and move to Vrindavan to pursue his devotional life there. However, he saw a dream in which Lord Chaitanya ordered him to go to Nabadwip instead. After some difficulty, in 1887 Bhaktivinoda Thakur was transferred to Krishnanagar, a district center twenty-five kilometers away from Nabadwip, famous as the birthplace of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Despite poor health, Thakur Bhaktivinoda finally managed to start regularly visiting Nabadwip to research places connected with Lord Chaitanya. Soon he came to a conclusion that the site purported by the local brahmanas to be Lord Chaitanya's birthplace could not possibly be genuine. Determined to find the actual place of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu's pastimes but frustrated by the lack of reliable evidence and clues, one night he saw a mystical vision:
By 10 o'clock the night was very dark and cloudy. Across the Ganges in a northern direction I suddenly saw a large building flooded with golden light. I asked Kamala if he could see the building and he said that he could. But my friend Kerani Babu could see nothing. I was amazed. What could it be? In the morning I went back to the roof and looked carefully back across the Ganges. I saw that in the place where I had seen the building was a stand of palm trees. Inquiring about this area I was told that it was the remains of Lakshman Sen's fort at Ballaldighi.
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Wikipedia