Sri Ekacakra Dhama: Nitai's Eternal Abode (A Pilgrim's Guidebook)

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Sri Nityananda Prabhu, the first manifestation of Sri Krsna Caitanya, is the brightest torchlight shining forth in the world of Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Through His preaching, the chanting of the holy names of Lord Krsna spread all over the world. Nityananda Prabhu bestowed upon the suffering humanity of this world the life-giving nectar of harinama. Acaryas state that by relishing the pastimes and singing the glories of the Supreme Lord and His devotees a living entity derives the highest benefit. But only those who are endowed with the capacity to relish the divine tastes of these pastimes are able to properly glorify them. Such great devotees, who sing the glories of Lord Nityananda, surely have this capacity. While working on our book, we kept in mind that we have to try to render adequately those ecstatic feelings and moods which permeate their writings. This is possible only by the mercy of the dust from the lotus feet of those dear devotees of the Lord, and we pray to be able to get it. When we faithfully hear these narrations suffused by the ecstatic devotion and love for Lord Nityananda, on the strength of the mercy of these elevated Vaisnavas we can hope to awaken in our heart similar emotions of ecstatic love for Him. Lord Nityananda's pastimes are described in many literatures. Our book is meant to bring together the descriptions of His amazing pastimes, weaving them into a harmonious narration in an attempt to properly glorify Lord Nityananda and His abode, Ekacakra-dhama. As a basis for our descriptions of the holy places we consulted the works of Srila Prabhupada, of the acaryas of our Gaudiya-sampradaya, and the books and lectures by the gurus and other ISKCON devotees. We will provide references to them as the narration unfolds. The list of references can be found in the "Bibliography" appendix. We added some interesting details from local oral tradition as well. We chose those facts which were properly harmonious with our narration, making the stories more nectarean and spiritually impactful. Parikrama around the holy dhama can become more successful and effective if performed with the understanding of its methodology and goals as well and their natural sequence. That's why in the Part One, "Parikrama-tattva", some elevated devotees explain how visiting the holy places of the Lord's pastimes can help us deepen our devotion to Him. These devotees tell us about the ideal mindset and mood during the parikrama and teach us how to derive from it the maximum benefit. The day will come when all of us will go back to our eternal home, the holy dhama, the abode of our Lord, and thus it is very important for us to endeavour to become its intrinsic part, absorb its mood and get well adapted to its atmosphere. Part Two of the book, "Sri Ekacakra-dhama", can help us realize how unique and important this holy place is and how special its mercy and mood are. Also, the reader can glean from there a lot of useful pieces of information about the geography and history of this place, which maintains its special unique charm even now