Who is Nityananda Prabhu?

Lord Nityananda is the eternal associate of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Rarely is the name Nimai (Caitanya Mahaprabhu) taken without that of Nitai (Lord Nityananda). Mahaprabhu cannot be approached or understood without the mercy of Nityananda Prabhu, who is the cardinal guru of all the universes and serves as an intermediary between Mahaprabhu and His devotees. He is the Lord’s active principle in both creation and lila. He is the second body of the Lord, manifesting as Balaram to Sri Krishna, Lakshman to Sri Ram and Nityananda Prabhu to Caitanya Mahaprabhu. All other forms and expansions of the Lord emanate from this second body. Nityananda Prabhu is thus the source of Sankarshan, all the Vishu’s, and Ananta Sesa. As Vishnu tattva He and Advaita Acarya are worshipped in the same category as Caitanya Mahaprabhu. In the manifested earthly lila, Nityananda Prabhu is senior to Caitanya Mahaprabhu by more than a decade.

Lord Nityananda’s Appearance day lecture by Srila Prabhupada

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Bhubaneswar, February 2, 1977
Prabhupäda: So today, the appearance day of Nityänanda Prabhu… Nityänanda Prabhu is Baladeva, Baladeva-tattva.

vrajendra-nandana yei, çacé-suta haila sei,
balaräma haila nitäi

“Who was formerly the son of Nanda Mahäräja, He has appeared as the son of Çacédevi.” Caitanya Mahäprabhu’s mother’s name was Çacédevi. So Kåñëa… Kåñëa is Çré Caitanya Mahäprabhu, and Balaräma is Nityänanda Prabhu. Now…

vrajendra-nandana yei, çacé-suta haila sei,
balaräma haila nitäi

Lord Nityananda’s Childhood

Curiously there is no authoritative biography of Nityananda Prabhu; and while Rupa, Jiva, and Raghunatha do not even mention him once in their collective writings, Sanatana Gosvami refers to him only briefly in the invocation of his Vaisnava-tosani. Nonetheless, the world is fortunate that Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s biographers have devoted large sections of their work to Nityananda’s life, which can be pieced together from this massive literature, and also from later medieval Vaisnava texts, such as Bhakti-ratna- kara and Prema-vilasa. Nityananda Prabhu was born in the village of Ekcakra, also called Ekacakra, in the country of Rahr (Radhadesa), some eight miles east of where today stands the Mallarpura station of the E.I. Railway (within the modern Birbhum District of West Bengal). His birthsite is commemorated by a small temple named Garbhavasa and is visited by throngs of pilgrims to this day.

Prayers to Lord Nityananda

Dalalera-gita
by Thakura Bhaktivinoda1) boro sukher khabor gai
surabhi-kunjete namer hat khule’che (khoda nitai)

2) boro mojar kotha tay
sraddha-mulye suddhe-nam sei hatete bikay

3) jata bhakta-brnda basi’
adhikari dekhe’ nam becche daro kasi

4) jadi nam kinbe, bhai
amar sange calo, mahajaner kache jai

5) tumi kinbe krsna-nama
dasturi loibo ami, purna ha’be kam

6) boro dayal nityananda
sraddha-matra lo’ye den parama-ananda

7) ek-bar dekhle cakhe jal
‘gaura’ bole’ nitai den sakala sambal

den suddha krsna-sikha
jati, dhana, bidya, bala na kore apekha

9) amani chare maya-jal
grhe thako, bane thako, na thake janjal

10) ar naiko kalir bhoy
acandale den nam nitai doya-moy

11) bhaktivinoda daki’ koy
nitai-caran bina’ar nahi asroy