By H. H. Radhanath Swami, South India Yatra 1999
Submitted by Amogha das
According the the Mahatmya of this place, it is described that Vedavyas was telling one great muni that this place of Kurmakshetra is very, very sacred and he told the story of this temple. There is a mountain called Shwetacala Parvat. And near that mountain lived a king. His name was Shweta Chakravarti, and his wife’s name was Vishnupriya. Vishnupriya was very chaste, very pure in heart, and had great devotion to Lord Krishna. On an Ekadasi day she was performing pooja in her temple room. At that time her husband had very great lusty desires. He went to her room to enjoy his lusty desires with his wife. So being a chaste woman she greeted him with great hospitality, had him sit on a golden throne. Then, she went back into her pooja room to continue her devotional service. She started to pray very helplessly to Vishnu, that today is Ekadashi, I have made vow that I will not engage in any type of sinful activity. I will completely immerse my mind only in devotional service. But my husband is approaching me with lusty desires. Please save me, please protect my vows to you on this holy Ekadashi day. This is a great lesson for any of you ladies whoever get put in this situation. The Lord always protects His devotees. As she prayed to Lord Vishnu, Kurmadeva who protects the stability and the foundation of devotee’s vows, He ordered Gangadevi that this king wants to violate the chastity of the vows of my devotee, go stop him. So Gangadevi appeared in the temple and then with a terrible, terrible violent current, she came flowing out of the temple room, and right after King Shweta Chakravarti. When he saw the river Ganges just flooding forward, rushing towards him, he became very frightened and ran away. He was running and running and running but everywhere he went, the Ganges was chasing after. He was running, running, but it was chasing after and finally he climbed to the top of the Shweta mountain. And there he asked his minister what’s happening? Why? His chief minister told him, that your wife is a very great devotee of Lord Vishnu, and you had lusty desires for her on Ekadashi. She prayed to Vishnu to save her, and Kurmadev, just to protect His devotee send the river Ganges, just to stop you. When the king heard this he felt so guilty, terrible, he was thinking that I am such a sinful person. He began to repent, but worse then that, he was thinking that I made an offense to my wife, and what kind of great devotee is she, that Lord Kurmadeva personally arranged to protect her? He decided, he had to perform great, great tapasya to purify himself from this offense. So he was repenting so much. He was just getting down on himself so bad, and finally he fell unconscious. Then Narada Muni appeared. Narada Muni said, “How can I serve you?” He said, “Please grant me a benediction, grant me the benediction that I can have darshan of the great deity of Kurmadeva.” So Narada Muni taught him a Kurma Mantra and sat on the shores of the ocean of the sea, and explained him the philosophy of Krishna Consciousness very nicely.
As he was chanting this Mantra Lord Shiva appeared and then he was even more encouraged. So he came to a place called Chakratirtha which is in the area of Kurmakshetra, and there Shweta Chakravarti for 300 years stood on one toe with his arms raised. Then during the summer, he stood in the center of a burning hot fire. In the rainy season, he stood in the rains and the cold. Then he started sitting on knives for a long time. Finally his body was so completely exhausted because of this tapasya that he fell down. At that point Narada Muni saw, how serious he was, because Narada Muni was standing next to him. And he prayed to Lord Vishnu: “Please come and give him your darshan.”
Upon the request of Narada Muni, this great king received the holy darshan of Lord Kurmadeva, who stood before him with four arms. They went to one Rishi’s house together, Narada Muni, Kurmadev and the king. And the rishi was so happy, “Because of you King I am getting the darshan of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” So the king was getting so many auspicious blessings. They came to this place. Actually the king was still was so tired, and they were climbing this high mountain. Kurmadeva was so pleased by the king’s endeavours to try to serve Him and please Him that He chanted the mantra ‘Om’ and immediately the mountain became flat. They came to Chakratirtha and the king said, “I want to make a nice kund to bathe in.” The kund is very close by here, and with His chakra Kurmadev made a beautiful kund.
From the place where the chakra entered the ground, Mahalaxmi came out. Mahalaxmi said to the Lord, “What are You doing in this crazy world where people are so sinful, addicted to intoxications and so many materialistic activities? What are You doing here?” Then the Supreme Personality of Godhead said, “Wherever my devotees are serving me I want to be with them. My life is to give favour to My devotees.” So it is a beautiful story that Kurmadev appeared here, on this place.
And Narada Muni and the king decided that they wanted to have installation for the Kurma deity. So they went to Bramhaloka, because the king asked, “Do you know the Mantras to install the deity of Kurma?” and Narada said, ” Lord Bramha knows the mantra. Let us go.” So they went to the abode of Lord Brahma and Lord Bramha said, “I will come down and I will personally install this deity.” And while he came, Lord Shiva came, Lord Indra came, Vayu came, Agnidev came, Surya came. All the principal gods, they all came to this place and Lord Brahma performed the glorious installation ceremony of Sri Kurmadev and from that time this has been one of the great holy places of pilgrimage for Vaishnavas.
In fact Sripad Ramanujacharya, he visited Jagannath Puri. And when he saw the way the pujaris were worshipping the deity, he was thinking that it was not correct. He explained to them what are the rules and regulations according to Pancaratrika Vidhi. They were doing different Tantra-Mantra-Yantras and other traditional ways. So that night after he instructed them, Lord Jagannath appeared to Ramanujacharya in his dream, right there in Puri and told him, “I am very satisfied with the love and devotion in which my pujaris are worshipping Me. I don’t want you to change it.” And therefore that night Lord Jagannath personally threw Ramanujacharya to Kurmakshetra. But according to Bhakti Vinod Thakur, first He threw him to Navadvipa. He was thrown to Navadvip and there he had darshan of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu gave him very wonderful darshan and instructions of how to go on with the particular devotional service of establishing the Vishishta Dvaita philosophy, Siddhanta. In this way Jagannath took him from Puri to Navadvip, and then to Kurmakshetra.
So when Ramanujacharya woke up, here he was in front of the deity of Kurmadev. He thought, it was the deity of Shiva because you have all seen the darshan; He would look like a Shivalingam. When Ramanujacharya was thinking, he was Lord Shiva in great gravity of devotion, he began to fast. But then he recognised that there was a head and a tail, little feet. It was Kurmadev. It was Vishnu. So he established very gorgeous worship of the deity, and sent his own disciples and followers here to maintain a very high standard of worship, to this very day. When Ramanujacharya was here, he installed next to the deity of Kurmadev, you saw the deity of Sridevi and Bhudevi.
When Sripad Madhvacharya came here in his pilgrimage he worshiped Kurmadeva and he installed these deities of Sita Ram inside. And Sripad Shankaracharya when he came here to worship the deity, he also installed a deity of Sudarshan Chakra. And when Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu came here, He also installed the congregational chanting of the Holy Names, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Ram Hare Ram Ram Ram Hare Hare. The supreme most accessible deity, in this age of Kali-yuga. So we are very, very grateful and fortunate to be here today.
(from www. narasimhalila. com / deitypastimes. html)
Dandavats Maharaj! Please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada! I sometimes wonder that doing such difficult penances you would need a body of that kind. Because, with my current shortlived body I can’t even stand on my toe for 2 seconds. And, moreover, Krishna’s mercy would be needed to achieve such difficult austerities. Of course, I need to have the urge to serve Krishna and He will show me the way.