Question: We have heard that Puṇḍarīka Premanidhi was chastised by Lord Jagannātha for considering wrongly about Lord Jagannātha’s servants. In today’s chapter Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi is glorified that he doesn’t have a speck of false ego. How to understand this?

Jayapatākā Swami: It is not an ordinary thing to be chastised by Lord Jagannātha. As Lord Jagannātha slapped him on his face and his face swelled up. Śo that was in a dream. So that is certainly something truly amazing. So we see Puṇḍarīka Vidyānidhi, he knew all the normal procedures for worshiping the deities. Similarly, also Rāmānujācārya, he was also thinking of similar things. But Lord Jagannātha has His own process of worship and therefore it doesn’t actually match up with the standard procedures of deity worship. So they had put the new cloth with all the starch in in on Lord Jagannātha. Normally, we wash the cloth and then put on the Lord. So he was criticizing why you are putting unwashed cloth. But in Jagannātha Purī it is a different system. So, Lord Jagannātha said, you don’t criticize my devotees, they have their own system. So he was slapped by the Lord. And in his dream, when he woke up his cheeks were swollen. So obviously he had a very special relationship with Kṛṣṇa.
31-May-2021 SRI MAYAPUR DHAM, INDIA