Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Ādi 10.67

kholā-vecā śrīdhara prabhura priya-dāsa

yāńhā-sane prabhu kare nitya parihāsa

SYNONYMS

kholā-vecā — a person who sells the bark of banana trees; śrīdhara — Śrīdhara Prabhu; prabhura — of the Lord; priya-dāsa — very dear servant; yāńha-sane — with whom; prabhu — the Lord; kare — does; nitya — daily; parihāsa — joking.

TRANSLATION

The twenty-ninth branch was Śrīdhara, a trader in banana-tree bark. He was a very dear servant of the Lord. On many occasions, the Lord played jokes on him.

PURPORT

Śrīdhara was a poor brāhmaṇa who made a living by selling banana-tree bark to be made into cups. Most probably he had a banana-tree garden and collected the leaves, skin and pulp of the banana trees to sell daily in the market. He spent fifty percent of his income to worship the Ganges, and the balance he used for his subsistence. When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu started His civil disobedience movement in defiance of the Kazi, Śrīdhara danced in jubilation. The Lord used to drink water from his water jug. Śrīdhara presented a squash to Śacīdevī to cook before Lord Caitanya took sannyāsa. Every year he went to see Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu at Jagannātha Purī. According to Kavi-karṇapūra, Śrīdhara was a cowherd boy of Vṛndāvana whose name was Kusumāsava. In his Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (133) it is stated:

kholā-vecātayā khyātaḥ paṇḍitaḥ śrīdharo dvijaḥ

āsīd vraje hāsya-karo yo nāmnā kusumāsavaḥ

"The cowherd boy known as Kusumāsava in kṛṣṇa-līlā later became Kholāvecā Śrīdhara during Caitanya Mahāprabhu's līlā at Navadvīpa."

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness