THERE is the story of twelve hundred nedas10 and
thirteen hundred nedis11. Virabhadra, the son of
Nityananda Goswami had thirteen hundred
'shaven headed' disciples. They attained great
spiritual powers. That alarmed their teacher. "My
disciples have acquired great spiritual powers,"
thought Virabhadra. "Whatever they say to people
will come to pass. Wherever they go they may
create alarming situations; for people offending
them unwittingly will come to grief." Thinking
thus, Virabhadra one day called them to him and
said, "See me after performing your daily devotions
on the banks of the Ganges." These disciples had
such high spiritual nature that, while meditating,
they would go into Samadhi and be unaware of the
river water flowing over their heads during the
flood-tide. Then the ebb-tide would come and still
they would remain absorbed in meditation.
Now, one hundred of these disciples had
anticipated what their teacher would ask of them.
Lest they should have to disobey his injunctions,
they had quickly disappeared from the place before
he summoned them. So, they did not go to
Virabhadra with others. The remaining twelve
hundred disciples went to the teacher after
finishing their morning meditations. Virabhadra
said to them: "These thirteen hundred nuns will
serve you.
I ask you to marry them." "As you please, revered
sir," they said. "But one hundred of us have gone '
away." Thenceforth each of these twelve hundred
disciples had a wife. Consequently they all lost their
spiritual power. Their austerities did not have their
original fire. The company of women robbed them
of their spirituality because it destroyed their
freedom.
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