Neem Tree

Expressions researched:
"neem" |"nima" |"nimba"

SB Preface and Introduction

SB Introduction:

When the Lord was on the lap of His mother, He would at once stop crying as soon as the ladies surrounding Him chanted the holy names and clapped their hands. This peculiar incident was observed by the neighbors with awe and veneration. Sometimes the young girls took pleasure in making the Lord cry and then stopping Him by chanting the holy name. So from His very childhood the Lord began to preach the importance of the holy name. In His early age Lord Śrī Caitanya was known as Nimāi. This name was given by His beloved mother because the Lord took His birth beneath a nimba tree in the courtyard of His paternal house.

SB Introduction:

When the Lord was on the lap of His mother, He would at once stop crying as soon as the ladies surrounding Him chanted the holy names and clapped their hands. This peculiar incident was observed by the neighbors with awe and veneration. Sometimes the young girls took pleasure in making the Lord cry and then stopping Him by chanting the holy name. So from His very childhood the Lord began to preach the importance of the holy name. In His early age Lord Śrī Caitanya was known as Nimāi. This name was given by His beloved mother because the Lord took His birth beneath a nimba tree in the courtyard of His paternal house.

SB Canto 3

SB 3.5.38, Purport:

The Lord is equal to every living entity, just like the flowing Ganges. The Ganges water is meant for the purification of everyone, yet the trees on the banks of the Ganges have different values. A mango tree on the bank of the Ganges drinks the water, and the nimba tree also drinks the same water. But the fruits of both trees are different. One is celestially sweet, and the other is hellishly bitter. The condemned bitterness of the nimba is due to its own past work, just as the sweetness of the mango is also due to its own karma. The Lord says in Bhagavad-gītā (16.19):

tān ahaṁ dviṣataḥ krūrān

saṁsāreṣu narādhamān

kṣipāmy ajasram aśubhān

āsurīṣv eva yoniṣu

"The envious, the mischievous, the lowest of mankind, these do I ever put back into the ocean of material existence, into various demoniac species of life." Demigods like Yamarāja and other controllers are there for the unwanted conditioned souls who always engage in threatening the tranquillity of the kingdom of God. Since all the demigods are confidential devotee-servitors of the Lord, they are never to be condemned.

SB Canto 10.1 to 10.13

SB 10.7.13-15, Purport:

Verse fourteen mentions pavitrauṣadhi. In any ritualistic ceremony, many herbs and leaves were required. These were known as pavitra-patra. Sometimes there were nimba leaves, sometimes bael leaves, mango leaves, aśvattha leaves or āmalakī leaves. Similarly, there were pañca-gavya, pañca-śasya and pañca-ratna. Although Nanda Mahārāja belonged to the vaiśya community, everything was known to him.

CC Adi-lila

CC Adi 13.61, Purport:

On the eastern side of the temple is a ghāṭa known as Kadamba-khaṇḍī on the bank of a river called the Yamunā, and it is said that the Deity of Baṅkima Rāya was floating in the water and Lord Nityānanda Prabhu picked Him up and then installed Him in the temple. Thereafter, in a place known as Bhaḍḍāpura, in the village of Vīracandra-pura, about half a mile west, in a place underneath a nima tree, Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī was found. For this reason, the Rādhārāṇī of Baṅkima Rāya was known as Bhaḍḍāpurera Ṭhākurāṇī, the mistress of Bhaḍḍāpura. On another throne, on the right side of Baṅkima Rāya, is a Deity of Yogamāyā.

CC Adi 13.117, Purport:

Ḍākinī and Śāṅkhinī are two companions of Lord Śiva and his wife who are supposed to be extremely inauspicious, having been born of ghostly life. It is believed that such inauspicious living creatures cannot go near a nima tree. At least medically it is accepted that nima wood is extremely antiseptic, and formerly it was customary to have a nima tree in front of one's house. On very large roads in India, especially in Uttar Pradesh, there are hundreds and thousands of nima trees. Nima wood is so antiseptic that the Āyurvedic science uses it to cure leprosy. Medical scientists have extracted the active principle of the nima tree, which is called margosic acid. Nima is used for many purposes, especially to brush the teeth. In Indian villages ninety percent of the people use nima twigs for this purpose. Because of all the antiseptic effects of the nima tree and because Lord Caitanya was born beneath a nima tree, Sītā Ṭhākurāṇī gave the Lord the name Nimāi. Later in His youth He was celebrated as Nimāi Paṇḍita, and in the neighborhood villages He was called by that name, although His real name was Viśvambhara.

CC Madhya-lila

CC Madhya 3.47, Translation:

Amongst the various vegetables were newly grown leaves of nimba trees fried with eggplant. The fruit known as paṭola was fried with phulabaḍi, a kind of dhal preparation first mashed and then dried in the sun. There was also a preparation known as kuṣmāṇḍa-mānacāki.

CC Madhya 8.258, Translation and Purport:

Rāmānanda Rāya continued, "Those who are devoid of all transcendental mellows are like the crows that suck the juice from the bitter fruits of the nimba tree of knowledge, whereas those who enjoy mellows are like the cuckoos who eat the buds of the mango tree of love of Godhead."

The speculative process of empiric philosophy is as bitter as the fruit of the nimba tree. Tasting this fruit is the business of crows. In other words, the philosophical process of realizing the Absolute Truth is a process taken up by crowlike men. But the cuckoolike devotees have very sweet voices with which to chant the holy name of the Lord and taste the sweet fruit of the mango tree of love of Godhead. Such devotees relish sweet mellows with the Lord.

CC Madhya 15.54-55, Translation:

“One day My mother, Śacī, offered food to Śālagrāma Viṣṇu. She offered rice cooked from śāli paddies, various kinds of vegetables, spinach, curry made of banana flowers, fried paṭola with nimba leaves, pieces of ginger with lemon, and also yogurt, milk, sugar candy and many other foods.

CC Madhya 15.210, Translation:

There were about ten kinds of spinach, a soup called sukhta, which was made with bitter nimba leaves, a pungent preparation made with black pepper, a mild cake made of fried curd, and buttermilk mixed with small fried pieces of dhal.

CC Madhya 15.213, Translation:

Other preparations included eggplant mixed with newly grown nimba leaves fried together, light baḍī, fried paṭola and fried rounds of squash and pumpkin.

CC Antya-lila

CC Antya 4.163, Translation:

“Sir, You are making Jagadānanda drink the nectar of affectionate relationships, whereas by offering me honorable prayers, You are making me drink the bitter juice of nimba and niśindā.

CC Antya 10.137, Translation:

They offered pungent preparations made with black pepper, sweet-and-sour preparations, ginger, salty preparations, limes, milk, yogurt, cheese, two or four kinds of spinach, soup made with bitter melon, eggplant mixed with nimba flowers, and fried paṭola.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter Prologue:

His mother's father, Paṇḍita Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, a renowned astrologer, foretold that the child would be a great personage in time; and he, therefore, gave him the name Viśvambhara. The ladies of the neighborhood styled him Gaurahari on account of his golden complexion, and his mother called him Nimāi on account of the nimba tree near which he was born. Beautiful as the lad was, everyone heartily loved to see him every day. As he grew up he became a whimsical and frolicsome lad. After his fifth year, he was admitted into a pāṭhaśālā where he picked up Bengali in a very short time.

Teachings of Lord Caitanya, Chapter 32:

Rāmānanda Rāya went on to say that those who have no taste for Kṛṣṇa consciousness or spiritual life are just like crows who take pleasure in eating the bitter nimba fruit. It is the poetic cuckoo that eats the seeds of the mango. The unfortunate transcendentalists simply speculate on dry philosophy, whereas the transcendentalists who are in love with Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa enjoy fruit just like the cuckoo. Thus those who are devotees of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa are most fortunate. The bitter nimba fruit is not at all eatable; it is simply full of dry speculation and is only fit for crowlike philosophers. Mango seeds, however, are very relishable, and those in the devotional service of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa enjoy them.

1968 Correspondence

Letter to Brahmananda -- San Francisco 21 March, 1968:

Those leaves are nim leaves; keep them and when I come there I shall make a preparation of tooth paste. Neem tree is very antiseptic.

1973 Correspondence

Letter to Madhudvisa -- U.K. 7 August, 1973:

If you can actually supply the society with Gaura Nitai deities it will be a great achievement. But one thing is that you should try to find out some strong wood. In India they use Neem wood because this wood is not attacked by termites, if you can find out a similar wood there that will be best, or you may see if you can import this wood from India if it is not too expensive. When you have finished something, then send me a photograph.

1975 Correspondence

Letter to Madhudvisa -- Detroit 4 August, 1975:

Regarding Adelaide, unless you are sure that the Deity worship will go on nicely, do not install the Deity. Simply have kirtana and keep the Panca-tattva picture, that's all. What are the ingredients of the Lord Caitanya murti? Metal or wood is best, but not ordinary wood. Neem wood which is never attacked by moth is best. Regarding New Zealand Spiritual Sky, that you must decide. Spiritual Sky is not important.