When Śrīman Nityānanda Prabhu was in a mood of separation, he wandered all over India looking for Kṛṣṇa until finally he came to Vṛndāvana. There He heard that Kṛṣṇa had already appeared in Navadvīpa-Māyāpura: the son of Nanda, Śrī Kṛṣṇa, had appeared as Gaurahari, the son of Śacī. Nityānanda Prabhu, Who is none other than Balarāma Himself, quickly came to Navadvīpa and started to live incognito in the house of Nandana Ācārya. Nandana Ācārya felt that his life had been fulfilled. Mahāprabhu knew of Nityānanda Prabhu’s coming through a dream. He told the other devotees that Nityānanda Prabhu had arrived in town and sent Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita and Haridāsa Ṭhākura out to look for Him. These two searched through the entire town but could not find Him anywhere. When Mahāprabhu heard from Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita and Haridāsa Ṭhākura that Nityānanda Prabhu was not in Navadvīpa, He slightly smiled in His omniscience and took the devotees with Him to Nandana Ācārya’s house.

The devotees were astonished to behold a personality as effulgent as a million suns. In order to reveal Nityānanda Prabhu’s true identity to all His devotees, Mahāprabhu signaled Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita to sing a verse from Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (10.21.5):

barhāpīḍaṁ naṭa-vara-vapuḥ karṇayoḥ karṇikāraṁ
vibhrad-vāsaḥ kanaka-kapiśaṁ vaijayantīṁ ca mālām
randhrān veṇor adhara-sudhayā pūrayan gopa-vṛndair-
vṛnāraṇyaṁ sva-pada-ramaṇaṁ prāviśad gīta-kīrtiḥ

Kṛṣṇa, Whose glories are sung by the cowherd boys, dressed as a dancing performer, a peacock feather decorating His topknot, karṇikāra flowers behind His ears, wearing a yellow garment as brilliant as gold and a vaijayantī garland around His neck. Accompanied by His cowherd friends who were singing His glories, He entered the forest of Vṛndāvana, the pleasure garden bedecked with the auspicious marks of His lotus feet, while filling the holes of His flute with the nectar of His lips.

As soon as He heard this verse, Nityānanda Prabhu uttered the words “Hā Kṛṣṇa!” and fainted, the eight ecstatic symptoms manifesting in His body. Mahāprabhu was eager to be reunited with His brother and thus, after He revealed the identity of Nityānanda Prabhu to the assembled devotees, He clutched Nitāi to His bosom.

Śrī Nandana Ācārya was fortunate, indeed. Just look, Śrīnivāsa, this is his home. The Lord came to this house with all the devotees and found Nityānanda Prabhu sitting here in meditation. The devotees stood here gazing upon His incomparable beauty. (Bhakti-ratnākara 12.2422-4)

When the Vyāsa-pūjā at Śrīvāsa Aṅgana had been completed, Mahāprabhu, Nityānanda Prabhu and Their other associates became fully absorbed in the ecstasies of saṅkīrtana. One day, Mahāprabhu, in His identity as the Supreme Person, ordered Rāmāi Paṇḍita to go to Advaita Ācārya’s house and tell Him that He had manifested His presence. He also said to Ramai, “Śrī Advaita Ācārya called to the Lord of Goloka in order to bring Him down to this earth, while performing pūjā with Ganges water and tulasī leaves. This Lord has now appeared in Navadvīpa along with Nityānanda Prabhu. Therefore, Advaita Ācārya should immediately come to Śrīvāsa Aṅgana with his wife and all the paraphernalia needed to worship Him.”

Rāmāi acted according to Mahāprabhu’s instruction and went to Advaita Ācārya’s house. Advaita Ācārya, through His omniscience, understood the purpose of his arrival. Nevertheless, He inquired the matter from Rāmāi. When Advaita Ācārya heard from him that Mahāprabhu had manifested in Navadvīpa, He and His wife Sītādevī, His son Acyutānanda, and a number of His other followers all shed tears of joy. Advaita Ācārya did as He had been instructed, gathering up the paraphernalia for worship and hastened to Navadvīpa with His entourage. Even so, He wished to test Mahāprabhu first, and so He stopped at Nandana Ācārya’s house and waited there. He sent Rāmāi ahead but told him to keep his presence at Nandana’s house secret and to tell Mahāprabhu instead that he had refused to come.

As the Supersoul, Viśvambhara Mahāprabhu could understand exactly what Advaita Ācārya was trying to do. He revealed a majestic divine form on the altar of Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita’s house. He indicated to Nityānanda Prabhu to hold the parasol over His head and the other devotees to engage in various services. Mahāprabhu then announced to all the devotees, “Advaita Ācārya has decided to test Me. He is hiding at Nandana Ācārya’s house with all the paraphernalia for My pūjā.” He again sent Rāmāi to tell Him that He was aware of His plan and to tell Him to quickly come. When Advaita Ācārya got the direct order from Mahāprabhu a second time, He joyfully went to Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita’s house. As soon as He saw the Lord, he fell to the ground at some distance to pay obeisances to His lotus feet and began to recite hymns of glorification. Seeing the Lord’s opulent form, Advaita Ācārya became motionless and began to praise the unequalled mercy of the Lord. Advaita Ācārya then washed the Lord’s lotus feet and worshiped Him with the five ingredients (pañcapocāra), using the following mantra to do so:

namo brahmaṇya-devāya go-brāhmaṇa-hitāya ca
jagad-dhitāya kṛṣṇāya govindāya namo namaḥ

I pay my obeisances to Kṛṣṇa, Govinda, the lord of the brahminical society, to He Who is the source of the cows’ and the brāhmaṇas’ welfare, and Who is the source of the welfare of the entire universe.

Mahāprabhu then commanded Advaita Prabhu to get up and dance. Advaita Ācārya started to dance madly until He became completely intoxicated, immersing all the devotees watching in a flood of ecstasy.

The local atheists started to plot against Mahāprabhu after having been beaten in debates by His talent and learning. They fabricated complaints and went to the local administrator. That day, when He returned home, Mahāprabhu started saṅkīrtana in order to put an end to the atheists’ blasphemous ways. However, on that day, Mahāprabhu noticed that He was not feeling the usual ecstasy in the divine Names and expressed His distress. Advaita Ācārya gave the following reasons for His lack of ecstasy on that day: “You have made Nityānanda Prabhu the keeper of the storehouse of love. You have deprived Śrīvāsa and Myself of this love. On the other hand, You have given it to everyone else, even to those in the lower castes. So, I have dried up the ocean of Your prema. That is why You are not feeling anything today.”

When Mahāprabhu heard this, He decided that He could not bear to live another minute in a useless body devoid of prema and so He went and jumped into the Ganges, intending to drown Himself. Nityānanda Prabhu and Haridāsa Ṭhākura immediately jumped in after Him and pulled Him out. Mahāprabhu then revealed to these two His intention to go and stay for a while at Nandana Ācārya’s house, out of sight of the other devotees. Nityānanda Prabhu and Haridāsa Ṭhākura were thus the only ones to know that He was staying there.

The other devotees found no sign of Mahāprabhu anywhere and began to cry in intense separation from Him. Advaita Prabhu even undertook a fast. Meanwhile, Mahāprabhu sat down on the deity’s throne in the house of Nandana Ācārya and engaged him in various kinds of service. Mahāprabhu also instructed him not to tell anyone that He was at his place, but Nandana answered, “You are the wealth of the devotees’ hearts. The devotees are the ones who reveal You to the world. How will You ever manage to remain hidden from them?”

Indeed, the Lord was aware that the devotees were unable to tolerate the pain of His absence, and so He asked Nandana Ācārya to bring Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita there. Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita described how upset Advaita Prabhu was and that He was fasting. Mahāprabhu immediately accompanied Śrīvāsa Paṇḍita to Advaita Ācārya’s residence and when He saw Him lying faint and weak on the floor, He felt Himself to be a great offender. Advaita Ācārya rose up from His transcendental unconscious state and prayed the Lord again and again to be forgiven for His rash statements and begged a place at the Lord’s lotus feet so that He could serve Him birth after birth.

After taking sannyāsa in Katwa, Mahāprabhu was brought to the house of Advaita Ācārya in Śāntipura by Nityānanda Prabhu’s trickery. Śacī Mata and other residents of Navadvīpa came to see Him there; Nandana Ācārya was amongst them. The year that Rāghava Paṇḍita first brought his famous bags of food (rāghavera jhāli) to Mahāprabhu in Purī, Nandana Ācārya and many other Bengal devotees also gave the Lord some food preparations that pleased Him greatly. Nandana Ācārya was also among those devotees whose invitations to lunch were accepted by the Lord at Purī. His name is mentioned by Sārvabhauma Bhattācārya when he described the Lord’s devotees to King Pratāparudra, “Here is Rāghava Paṇḍita, here is Nandana Ācārya, there is Śrīmān Paṇḍita, and here are Śrīkānta and Nārāyaṇa.” (Chaitanya Charitāmṛta 2.11.89).

Nandana Ācārya was also amongst the participants in the nightly kīrtana at Śrīvāsa Aṅgana, at Śrīdhara Aṅgana and in the procession to the Kāzī’s house. In Purī, he participated in the cleaning of the Guṇḍicā Temple and the Nṛsiṁha Temple and the Lord’s bathing pastimes in Indradyumna Sarovara. He also took part in the feast in the Āi Ṭoṭā gardens and of course, the Ratha-yātrā festival.

Śrīla Bhakti Sāraṅga Gosvāmī Mahārāja, the founder of the Sri Gaudiya Sangha and who has now entered the eternal pastimes of the Lord, constructed a temple at the site of Nandana Ācārya’s house in Īśodyāna, Māyāpura. The temple houses deities of Śrī Chaitanya Mahāprabhu and Nityānanda Prabhu.

The date and places of Nandana Ācārya’s appearance and disappearance are unknown.