Śrīmad Bhāgavata Puranam
A Short Sketch of the Life and Teachings of Lord Caitanya, the Preacher of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, the great
apostle of love of God and the father of the congregational chanting of the
holy name of the Lord, advented Himself at Śrīdhāma Māyāpura, a quarter in the
city of Navadvīpa in Bengal, on the Phālgunī Pūrṇimā
evening in the year 1407 Śakābda (corresponding to February 1486, by the
Christian calendar).
His father, Śrī Jagannātha Miśra, a
learned brāhmaṇa
from the district of Sylhet, came to Navadvīpa as a student because at that
time Navadvīpa was considered to be the center of education and culture. He
domiciled on the banks of the Ganges after marrying Śrīmatī Śacīdevī, a
daughter of Śrīla Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, the great learned scholar of Navadvīpa.
Jagannātha Miśra had a number of
daughters by his wife, Śrīmatī Śacīdevī, and most of them expired at an early
age. Two surviving sons, Śrī Viśvarūpa and Viśvambhara, became at last the
object of their parental affection. The tenth and youngest son, who was named
Viśvambhara, later became known as Nimāi Paṇḍita
and then, after accepting the renounced order of life, Lord Śrī Caitanya
Mahāprabhu.
Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu exhibited
His transcendental activities for forty-eight years and then disappeared from
this mortal world in the year 1455 Śakābda at Purī.
For His first twenty-four years He
remained at Navadvīpa as a student and householder. His first wife was Śrīmatī
Lakṣmīpriyā,
who died at an early age when the Lord was away from home. When He returned
from East Bengal He was requested by His mother to accept a second wife, and He
agreed. His second wife was Śrīmatī Viṣṇupriyā Devī, who bore the separation of the Lord
throughout her life because the Lord took the order of sannyāsa at the
age of twenty-four, when Śrīmatī Viṣṇupriyā was barely sixteen years old.
After taking sannyāsa, the Lord
made His headquarters at Jagannātha Purī due to the request of His mother,
Śrīmatī Śacīdevī. The Lord remained for twenty-four years at Purī. For six
years of this time He traveled continuously all over India (and especially
throughout southern India) preaching the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
Lord Caitanya not only preached the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
but propagated the teachings of the Bhagavad-gītā as well in the most
practical way. In the Bhagavad-gītā Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa is
depicted as the Absolute Personality of Godhead, and His last teachings in that
great book of transcendental knowledge instruct that one should give up all the
modes of religious activities and accept Him (Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa)
as the only worshipable Lord. The Lord then assured that all His
devotees would be protected from all sorts of sinful acts and that for them
there would be no cause for anxiety.
Unfortunately, despite Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa’s
direct order and the teachings of the Bhagavad-gītā, less intelligent
people misunderstand Him to be nothing but a great historical personality, and
thus they cannot accept Him as the original Personality of Godhead. Such men
with a poor fund of knowledge are misled by many nondevotees. Thus the
teachings of the Bhagavad-gītā were misinterpreted even by great scholars.
After the disappearance of Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa there were hundreds of commentaries on the Bhagavad-gītā
by many erudite scholars, and almost every one of them was motivated by
self-interest.
Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu is the
selfsame Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa. This time, however, He appeared as a great
devotee of the Lord in order to preach to the people in general, as well as to
religionists and philosophers, about the transcendental position of Śrī Kṛṣṇa,
the primeval Lord and the cause of all causes. The essence of His preaching is
that Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who appeared at Vrajabhūmi (Vṛndāvana)
as the son of the King of Vraja (Nanda Mahārāja), is the Supreme Personality of
Godhead and is therefore worshipable by all. Vṛndāvana-dhāma
is nondifferent from the Lord because the name, fame, form and place where the
Lord manifests Himself are all identical with the Lord as absolute knowledge.
Therefore Vṛndāvana-dhāma
is as worshipable as the Lord. The highest form of transcendental worship of
the Lord was exhibited by the damsels of Vrajabhūmi in the form of pure
affection for the Lord, and Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu recommends this
process as the most excellent mode of worship. He accepts the Śrīmad-Bhāgavata
Purāṇa as
the spotless literature for understanding the Lord, and He preaches that the
ultimate goal of life for all human beings is to attain the stage of premā,
or love of God.
Many devotees of Lord Caitanya like
Śrīla Vṛndāvana
dāsa Ṭhākura,
Śrī Locana dāsa Ṭhākura,
Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī, Śrī Kavikarṇapūra,
Śrī Prabodhānanda Sarasvatī, Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmī, Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmī, Śrī
Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa
Gosvāmī, Śrī Jīva Gosvāmī, Śrī Gopāla Bhaṭṭa Gosvāmī, Śrī Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī and in this
latter age within two hundred years, Śrī Viśvanātha Cakravartī, Śrī Baladeva
Vidyābhūṣaṇa,
Śrī Śyāmānanda Gosvāmī, Śrī Narottama dāsa Ṭhākura,
Śrī Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura
and at last Śrī Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura (our spiritual master) and many other great
and renowned scholars and devotees of the Lord have prepared voluminous books
and literatures on the life and precepts of the Lord. Such literatures are all
based on the śāstras like the Vedas, Purāṇas,
Upaniṣads, Rāmāyaṇa,
Mahābhārata and other histories and authentic
literatures approved by the recognized ācāryas. They are unique in
composition and unrivaled in presentation, and they are full of transcendental
knowledge. Unfortunately the people of the world are still ignorant of them,
but when these literatures, which are mostly in Sanskrit and Bengali, come to light
the world and when they are presented before thinking people, then India’s
glory and the message of love will overflood this morbid world, which is vainly
searching after peace and prosperity by various illusory methods not approved
by the ācāryas in the chain of disciplic succession.
The readers of this small description
of the life and precepts of Lord Caitanya will profit much to go through the
books of Śrīla Vṛndāvana
dāsa Ṭhākura
(Śrī Caitanya-bhāgavata) and Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa
Kavirāja Gosvāmī (Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta). The early life of the Lord is most fascinatingly
expressed by the author of Caitanya-bhāgavata, and as far as the
teachings are concerned, they are more vividly explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta. Now they are available to the English-speaking
public in our Teachings of Lord Caitanya.
The Lord’s early life was recorded by
one of His chief devotees and contemporaries, namely Śrīla Murāri Gupta, a
medical practitioner of that time, and the latter part of the life of Śrī
Caitanya Mahāprabhu was recorded by His private secretary Śrī Dāmodara Gosvāmī,
or Śrīla Svarūpa Dāmodara, who was practically a constant companion of the Lord
at Purī. These two devotees recorded practically all the incidents of the
Lord’s activities, and later on all the books dealing with the Lord, which are
above mentioned, were composed on the basis of kaḍacās (notebooks) by Śrīla Dāmodara Gosvāmī and Murāri
Gupta.
So the Lord advented Himself on the
Phālgunī Pūrṇimā
evening of 1407 Śakābda, and it was by the will of the Lord that there was a
lunar eclipse on that evening. During the hours of eclipse it was the custom of
the Hindu public to take bath in the Ganges or any other sacred river and chant
the Vedic mantras for purification. When Lord Caitanya was born during
the lunar eclipse, all India was roaring with the holy sound of Hare Kṛṣṇa,
Hare Kṛṣṇa, Kṛṣṇa Kṛṣṇa, Hare Hare/ Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma Rāma, Hare
Hare. These sixteen names of the Lord are mentioned in many Purāṇas and Upaniṣads, and they are described as the Tāraka-brahma
nāma of this age. It is recommended in the śāstras that offenseless
chanting of these holy names of the Lord can deliver a fallen soul from
material bondage. There are innumerable names of the Lord both in India and
outside, and all of them are equally good because all of them indicate the
Supreme Personality of Godhead. But because these sixteen are especially
recommended for this age, people should take advantage of them and follow the
path of the great ācāryas who attained success by practicing the rules
of the śāstras (revealed scriptures).
The simultaneous occurrence of the
Lord’s appearance and the lunar eclipse indicated the distinctive mission of
the Lord. This mission was to preach the importance of chanting the holy names of
the Lord in this Age of Kali (quarrel). In this present age quarrels take place
even over trifles, and therefore the śāstras have recommended for this
age a common platform for realization, namely chanting the holy names of the
Lord. People can hold meetings to glorify the Lord in their respective
languages and with melodious songs, and if such performances are executed in an
offenseless manner, it is certain that the participants will gradually attain
spiritual perfection without having to undergo more rigorous methods. At such
meetings everyone, the learned and the foolish, the rich and the poor, the
Hindus and the Muslims, the Englishmen and the Indians, and the caṇḍālas and the brāhmaṇas, can all hear the transcendental sounds and thus
cleanse the dust of material association from the mirror of the heart. To
confirm the Lord’s mission, all the people of the world will accept the holy
name of the Lord as the common platform for the universal religion of mankind.
In other words, the advent of the holy name took place along with the advent of
Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
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.
When the Lord was offered solid food at
the age of six months in the anna-prāśana ceremony, the Lord indicated
His future activities. At this time it was customary to offer the child both
coins and books in order to get some indication of the future tendencies of the
child. The Lord was offered on one side coins and on the other the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
The Lord accepted the Bhāgavatam instead of the coins.
When He was a mere baby crawling in the
yard, one day a snake appeared before Him, and the Lord began to play with it.
All the members of the house were struck with fear and awe, but after a little
while the snake went away, and the baby was taken away by His mother. Once He
was stolen by a thief who intended to steal His ornaments, but the Lord took a
pleasure trip on the shoulder of the bewildered thief, who was searching for a solitary
place in order to rob the baby. It so happened that the thief, wandering hither
and thither, finally arrived just before the house of Jagannātha Miśra and,
being afraid of being caught, dropped the baby at once. Of course the anxious
parents and relatives were glad to see the lost child.
Once a pilgrim brāhmaṇa was received at the house of Jagannātha Miśra, and
when he was offering food to the Godhead, the Lord appeared before him and
partook of the prepared food. The eatables had to be rejected because the child
touched them, and so the brāhmaṇa had
to make another preparation. The next time the same thing happened, and when
this happened repeatedly for the third time, the baby was finally put to bed.
At about twelve at night when all the members of the house were fast asleep
within their closed rooms, the pilgrim brāhmaṇa offered his specially prepared foods to the Deity,
and, in the same way, the baby Lord appeared before the pilgrim and spoiled his
offerings. The brāhmaṇa
then began to cry, but since everyone was fast asleep, no one could hear him.
At that time the baby Lord appeared before the fortunate brāhmaṇa and disclosed His identity as Kṛṣṇa
Himself. The brāhmaṇa was
forbidden to disclose this incident, and the baby returned to the lap of His
mother.
There are many similar incidents in His
childhood. As a naughty boy He sometimes used to tease the orthodox brāhmaṇas who used to bathe in the Ganges. When the brāhmaṇas complained to His father that He was splashing them
with water instead of attending school, the Lord suddenly appeared before His
father as though just coming from school with all His school clothes and books.
At the bathing ghāṭa He
also used to play jokes on the neighboring girls who engaged in worshiping Śiva
in hopes of getting good husbands. This is a common practice amongst unmarried
girls in Hindu families. While they were engaged in such worship, the Lord
naughtily appeared before them and said, “My dear sisters, please give Me all
the offerings you have just brought for Lord Śiva. Lord Śiva is My devotee, and
Pārvatī is My maidservant. If you worship Me, then Lord Śiva and all the other
demigods will be more satisfied.” Some of them refused to obey the naughty
Lord, and He would curse them that due to their refusal they would be married
to old men who had seven children by their previous wives. Out of fear and
sometimes out of love the girls would also offer Him various goods, and then
the Lord would bless them and assure them that they would have very good young
husbands and that they would be mothers of dozens of children. The blessings
would enliven the girls, but they used often to complain of these incidents to
their mothers.
In this way the Lord passed His early
childhood. When He was just sixteen years old He started His own catuṣpāṭhī (village school conducted by a learned brāhmaṇa). In this school He would simply explain Kṛṣṇa,
even in readings of grammar. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī, in order to please the Lord,
later composed a grammar in Sanskrit, in which all the rules of grammar were
explained with examples that used the holy names of the Lord. This grammar is
still current. It is known as Hari-nāmāmṛta-vyākaraṇa and is prescribed in the syllabus of schools in
Bengal.
During this time a great Kashmir
scholar named Keśava Kāśmīri came to Navadvīpa to hold discussions on the śāstras.
The Kashmir paṇḍita was
a champion scholar, and he had traveled to all places of learning in India.
Finally he came to Navadvīpa to contest the learned paṇḍitas there. The paṇḍitas of Navadvīpa decided to match Nimāi Paṇḍita
(Lord Caitanya) with the Kashmir paṇḍita, thinking that if Nimāi Paṇḍita
were defeated, they would have another chance to debate with the scholar, for
Nimāi Paṇḍita
was only a boy. And if the Kashmir paṇḍita were defeated, then they would even be more
glorified because people would proclaim that a mere boy of Navadvīpa had
defeated a champion scholar who was famous throughout India. It so happened
that Nimāi Paṇḍita
met Keśava Kāśmīri while strolling on the banks of the Ganges. The Lord
requested him to compose a Sanskrit verse in praise of the Ganges, and the paṇḍita within a short time composed a hundred ślokas,
reciting the verses like a storm and showing the strength of his vast learning.
Nimāi Paṇḍita
at once memorized all the ślokas without an error. He quoted the
sixty-fourth śloka and pointed out certain rhetorical and literary
irregularities. He particularly questioned the paṇḍita’s use of the word bhavānī-bhartuḥ. He pointed out that the use of this word was
redundant. Bhavānī means the wife of Śiva, and who else can be her bhartā,
or husband? He also pointed out several other discrepancies, and the Kashmir paṇḍita was struck with wonder. He was astonished that a
mere student of grammar could point out the literary mistakes of an erudite
scholar. Although this matter was ended prior to any public meeting, the news
spread like wildfire all over Navadvīpa. But finally Keśava Kāśmīri was ordered
in a dream by Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning, to submit to the Lord, and
thus the Kashmir paṇḍita
became a follower of the Lord.
The Lord was then married with great
pomp and gaiety, and at this time He began to preach the congregational
chanting of the holy name of the Lord at Navadvīpa. Some of the brāhmaṇas became envious of His popularity, and they put
many hindrances on His path. They were so jealous that they finally took the
matter before the Muslim magistrate at Navadvīpa. Bengal was then governed by
Pathans, and the governor of the province was Nawab Hussain Shah. The Muslim
magistrate of Navadvīpa took up the complaints of the brāhmaṇas seriously, and at first he warned the followers of
Nimāi Paṇḍita
not to chant loudly the name of Hari. But Lord Caitanya asked His followers to
disobey the orders of the Kazi, and they went on with their saṅkīrtana (chanting) party as usual. The magistrate then
sent constables who interrupted a saṅkīrtana and broke some of the mṛdaṅgas (drums). When Nimāi Paṇḍita
heard of this incident He organized a party for civil disobedience. He is the
pioneer of the civil disobedience movement in India for the right cause. He
organized a procession of one hundred thousand men with thousands of mṛdaṅgas and karatālas (hand cymbals), and this
procession passed over the roads of Navadvīpa in defiance of the Kazi who had
issued the order. Finally the procession reached the house of the Kazi, who
went upstairs out of fear of the masses. The great crowds assembled at the
Kazi’s house displayed a violent temper, but the Lord asked them to be
peaceful. At this time the Kazi came down and tried to pacify the Lord by
addressing Him as nephew. He pointed out that he referred to Nīlāmbara
Cakravartī as uncle, and thus Śrīmatī Śacīdevī, Nimāi Paṇḍita’s
mother, was his cousin-sister. He asked the Lord whether his sister’s son could
be angry at His maternal uncle, and the Lord replied that since the Kazi was
His maternal uncle he should receive his nephew well at his home. In this way
the issue was mitigated, and the two learned scholars began a long discussion
on the Koran and Hindu śāstras. The Lord raised the question of
cow-killing, and the Kazi properly answered Him by referring to the Koran. In
turn the Kazi also questioned the Lord about cow sacrifice in the Vedas,
and the Lord replied that such sacrifice as mentioned in the Vedas is
not actually cow-killing. In that sacrifice an old bull or cow was sacrificed
for the sake of receiving a fresh younger life by the power of Vedic mantras.
But in the Kali-yuga such cow sacrifices are forbidden because there are no
qualified brāhmaṇas
capable of conducting such a sacrifice. In fact, in Kali-yuga all yajñas
(sacrifices) are forbidden because they are useless attempts by foolish men. In
Kali-yuga only the saṅkīrtana yajña is recommended for all practical purposes.
Speaking in this way, the Lord finally convinced the Kazi, who became the
Lord’s follower. The Kazi thenceforth declared that no one should hinder the saṅkīrtana movement which was started by the Lord, and the Kazi
left this order in his will for the sake of progeny. The Kazi’s tomb still
exists in the area of Navadvīpa, and Hindu pilgrims go there to show their
respects. The Kazi’s descendants are residents, and they never objected to saṅkīrtana, even during the Hindu-Muslim riot days.
This incident shows clearly that the
Lord was not a so-called timid Vaiṣṇava. A Vaiṣṇava is a fearless devotee of the Lord, and for the
right cause he can take any step suitable for the purpose. Arjuna was also a
Vaiṣṇava
devotee of Lord Kṛṣṇa, and he fought valiantly for the satisfaction of
the Lord. Similarly, Vajrāṅgajī, or Hanumān, was also a devotee of Lord Rāma,
and he gave lessons to the nondevotee party of Rāvaṇa.
The principles of Vaiṣṇavism are to satisfy the Lord by all means. A Vaiṣṇava
is by nature a nonviolent, peaceful living being, and he has all the good
qualities of God, but when the nondevotee blasphemes the Lord or His devotee,
the Vaiṣṇava
never tolerates such impudency.
After this incident the Lord began to
preach and propagate His Bhāgavata-dharma, or saṅkīrtana movement, more vigorously, and whoever stood
against this propagation of the yuga-dharma, or duty of the age, was
properly punished by various types of chastisement. Two brāhmaṇa gentlemen named Cāpala and Gopāla, who also
happened to be maternal uncles of the Lord, were inflicted with leprosy by way
of chastisement, and later, when they were repentant, they were accepted by the
Lord. In the course of His preaching work, He used to send daily all His followers,
including Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu and Ṭhākura Haridāsa, two chief whips of His party, from
door to door to preach the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. All of Navadvīpa was
surcharged with His saṅkīrtana
movement, and His headquarters were situated at the house of Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura
and Śrī Advaita Prabhu, two of His chief householder disciples. These two
learned heads of the brāhmaṇa
community were the most ardent supporters of Lord Caitanya’s movement. Śrī
Advaita Prabhu was the chief cause for the advent of the Lord. When Advaita
Prabhu saw that the total human society was full of materialistic activities
and devoid of devotional service, which alone could save mankind from the
threefold miseries of material existence, He, out of His causeless compassion
for the age-worn human society, prayed fervently for the incarnation of the
Lord and continually worshiped the Lord with water of the Ganges and leaves of
the holy tulasī tree. As far as preaching work in the saṅkīrtana movement was concerned, everyone was expected to
do his daily share according to the order of the Lord.
Once Nityānanda Prabhu and Śrīla
Haridāsa Ṭhākura
were walking down a main road, and on the way they saw a roaring crowd
assembled. Upon inquiring from passersby, they understood that two brothers, named
Jagāi and Mādhāi, were creating a public disturbance in a drunken state. They
also heard that these two brothers were born in a respectable brāhmaṇa family, but because of low association they had
turned into debauchees of the worst type. They were not only drunkards but also
meat-eaters, woman-hunters, dacoits and sinners of all description. Śrīla
Nityānanda Prabhu heard all of these stories and decided that these two fallen
souls must be the first to be delivered. If they were delivered from their sinful
life, then the good name of Lord Caitanya would be even still more glorified.
Thinking in this way, Nityānanda Prabhu and Haridāsa pushed their way through
the crowd and asked the two brothers to chant the holy name of Lord Hari. The
drunken brothers became enraged upon this request and attacked Nityānanda
Prabhu with filthy language. Both brothers chased them a considerable distance.
In the evening the report of the preaching work was submitted to the Lord, and
He was glad to learn that Nityānanda and Haridāsa had attempted to deliver such
a stupid pair of fellows.
The next day Nityānanda Prabhu went to
see the brothers, and as soon as He approached them one of them threw a piece
of earthen pot at Him. This struck Him on the forehead, and immediately blood
began to flow. But Nityānanda Prabhu was so kind that instead of protesting
this heinous act, He said, “It does not matter that you have thrown this stone
at Me. I still request you to chant the holy name of Lord Hari.”
One of the brothers, Jagāi, was astonished
to see this behavior of Nityānanda Prabhu, and he at once fell down at His feet
and asked Him to pardon his sinful brother. When Mādhāi again attempted to hurt
Nityānanda Prabhu, Jagāi stopped him and implored him to fall down at His feet.
In the meantime the news of Nityānanda’s injury reached the Lord, who at once
hurried to the spot in a fiery and angry mood. The Lord immediately invoked His
Sudarśana cakra (the Lord’s ultimate weapon, shaped like a wheel) to
kill the sinners, but Nityānanda Prabhu reminded Him of His mission. The
mission of the Lord was to deliver the hopelessly fallen souls of Kali-yuga,
and the brothers Jagāi and Mādhāi were typical examples of these fallen souls.
Ninety percent of the population of this age resembles these brothers, despite
high birth and mundane respectability. According to the verdict of the revealed
scriptures, the total population of the world in this age will be of the lowest
śūdra quality, or even lower. It should be noted that Śrī Caitanya
Mahāprabhu never acknowledged the stereotyped caste system by birthright;
rather, He strictly followed the verdict of the śāstras in the matter of
one’s svarūpa, or real identity.
When the Lord was invoking His
Sudarśana cakra and Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu was imploring Him to forgive
the two brothers, both the brothers fell down at the lotus feet of the Lord and
begged His pardon for their gross behavior. The Lord was also asked by
Nityānanda Prabhu to accept these repenting souls, and the Lord agreed to
accept them on one condition, that they henceforward completely give up all
their sinful activities and habits of debauchery. Both the brothers agreed and
promised to give up all their sinful habits, and the kind Lord accepted them
and did not again refer to their past misdeeds.
This is the specific kindness of Lord
Caitanya. In this age no one can say that he is free from sin. It is impossible
for anyone to say this. But Lord Caitanya accepts all kinds of sinful persons
on the one condition that they promise not to indulge in sinful habits after
being spiritually initiated by the bona fide spiritual master.
There are a number of instructive
points to he observed in this incident of the two brothers. In this Kali-yuga
practically all people are of the quality of Jagāi and Mādhāi. If they want to
be relieved from the reactions of their misdeeds, they must take shelter of
Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu and after spiritual initiation thus refrain from those
things which are prohibited in the śāstras. The prohibitory rules are
dealt with in the Lord’s teachings to Śrīla Rūpa Gosvāmī.
During His householder life, the Lord
did not display many of the miracles which are generally expected from such
personalities, but He did once perform a wonderful miracle in the house of
Śrīnivāsa Ṭhākura
while saṅkīrtana
was in full swing. He asked the devotees what they wanted to eat, and when He
was informed that they wanted to eat mangoes, He asked for a seed of a mango,
although this fruit was out of season. When the seed was brought to Him He
sowed it in the yard of Śrīnivāsa, and at once a creeper began to grow out of
the seed. Within no time this creeper became a full-grown mango tree heavy with
more ripened fruits than the devotees could eat. The tree remained in Śrīnivāsa’s
yard, and from then on the devotees used to take as many mangoes from the tree
as they wanted.
The Lord had a very high estimation of
the affections of the damsels of Vrajabhūmi (Vṛndāvana)
for Kṛṣṇa, and in appreciation of their unalloyed service
to the Lord, once Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu chanted the holy names of the gopīs
(cowherd girls) instead of the names of the Lord. At this time some of His
students, who were also disciples, came to see Him, and when they saw that the
Lord was chanting the names of the gopīs, they were astonished. Out of
sheer foolishness they asked the Lord why He was chanting the names of the gopīs
and advised Him to chant the name of Kṛṣṇa. The Lord, who was in ecstasy, was thus disturbed
by these foolish students. He chastised them and chased them away. The students
were almost the same age as the Lord, and thus they wrongly thought of the Lord
as one of their peers. They held a meeting and resolved that they would attack
the Lord if He dared to punish them again in such a manner. This incident
provoked some malicious talks about the Lord on the part of the general public.
When the Lord became aware of this, He
began to consider the various types of men found in society. He noted that
especially the students, professors, fruitive workers, yogīs,
nondevotees and different types of atheists were all opposed to the devotional
service of the Lord. “My mission is to deliver all the fallen souls of this
age,” He thought, “but if they commit offenses against Me, thinking Me to be an
ordinary man, they will not benefit. If they are to begin their life of
spiritual realization, they must some way or another offer obeisances unto Me.”
Thus the Lord decided to accept the renounced order of life (sannyāsa)
because people in general were inclined to offer respects to a sannyāsī.
Five hundred years ago the condition of
society was not as degraded as it is today. At that time people would show
respects to a sannyāsī, and the sannyāsī was rigid in following
the rules and regulations of the renounced order of life. Śrī Caitanya
Mahāprabhu was not very much in favor of the renounced order of life in this
Age of Kali, but that was only for the reason that very few sannyāsīs in
this age are able to observe the rules and regulations of sannyāsa life.
Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu decided to accept the order and become an ideal sannyāsī
so that the general populace would show Him respect. One is duty-bound to show
respect to a sannyāsī, for a sannyāsī is considered to be the
master of all varṇas and
āśramas.
While He was contemplating accepting
the sannyāsa order, it so happened that Keśava Bhāratī, a sannyāsī
of the Māyāvādī school and resident of Katwa (in Bengal), visited Navadvīpa and
was invited to dine with the Lord. When Keśava Bhāratī came to His house, the
Lord asked him to award Him the sannyāsa order of life. This was a
matter of formality. The sannyāsa order is to be accepted from another sannyāsī.
Although the Lord was independent in all respects, still, to keep up the
formalities of the śāstras, He accepted the sannyāsa order from
Keśava Bhāratī, although Keśava Bhāratī was not in the Vaiṣṇava sampradāya
(school).
After consulting with Keśava Bhāratī,
the Lord left Navadvīpa for Katwa to formally accept the sannyāsa order
of life. He was accompanied by Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu, Candraśekhara Ācārya
and Mukunda Datta. These three assisted Him in the details of the ceremony. The
incident of the Lord’s accepting the sannyāsa order is very elaborately
described in the Caitanya-bhāgavata by Śrīla Vṛndāvana
dāsa Ṭhākura.
Thus at the end of His twenty-fourth
year the Lord accepted the sannyāsa order of life in the month of Māgha.
After accepting this order He became a full-fledged preacher of the Bhāgavata-dharma.
Although He was doing the same preaching work in His householder life, when He
experienced some obstacles to His preaching He sacrificed even the comfort of
His home life for the sake of the fallen souls. In His householder life His
chief assistants were Śrīla Advaita Prabhu and Śrīla Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura,
but after He accepted the sannyāsa order His chief assistants became
Śrīla Nityānanda Prabhu, who was deputed to preach specifically in Bengal, and
the Six Gosvāmīs (Rūpa Gosvāmī, Sanātana Gosvāmī, Jīva Gosvāmī, Gopāla Bhaṭṭa
Gosvāmī, Raghunātha dāsa Gosvāmī and Raghunātha Bhaṭṭa
Gosvāmī), headed by Śrīla Rūpa and Sanātana, who were deputed to go to Vṛndāvana
to excavate the present places of pilgrimage. The present city of Vṛndāvana
and the importance of Vrajabhūmi were thus disclosed by the will of Lord Śrī
Caitanya Mahāprabhu.
The Lord, after accepting the sannyāsa
order, at once wanted to start for Vṛndāvana. For three continuous days He traveled in
the Rāḍha-deśa
(places where the Ganges does not flow). He was in full ecstasy over the idea
of going to Vṛndāvana.
However, Śrīla Nityānanda diverted His path and brought Him instead to the
house of Advaita Prabhu in Śāntipura. The Lord stayed at Śrī Advaita Prabhu’s
house for a few days, and knowing well that the Lord was leaving His hearth and
home for good, Śrī Advaita Prabhu sent His men to Navadvīpa to bring mother
Śacī to have a last meeting with her son. Some unscrupulous people say that
Lord Caitanya met His wife also after taking sannyāsa and offered her
His wooden slipper for worship, but the authentic sources give no information
about such a meeting. His mother met Him at the house of Advaita Prabhu, and
when she saw her son in sannyāsa dress, she lamented. By way of
compromise, she requested her son to make His headquarters in Purī so that she
would easily be able to get information about Him. The Lord granted this last
desire of His beloved mother. After this incident the Lord started for Purī,
leaving all the residents of Navadvīpa in an ocean of lamentation over His
separation.
The Lord visited many important places
on the way to Purī. He visited the temple of Gopīnāthajī, who had stolen
condensed milk for His devotee Śrīla Mādhavendra Purī. Since then Deity
Gopīnāthajī is well known as Kṣīra-corā-gopīnātha. The Lord relished this story
with great pleasure. The propensity of stealing is there even in the absolute
consciousness, but because this propensity is exhibited by the Absolute, it
loses its perverted nature and thus becomes worshipable even by Lord Caitanya
on the basis of the absolute consideration that the Lord and His stealing
propensity are one and identical. This interesting story of Gopīnāthajī is
vividly explained in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta by Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmī.
After visiting the temple of Kṣīra-corā-gopīnātha
of Remuṇā
at Balasore in Orissa, the Lord proceeded towards Purī and on the way visited
the temple of Sākṣi-gopāla,
who appeared as a witness in the matter of two brāhmaṇa devotees’ family quarrel. The Lord heard the story
of Sākṣi-gopāla
with great pleasure because He wanted to impress upon the atheists that the
worshipable Deities in the temples approved by the great ācāryas are not
idols, as alleged by men with a poor fund of knowledge. The Deity in the temple
is the arcā incarnation of the Personality of Godhead, and thus the
Deity is identical with the Lord in all respects. He responds to the proportion
of the devotee’s affection for Him. In the story of Sākṣi-gopāla,
in which there was a family misunderstanding by two devotees of the Lord, the
Lord, in order to mitigate the turmoil as well as to show specific favor to His
servitors, traveled from Vṛndāvana to Vidyānagara, a village in Orissa, in the
form of His arcā incarnation. From there the Deity was brought to
Cuttack, and thus the temple of Sākṣi-gopāla
is even today visited by thousands of pilgrims on the way to Jagannātha Purī.
The Lord stayed overnight there and began to proceed toward Purī. On the way,
His sannyāsa rod was broken by Nityānanda Prabhu. The Lord became
apparently angry with Him about this and went alone to Purī, leaving His companions
behind.
At Purī, when He entered the temple of
Jagannātha, He became at once saturated with transcendental ecstasy and fell
down on the floor of the temple unconscious. The custodians of the temple could
not understand the transcendental feats of the Lord, but there was a great
learned paṇḍita named Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, who was present, and he could understand
that the Lord’s losing His consciousness upon entering the Jagannātha temple
was not an ordinary thing. Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya,
who was the chief appointed paṇḍita in
the court of the King of Orissa, Mahārāja Pratāparudra, was attracted by the
youthful luster of Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and could understand that such
a transcendental trance was only rarely exhibited and only then by the topmost
devotees who are already on the transcendental plane in complete forgetfulness
of material existence. Only a liberated soul could show such a transcendental
feat, and the Bhaṭṭācārya, who was vastly learned, could understand
this in the light of the transcendental literature with which he was familiar.
He therefore asked the custodians of the temple not to disturb the unknown sannyāsī.
He asked them to take the Lord to his home so He could be further observed in
His unconscious state. The Lord was at once carried to the home of Sārvabhauma
Bhaṭṭācārya, who at that time had sufficient power of
authority due to his being the sabhā-paṇḍita, or
the state dean of faculty in Sanskrit literatures. The learned paṇḍita
wanted to scrutinizingly test the transcendental feats of Lord Caitanya because
often unscrupulous devotees imitate physical feats in order to flaunt
transcendental achievements just to attract innocent people and take advantage
of them. A learned scholar like the Bhaṭṭācārya
can detect such imposters, and when he finds them out he at once rejects them.
In the case of Lord Caitanya
Mahāprabhu, the Bhaṭṭācārya tested all the symptoms in the
light of the śāstras. He tested as a scientist, not as a foolish
sentimentalist. He observed the movement of the stomach, the beating of the
heart and the breathing of the nostrils. He also felt the pulse of the Lord and
saw that all His bodily activities were in complete suspension. When he put a
small cotton swab before the nostrils, he found that there was a slight
breathing as the fine fibers of cotton moved slightly. Thus he came to know
that the Lord’s unconscious trance was genuine, and he began to treat Him in
the prescribed fashion. But Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu could only be treated in a
special way. He would respond only to the resounding of the holy names of the
Lord by His devotees. This special treatment was unknown to Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya because the Lord was still unknown to him.
When the Bhaṭṭācārya saw Him for the first time in the temple, he
simply took Him to be one of many pilgrims.
In the meantime the companions of the
Lord, who reached the temple a little after Him, heard of the Lord’s
transcendental feats and of His being carried away by the Bhaṭṭācārya. The pilgrims at the temple were still
gossiping about the incident. But by chance, one of these pilgrims had met
Gopīnātha Ācārya, who was known to Gadādhara Paṇḍita, and from him it was learned that the Lord was
lying in an unconscious state at the residence of Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya, who happened to be the brother-in-law of
Gopīnātha Ācārya. All the members of the party were introduced by Gadādhara Paṇḍita to Gopīnātha Ācārya, who took them all to the
house of Bhaṭṭācārya, where the Lord was lying unconscious in a
spiritual trance. All the members then chanted loudly the holy name of the Lord
Hari as usual, and the Lord regained His consciousness. After this, Bhaṭṭācārya received all the members of the party,
including Lord Nityānanda Prabhu, and asked them to become his guests of honor.
The party, including the Lord, went for a bath in the sea, and the Bhaṭṭācārya arranged for their residence and meals at
the house of Kāśī Miśra. Gopīnātha Ācārya, his brother-in-law, also assisted.
There were some friendly talks about the Lord’s divinity between the two
brothers-in-law, and in this argument Gopīnātha Ācārya, who knew the Lord
before, now tried to establish the Lord as the Personality of Godhead, and the
Bhaṭṭācārya tried to establish Him as one of the great
devotees. Both of them argued from the angle of vision of authentic śāstras
and not on the strength of sentimental vox populi. The incarnations of
God are determined by authentic śāstras and not by popular votes of foolish
fanatics. Because Lord Caitanya was an incarnation of God in fact, foolish
fanatics have proclaimed so many so-called incarnations of God in this age
without referring to authentic scriptures. But Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya or Gopīnātha Ācārya did not indulge in such
foolish sentimentalism; on the contrary, both of them tried to establish or
reject His divinity on the strength of authentic śāstras.
Later it was disclosed that Bhaṭṭācārya also came from the Navadvīpa area, and it
was understood from him that Nīlāmbara Cakravartī, the maternal grandfather of
Lord Caitanya, happened to be a class fellow of the father of Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya. In that sense, the young sannyāsī
Lord Caitanya evoked paternal affection from Bhaṭṭācārya. Bhaṭṭācārya
was the professor of many sannyāsīs in the order of the Śaṅkarācārya sampradāya, and he himself also
belonged to that cult. As such, the Bhaṭṭācārya
desired that the young sannyāsī Lord Caitanya also hear from him about
the teachings of Vedānta.
Those who are followers of the Śaṅkara cult are generally known as Vedāntists. This
does not, however, mean that Vedānta is a monopoly study of the Śaṅkara sampradāya. Vedānta is studied by all
the bona fide sampradāyas, but they have their own interpretations. But
those in the Śaṅkara sampradāya are generally known to be
ignorant of the knowledge of the Vedāntist Vaiṣṇavas. For this reason the Bhaktivedanta title was
first offered to the author by the Vaiṣṇavas.
The Lord agreed to take lessons from
Bhaṭṭācārya on the Vedānta, and they sat together in the
temple of Lord Jagannātha. The Bhaṭṭācārya
went on speaking continually for seven days, and the Lord heard him with all
attention and did not interrupt. The Lord’s silence raised some doubts in Bhaṭṭācārya’s heart, and he asked the Lord how it was
that He did not ask anything or comment on his explanations of Vedānta.
The Lord posed Himself before the Bhaṭṭācārya as a foolish student and pretended that He
heard the Vedānta from him because the Bhaṭṭācārya
felt that this was the duty of a sannyāsī. But the Lord did not agree
with his lectures. By this the Lord indicated that the so-called Vedāntists
amongst the Śaṅkara sampradāya, or any other sampradāya
who do not follow the instructions of Śrīla Vyāsadeva, are mechanical students
of the Vedānta. They are not fully aware of that great knowledge. The
explanation of the Vedānta-sūtra is given by the author himself in the
text of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. One who has no knowledge of the Bhāgavatam
will hardly be able to know what the Vedānta says.
The Bhaṭṭācārya, being a vastly learned man, could follow
the Lord’s sarcastic remarks on the popular Vedāntist. He therefore asked Him
why He did not ask about any point which He could not follow. The Bhaṭṭācārya could understand the purpose of His dead
silence for the days He heard him. This showed clearly that the Lord had
something else in mind; thus the Bhaṭṭācārya
requested Him to disclose His mind.
Upon this, the Lord spoke as follows:
“My dear sir, I can understand the meaning of the sūtras like janmādy
asya yataḥ, śāstra-yonitvāt, and athāto brahma-jijñāsā of the Vedānta-sūtra,
but when you explain them in your own way it becomes difficult for Me to follow
them. The purpose of the sūtras is already explained in them, but your
explanations are covering them with something else. You do not purposely take
the direct meaning of the sūtras but indirectly give your own
interpretations.”
The Lord thus attacked all Vedāntists
who interpret the Vedānta-sūtra fashionably, according to their limited
power of thinking, to serve their own purpose. Such indirect interpretations of
the authentic literatures like the Vedānta-sūtra are hereby condemned by
the Lord.
The Lord continued: “Śrīla Vyāsadeva
has summarized the direct meanings of the mantras in the Upaniṣads in
the Vedānta-sūtra. Unfortunately you do not take their direct meaning.
You indirectly interpret them in a different way.
“The authority of the Vedas is
unchallengeable and stands without any question of doubt. And whatever is
stated in the Vedas must be accepted completely, otherwise one
challenges the authority of the Vedas.
“The conchshell and cow dung are bone
and stool of two living beings. But because they have been recommended by the Vedas
as pure, people accept them as such because of the authority of the Vedas.”
The idea is that one cannot set his
imperfect reason above the authority of the Vedas. The orders of the Vedas
must be obeyed as they stand, without any mundane reasoning. The so-called
followers of the Vedic injunctions make their own interpretations of the Vedic
injunctions, and thus they establish different parties and sects of the Vedic
religion. Lord Buddha directly denied the authority of the Vedas, and he
established his own religion. Only for this reason, the Buddhist religion was
not accepted by the strict followers of the Vedas. But those who are
so-called followers of the Vedas are more harmful than the Buddhists.
The Buddhists have the courage to deny the Vedas directly, but the
so-called followers of the Vedas have no courage to deny the Vedas,
although indirectly they disobey all the injunctions of the Vedas. Lord
Caitanya condemned this.
The examples given by the Lord of the
conchshell and the cow dung are very much appropriate in this connection. If
one argues that since cow dung is pure, the stool of a learned brāhmaṇa is
still more pure, his argument will not be accepted. Cow dung is accepted, and
the stool of a highly posted brāhmaṇa is
rejected. The Lord continued:
“The Vedic injunctions are
self-authorized, and if some mundane creature adjusts the interpretations of
the Vedas, he defies their authority. It is foolish to think of oneself
as more intelligent than Śrīla Vyāsadeva. He has already expressed himself in
his sūtras, and there is no need of help from personalities of lesser
importance. His work, the Vedānta-sūtra, is as dazzling as the midday
sun, and when someone tries to give his own interpretations on the
self-effulgent sunlike Vedānta-sūtra, he attempts to cover this sun with
the cloud of his imagination.
“The Vedas and Purāṇas are one and the same in purpose. They ascertain
the Absolute Truth, which is greater than everything else. The Absolute Truth
is ultimately realized as the Absolute Personality of Godhead with absolute
controlling power. As such, the Absolute Personality of Godhead must be
completely full of opulence, strength, fame, beauty, knowledge and
renunciation. Yet the transcendental Personality of Godhead is astonishingly
ascertained as impersonal.
“The impersonal description of the
Absolute Truth in the Vedas is given to nullify the mundane conception
of the absolute whole. Personal features of the Lord are completely different
from all kinds of mundane features. The living entities are all individual
persons, and they are all parts and parcels of the supreme whole. If the parts
and parcels are individual persons, the source of their emanation must not be
impersonal. He is the Supreme Person amongst all the relative persons.
“The Vedas inform us that from
Him [Brahman] everything emanates, and on Him everything rests. And after
annihilation, everything merges in Him only. Therefore, He is the ultimate
dative, causative and accommodating cause of all causes. And these causes
cannot be attributed to an impersonal object.
“The Vedas inform us that He
alone became many, and when He so desires He glances over material nature.
Before He glanced over material nature there was no material cosmic creation.
Therefore, His glance is not material. Material mind or senses were unborn when
the Lord glanced over material nature. Thus evidence in the Vedas proves
that beyond a doubt the Lord has transcendental eyes and a transcendental mind.
They are not material. His impersonality therefore is a negation of His
materiality, but not a denial of His transcendental personality.
“Brahman ultimately refers to the
Personality of Godhead. Impersonal Brahman realization is just the negative
conception of the mundane creations. Paramātmā is the localized aspect of
Brahman within all kinds of material bodies. Ultimately the Supreme Brahman
realization is the realization of the Personality of Godhead according to all
evidence of the revealed scriptures. He is the ultimate source of viṣṇu-tattvas.
“The Purāṇas are also supplementary to the Vedas. The
Vedic mantras are too difficult for an ordinary man. Women, śūdras
and the so-called twice-born higher castes are unable to penetrate into the
sense of the Vedas. And thus the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas are made easy to explain the truths of the Vedas.
In his prayers before the boy Śrī Kṛṣṇa, Brahmā said that there is no limit to the
fortune of the residents of Vrajabhūmi headed by Śrī Nanda Mahārāja and
Yaśodāmayī, because the eternal Absolute Truth has become their intimate
relative.
“The Vedic mantra maintains that
the Absolute Truth has no legs and no hands and yet goes faster than all and
accepts everything that is offered to Him in devotion. The latter statements
definitely suggest the personal features of the Lord, although His hands and
legs are distinguished from mundane hands and legs or other senses.
“Brahman, therefore, is never
impersonal, but when such mantras are indirectly interpreted, it is
wrongly thought that the Absolute Truth is impersonal. The Absolute Truth
Personality of Godhead is full of all opulences, and therefore He has a
transcendental form of full existence, knowledge and bliss. How then can one
establish that the Absolute Truth is impersonal?
“Brahman, being full of opulences, is
understood to have manifold energies, and all these energies are classified
under three headings under the authority of Viṣṇu
Purāṇa,
which says that the transcendental energies of Lord Viṣṇu
are primarily three. His spiritual energy and the energy of the living entities
are classified as superior energy, whereas the material energy is an inferior
one, which is sprouted out of ignorance.
“The energy of the living entities is
technically called kṣetrajña
energy. This kṣetrajña-śakti, although equal in quality with the Lord, becomes
overpowered by material energy out of ignorance and thus suffers all sorts of
material miseries. In other words, the living entities are located in the
marginal energy between the superior (spiritual) and inferior (material)
energies, and in proportion to the living being’s contact with either the
material or spiritual energies, the living entity is situated in proportionately
higher and lower levels of existence.
“The Lord is beyond the inferior and
marginal energies as above mentioned, and His spiritual energy is manifested in
three different phases: as eternal existence, eternal bliss and eternal
knowledge. As far as eternal existence is concerned, it is conducted by the sandhinī
potency; similarly, bliss and knowledge are conducted by the hlādinī and
saṁvit
potencies respectively. As the supreme energetic Lord, He is the supreme
controller of the spiritual, marginal and material energies. And all these
different types of energies are connected with the Lord in eternal devotional
service.
“The Supreme Personality of Godhead is
thus enjoying in His transcendental eternal form. Is it not astounding that one
dares to call the Supreme Lord nonenergetic? The Lord is the controller of all
energies, and the living entities are parts and parcels of one of the energies.
Therefore there is a gulf of difference between the Lord and the living
entities. How then can one say that the Lord and the living entities are one
and the same? In the Bhagavad-gītā also the living entities are
described as belonging to the superior energy of the Lord. According to the
principles of intimate correlation between the energy and the energetic, both
of them are nondifferent also. Therefore, the Lord and the living entities are
nondifferent as the energy and the energetic.
“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind,
intelligence and ego are all inferior energies of the Lord, but the living
entities are different from all as superior energy. This is the version of Bhagavad-gītā
(7.4-5).
“The transcendental form of the Lord is
eternally existent and full of transcendental bliss. How then can such a form
be a product of the material mode of goodness? Anyone, therefore, who does not
believe in the form of the Lord is certainly a faithless demon and as such is
untouchable, a not to be seen persona non grata fit to be punished by the
Plutonic king.
Om Tat Sat
(Continued...)
(Continued...)
(My humble salutations to
H H Sri Swami Srila Prabhupada ji and
Bhaktivedanta dot Org for this
devotional collection)
(The Blog is reverently for all the seekers of truth,
lovers of wisdom and to share the Hindu Dharma with others on the
spiritual path and also this is purely a non-commercial blog)
नारायणस्तोत्रम्
राधाधरमधुरसिक
रजनीकरकुलतिलक ॥ नारायण ॥ ६॥
मुरलीगानविनोद वेदस्तुतभूपाद ॥ नारायण ॥ ७॥
बर्हिनिबर्हापीड नटनाटकफणिक्रीड ॥ नारायण ॥ ८॥
वारिजभूषाभरण राजिवरुक्मिणीरमण ॥ नारायण ॥ ९॥
जलरुहदलनिभनेत्र जगदारम्भकसूत्र ॥ नारायण ॥ १०॥
मुरलीगानविनोद वेदस्तुतभूपाद ॥ नारायण ॥ ७॥
बर्हिनिबर्हापीड नटनाटकफणिक्रीड ॥ नारायण ॥ ८॥
वारिजभूषाभरण राजिवरुक्मिणीरमण ॥ नारायण ॥ ९॥
जलरुहदलनिभनेत्र जगदारम्भकसूत्र ॥ नारायण ॥ १०॥
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