The Career and Teachings of the Supreme Lord Sree
Krishna-Chaitanya
by Sri Narayan Das Bhakti
Sadhukar
INTRODUCTORY
I. OBJECT AND METHOD
The present work is an attempt to offer a
theistic account in the English language of the career and teachings of Sree
Chaitanya. The number of existing English books on the subject is very small. The life and precepts of Sree Chaitanya
Mahaprabhu by Thakur Bhaktivinode,[1] the
pioneer of the movement of pure devotion in our Age, although it gives a true
account of His life, is a comparatively short work. Other English works on the
subject are from the pens of self-sufficient misguided amateurs who have had no
practical experience of the teaching they have professed to expound. This is
opposed to the dictum of Sree Chaitanya that, “no one is fit to be a teacher of
religion who does not practice the same in his own life’’. None of these works,
with the solitary exception of that by Thakur Bhaktivinode, deals properly with
the spiritual side of the teachings of Sree Chaitanya. The available
authoritative sources of information are quite exhaustive regarding the
spiritual aspect and offer a narrative of His doings and teachings that is both
consistent and free from contradictions. To these was added later another body
of works of a different character by pedantic pseudo-Vaishnava and faithless
foreign writers, that offer the concoctions of their own respective lines of
thought. Insincere writers have adopted without apology the point of view and
garbled. accounts of the pseudo-Vaishnava authors as the basis of their
narratives.
The existing English works although they
sometimes profess to be historical in reality offer a superficial, extremely
crude and misleading view of the subject. They confine themselves almost
exclusively to the esoteric issues. This at least is not the method of the
source-books, but a departure from the bona fide position of the theme itself. The
historical method proper should aim at presenting the religion as it is really
found in the genuine original sources and in the spirit of its first
propounders. But many of these writers, due to their empirical training, have
failed to observe this essential canon of historical judgment. Moreover these
writers generally happen to be very poorly equipped in respect of their
knowledge of the vast body of Scriptures to which the teachings of Sree
Chaitanya stand in the closest relationship; and, even if any of them happen to
possess a general acquaintance with the texts of these Scriptures, they fail to
take a scientific view of the subject due to lack of spiritual insight.
The prominent defects that mar the value
of these works are the purely empiric point of view of their authors, their
want of spiritual knowledge of the Scriptures and their lack of critical
caution in the choice and use of authorities.
The empiric method is unsuitable for the
treatment of a spiritual subject. The vision of the empiricist is confined to
things of this world. The Vaishnava authors on whose narratives we have to base
our account of Sree Chaitanya, were not empiricists. The subject of which they
have left us the account, is the Absolute, as distinct from the empiric, Truth
that comes down to them in the chain of disciplic succession from Godhead
Himself. They acquired this esoteric vision, when they prove to be true, by the
methods of loyal submission and sincere service at the feet of spiritual
preceptors as enjoined by the Scriptures on all those who desire to obtain
spiritual enlightenment. They are never tired of repeating that the Absolute
Truth, inherent in a bona fide soul, who expresses himself in
their books’ is not derived from any experience of this world and is not
intelligible to those whose vision is obscured by knowledge derived from the
experience of this world.
The Absolute Truth is transcendental and,
therefore, no human being can attain to Him by his sensuous efforts, i.e., by the ascending process, as all
phenomena that are exposed to the faulty, limited senses are, by this virtue,
non-transcendental. The Absolute Truth is eternally existent but is not
realizable by men so long as they are not relieved of the aptitude. of their
defective vision. The Absolute Truth is to be received, undoubtedly in the
spirit of honest inquiry, from those wise men who bear no reference to the
world of their sensuous gratification.
Very few of the existing English works on
Sree Chaitanya satisfy these essential conditions of theistic authorship that
are so strongly insisted upon by these devotional writers without which such
description carries no useful purpose. On the contrary, these later writers are
apt to offer their own views, derived from their empiric association, regarding
the subject-matter of the original works, in a manner that leaves on the mind
of the reader the impression that they are more anxious to point out the
crudities and errors of these old authors than exhibit their views in a
scientific and impartial manner. This is certainly neither history nor religion
but only an uncalled-for and useless distortion of both.
The object of writing this book is to
place before the English-knowing
readers a strictly accurate theistic account. of Sree Chaitanya, Who teaches
the Absolute Truth that has been handed down through the Ages by an unbroken
succession of unbiased spiritual preceptors. This narrative is broad-based on
all the authoritative sources and seeks to fully present the esoteric side as
explaining the esoteric in pursuance of the method of all really enlightened
writers on spiritual subjects.
The superiority of Sree Chaitanya to all
other teachers and prophets consists in this that He made fully known the
Absolute Truth Who was only partially unveiled by others. This is the special
significance of Sree Chaitanya’s Deeds and Teachings. Other teachers of the
religion before him had allowed more or less the worship of non-Godhead, having
had reference and adulteration of their present deformities. Sree Chaitanya
came into this world to make all people understand that in reference to their
eternal existence they should have nothing to do with non-Godhead. Sree
Chaitanya, Who speaks the language, is the Absolute Truth in His full
manifestation. He has made people understand the only true way of approaching
Godhead Himself. This is the proof that He is Godhead Himself. He is identical
with Sree Krishna, not His Self as Lord and Proprietor of all things, but in
the attitude of the agony of separation from the Absolute, i.e., Himself.
Sree Krishna opposed all addiction to
ephemeral thoughts and activities. This has been communicated to us through the
channel of unbiased preceptors who have no other interest except delivering in
tact the whole of the Truth received by them. The Absolute Truth is sure to be
obscured if He is handled by elevationists and salvationists (karmins and jnanins), i.e., by those
who believe in worldly activities and in freedom from misery by means of
knowledge gradually gained through the senses. We do not want to learn about
the Absolute Truth from these. It is only the pencils of ray emanating from the
Sun when they happen to be received by the retina that enable one to see the
Sun directly even from a long distance. But we must be very careful that
nothing foreign interposes between the eye and the Sun, thus obstructing the
passage of the ray and preventing it from reaching the eye. This is the
epistemology of Absolute Knowledge offered by Sree Chaitanya. It is followed in
the brochure of Thakur Bhaktivinode referred to above. My object is only to
elaborate what is told briefly in that little book and elaborated in the Bhagawatam and Charitamrita.
The peculiarity of my position,
therefore, consists in this that I shake off the views of the schools of
mundane elevationists and salvationists, the professors of temporary enjoyments
(bhukti) and permanent release from
misery attendant upon such enjoyment losing in the process the idea of the
individual self itself (mukti), for
the reason that they do not lead to the Absolute Truth. We are absolutists. We
believe that our only duty is to follow the Absolute Who has His Own eternal
plane to stand. We hold that the most intelligent among the contemporaries of
Sree Chaitanya, those who sincerely followed Him, really understood His
teaching through serving love. This truth which they received from Sree
Chaitanya Himself has been communicated to my Preceptor by a succession of
sincere followers of the Absolute Truth reaching back to them. Each one of this
succession of preceptors submitted to the conditions of sincere pupilage to his
predecessors enabling the latter to impart to him the Truth by the eradication
of temporary, local errors and misconceptions that might crop up in unguided
critics. Due to this careful transmission of the full Truth through unbiased
preceptors to my unprejudiced Preceptor, I should rightly claim him to be a
contemporary of Sree Gaursundar Himself. Other lines of teachers who deviate
from my Preceptor are Absolutists only to an extent. Had they been fully
absolutist they would have come under the banner of the line of Absolute Truth,
which has no affinity of deviating from the Absolute proper. My Preceptor out
of his unlimited mercy, which I craved, brought me to his path by himself
coming to me and dissuading me from following other ways and means of language
that would be intelligible to me in my then condition.
There is thus in my case a direct
preceptorial connection extending right up to the living sources undisturbed by
physical or mental obstruction. The line of the Absolutists has prevented us
from going astray in any other direction but to embrace Absolutism and has
given us this careful training. I am a regulated being and do not belong to the
empiric school as I keep not any view of deserting this line to join the
challengers. My preceptors have been free from mundane references being treaders
of the path of the Absolute. We are discussing the Deeds of Sree Chaitanya in
the light of our preceptors. But our preceptors did not tell us this thing in
the present form and language. Linguistically it is our maiden effort. We do
not know whether we sha1l succeed in this. We, however, claim to have received
this narrative from the living sources. Only the strict followers of Sree
Chaitanya can obtain the full view of the Absolute Truth. It cannot be had by
the followers of any other teacher who has a different angle of vision. All
other lines only offer a partial view. Sree Radha Govinda, the full Truth, is
attainable only on this path. I should be a sincere follower of my preceptor
and of the preceptors of my preceptor and have no intention of deviating from
my preceptors. There is no chance of foreign element getting into my account.
There is no hypocrisy. The only thing that is new is that I am trying to tell
it through the medium of a different diction and language, which happen to be
different from those of my preceptors.
In this connection it will not be out of
place to refer to subtle and unconscious prejudices that stand in the way of
our giving a real hearing to a purely spiritual subject. The life and teachings
of Sree Chaitanya are not the special concern of any narrow sect.
The knowledge of it is claimed to be indispensable for the whole
animate and inert world in as much as Sree Chaitanya is the living embodiment
of the highest and the most intimate distinctive forms of the service of the Supreme
Lord to which every being has a claim by his constituent principle. The service
of Godhead, however, has no affinity with anything of this transitory world as
in the case of meddling with non-God conception. The readers of the
transcendental Deeds (Leela) of Sree
Chaitanya may be divided into three classes, viz., (l) those who read for the
satisfaction of idle curiosity, (2) those who read for gathering empiric
knowledge to suit their taste and to mould the same accordingly, and (3) lastly,
those readers who are really seekers of the Absolute Truth as distinct from the
empirical, i.e., who sincerely avail
themselves of the full opportunity of their reading.
We need not stop to consider the case of that
class of readers —the dilettantes and mere literateurs—who read for the
satisfaction of idle curiosity.
Those readers who will approach the
subject in a real spirit of inquiry may take up one of two possible attitudes.
Some of these may consider the subject as one that is capable of being
understood in. the light of worldly experience like any non-spiritual subject.
Such persons will accept only those portions of this work which may appear to
them to agree with their existing convictions. But as these convictions, in the
case of empiricists, happen to be themselves based on the experience of this
world, which is changeable, they are in their nature only relative, and not
absolute, Truth. Those convictions are in fact unspiritual and, instead of
helping, prevent us from understanding the Absolute. Those readers who, failing
to grasp this real difference between the spiritual and the physical and
mental, may try to understand the subject with the help of their empiric
knowledge are bound to be dissatisfied as they proceed with this study and the
net result of their labour in going through these pages may be even to confirm
them more strongly in their empiric, i.e.,
unspiritual, attitude. The object of study in such case will be entirely
missed.
That class of sincere readers who,
recognising the difference between the empiric and the spiritual Truth, are
inclined to seek for the latter only in these pages and may be prepared for the
purpose to disregard, at least for the
time being, the clamorous opposition of their empiric convictions, and are thus
in a position to give the narrative a patient and sympathetic hearing, will be
thereby enabled to understand gradually the reason why the most sincerely
religious people happen to cherish the subject of this work with such tender
and absorbing devotion.
It is not possible to enter into the
spirit of a subject unless a really patient hearing is given to it. But it is
very difficult to submit with patience to listen to a subject that is declared
to be situated completely beyond the scope of all experience and convictions of
the hearer. The ordeal that faces us on the threshold of spiritual life is
truly formidable. It is only such people who combine openness of mind with a
sincere desire to know not the empiric, changeable, relative, but the Absolute,
unchangeable, eternal Truth, that are enabled by the grace of Godhead to listen
patiently to a spiritual narrative which appears to be almost needless from the
point of view of the empiricist.
The transcendental career and teachings
of Sree Chaitanya are bound to prove to be of the highest interest to all
sincere seekers of spiritual enlightenment. The fact that Sree Chaitanya
appears to be born in Bengal need not mislead those readers who belong to a
different country into supposing that His teachings are meant for the people of
Bengal or of India, of this or of a former Age. It is difficult for most to
free their minds completely from national, ethnological or chronological
prejudices in these days of militant nationalism and empiricism. But the real
meaning of the career of Sree Chaitanya will be missed if He be regarded merely
from any mundane point of view, viz.,
that of race or nationality; limited time or limited space; physical bearing;
intellectual endowment, caste, creed or colour, etc. His teaching and
activities belong to the plane of the Absolute which transcends all the petty
unwholesome limitations of our worldly existence. Let the sympathetic reader
lay aside these subtle and unconscious prejudices and allow the eternal Truth
to enter the mind thus opened out to Him, without hastily passing the final
judgment by a mere cursory look at the title page. Whatever the quarter from
which the Absolute Truth enters His appearance and, in this matter His choice
is free, the Absolute Truth when He actually knocks at our door should be
assured the unreserved welcome that is His due from those who really seek for
Him.
The sincere reader need also be on his
guard against specific misconceptions at the very outset, of an unfavourable
kind. The Deeds and Teachings of Sree Chaitanya have been consciously or
unconsciously misrepresented by most modern writers. We have already referred
to this fact. Any idea, favourable or unfavourable, regarding Sree Chaitanya
that the reader may have already formed from the writings of these authors or
their partisans may be temporarily laid aside to allow of an impartial hearing
being given to the present narrative. Dogmatism, superstition or
self-sufficiency can never lead to spiritual progress. Our readers are much
more likely to gain what they require if they do not reserve any contrary
thought which is likely to receive these tidings coldly or present them from
taking Up a sympathetic and inquiring attitude. The advice is to stop
temporarily any conception that they may have already formed and even to
dismantle an awkward construction that may lie across the path of their
following the course of the narrative with seriousness of purpose.
The message of the transcendental realm
that has come down to this phenomenal world through the medium of sound is
known as the Veda (i.e.,
knowledge), or as the Sruti (i.e., that
which is heard), as the ear alone of all the organs of sense is fit to receive
the distant message which is transmissible only in the form of sound. The
Absolute Truth, for the simple reason that He happens to be located beyond the
reach of our physical senses, cannot be directly perceived by us. All the other
senses, viz., those of touch, sight, smell, taste require, as the condition of
perceiving any object, actual contact with the same. But the ear possesses this
special peculiarity that it can perceive an object in subtle form without being
in gross material contact with it. As for example it is possible to hear about
London from Calcutta by means of the ear. It is not possible to learn anything
about London from Calcutta, in the same natural way, by means of any other
sense. The Scriptures, i.e., writings, are but the visualized -revealed
transcendental sounds. Therefore it is not so extraordinary as it seems at
first sight that of all our present organs the ear alone should be privileged
to receive the message of the Absolute. The transcendental sound is, however,
different from ordinary sound inasmuch as it is. identical with the object
denoted by it, while the object denoted by the latter is different as object
from the sound which is a symbol to signify the object without itself being the
object.
The identity of the transcendental sound
with the object denoted by such sound is due to the fact that everything on the
transcendental plane happens to be an entity of incomprehensible infinite
dimensions. This is not submitted to the present limited understanding of man
which is strictly limited to entities of three dimensions only. The transcendental
Truth possesses unity and is infinite by His Nature. All this is contrary to
our limited reason and so accustomed we are to the rationale of limited
experience that it appears to us to be therefore
irrational. Unless this really irrational opposition of our finite reason
is temporarily stopped it will effectively bar all access to the real infinite.
But once the voice of Godhead is allowed really to enter our attentive ear He
will purify our perverted reason and render it fit to appreciate that which in
its present degraded state it is unfit to understand. Let us, therefore, assume
for the present that unwholesome heterogeneity is not possible in the Absolute
Who is altogether unitary in His character.
The rational necessity of revelation for our
knowledge of the Absolute should be perfectly clear. The alternative to this
are the multifarious spurious theories regarding the Absolute that have been
put forward from time to time by the human mind. These man-made theories are,
and can be, neither conclusive in themselves nor in agreement with one another.
They are liable to constant modification with the progress of empiric knowledge
These wrong theories can never lead us to the Absolute Truth Who admits no such
self-contradiction as is inevitable with empiricists. The word of Godhead as
revealed in the Veda, i.e., by means
of the recorded transcendental sound, has been, and will ever remain the only
rationally possible source of all human knowledge regarding the substantive
nature of the unchallengeable Reality.
There is thus nothing irrational ab initio in holding that the Veda is
the Word of Godhead Himself. The Veda exists from eternity. The Veda,
according to His own version was originally revealed in this world to Sree
Brahma the first jiva to appear in
the realm of physical Nature, and by him made available to other jivas, that have since made their
appearance in this world in course of time through the channel of disciplic
spiritual succession.
The Veda contains the Absolute Truth
Whose service is the eternal and universal function of the proper nature of all
entities. Not being made by any one the Veda is free from all taint of
narrowness, error or partiality. The path to which He points is the only one
that should be trod by every soul if he wants to walk in the way of Truth. It
is necessary to put off all prejudices against the authority of the revealed
Scriptures arising out of misapprehension of the nature of the subject. The
admission of the supreme authority of the Veda does not involve the utter
annihilation of thinking. On the contrary it is the Absolute Truth Who enables
us to find the real value of empiric thought and its relation to ourselves. Nor
does the acceptance of the Veda involve the rejection of the Scriptures of
other countries. The revealed portions of all the Scriptures are one and the
same. They are the Word of Godhead differing only in the degree of
manifestation. This oneness of all revelation will become clearer in course of
this narrative.
The Veda is self-existent and eternal. It
was not made by anybody. It has the quality of attracting to itself the devoted
homage of all sincere souls. Men of this world love a thing by reason of its
worldly benefits for themselves. There is nothing in the shape of worldly value
to explain the acceptance of the Veda by the most sincere seekers of the Truth.
It is as if one is irresistibly attracted towards a chance passer-by and
welcomes him into one's house by a spontaneous instinct. No extraneous
circumstance, no previously found ties, would explain this spontaneous liking.
It must be entirely due to some innate excellence in the object of such
attachment. The Veda has ever been loved in this impartial and detached
attitude. Theories that are made can mislead inasmuch as they attempt to
substitute the convictions of their authors in place of those of others. It is
the substitution of one untruth in place of another, due to the vanity or spite
of clever or aggressive thinkers. There is no room for impartiality in such
case. The Absolute Truth alone is really impartial. His impartiality is the
cause of the acceptance of His service by sincere souls.
The Absolute Truth Who finds implicit
expression in the Vedas and the Upanishads, has been put into a
systematic and more explicit form in the Brahmasutra of Sree Vyasadeva. In this remarkable
work the subject has been treated under the four heads of (l) relationship of
everything with Godhead, (2) solution of apparent heterogeneity that is found
in Nature, (3) the means of spiritual realisation, and (4) the object of
spiritual function. The Brahmasutra establishes the existence of personal
Godhead, and devotion as the means of realising transcendental love for Godhead
as the final object of such activity.
The Authority of the Brahmasutra, as part and parcel of the revealed Scriptures, is
admitted by all transcendentalists. The chain of disciplic succession in the
case of Sree Vyasadeva is as follows. Sree Vyasadeva received the Word from
Sree Narada who received it from Sree Brahma, the first god representing the
bound creation, to whom it was communicated by Sree Narayana Himself, i.e., Personality of Godhead as He
exists in Sree Vaikuntha, the realm
that is free from all limitation.
The Brahmasutra gives us the Truth in a highly condensed
form. It is the text-book of all theistic philosophy. The conclusions embodied
in it and their significance have been elaborated in a number of commentaries
written by different authors.
Sree Vyasadeva is also the author of the Srimad Bhagawatam which gives us the
comprehensive history of the transcendental activities of Godhead Himself and
of His different Avataras. The deeds of Sree Krishna Who is declared by the
Veda to be Godhead Himself, as He is, constitute the central theme of this
great work The Srimad Bhagawatam thus
forms, as it were, the natural commentary, in the concrete or explicit form, of
the Brahmasutra, from the pen of
their common author.
The Deeds of Sree Chaitanya, the Subject
of the present work, are the living Embodiment of the teaching of Srimad Bhagawatam. The Deeds and
Teachings of Sree Chaitanya stand alone as history of the service of the
Supreme Lord in the form of the deepest and perfectly unreserved intimacy.
The privilege of this form of service,
the hidden truth of all Scriptures, was never before given to the fallen jiva. In the words of Sree Rupa Goswami
Prabhu, the authority on the esoteric significance of the Deeds of Sree
Chaitanya, ‘‘God Himself with the beautiful golden complexion out of mercy
appeared in this world in this most degenerate Age to confer the grace of
devotion to Himself, of the superior order that had not been given to this
world before. Even the Geeta which teaches the service of Godhead
with single-minded devotion and in the spirit of complete self-surrender, does
not tell us much about the actual, concrete form of the highest service. The Srimad Bhagawatam describes all
different kinds of service in the concrete form and establishes the supreme
excellence of that which was practised by the transcendental milk-maids of
Braja. Sree Chaitanya is the living Embodiment of this highest and most
intimate form of the service of the Divinity.
The Brindabana pastimes of Sree Krishna,
which have been given the place of honour in the greatest devotional work of
the whole world, are of all forms of Divine service the one that is also liable
to be most grossly misunderstood. The subject will be treated in greater detail
in its proper place in the body of this work. It will suffice for our purpose
here to state that Sree Chaitanya made clearly manifest by His Deeds and
Teachings what this form of service really means. His Deeds are in fact the Brahmasutra, Geeta and the Srimad
Bhagawatam displayed to our view in the living form. He is the living
Vedanta. Other Avatars and prophets have taught the reverential worship of the
Supreme Lord. Sree Chaitanya proved by His Deeds that the highest form of
service is to be found in the Srimad
Bhagawatam, that its inner meaning had not been properly understood up to
His time by anybody and that it offers what all the Scriptures have been
endeavouring from eternity unsuccessfully to express. Sree Chaitanya's own
career is the concrete living expression of this highest form of the service of
the Lord.
The Deeds and Teachings of Sree Chaitanya
offer everything that is contained in the whole body of the Scriptures of this
country or of any country. They give us the complete view of the Absolute,
which is not to be found in any Scripture. And because it is the full view of
the Absolute Truth that we get that the Deeds and Teachings of Sree Chaitanya
possess the quality of solving all doubts and difficulties. It has the power of
delivering from the thralldom of this limited existence the elevationists who
base their hope for mankind on worldly activities and also the empiric
philosopher who is caught in the cobweb of his own ephemeral speculations. It
throws open the gates of the limitless world to all sorts and conditions of
people by simply presenting the complete view of the Truth which reconciles all
apparent contradictions and composes all the seeming differences and discords
that so trouble the material world and, in their place, it establishes the
reign of universal spiritual Harmony.
No apology is needed from the historian
of the Deeds of Sree Chaitanya for anything in His transcendental career. His
Deeds and Teachings, as we find them recorded in the immortal works of His
associates and followers, are not the concoctions of the human imagination.
Anyone who reads these sublime works with an open mind, is bound to be
convinced of the Absolute reality of all those Activities. The task of the
historian of Sree Chaitanya is rather not to miss the least detail of His
Divine career. This may not appeal to the taste of those historians whose vision
is incapable of passing the line of secular interests. But they nevertheless
constitute the most momentous facts of theistic history and are, in fact, the
goal to which all history leads and in which it should find its supreme
fulfillment and real explanation.
The pseudo-Vedantists are specially
liable to under-estimate the significance of the concrete activities of
personal Godhead as constituting His fullest manifestation. According to them
the Vedanta is a mere theory of the Absolute and is, like any product of mental
speculation, an abstract subject; although such view is clearly opposed to that
of Sree Vyasadeva himself who would otherwise have not been at so much pains to
describe minutely every detail of the Activities of Godhead Himself and of all
His Avataras and assign to the Braja Pastimes of Krishna-Chandra
the place of honour in his comprehensive history of the Divinity.
This is the subtle danger that threatens all who put their trust in empiric
wisdom. The Deeds of Sree Chaitanya are the practical refutation of all
casuistry and empiric speculations regarding the Absolute that are to be found
in all parts of the world.
The writer has ventured upon a task that
is by its nature super-human not from any pride of empiric knowledge. This task
of propagating the eternal religion of all animate beings has been handed down
to him in the regular line of spiritual discipleship. It was the wish of Thakur
Bhaktivinode to spread the knowledge of the eternal religion taught and
practised by Sree Chaitanya to all countries outside Bengal through the medium
of the English language. The writer would be failing in his duty towards his
spiritual preceptor and towards the growing community of the pure devotees who
are desirous that the wish of Thakur Bhaktivinode, the same as that of Sree
Chaitanya Himself, should be carried out, if he did not make a sincere effort
of putting into the English language information that he has received from his
predecessors. The writer feels no misgiving in thus offering to the world at
large this message of the Absolute inasmuch as in doing this he is only
performing a duty that has devolved on his unworthy shoulders in the regular
chain of disciplic succession. He makes his prostrated obeisances at the feet
of the preceptor who opened his sealed eyes by the spike of the collyrium of
spiritual knowledge and all the devotees of the Supreme Lord that the word of
God may through their mercy find expression in these pages.
The Absolute Truth cannot be discovered
by the ascending effort of the human mind. Such effort, as a matter of fact,
leads to quite the opposite direction. The Absolute Truth has been
appropriately compared to the disc of the Sun. It is not possible to find out
the Sun during night with the help of the most powerful lamp that can be
devised by the ingenuity of man. The Sun can be seen only by means of rays that
come from itself. The Sun is visible when it is above the horizon and there is
nothing to obstruct our vision directed towards it. The Sun is seen easily
enough when these conditions are fulfilled. The Absolute Truth is like the
glorious disc of the Sun that is always above the horizon. But we bound jivas
cannot see it as we are led by our empiric knowledge to direct our sealed eyes
to the opposite direction and on the mists and clouds of worldliness that
further. obstruct our view. It is transcendental Truth that is offered in these
pages and not any speculations of the writer. This transcendental Truth Whom he
has received from his preceptor and Whom he is trying to impart to others is
not something that can be challenged by the limited reason of man. His
predecessors have been enabled to receive Him by submitting to Him, i.e., by
listening to and accepting Him in the sense of practising and preaching the
same. This constitutes the sole justification of the present undertaking. The
writer is desirous of serving the Absolute Truth by telling Him to others as by
doing so he can serve himself and all animate beings in the only really useful
way.
This eternal function of the proper
selves of all animate beings that has been taught by Sree Chaitanya and all the
revealed Scriptures is at once profound and easy. It is easy because it
possesses the quality of satisfying the wants of foolish, senseless and
unlettered persons. It is also profound inasmuch as it is capable of benefiting
the most erudite scholars, i.e. those who are masters of the art of controversy
and most deeply versed in the scriptures. This combination of apparently
opposite qualities is not to be found anywhere else in this world. In fact any
one who is free from bias can be heir of this religion; on this simple condition it lies open to all
mankind. The idealist no less than the practical man of action is equally
enabled by its means to successfully cross this great ocean of limited,
physical existence. But unthinking worldly minded people have always been
misled by its perverse forms as it has been often misrepresented by the malice,
worldly interest, or ignorance of its pseudo-preachers. The only way that is
open to bound jivas for disentangling themselves from the fetters of ignorance
and thereby regaining their natural condition of the spontaneous, spiritual
service of the Lord, is that offered by the methods of listening to the
transcendental deeds of the Godhead from the lips of His devotees and making
the same known to others by obeying the Word of God in their actual conduct and
preaching it to others. It is only by constantly listening to the Word of God
from those who exclusively serve the Absolute and practicing the same with
body, mind and speech that the fallen jivas are enabled gradually to get rid of
their materialistic hallucinations which stand in their way of realising their
own proper nature and its true relationship with God and therefore of serving
Him in the proper manner.
The materials for the present work have
been drawn from— ( 1) the Sikshastakam of
Sree Chaitanya which gives the summary of His teachings in His own words; (2
and 3) the Karchas (memoirs) of Sree
Murari Gupta and of Sree Swarup Damodar ( the latter as embodied in his works
by Sree Raghunath Das Goswamin, Sree Swarup Damodar’s closest associate); (4) Prem Vivarta of Sree Jagadananda;
(5) Sree-Krishna-Chaitanya-Chandrodaya-Nataka
of Kavi Karnapur; (6) Sree-Chaitanya-Charit-Mahakavya
of Sree Chaitanya Das, the elder brother of Kavi Karnapur; (7) the works of
Sree Prabodhananda Saraswati; (8) the Bhajanamrita
of Sree Narahari Sarkar Thakur; (9) the numerous works left by five of the
famous six Goswamins; (10) Sree Brindabandas Thakur’s Sree-Chaitanya-Bhagawat; (1)) Sree Lochandas's Chaitanya-Mangal; (12) Sree Krishnadas Kaviraj ’s Sree-Chaitanya-Charitamrita and lastly
(13) the works of those later writers who have strictly followed the above
authors. Most of these works are in Sanskrit, some of them in Bengali.
Sree Chaitanya has not left any books
written by Himself. A few shlokas composed by Him are quoted in the works of
His associates, the chief of them being the Sikshastakam
which gives in eight stanzas a summary of his teachings.
Sree Murari Gupta was the constant
companion of Sree Chaitanya’s younger days. His memoirs are a careful record of
the activities of Sree Chaitanya at Nabadwip. Sree Swarup Damodar attended on
the person of Sree Chaitanya night and day throughout the period of His long
residence at Puri. His memoirs which have not come down to us in their separate
form are the chief authority as regards Sree Chaitanya’s latter career and
relied upon by all the contemporary writers. Sree Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswamin
in his detailed account of this part of Sree Chaitanya’s career made use of the
information which he obtained directly from Sree Raghunathdas Goswamin who was
the spiritual ward of Sree Swarup Damodar to whose charge he was committed by
the express command of Sree Chaitanya Himself. Pandit Jagadananda was the loved
playmate of Sree Chaitanya’s boyhood and His constant companion to the end.
Kavi Karnapur was the son of Sree Sivananda Sen, one of the closest associates
of Sree Chaitanya. Sree Chaitanyadas was the elder brother of Kavi Karnapur.
Sree Prabodhananda Saraswati was the contemporary of Sree Chaitanya. He was a
native of Southern India and the younger brother of Sree Venkata Bhatta at
whose house at Sree Rangam Sree Chaitanya resided for the period of four months
during His travels in the South. Sree Prabodhananda Saraswati was the uncle and
preceptor of Sree Gopal Bhatta, one of the six Goswamins. Sree Narahari Sarkar
Thakur was one of Sree Chaitanya’s principal associates.
Of the six Goswamins Sree Rupa and his
elder brother Sree Sanatana were instructed by Sree Chaitanya Himself in regard
to the subject-matter of their respective works. Sree Raghunathdas Goswamin got
his information from Sree Swarup Damodar and he himself associated with Sree
Chaitanya. Sree Gopal Bhatta’s connection with Sree Chaitanya has already been
mentioned. Sree Jiva was the nephew of Sree Rupa and Sanatana and was the
disciple of the former.
Sree Brindabandas Thakur was the recipient
of the favour of Sree Nityananda, the associated facsimile, so to say, of Sree
Chaitanya. His mother Sree Narayani was the niece of Sribash Pandit, the
foremost of those Vaishnava householders who were the direct followers of Sree
Chaitanya. Sree Lochandas got the materials of his work partly from Narahari
Sarkar Thakur, one of Sree Chaitanya’s close associates and by his devotional
impressions. Sree Krishnadas Goswamin got his information as has already been
mentioned from his preceptor Sree Raghunathdas, one of the six Goswamins.
Most of the works of the authors named
above are still extant and they are the authorities for all subsequent writers.
The chief of these later authors whose works have been consulted in the
compilation of the present account are, ( 1) Sree Narottamdas Thakur who was
the disciple of Sree Lokanath Goswamin, one of the closest associates of Sree
Chaitanya, (2) Sree Viswanath Chakravarty belonging to the line of disciples of
Sree Narottamdas Thakur, (3) Sree Baladev Vidyabhusan the first Gaudiya commentator of the Brahmasutra, (4) Sree Narahari
Chakravarty in the line of disciplic descent from Sree Viswanath Thakur, (5)
Sree Bhaktivinode Thakur, the sincere guardian of the true Vaishnavas of the
present day, and (6) my Sree Gurudeva, His Divine Grace Paramahansa
Paribrajakacharya Sree Sreemat Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Goswami Maharaj whose
mercy is my only hope of attaining the service of Godhead.
It will be seen from the above that there
is no lack of materials of the most reliable character available to the
historian of the Career and Teachings of Sree Chaitanya. It is, therefore,
rather strange that the personality of Sree Chaitanya has been misunderstood
and misrepresented by a certain class of writers. The neglect of the original
sources was one cause of this. A constructive motive was supplied by the
animosity of sectarians and the greed of worldly interests of pseudo-followers.
It was the life-work of Thakur
Bhaktivinode to re-discover the true history of Sree Chaitanya and make the
same available to the present generation. The magnitude of this service to his
country, to humanity and to all animate beings time alone will show. The
eternal religion taught and practiced by Sree Chaitanya have been made
intelligible to the modern reader by the labours of Thakur Bhaktivinode. It is
bound to re-act most powerfully on all existing religious convictions of the
world and make possible the establishment of universal spiritual harmony of
which the whole world stands so much in need. Most of the works of Thakur
Bhaktivinode were, however, written in Bengali and Sanskrit. The present work
is a slight attempt to present in the English language an outline of the Life
and Teachings of Sree Chaitanya made known by Thakur Bhaktivinode, the pioneer
of the movement of pure devotion in the present Age, which aims at
restablishing in practice the eternal religion of all animate beings revealed
in the Scriptures and taught and practiced by Sree Chaitanya. The activities of
my most revered Preceptor are well known to the world. His Divine Grace is
commissioned by Godhead to spread the Teaching of Sree Chaitanya to every
village of the world and re-establish the spiritual society. This was foretold
by Thakur Bhaktivinode.
![[Bhaktivedanta Memorial Library Logo]](../../grfx/bml_logo.gif){kind=logo}