The Career and Teachings of the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya
by Sri Narayan Das Bhakti
Sadhukar
The Career and Teachings of the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya
by Sri Narayan Das Bhakti
Sadhukar
chapter ii
FAMILY
AND ELDERS
The Advent of Sree Chaitanya was preceded
by the appearance of a numerous body of pure devotees in different parts of the
country who joined Him at Nabadwip in due course and became incorporated in His
Activities. This galaxy of the stars of the first magnitude occupies the
foreground of the picture that it is our purpose to offer. Sree Chaitanya is
unintelligible without intimate knowledge of the doings of His associates. He
is expressed in the only intelligible form in the lives of His associates. He
is expressed in the only intelligible form in the lives of His bona fide devotees. These devotees were
not so many imitators of Sree
Chaitanya. Each of them has a great, living, individual personality; each
serves Sree Chaitanya in his own way and helps to demonstrate the quality of
unbounded catholicity and endless variety of manifestation in individual
personalities of our only eternal function. The conduct of these devotees is
even more instructive than the Transcendental Activities of Sree Chaitanya
Himself Whom it was the function of these great souls to express by serving the
Absolute Truth identical with the Personality of Sree Chaitanya under every
form of circumstance and every manner of disposition, by the method of
incorporated, subordinate service.
The Vaishnava authors always offer the
esoteric view of those events. When Godhead Himself comes down into this world,
He does not come un-attended by His eternal associates and Divine
paraphernalia. They accompany Him to this world. The transcendental realm of
the ‘White Island’ is the Eternal Divine Abode of Sree Chaitanya Who is
identical with Sree Krishna and presents the Divinity’s Own Benevolent Nature
dominating over all other Divine Qualities.
The Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya dwells in
the White Island, as does Krishnachandra in
Braja, with all His elders, kindred, associates and complete entourage. When Sree Chaitanya deigns to come down
into this world, He comes in His Fullness, with all His elders, associates,
servitors and realm. His advent is, therefore, preceded by the appearance of
His elders. All these are a part and parcel of Himself and are in fact the
extension of His own Divine Self. It is by their reciprocal means that the Lord
manifests His own Full Personality. What the Lord is in His supermanifest
Nature cannot and need not be known to any one except Himself. Others need know
the Lord only to the fullest extent and in the fullest manner in which He
chooses to manifest Himself to them individually. By the manifestation of
Godhead to the individual soul, the later is fully satisfied and, as a matter
of fact, such an individual does not desire, nor does he think it necessary to
know anything more, not merely for the time being but for all time.
The jiva
to whom Godhead reveals Himself sees the same Divine manifestation
everywhere and always, in His infinity of aspects. His cherished Divinity is to
him verily an endless Ocean of perfect and exquisite bliss, free from every
species of unwholesomeness, imperatively requiring his perennial loving service
by His perpetual manifestations. The appearance of the Lord is for the purpose
of making His devotees happy by affording them the Sight of Himself. The
establishment of religion and the destruction of demons who appear as the
enemies of Godhead do not require the Personal Appearance of Supreme Godhead
Sree Krishna Himself. These functions can be, and as a matter of fact are
ordinarily, performed by the Vishnu Avataras, or sometimes even by the favoured
among the pure jivas, by His command.
The establishment of the samkirtana of Krishna,
which is the Divine Dispensation of this Kali
Age, is effected by the Avatara for
the Age, and it would not be necessary for Godhead to come down into this world
for this purpose alone.
But there is a function which cannot be
delegated, viz., that of pleasing the
devotees. Love for Himself can
neither be conferred nor be satisfied by anything short of Himself. It was for
the purpose of bestowing, on fallen jivas,
love for Himself in the perfect form that is found only in Goloka, that Sree
Krishna, wearing the devotional mood and grace of Sree Radhika, appeared in
this world in His Eternal Identical Form of Sree Krishna Chaitanya, with all
His associates, elders and servitors eternally manifest in the ‘White Island’,
the realm of Krishna’s boundless and causeless Mercy.
In Braja
Sree Radhika sets the model for the highest service of Krishna. In the ‘White
Island’ it is Sree Krishna Himself who performs the function of teaching all
individual souls how Sree Radhika serves Sree Krishna in Braja, by putting on Sree
Radhika ‘s grace and devotion in order to enable Himself to serve Sree Krishna
after the manner of Sree Radhika in Her
highest Mood, viz., during Her
separation from Sree Krishna. The service that is rendered by Sree Radhika
manifests itself in this world in Braja
at the close of the Dvapara Age. But
in its direct manifestation it is not at all understood by mortals. It is only
the Lord Himself Who can bestow this perfect loving devotion to Himself even on
souls that are averse to Him on principle and thereby enable them to realize
the true meaning of such pure devotion.
This explanation of the real purpose of the advent of Sree
Chaitanya is fully corroborated by the Scriptures and by the Activities of Sree
Chaitanya Himself. When godhead Himself appears in this world, all His
secondary Manifestations automatically merge in Him. It was in this wise that
there were born among men, by the command of Godhead, in advance of His own
Appearance, the kindreds, associates and servitors of the Lord.
Sree Ananta, Siva, Brahma, the Rishis and
all the relations and associates of every divine Avatara were born and their prototypes. some of them appeared in
Nabadwip, some in Chattagram, Srihatta,
some were born in Rahr, in Odra, and the West. the devotees descending
into this world from their transcendental realm appeared in various places,
and, coming up subsequently to Nabadwip, were there joined together around the
Person of the Lord. All the Vaishnavas were born in Nabadwip, except a few who
appeared elsewhere.
The Elders who were first to appear were
Sree Sachi, Sree Jagannath, Sree Madhabendra Puri, Sree Keshava Bharati, Sree
Isvara Puri, Sree Advaita Acharya, Sree Pundarik Vidyanidhi, Sree Thakur Haridas,
Sree Upendra Misra, father of Sree Jagannath Misra, with his seven sons, Sree
Nilambar Chakravarti, father of Sree Sachi Devi, Sree Sree Prabhu Nityananda,
Sree Gangadas Pandit, Sree Murari Gupta, Sree Mukunda and others.
Our records show that a certain Brahmana
of Western India, bearing the name of Sree Madhukar Misra, a devotee of Sree
Sree Narayana, for some unknown reason, came to Sylhet and settled there. Sree
Upendra Misra was the second son of Sree Madhukar Misra. Sree Upendra Misra was
a Vaishnava, a great scholar, wealthy and possessed of an abundance of good
qualities. Sree Upendra Misra was the father of seven sons,—( 1 ) Kamsari, (2)
Paramananda, (3) Jagannath, (4) Sarbeswar, (5) Padmanabh, (6) Janardan, and (7)
Trilokanath. Sree Jagannath Misra, one of the seven sons of Sree Upendra Misra,
migrated from Sylhet to Nabadwip, the emporium of all learning of the Age. The
title of Sree Jagannath Misra, earned by his shastric scholarship, was Purandara.
At Nabadwip Sree Purandara Misra espoused
Sree Sachi Devi, the eldest daughter of Sree Nilambar Chakravarti. With the
intention of dwelling in the neighbourhood of the sacred stream of the Bhagirathi, that has issued from the
Feet of Vishnu, in the company of high-born Sree Sachi Devi, who was the
embodiment of devotion to Vishnu, pure-hearted magnanimous Purandara Misra
settled in Sree Mayapur in the central ‘Island’ of the City of Nine Islands.
Sree Chandrasekhar Acharya was the
maternal uncle(mother’s sister’s husband) of Sree Chaitanya. Sree Murari Gupta,
the author of Sree Chaitanya Charit, belonging
to a Vaidya family of Sylhet, had migrated to Nabadwip. He was senior in years
to Sree Chaitanya. Sree Pundarik Vidyanidhi, also known as ‘Premanidhi, and ‘Acharyanidhi,,
had his paternal home in the village of Mekhala about fourteen miles to the
north of the town of Chittagong, where his sacred ‘seat’ still exists. His
partner’s name was Ratnavati. His father was Vaneswar (or Suklambar) Bhatta and
his mother’s name was Ganga Devi. He was the disciple of Sree Madhabendra Puri
and was himself accepted as his Guru by Sree Gadadhar Pandit Goswami. Sree
Chaitanya called Pundarik Vidyanidhi ‘father’ and bestowed on him the name of
‘Premanidhi’ indicative of servitorship of Godhead. Sribas and his younger brother Sree Rama left their home at Sree Mayapur
and removed to Kumarhatta after Sree Chaitanya’s renunciation of the world.
Sree Nityananda Prabhu, the Associated
Facsimile of Sree Chaitanya, made His appearance in the village of Ekchaka in
the country of Rahr, not far from
Mollarpur station of the E.I. Railway, within the modern district o f Birbhum.
Hadai Pandit or Hadai Ojha, the father of Nityananda, was a good Brahmana from
Mithila, resembling Vasudeva in the immaculate purity of his nature. The name
of the wife of Hadai Pandit was Padmavati. Nityananda made His appearance in
this world on the tithi which is ever
hallowed by His birth, that corresponds to the thirteenth day of the bright
fortnight of the month of Magh. As a
child, Nityananda startled all the neighbours by being constantly occupied in
the company of His associates in rehearsing the events of the Avataras of
Vishnu. The details of these childish pastime have been reverentially
preserved. Their nature may be briefly indicated.
He made His playmates form themselves
into the assembly of gods. One of the
boys, representing the Earth, having complained to it of her unbearable
sufferings under the crushing weight of iniquities, those children who acted as
members of the assembly of gods repaired to the bank of the adjoining river and
there prayed to the Lord Who rests in the Ocean of Milk. One of the boys, hid
behind the tree, gives this reply of Godhead to their prayer, ‘I will soon be
born in the Home of Vasudeva at Mathura’. Sometimes personating the Divine Avatara
of the Dwarf, Nityananda affected to deliver Bali. On another occasion He would
fall into a swoon acting the part of Lakshmana in the Leela of Godhead’s Avatara
as Sree Ramachandra hit by the powerful dart of Indrajit. Then one of the boys,
acting the part of Hanuman, hastened to procure the required curative herb from
the Gandhamadana Mount and by that means effected His recovery. Such pastimes
of the little Boy amazed all beholders who could not account for this
extraordinary conduct of the little Child. Twelve years were passed in these
pleasant activities under the roof of His parents.
Nityananda set out on His long travel to
all places of pilgrimage at the age of twelve. The incident that immediately
led to this long pilgrimage is thus stated. A certain sannyasin became a chance-guest at the house of Hadai Pandit. He
begged of Hadai Pandit to give Nityananda to him; and, in order not to
transgress against the rule laid down by the Shastras, Hadai Pandit found himself obliged, against his own wish,
to hand to the sannyasin the Darling
of his heart Who was much more to him than even his own life. The grief of the
parents, in being thus parted for good from their Child of twelve, knew no
bounds. The nature of the renunciation of the world for the sake of Godhead
must on no account be confounded with renunciation for any other purpose, which
latter is an unpardonable and clear dereliction of one’s duty. The renunciation
exhibited by Godhead and His devotees redounds to the good of the whole world,
and, most of all, of those very persons who appear, to the superficial
observer, to be the greatest sufferers by their abandonment.
Lord Nityananda, after thus leaving His
parental home, traveled to all the tirthas.
in company of the sannyasin, till
the twentieth year of His age. The places He thus visited include Bakreswar,
Vaidyanath, Gaya, Kasi, Prayag, Mathura, Brindabana, Hastinapur, Dwaraka,
Siddhapura, Matsyatirtha, Siva-Kanchi, Vishnu-Kanchi, Kurukshetra, Bindu
Sarobar, Pravaasa, Sudarsantirtha, Tritakup, Vishala, Brahmatirtha,
Chakratirtha, Prati-Srota, Naimisharanya, Ayodhya, Sringaharpur, Kausiki,
Pulastasrama, Gomati, Gandaki, Mahendra-giri, Haridwar, Godavari, Benvatirtha,
Sree Parbata, Sree Ranganatha, Hari-kshetra, Rishabha-Parbata, Kritamala, Madura,
Tamraparni, Malay-aparbata, Badarikasrama, Gokarna, Surparaka, Kanyakanagara,
Nirbindha and all the countless holy sites. He journeyed to all those places in
order to sanctify them by His visit.
At the conclusion of this long pilgrimage
Nityananda enacted the Leela of
obtaining the only reward of pilgrimage in the shape of attainment of the
privilege of the companionship of the true devotee, in as much as He now Joined
Sree Madhabendra Puri, ‘the first shoot
of the Purpose Tree of Loving Devotion’
from whom He accepted His initiation into spiritual life (or, according to
some, He accepted His initiation from Sree Lakshmipati, the Guru of Sree Madhabendra
Puri).The meeting with His Guru is thus described by Sree Ghanasyam Thakur, the
writer of Bhakti Ratnakar:
‘Lakshmipati, so famous in the school of Madhya, the owner of all good
qualities, most dear to the Lord of Sree Lakshmi Devi, partook of his meal
obtained by begging, interspersed with Krishna-talk, at the house of that Brahmana.
Nityananda in the Form of Balarama showed Himself to Lakshmipati under the
guise of a dream: ‘A certain Brahmana boy has come to this village in the garb
of a super-ascetic; He will be your
disciple; make Him your disciple by means of this mantram, and He spoke the mantram
into his ear.’ Nityananda on meeting him repeatedly said to the sanyasin: ‘Do thou deliver Me by
initiation by the mantram.’ After
initiation Nityananda was given the Brahmachari’s name of ‘Svarup’ and has accordingly been sometimes called ‘Nityananda-Svarup’
both by Sree Brindabandas Thakur as well as by Srila Kaviraj Goswami. Sree Nityananda
subsequently made His way to Nabadwip where He joined Sree Chaitanya.
Thakur Haridas made his appearance in
this world in about the year 1451 A.D. (1372 Sh.), thirty-five years before the
Advent of Sree Chaitanya, in the village of Budhan
in the district of Jessore. He came of a Muhammedan family and in some
manner, of which we do not possess any trustworthy record, obtained very early
in life the mercy of a Vaishnava who initiated him into the religion of all
souls. He, thereupon, left his parent’s house and his kin, and came to Benapole
where he made a small hut and lived therein. His method of worship consisted in
repeating, constantly and with a loud voice, the holy maha-mantram of the sixteen Names of Godhead. He recited the maha-mantram three lakhs of times every day. For this purpose he cut himself off
completely from every form of worldly association. It was not long, however,
before his practice found a
malicious opponent in a local landholder of a most villainous character, of the
name of Ramchandra Khan. Ramchandra Khan was as foolish as he was wicked and
was incited to adopt the infamous method, described below, by the
representations of a fanatical section of the Hindu residents of the locality
who felt themselves scandalized by a Muhammedan presuming to adopt their
language in taking the name of Godhead in the manner that could pierce even the
ear-holes of such a great personage as Ramchandra Khan ! !
Ramchandra Khan did not believe that a
person in the full bloom of early youth could have really no attachment for
woman. He accordingly deputed a shameless harlot of great beauty, whom he
subsidised for the purpose, to employ her seductive arts to compass the ruin of
the young devotee.
This abandoned woman continued to offer
herself regularly at the solitary hut of devotion of Thakur Haridas for three
successive nights. She was kept waiting for the whole night by Thakur Haridas
by the assurance that he would attend to her request after the utterance of the
quota of the Names that he was under obligation to take daily, was completed.
Towards the close of the third night that harlot, whose mind had been
completely changed by listening to the Holy Name of Godhead from the lips of
the great saint who was so completely unmindful of those irresistible charms of
a young woman that are the cause of ruin of so many so-called Rishis of all
ages and conditions, fell prostrate at the feet of Thakur Haridas and, with a
contrite and chastened heart, implored him to enable her to worship Godhead in
the pure manner that he himself did. The woman opened her heart frankly to Thakur
Haridas and told him all about the infernal conspiracy and also of her own past
life which had been utterly sinful.
Haridas said to her that she was fit to
take the Holy Name of Godhead, and he accordingly initiated her into the life
of the pure service of Krishna. Haridas then advised her to give away all her
treasure to the pious Brahmanas and devote herself to the worship of Krishna by
constantly uttering His Name living apart from all other people in the solitary
hut which he had built for his own
worship. Thereupon, bestowing his own hut on that woman, Thakur Haridas left
Benapole for good. That harlot became thenceforward a most renowned devotee of
Krishna.
From Benapole Thakur Haridas proceeded to
Chandpur eastward of Saptagrama, the residence of the father of the future
Raghunathdas Goswami who was at this time a little boy. The name of Raghunath’s
father was Gobardhan Mazumdar. Hiranya was the elder brother of Gobardhan. They
were employed under Sultan Hussain Shah to collect the revenues of Saptagrama,
which totaled twenty lakhs of rupees
of which twelve had to be remitted to the Royal Treasury, the collectors being
entitled to retain for themselves the balance of eight lakhs. They were consequently among the richest persons of that
time. Thakur Haridas put up with Balaram Acharya of Chandpur who was the priest
of Hiranya and Gobardhan. The boy Raghunath Das frequently visited Thakur Haridas.
This was the cause of his obtaining the mercy of Sree Chaitanya later on.
At the request of Balaram Acharya, Thakur
Haridas once presented himself at the gathering of Brahmanas in the halls of
Hiranya and Gobardhan who were patrons of Brahmanas and pious persons. The Thakur
was well received by both brothers. Presently, evidently in view of the
practice of the Thakur, the assembly began to praise the taking of the Holy
Name, some maintaining that the Name destroys sin, others contending that the
Name confers deliverance from the bondage of the world. Thakur Haridas said
that those secondary results are effected by the dim reflection of the Name. The effect of the Name Himself is to arouse
love to the Feet of Krishna. Emancipation
is the trivial effect of the dim reflection of the Name.
A Brahmana by the name of Gopa1
Chakravarti, who was employed by Hiranya Mazumdar in connection with the
remittance of revenues to Gauda and who happened to be present, felt greatly
chagrined to hear these statements of Thakur Haridas and asked the assembly not
to be led away by the ridiculous effusions of an impostor, acting the part of a
sadhu to deceive ignorant people, by
endorsing the view that emancipation, which
is not attainable in crores of births
on the path of knowledge of the Brahman,
is gained by the mere dim glow of the
Name. This, he said, was impossible and intolerable.
When Thakur Haridas, with great calmness,
quoted the Scriptures to show that emancipation, resulting from the dim glow of
the Name, is trivial and is not accepted by devotees even when it becomes
available to them, the Brahmana’s anger was so much inflamed by this exhibition
of firmness that he shouted to Thakur Haridas that if he failed to prove from
the Scriptures that emancipation results from the dim glow of the Name, was he
prepared to have his nose cut off? The Thakur intimated his readiness to submit
to the bet proposed, whereupon all the assembled people and especially Balaram Acharya
strongly condemned the outrageous conduct of Gopal, and all of them, including
Hiranya and Gobardhan, begged the forgiveness of the Thakur for the insult that
had been openly offered to him in their presence. Thakur Haridas observed that
Gopal’s anger was due to his ignorance of the Scriptures and he was, therefore,
not to blame; and saying this, he left the place, resuming the loud chant of
the Name of Krishna. It is recorded that for this offense Gopal Chakravarti was
afflicted with the worst form of leprosy in the course of three days and his
nose fell off in consequence, and that although the Thakur so readily forgave
him, his offense was not pardoned by Godhead.
From Chandpur Thakur Haridas made his way
to Santipur and presented himself at the house of Sree Advaita Acharya. The latter
was very much encouraged by the appearance of Haridas and provided him with a
suitable place for his devotional practices by finding out a cave in a retired
part of the bank of the Ganges.
Thakur Haridas lived in this cell and had
his daily meal at the house of Advaita with whom he could talk about Krishna.
Haridas expressed his fear that the conduct of Advaita in feeding him daily
with the most unreserved hospitality might bring social troubles to him, he
being a Muhammedan by birth. Sree Advaita Acharya, in answer to this, formally
offered to Thakur Haridas the meal cooked for the occasion of the anniversary
of the sradha ceremony of his departed father, that had to be given to the
Brahmanas according to custom, with the remark that ‘by feeding you, crores of Brahmanas are truly fed’.
It is said that the Thakur Haridas was
tempted a second time by a woman while he was staying at the cave at Santipur,
and that this time the woman was no less than Maya herself, the deluding power
of Godhead, whose solicitation, which no jiva,
from Brahma downwards, can resist, produced on Haridas the only effect of
increasing still further his ardent devotion to the Feet of Krishna. Mayadevi
sought and obtained the gift of the Name of Krishna from Thakur Haridas in lieu
of her effort to test the sincerity of the devotion of Haridas.
From Santipur Thakur Haridas made his way
to the village of Fulia which was the
residence of a strong community of Brahmanas.
Fulia is situated three miles to
the east of Santipur. Thakur Haridas lived here in a cell on the bank of the Bhagirathi as at Santipur and chanted
aloud the maha-mantram of sixteen
Names of godhead three lakhs of times
every day. The Muhammedans who lived in the neighbourhood were incited by the
Brahmanas of Fulia to complain to
the Kazi about the behaviour of Haridas, which, they pointed out, was bound to
produce a most undesirable effect on the prestige
of the Muhammedan community and religion.
The Kazi took this seriously and had
Haridas brought to the presence of the Governor for trial. He was at first
treated with great respect and allowed to visit the prison as he desired to
converse with the prisoners. The prisoners, who did not expect in their midst a
saint who was treated with respect by the keepers, thought he might obtain
their release from captivity. They accordingly pressed round him and begged him
to intercede with the Governor for their liberation. The Thakur in reply congratulated them on their captivity
and wished that their state of bondage might be prolonged. This filled the
prisoners with dismay.
Haridas hastened to remove their mistake
by explaining what he meant. He said that they were forcibly kept away from the
pursuit of worldly objects in their state of captivity. This gave them a
respite for the worship of Godhead. Because Godhead cannot be worshipped when
one’s mind is engrossed in the affairs of this world. They should avail
themselves of this opportunity, so mercifully placed in their way, of turning
their thoughts to Godhead; so that, having acquired the taste for such life,
even after they were set free, they might continue to serve Godhead in the
midst of the various temptations of the world. He did not really desire the
prolongation of their state of captivity in the ordinary sense.
When Thakur Haridas was produced before
the Governor for his trial, he was offered a good seat in the court and the
Governor pleaded, with every appearance of sincere good will, that he should
revert to his own society, its customs and religion. Thakur Haridas replied: ‘A
man follows the path that appears to him to be the best. This is the
dispensation of Providence. Under this law a man born in a high Brahmana family
sometimes embraces the Muhammedan religion. And although he was born in a
Muhammedan family, God has been merciful to him and has shown him the path of
the highest good. This path he intends to follow. If such conduct appears to
the Governor to be deserving of punishment, he is prepared to undergo any
consequences that it may involve.’
The Governor then began to revile Vishnu
and threatened to punish Thakur Haridas with severe whipping till he would be
forced to give up the heinous course. Thakur Haridas simply replied: ‘Even if
he is actually cut to pieces he would never for a moment cease to utter the
Name of Hari with his mouth.’
The Governor, at the instance of the Kazi,
now carried out his threat by ordering Thakur Haridas to be whipped in
twenty-two market-places of Amua Mulk. This
barbarous order was duly executed. When Thakur Haridas appeared to be dead, the
ruffians who had been employed to cudgel him, tried to throw his body into the
Ganges. It is said that they failed to lift the body with all their efforts.
This frightened the Governor and his aiders and abettors in this horrible sin.
The Governor now spoke kind words to
Haridas. He was convinced that Haridas was a real Pir (holy man) and not a cheat as he had taken him to be. He was
sorry for what he had done and even begged his forgiveness. He then ordered his
men to liberate Haridas and assured
him of immunity from all further molestation on his part, desiring him to do as
he liked. Thakur Haridas returned to his cell at Fulia, undaunted by this terrible proof of the implacable
vindictiveness of his opponents.
On another day a snake-charmer was giving
a display of his art at the house of a wealthy resident of Fulia to the accompaniment of dance and music. Thakur Haridas happened
to arrive on the spot and taking his stand on one side watched the performance
which was a representation of a Feat of Sree Krishna, viz., the quelling of the serpent Kaliya.
Overpowered by the associations awakened
in him by the sacred theme, Thakur Haridas fainted away, and, when he was
helped to regain his consciousness, himself joined in the dance, exhibiting all
the external signs of the eight satvika perturbations.
The snake-charmer stopped his performance, and, with palms joined in the attitude
of reverence standing motionless on one side, gazed with awe on the devotional
activities of Thakur. This mood of Haridas was, however, soon over; and, after
he had stopped, the snake-charmer resumed his musical performance. Those
present were so moved by the occurrence that they devoutly took the dust of the
feet of Thakur.
A Brahmana, who happened to be in the
crowd and had watched the whole affair, thought of acquiring a cheap reputation
for sanctity by imitating the satvika perturbations
of Haridas that he had witnessed. He accordingly affected to swoon away and
forthwith began to sing, dance, laugh and shiver, in imitation of Thakur Haridas.
The snake-charmer now behaved in a most
strange manner. He, who had been so quiet and respectful towards Thakur Haridas,
suddenly fell upon the unlucky Brahmana with great fury and began to belabor
him, with a cudgel that he snatched from one of his men, in a most merciless
fashion. That Brahmana, unable to bear the severe thrashing, took to his heels
in a very short time. On being asked by the spectators the reason of his
strange and violent conduct towards the Brahmana, the snake-charmer replied
that he had beat the Brahmana, because by his hypocritical exhibitions he was
trying to bring into contempt the conduct of the revered Thakur Haridas.
Another Brahmana of Fulia opposed the
practice of chanting loudly the Name of Hari by Haridas on the ground that it
was against the Scriptures. He denied that Haridas, who was born of a
Muhammedan family, had any right to dabble in the philosophy and religion of
the Hindus; that this very fact of a Muhammedan posing as a teacher of the Scriptures of the Hindus,
portended the appearance, long before its appointed time, of the worst period
of the Age of evil. ‘This impostor has the effrontery of procuring the best
food by begging from door to door, presuming to teach the Shastras to respectable people!
If his explanation regarding chanting of the Name of Hari with a loud voice, is not found in the Scriptures, his nose
ought to be cut off., Accosted by the infuriated Brahmana in the above fashion
Thakur Haridas with a smile left the place to chant loudly the Name of Hari.
That Brahmana also met with the condign punishment of his offense by being
smitten with the small-pox in the course of a few days, that cost him his nose.
Thakur Haridas now made his way to
Nabadwip and there joined the congregation of the small group of Vaishnavas
that was gradually forming round the figures of Sree Advaita Acharyya, who had
settled there as a teacher with his own Academy (tol) and Sribas Pandit who lived close to the Academy of Sree
Advaita Acharya. At this time Thakur Haridas constantly traveled to different
parts of the country with the object of preaching the kirtana of Hari to the people. Shortly after his arrival at
Nabadwip, he joined Sree Chaitanya as one of His most devoted associates.
Sree Advaita Acharya, who was the
acknowledged leader of the small Vaishnava community of Nabadwip at the time of
the Appearance of Sree Chaitanya, was a person of vast erudition, possessed of
great wealth and occupied a position of the highest respect in the society of
Nabadwip. He appears to have been originally a native of the village of Nabagram
in some as yet unidentified part of Bengal. He subsequently settled at Santipur,
whither he had come in course of a pilgrimage that he had undertaken after the
departure of his parents from this world. At Santipur he married Sree Sita
Devi. Sree Advaita Acharya met Thakur Haridas for the first time at Santipur
where he offered him the meal on the occasion of the annual funeral ceremony of
his departed father, instead of giving the same to the Brahmanas by seminal
birth as is the custom of the smartas.
Advaita built a small house at Nabadwip
where he set up his Academy ( tol ) in which he taught different
branches of the Shastras. Advaita Acharya
soon acquired the reputation of being one
of the most eminent Professors of Nabadwip who upheld in all his teachings the pre-eminence
of the principle of unalloyed devotion to
Krishna, which he conclusively established by the evidence of the whole
body of the Scriptures. This marked him out from among the host of the other Brahmanas
who also taught the Scriptures at Nabadwip.
Sree Advaita Acharya, in conformity with
his teaching, was a devout worshipper of Krishna. He did not perform his
worship with the elaborate ceremonials that characterized its development in
the Dvapara Age. He worshipped Krishna with the offerings of the spray of tulasi, most beloved of Krishna, and the
sacred water of the Ganges which issued from His Feet. This simplicity of
worship a concomitant of the philosophy of pure, transcendental devotion which
he expounded in his Academy. He wanted to keep the pure devotion to Krishna
distinct from the lifeless rituals of the elevationists
and liberationists. Advaita
worshipped Krishna with the pure devotion of unclouded cognition and with the
specific purpose of moving Krishna to come down into the world to re-establish
the Eternal Religion. The Advent of Sree Chaitanya is attributed by all His
devotees to the sincere and ardent invocations of Sree Advaita Acharya. That
Advaita Acharya’s prayers and
worship brought about the appearance of the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya
in this world, has been repeatedly declared by Sree Chaitanya Himself.
The Academy of Sree Advaita Acharya was
the regular meeting place of all the Vaishnavas of whom the foremost was Sribas
Pandit who lived close to Advaita, not far from the House of Sree Jagannatha
Misra.
Sree Advaita Acharya belonged to the
community of Sree Madhvacharya which is one of the four authorized Vaishnava
communities. He was the disciple of the famous Madhabendra Puri, the spiritual
preceptor of Sree Nityananda, Sree Iswara Puri and several other elders of Sree
Chaitanya.
Madhabendra Puri is regarded by the most
illustrious followers of Sree Chaitanya as ‘the
first tender shoot of the mighty Tree of Transcendental Love represented by
Sree Chaitanya Himself in its full growth’. There is to be found no trace of
the amorous love for Krishna in the
School of Madhva prior to Madhabendra Puri. The disciplic succession of the
followers of Sree Chaitanya, through Madhabendra Puri, is to be found in Sree Gauraganoddesa, Sree Prameyaratnavali, the
works of Sree Gopalguru Goswami, and also in the Bhaktiratnakar. The line of succession is as follows:
KRSHNA
Brahma
Narada
Vyasa
Suka Madhva
Padmanabha Nrihari Madhaba
Akshobhya
Jaya Teertha
Jnanasindhu
Dayanidhi
Vidyanidhi
Rajendra
Jayadharma
Purusottama
Brahmanya
Vyasa Teertha
Lakshmipati
Madhabendra
Puri
Nityananda Iswara Puri Advaita
SREE CHAITANYA
We reserve the detailed discussion of the
esoteric implication of the spiritual disciplic succession for a future chapter
in connection with the doctrine of Sree Chaitanya.
The following particulars regarding Sree
Madhabendra Puri are found in Sree
Chaitanyacharitamrita. He went, unattended by any other person, to Sree
Brindavana. on his arrival there, as he was seated under a tree on the bank of
the pool (kunda) of Govinda, Sree
Krishna appeared to Madhabendra as a cow-boy under the guise of offering him
milk for appeasing his hunger. Led by a dream Madhabendra then installed the
Divine Form of Gopala on the Gobardhana Mount. His sojourn to Puri to fetch
camphor and sandal for Gopala and the episode of Kshira-chora Gopinath will be described later. At Mathura, Madhabendra
Puri accepted the alms of cooked food from a Sanoria Brahmana, whose touched water is not accepted by high class
Smartas, in violation of the smarta
practice which errs by applying caste
rules to the devotee of Godhead and its notions of ceremonial cleanliness
to food accepted by Krishna (maha-prasad).
Madhabendra Puri rebuked Ramchandra Puri
for his disrespect to himself, his spiritual preceptor, and blessed Iswara Puri
for his whole-hearted devotion to his preceptor by expressing the hope that he
might attain to love for Krishna. Sree Madhabendra Puri’s utterance at his
disappearance is cherished by all pure devotees. ‘ It runs thus: ‘Thou Lord,
Who art ever melted to kindness towards the humble, when wilt Thou, O Lord of
Mathura, be seen by me? My heart, Dearest, sad for not beholding Thee, grows
delirious. Oh! What shall I do now?’
Sree Iswara Puri came of a Brahmana
family belonging to the village of Kumarahatta (near Halishahar Station of the
E. B. Railway) and was the most beloved disciple of Sree Madhabendra Puri. Sree
Madhabendra Puri, being satisfied with his devotion, blessed him saying, ‘May
you attain loving devotion for Krishna.’ Sree Chaitanya did him the favour of
receiving initiation in the ten-lettered mantra from him at Gaya. Govinda and Kashiswara
Brahmachari, disciples of Sree Iswara Puri, joined Sree Chaitanya at Puri on
the disappearance of Sree Iswara Puri.
The attitude, which the reader is
expected to take up towards the associates of Sree Chaitanya, is put tersely in
the opening verse of Sree Chaitanyacharitamrita. “Sree
Krishna-Chaitanya is Godhead Himself as is indicated by His Name Who means the
Self-conscious Principle, Krishna. Godhead sports in six Divine Forms, viz., as (1) Krishna, (2) the Two
Preceptors, (3) the Devotees, (4) the Avataras (5) the Manifestations, and (6)
the Powers. In other words, the Spiritual Preceptors are Chaitanyadeva; the
devotees such as Sribas, etc., are also
Chaitanyadeva; the Avataras are Chaitanyadeva;
and the Powers are also Chaitanyadeva Who is himself Krishna’s Own Cognitive
Self, the Subjective Divine Personality Whose Essence is Pure Cognition. We
shall discuss these truths in greater detail in the succeeding chapters.
I have tried briefly to put before the
reader some of those considerations the substantive truth of which has to be
realized by the disciple in order to be fit for studying profitably the holy
narrative of the career of Sree Chaitanya.
I cannot do better than conclude this
chapter with the cautious words of Thakur Brindabandas, ‘Know for certain that
the Activities of Chaitanyachandra, by listening to which the heart is
purified, manifest themselves only by the grace of the devotees of Godhead. Who
can know the Deeds of Chaitanya that are the hidden secret of the Vedas ? I write
only what I have heard from the lips of the devotees. I make my obeisance at
the feet of all the Vaishnavas. May there be no offense committed by me by such
an attempt.’
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