The Career and Teachings of the Supreme Lord Sree Krishna-Chaitanya

by Sri Narayan Das Bhakti Sadhukar

CHAPTER X

PROFESSOR LIFE—(Contd.)

The figure of Sree Gaursundar as professor (adhyapaka) has been described in some detail by Thakur Brindavandas. He was constantly surrounded by a host of admiring pupils. He was extremely proud of His learning and took a particular pleasure in ridiculing and exposing the ignorance of everybody. He cared for nothing except His books. He had an extraordinarily Beautiful Appearance and was in the bloom of His Youth. Grace and Beauty marked His every Limb. His Hands reached down to the Knee. His wide Eyes resembled the petals of the lotus flower. His Lips were always tinged by betel. He wore the most handsome clothing.

This beautiful, young, arrogant Scholar’s teaching was also unique in character. No savant of the then greatest centre of learning of India presumed to understand it really. The quondam teacher of Sree Gaursundar, fortunate Gangadas Pandit, was the only exception. The Lord opened out the store of His Learning freely to His old teacher. Worldly-minded people praised the Scholar and said that the parents of such a Son were the possessors of the richest of all treasures. To the woman-kind this insolent Scholar appeared in the likeness of the god of love himself. To the atheists He was terrible as Death. To the Pandits He was like a second Brihaspati by His wonderful learning. Different persons viewed Him in a different light in accordance with their particular standards of the highest worth.

But there was one group of people who did not share this general admiration of the particularly well-dressed Teacher. This was the community of the Vaishnavas. They were utterly disappointed to find no trace of inclination for Krishna in this fascinating Youth Whose great learning, they knew well, would be of no avail to save Him from the clutches of ignorance and death. They did not hesitate to speak out to His Face, ‘Why dost Thou waste Thy time in the delusions of learning ?’ The Lord laughed as He listened to the words of His servants and replied, ‘I am fortunate in that you take the trouble to teach it to Me.’

There was at this time a considerable community of Vaishnavas resident in Nabadwip, as the place offered special facilities for study and the prospect of living close to the holy Ganges. Among them was a large body of devotees from Chattagram (Chittagong). In the afternoon the Vaishnavas assembled in the Academy of Sree Advaita Acharya. They met there regularly to discourse about Krishna. It was a gathering of persons, all of whom were from their birth without the least attachment for the things of this world. In fact they were not of this world at all. They had been born in different parts of the country and were brought together at Nabadwip by the Will of Godhead.

Mukunda sang the kirtana of Hari to this assembly of the pure devotees. All the Vaishnavas were pleased with Mukunda whose song had the quality of melting their hearts. The joy of the assembled devotees, as Mukunda would begin to sing, became so intense that it expressed itself in strange ways. Some wept. Some laughed. Some began to dance. Some rolled on the ground, forgetful of their apparel. Some donned their cloth tightly and shouted challenge of defiance. Some ran up to Mukunda and clasped his feet. So wonderful indeed, was the effect on those Vaishnavas of the Kirtana of Krishna sang by Mukunda. His song produced the highest bliss and made the Vaishnavas forget all cause of grief.

The Lord was specially pleased with Mukunda, in His heart, for this reason. He would tease Mukunda whenever He chanced to meet him, by asking him to solve logical riddles. This led to prolonged controversies. Mukunda was well-versed in the science of Logic and made use of every form of argument in holding his ground against the onslaughts of Sree Gaursundar. But he was always beaten in the long run. Nimai put these riddles also to Sribas Pandit and other devotees. They were very much afraid of His puzzles and always scattered at His Approach. The devotees had no taste for any discourse except regarding Krishna, and Nimai never proposed anything except riddles of dry logic. No one could solve His puzzles and He mercilessly exposed all who broke down.

One day as the Lord was passing along the highway in the company of His pupils with every manifestation of the vanity of a pedantic scholar, Mukunda, who was going to the Ganges for his bath, saw the Lord from a distance and immediately took to his heels, Noticing this the Lord said to His servant Govinda, ‘Why did the rascal bolt on seeing Me?’ Govinda did not understand the reason of Mukunda’s conduct. He suggested that he might have had some business of his own. The Lord said that the real reason was his belief that a Vaishnava should never greet a person who is averse to Godhead. Then the Lord spoke in the hearing of all, ‘Let him keep aloof for the present I will see how long he will avoid Me in this manner. I will become such a good Vaishnava that even Siva and Brahma will dance attendance at My doorsteps. Those very people, who now flee at My Approach, will then sing My praise.’ He said this to His students laughingly as He was returning home in their company.

It was, indeed, a most distressing period for the devotees of Nabadwip. The whole of Nadia was mad with the taste of riches and sons. The people launched into invectives as soon as they heard of kirtana. They, indeed, said openly that it was only a device for filling the belly. They were specially wroth against Sribas and his three brothers.

The arguments they used against the Vaishnavas have been preserved by Thakur Brindavandas. ‘Was there any justification in dancing in their saucy and unmannerly way, giving up the method of intellectual communion ?’ ‘I myself have read the Bhagavata many times over, but I do not find in it any method of dancing and crying.’ ‘I cannot get any sleep after dinner on account of Sribas and his brothers. Is it not pious enough if one calls upon Krishna with a subdued voice? Is there any unavoidable necessity of dancing, singing and shouting?’ This was the universal attitude of all non-Vaishnavas. They talked and jeered in this manner whenever they met the Vaishnavas.

When the devotees used to feel very much depressed at such treatment by the people, Sree Advaita Acharya would repeat His assurance that He would destroy all those atheists, as Sree Krishna would be with them in a very short time in the town of Nabadwip itself. The words of Advaita dispelled all their sorrows and the Vaishnavas kept up the blessed Kirtana of Krishna with the greatest joy. Such was the state of affairs at Nabadwip when Lord Vishwambhar was deeply occupied with His secular studies.

So the Lord Himself, the Teacher of the whole world, by His Conduct as well as Instruction, was apparently pursuing a mode of life which was indistinguishable from that of the average worldly people. Would we be justified in blaming the pseudo-teachers of the Vaishnava religion of these days who, professing to follow the example of Sree Gaursundar, lead a life of luxurious ease with their wives and children ? If Sree Gaursundar chewed betel should they not also do the same as in duty bound? If Professor Nimai dressed faultlessly, poked fun at the Vaishnavas and devoted Himself exclusively to secular studies, why should such innocent amenities of a householder’s life be forbidden to His followers?

The questions no doubt suggest their own answer. In the case of Sree Gaursundar all this was absolutely proper. To the true devotee of Godhead every thing is handy and fit, as he knows their use for the service of Godhead. The eternal conduct of the devotee derives its value for worldly observers from this internal quality. If a woman is really chaste, she can do nothing that is improper. If she is really unchaste, she can do nothing that is proper, not even by mimicking the external conduct of any chaste lady. Such mimicry is in no way different from unchastity and is often the more dangerous form of wickedness. A thing can be but itself. External conduct is always deceptive, being external. By imitating the external Conduct of Sree Gaursundar that was visible to mundane observers at any period of His Activities, nothing but the direst offense is reaped. The Relation of the Lord to His Consort, to His pupils, to His devotees is misunderstood if we choose to misunderstand them by refusing to listen to those who are acquainted with the real Nature of Nimai. Even the Vaishnavas confessed, when they came to know Him later as He really is, that they also had once utterly misunderstood Him and His Activities, before He Himself manifested the real nature of them in their more explicit form to their higher consciousness.

The full view regarding the activities of Sree Gaursundar is attainable only if they are regarded as the Pastimes of Godhead Himself. Sree Gaursundar is identical with Sree Krishna. Those, who ignore this by misunderstanding His Role as Devotee, necessarily fail to obtain the adequate view of His Doings. The want of this knowledge apparently led even the Vaishnavas themselves to deprecations of the external conduct of Sree Gaursundar at this period. They wished that He should become a devotee like themselves. This is the Natural desire of all pure Vaishnavas in regard to non-Vaishnavas. The pursuit of secular studies in which Sree Gaursundar was wholly absorbed and the employment of His controversial powers on subjects other than Krishna were, therefore, condemned by those pure devotees as the abuse of His intellectual powers. It is instructive to find that those Vaishnavas were not under the delusion, which is so much cherished by the pseudo-Vaishnavas of these days, that the Conduct of Nimai was that of the model servant of Godhead. They were right so far. They apparently erred in supposing that Sree Gaursundar was a Vaishnava and not Vishnu Himself. But subsequently also, when they knew the Lord by His grace, they did not, therefore, try to imitate the Conduct of Sree Gaursundar.

Secular studies and pursuits in their purely worldly sense are not only unnecessary but are positively harmful to the jiva in the state of bondage. The object and method of all non-spiritual activities is to be enabled thereby to acquire extended opportunities of selfish, material enjoyment, a desideratum which is foreign to the nature of the jiva in the State of Grace. Any act which is undertaken for securing one’s own enjoyment ceases to have any reference to the service of the Lord Who is the Absolute Master, Proprietor and of everything. The pursuit of the knowledge of the things of this world with reference to ourselves as enjoyers of them is not the function of the pure soul. By all knowledge Godhead alone is properly served. The pursuit of secular knowledge is productive of spiritual well-being if it possesses this exclusive reference to Godhead both as regards its object and method.

The acceptance of this true principle does not destroy any value, it only removes our ignorance and fulfills the only real object of all knowledge. God certainly indwells all knowledge, but inaccessibly to the conditioned soul. As soon as the conditioned soul is enabled to realize His Presence in all learning, his object and method of pursuing knowledge ceases to be secular and harmful. Sree Gaursundar was within His Rights in accepting the service of the goddesses of secular learning and of physical Nature, because He is their Lord and Proprietor. There could be no absence of Reference in the Reference Himself. But because Sree Gaursundar was pleased to exhibit the Leela of pursuing secular knowledge for its own sake, those who are aware of His Divinity should not, with an inexcusable perversity of judgment, jump to the conclusion that His Conduct was intended to justify the apparently similar procedure of any jivas, if they happen to cherish the unnatural desire of becoming the masters or slaves of Material Nature. God is always the Master even when He chooses to manifest His Divine Form in this unspiritual world. Even when the Lord seems, to the perverted judgment of fallen jivas, to be subject, like themselves, to the laws of physical Nature, He remains her Master none the less.

Even the devotees themselves failed to understand the Doings of the Lord at this period, although His conduct was appreciated by worldly people who supposed, in their disloyal delusion, that it resembled their own. This latter kind of appreciation was an unconscious offense against the Lord, while the depreciation of His Conduct by the devotees was not an offense, although it was an error, into which they fell by the Will of Godhead Himself, for the furtherance of His Pastimes.

Worldly people misunderstood the Conduct of both Sree Gaursundar and His devotees. They admired Sree Gaursundar for His great Qualities, for the Beauty of His Person and for His great Learning. They desired those things for themselves and could, therefore, appreciate them by the method of envy. The bound jiva wants to enjoy, to rule, to possess beauty and learning for increasing his supposed power and scope of selfish enjoyment. Sree Gaursundar had all what they so wrongly desire. The worldly people regarded Him as the most successful of worldlings. They disliked the devotees, because they did not approve of their lack of worldliness. The mode of life of the devotees seemed in the eyes of those worldly people to be not merely bad, but ridiculous. It is not possible for worldly people to understand the ways of pure devotees ; it is still less possible for them to understand the Ways of God Himself.

If we want to follow Sree Gaursundar we should in the first place have to know our real relationship to Him. In proportion as this knowledge of our relationship with Godhead is realized, we are in a position to understand His Ways. When Sree Gaursundar took to secular study, apparently for its own sake, His Purpose was to be merciful to the goddess of secular learning inside whose heart He ever dwells in the Form that is incomprehensible to the conditioned jiva; and, secondarily, to establish the principle, for the benefit of the fallen jivas, that they should neither thoughtlessly imitate nor condemn the conduct of the pure devotee, nor suppose that he is ever liable to error by reason of his youth, or apparent ignorance of the concerns of this world, or even apparent devotion to them. The efforts of the servants of God are not governed by the instinct of so-called self-preservation, or for adjustment to the phenomenal environment, which is apt to dominance the activities of fallen jivas. The devotees never do anything except under the pure impulse of serving Krishna. It is not altogether impossible for us, even while we continue in the sinful state, to admit this.

Regarding Sree Mukunda Datta, we have the hint in Sree Chaitanya Charitamrita that ‘Lord Chaitanya Himself dances in the kirtana of Mukunda.’ Mukunda made his appearance in Chittagong. In Gauraganoddesadipika he is identified with Madhukantha, the singer of Braja. We have seen already that Mukunda Datta was a fellow student of Sree Chaitanya in the Academy of Sree Gangadas Pandit. Mukunda was a most brilliant scholar and Chaitanya found great delight: in putting to him the most difficult riddles of Logic. Mukunda read the Bhagavatam to Sree Chaitanya after the Latter’s return from Gaya. When Sree Chaitanya danced in the yard of Sribas Pandit, Mukunda sang the kirtana. He accompanied Sree Chaitanya to Katwa on the occasion of His Acceptance of Renunciation (sannyas), and subsequently followed Him to Puri. He used to come every year to Puri from Bengal to visit the Lord, in the company of His other devotees

The godless people of that time objected to the kirtana on the ground that dancing and singing with a loud voice are not the method of worship recommended by the Bhagavatam. This is true in regard to the insincere performances of the pseudo Vaishnavas. But the Bhagavatam frequently mentions the manifestation of genuine spiritual perturbations in the forms of laughter, weeping, dancing, singing, etc., in an unaccountable form in the true devotees of Krishna. The people were angered by the loud kirtana of Sribas and his brothers for the ostensible reason that it stood in the way of their sleep, etc.

Those, who profess to be seekers of worldly merit (punya) for its enjoyable rewards, naturally misunderstand the efforts of pure devotees who practice devotion to Godhead, for benefiting all persons by inclining them to the service of Godhead which is obstructed by their hankerings after worldly enjoyment. But those godless people supposed, in their ignorance, that the dancing and singing of the Vaishnavas, which are performed because they are pleasing to Krishna, are a crude and inferior form of worship of which the lonely individualistic method was regarded as the highest. .This insolence of judgment, which is the necessary and invariable concomitant of simulation of worship by conditioned souls, proved its own terrible punishment and effectively prevented those scoffers from listening to the unalloyed kirtana of Hari that was nightly performed within the reach of their hearing, for the benefit of all, by Sribas Pandit and his brothers, in the teeth of the violent, uncalled-for, suicidal opposition of all those self-complaisant worldly egotists.

While Nimai was thus wholly immersed in the pleasures of study, Sree Isvara Puri came to Nabadwip and presented himself at the house of Advaita. He was clad in the garb of an ascetic (sannyasin) of one staff; and so no one suspected him to be a Vaishnava. But Advaita noticed the glow of his extraordinary spiritual energy and recognized him as a theistic (Vaishnava) sannyasin. No sooner did Mukunda begin a song about Krishna in the gathering of the Vaishnavas at Advaita’s, the ocean of natural love for Krishna in the pure heart of Puri was deeply stirred. Presently all the Vaishnavas came to learn that the sannyasin, who loved Krishna so deeply, was no other than Sree Isvara Puri, the loved disciple of Sree Madhabendra Puri.

One day as Sree Gaursundar was returning home after teaching, He accidentally met Sree Iswara Puri on His way and did obeisance to him, as is the duty of every householder towards a sannyasin. Sree Isvara Puri was struck by the wonderfully beautiful appearance of Sree Gauranga and enquired Who He was and what subject He taught. Nimai with due deference answered the questions of Sree Isvara Puri, and, with great respect and cordiality, invited him to accompany. Him to His House and accept the alms of his day’s meal there.

Sachi Devi cooked the offering for Krishna and gave it in alms to Sree Isvara Puri. After the meal Sree Isvara Puri engaged with Nimai Pandit in discourse regarding Krishna and in course of the talk manifested his overwhelming love for Krishna. Sree Isvara Puri spent several months at Nabadwip at the house of Sree Gopinath Acharya, sister’s husband (the famous Sarbabhauma Bhattacharchaya of Vidyanagar). Nimai Pandit went to Vidyanagar in the evenings to pay His respects to Sree Isvara Puri at the conclusion of His day’s teaching. Sree lsvara Puri was charmed with the love for Krishna of Sree Gadadhar Pandit who was spontaneously unattached to the world from infancy. Moved by feeling of affection Sree Iswara Puri undertook to read to Gadadhar his own work, ‘Sree Krishnaleelamritam’.

One day Sree Isvara Puri asked Nimai Pandit to correct any, mistakes that He might detect in his book, promising to adopt any alterations that He might suggest. The Lord replied, ‘that as the book contained the account of the Doings of Krishna and had been written by a pure devotee like Sree Isvara Puri, any person, who presumed to detect any fault in it, would certainly commit a grave offense against Godhead. Whatever the external quality of the verses of a devotee might seem to be, Krishna is fully pleased thereby. There was no doubt about it. Any grammatical or other defects that may happen to be present in the language of the devotee are over-looked by Krishna Who is ever subdued by the homage of the heart and accepts nothing but pure love for Himself. If any one found fault with the language of a devotee, it only proved that the critic was devoid of the Grace of Krishna. There did not exist the person who would dare to find fault with the language used by a pure devotee like Puripada to convey the tidings of Krishna.’

But Sree Isvara Puri continued to press his request that Nimai Pandit might point out the defects of his book. In this manner Isvara Puri spent hours in discussing daily a variety of topics with Nimai. One day after listening to a certain shloka, composed by Sree Isvara Puri, Nimai Pandit said to him, by way of fun, that the verb in the said verse should have the form of parasmaipada and not of atmanepada. Thereafter, when Nimai Pandit next made His Appearance another day, Sree Isvara Puri told Him that he had been able to find out the grammatical authority in favour of his conjugation of the verb as atmanepada. The Lord also, in order to enhance the greatness of His devotee, refrained from finding fault with this conclusion. Having passed some time in the pleasures of these learned pastimes in the company of Nimai, Sree Isvara Puri started again on his wanderings in order to sanctify the tirthas, all over India, by his visit.

The above account of Sree Chaitanya’s first meeting with His Guru is reproduced verbatim from Sree Chaitanya Bhagavata. Sree Isvara Puri made his appearance in a Brahmana family of Kumarhatta ( Halishahar, on the E. B. Ry. ) . He was the most beloved disciple of Sree Madhabendra Puri. In Chaitanya-Charitamrita it is narrated (Antya, VIII, 26-29) how Sree Isvara Puri obtained the mercy of his Gurudeva, by his loyal service, who bestowed on his worthy disciple his own love for Krishna. The unique love of Sree Isvara Puri for Krishna, which was aroused in him in this manner, never left him.

Sree Isvara Puri wore the garb of a sannyasin of one staff (the staff being the symbol of self-discipline). The assumption of the single staff is the practice of those sannyasins who follow the path of knowledge to obtain the reward of the six-fold endeavours, viz., sama (equanimity), dama (self-control), titiksha (endurance), etc., by the study of the Vedanta and the other Scriptures. Those who follow the path of fruitive works, on attainment of the stage of yati, take to the triple-staff sannyas and wander about companionless in all directions. The Vaishnava Sannyasins, discarding alike the desire for worldly enjoyment as well as renunciation of such enjoyment, engage in the exclusive service of Hari. In them, therefore, the twin renunciation of worldly enjoyment and renunciation of such renunciation, are simultaneously present. Their position is thus defined in Srimad Bhagavatam, ‘I shall cross the otherwise impassable ocean of ignorance by serving the Feet of Godhead by practicing devotion to the Supreme Soul in the footsteps of the great sages (rishis) of old’.

The rasa (i.e. mellowing quality) of devotion to Krishna, in which Sree Isvara Puri was established by the mercy of Sree Madhabendra, transcends all other rasas (mellownesses) by its supreme excellence and complete perfection. The transcendental rasas may have the forms of ( 1 ) Brahman bliss, i.e., the bliss of realizing the transcendent greatness of Godhead, (2) the bliss of serving Godhead as a Person Who is Supreme Ruler of the material and spiritual worlds, and (3) the highest bliss of serving Godhead as Recipient of causeless loving devotion. The Object of worship, pointed to by the above three methods of spiritual service, has been called in the Scriptures the Brahman, Sree Narayana and Sree Krishna respectively. All these rasas (mellownesses) are located beyond the zone of operation of the triple qualities that permeate this material world which find their way even to Kailasa, the abode of Siva.

The worthlessness of the worldly rasas (tasty liquid) is due to the existence of plurality of the objects of worship. In the spiritual realm, in Vishnu Who is Full, Indivisible, Pure Cognition, there is no possibility of such defects. In Krishna this spiritual service attains its highest fulfillment. Sree Isvara Puri was loved by Krishna for his attachment to Sree Guru the best-beloved of Krishna. The author of Sree Chaitanya Bhagavata says, ‘that being most dearly loved by Krishna Sree Isvara Puri was necessarily kind to all jivas without distinction. Such universal kindness is never possible in those who do not serve Krishna.’

The unwillingness of Sree Gaursundar to comply with the express request of Sree Isvara Puri to correct the defects of his book is not a display of insincere civility (which passes in the name of humility in this world). Krishna makes no difference between the highly skilled linguist and one who is ignorant of the alphabet. Krishna is ever more kind to him who possesses the greater inclination of service. Krishna, Who knows the inmost thoughts of our hearts, is never guilty of mistaken partiality. Pedantic scholars devoid of love for Krishna only prove their own real ignorance by trying to find defect in the language of devotees. The ignorance of such scholars is exposed at every step by the mercy of the Lord of the goddess of learning in order to wean them from their suicidal hostility to the devotees of Krishna. This also serves to keep their scholars, pride low. All such vanity is the outcome of ignorance of Krishna Who is the Truth Absolute. All sinfulness and unwholesomeness is due to ignorance of the Real Truth, in an aggravated form under the guise of pseudo-scholarship.

As Professor the Lord was wholly occupied with His studies, teaching and learned disputations. It was specially His practice to test the knowledge of all the teachers without exception. No Professor of Nabadwip ever came victoriously through his searching tests. No one was ever able to give a satisfactory answer to the questions put by Him. Although Nimai Pandit taught only Vyakarana, which is a comparatively elementary subject. He showed very little deference to the most erudite Professors of that celebrated emporium of learning. He often passed with a triumphant bearing through all quarters of the town in the company of His students displaying the aggressive nonchalance of the perfectly self-conceited scholiast.

One day, as Nimai Pandit was thus parading the town with His students, He met Mukunda on His way, quite by accident. The Lord took him by the hand and said ‘Why do you bolt at the very sight of Me? I won’t allow you to escape this time without being enlightened by you.’ Mukunda thought within himself I must beat Him to-day. His special and only forte is Vyakarana. I shall silence Him by asking questions about Rhetoric that He may never again dare to be insolent to me’. Accordingly Mukunda began by deprecating Vyakarana as the Shastra fit only for children. ‘Let us discourse instead about Rhetoric’. The Lord said Mukunda might select any subject he liked. Mukunda thereupon began to quote the most difficult passages from the whole range of poetical literature and asked Him to explain their rhetorical qualities.

Sree Gaursundar impeached every metaphor and simile and all the rhetorical figures that were employed by those poets, and laid bare their defects in their minutest details. Mukunda was unable to justify his own select pieces against the penetrating criticisms of the Lord. The Lord then said laughingly, ‘Go home to-day. Look up your books with more care. I shall again examine you to-morrow. You should come early.’ Mukunda took the dust of the Feet of the Lord and departed. He was amazed and began to reflect, Is such learning possible in a mortal ? There is no Shastra of which He is not perfect Master. Gifted with such extraordinary genius, had He been only a devotee of Krishna, I would never leave His company even for the space of the fraction of a moment !’

Another day in course of His peripatetic wanderings the Lord of Vaikuntha fell in with Gadadhar. The Lord laughingly caught him by both hands and would not quit His hold of him. ‘You study Nyaya. Tell me something about it’. Gadadhar replied, ‘Ask any question’. The Lord said, ‘Tell Me the characteristics of liberation (mukti)’. Gadadhar explained it in accordance with the Nyaya Shastra. The Lord said that the subject was not really explained. The position which Gadadhar took up was that of the Nyaya Shastra according to which liberation (mukti) ensues on the cessation or destruction of the extreme miseries.’ The Lord of the goddess of learning found fault with the proposition in many ways. There is no disputant who can hold his ground against Godhead. As a matter of fact, there was not a single person in the whole of Nabadwip who could come up to the level of Nimai Pandit in learned disputations. Gadadhar now thought of saving his face by flight. The Lord said ‘Gadadhar go home to-day. I have more to learn from you. So do not fail to turn up early to-morrow’. Gadadhar made his obeisance and went off.

The Lord roamed through every part of the town in this manner. He was soon recognized by all persons as a most profound scholar. All people showed Him the highest respect whenever they chanced to meet Him. In the afternoon the Lord proceeded to the side of the Ganges with all His students and sat on the bank with demonstrative joy. The Beauty of the Person of the Lord, Who is served by Sree Lakshmi Devi Herself, is unique in all the three worlds and inspired love in every beholder. The Son of Sachi sat there in the midst of His disciples and expounded the Shastras. The Vaishnavas also gathered to the side of the Ganges in the evening and from a distance listened to the learned dissertations of the Lord. They experienced a mixed feeling of delight and sorrow as they thought within themselves that Nimai Pandit was, indeed, Possessor of Learning and Beauty in an extraordinary measure. ‘But if Krishna is not served thereby those qualifications are of no use whatever’. They also confided to one another the fact that they were in the habit of fleeing the very sight of Him for fear of His puzzling hoaxes. Some complained that He also did not allow them to escape so easily, often holding them up with the peremptory authority of a customs-officer. A few admitted that the Brahmana was possessed of superhuman powers and even suspected that it is a great personage (mahapurusha) who had appeared in the world as Nimai Pandit.

Although the Lord was constantly occupied in putting His puzzles to them, still the Sight of Him somehow always made those Vaishnavas feel very happy. They all realized that such learning was not to be found in man. But this discovery also added to their poignant grief that He did not serve Krishna. They implored one another to bless Him that He might thereby attain to love for Krishna. All the Vaishnavas would prostrate themselves to the Supreme Lord on the bank of the Ganges and all of them blessed Him, ‘May it be Thy pleasure, O Krishna, that the Son of Jagannath be maddened by love for Thee, giving up every other pleasure. May He constantly serve Thee with loving devotion. Vouchsafe to us, O Krishna, Him as our companion.’ The Lord, who knows the inmost thoughts of the heart, was aware of these wishes of the Vaishnavas. He made obeisance to them whenever He chanced to meet Sribas and any of the devotees. The Lord received the blessings of the devotees with His Head bent in submission. ‘By the blessings of the Divinity’, say the Scriptures, ‘love for Krishna is aroused’.

Some of them spoke to Him plainly, ‘Why do You waste Your time in the delusions of learning?, Some said ‘Look here, Nimai Pandit; what does it profit to be learned? Make haste to serve Krishna. Why do people read—It is surely for the purpose of learning devotion to Krishna? If that is missed what is the good of learning?’ The Lord smiled and answered, ‘It is a great good fortune for Me that such as you teach Me to regard devotion to Krishna as essential. It seems to My mind that One, Whose welfare is sought by such as you, is, indeed, most fortunate. I have a mind, after teaching My pupils for a little time longer to betake Myself to good Vaishnavas’. Thus saying the Lord, Who found Himself in the midst of His servants, would begin to laugh. No one could recognize Him by the force of His Own Power. By such ways did the Lord captivate the minds of all persons. There was no one who did not long for the Sight of Him.

The Lord’s leisure was spent in these learned sessions by the side of the Ganges and wanderings through the different quarters of the town. The citizens greeted the Feet of the Lord with the greatest affection no sooner they caught Sight of Him. The ladies said, ‘He is the god of love manifest. May woman be blessed by obtaining this Treasure at her every successive birth !’ The learned regarded Him as the equal of the celestial sage Brihaspati; and the oldest of them made their obeisance to His Lotus Feet. To the yogis, He appeared to possess the realized body. The wicked viewed Him with terror, as the very Form of Death. If the Lord greeted a person only once he was thereby reduced to the condition of His prisoner and wore round his neck the collar of His love. Despite all the outspoken boastings of learning in which the Lord constantly indulged in the hearing of everybody, He was devotedly loved by all the people. Even the Yavanas displayed a great liking for the Lord Who is by nature mercifully disposed to all without exception.

The Lord held His Academy in the suite of rooms that led into the residence of the fortunate Mukunda-Sanjaya. The Son of Sree Sachi Devi engaged there in defending and opposing different interpretations and in refuting, justifying and expounding in endless ways, the texts of the sutras. The fortunate Sanjaya-Mukunda with all his family and dependents felt themselves borne aloft on the high tide of a perennial joy, the cause of which they could not understand. After the day’s triumphs of learning the Lord returned home in the evening. Thus did the Ruler of Vaikuntha choose to divert Himself with the exquisite pastimes of learning.

These accounts from the pen of Thakur Brindavandas leave on the mind a most vivid impression of the realities of the Professor life of Sree Chaitanya. He was evidently the universal Favourite of both Hindus and Mussalmans alike and was feared by all the impious scholars and evil-doers of every description. He was to all appearance the ideal Householder Teacher absorbed in His studies and teaching, which were of a wholly secular character. He was also a most formidable controversialist and had a wonderful faculty of detecting and exposing weak points in the views of the leading scholars of the famous University-town. The Beauty of His Person ravished every beholder. He showed the highest respect to the community of the Vaishnavas although they happened to be the objects of persecution and ridicule by all classes of the people. But He showed very little disposition to listen to their discourses regarding Krishna. On the contrary, His genuine reverence for them did not prevent Him from putting even to them His puzzling riddles of Logic, the activity that He seemed to like best of all. So the Vaishnavas, although they had a genuine liking for Him, were grieved by His engrossing devotion to trivial secular studies and apparently utter indifference to Krishna. But they nevertheless prayed to Krishna to bestow on Him the fullest measure of love for Him that He might be a real Companion to them.

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