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Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu
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To: alt-hindu@uunet.uu.net
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Subject: Sri Gauranga Mahaprabhu
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From: nparker@crl.com (Nathan Parker)
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Date: 19 Mar 1995 15:14:55 -0800
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From nparker@crl.com Sun Mar 19 18: 05:08 1995
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Newsgroups: alt.hindu
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Organization: CRL Dialup Internet Access (415) 705-6060 [Login: guest]
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SRI CHAITANYA MAHAPRABHU
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Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was born in Navadwip, situated on the bank
of the holy Ganges river in Begal, in February 1486, during the eclipse of
the full moon amidst the loud chanting of the Holy Name of the Lord. His
father, Jagannatha Misra and mother Sac i, were both from pious and
scholarly brahmana families originally from Sylhet. After loosing their
first eight children, all daughters, they gave birth to a son named
Visvarupa, who took sannyasa at an early age. Then Sri Caitanya appeared
from the womb of mother Saci and was given the name Visvambara.
Sri Caitanya showed great attachement to the Holy name from birth.
He would often cry and could not be consoled until the people around him
began to chant Hare Krsna. He was nicknamed Nimai and would was very fond
of singing and dancing. With uplifted ha nds He seemed to dance in a fit
of divine madness, which enraptured all and made them dance and chant
along with him.
Nimai studied under Ganga dasa Pandit, the most learned scholar in
Navadwip. Although there were many students in His school, some of which
were much older and very learned, Nimai eclipsed them all by His
extraordinary intelligence. A favorite pastime of His was challenging
students from other schools in intellectual debates on the bank of the
Ganges. He would offer His own explaination on certain Sutras and ask
others to criticize it. On their failing to find any flaw, he would
Himself point out a numbe r of flaws and offer another explaination which
he would again criticize to re-establish his original explaination with
extraordinary skill and felicity.
He acquired mastery over the different branches of Sanskrit
learning at a very early age and became known by the name Nimai Pandit.
After the death of His father he married Laksmipriya and set up a school
where he taught grammar. He was embued with schol astic spirit and
indulged in dialectical bouts with the scholars of Nadia. In one such bout
he defeated the world conquerer (Digvijaya Pandit Kesava Kashmiri), whom
the blessings of the godess of learning Saraswati, had made him
invincible. It was later r evealed to the Pandit in a dream that the man
who had vanquished him was the Lord Himself.
When Nimai was about twenty-two years old he went on a tour to
Sylhet in East Bengal. During His absence His wife Laksmipriya died of a
snake bite. Later, at the request of His mother he was remarried to
Visnupriya.
About one year after His tour of east Bengal he went to Gaya.
There he met Isvara Puri the disciple of Madhavendra Puri of the Madhva
sampradaya. He took initiation from Isvara Puri and from that moment on He
began to show spiritual ecstacy at every mome nt. He returned to Navadwipa
a different person. His pride of learning and aggressive spirit were gone.
He was immersed in the thought of Krsna. Tears incessantly flowed from his
eyes and at the very name of Krsna or anything associated with Krsna sent
Hi m into trance. It became impossible for Him to teach his pupils. The
only meaning He knew of the Sutras of grammar which he was accustomed to
teach, was that any word or letter was Krsna. So He always discoursed on
Krsna and in the midst of the discourses laughed and wept and lost Himself
in trance. His pupils did not know what to do. One day in utter
helplessness He had to tell his pupils, "I always see a dark complexioned
boy of exquisite beauty standing before me and playing on His flute. I can
only sp eak of Him and Him alone. I must therefore stop teaching you from
today. You are free to go and take your lessons anywhere you like."
Saying this He closed His book and burst into tears. The pupils
also closed their books saying,"No more education for us Master! Only
bless us that we may remember life after life what we have learnt at your
lotus feet." Nimai was visibly moved. He took them one by one and embraced
them. Then He performed sankirtan with them. He stood in the middle
singing:
haraye namah krsna-yadavaya namah/
gopala govinda rama sri-madhusudana//
Keeping time with His hands, the pupils went round and round
repeating the song. As the song and the dance went on their hearts were
filled with ecstacy and tears of joy flowed from their eyes. Many people
from the neighborhood were attracted to the scen e and everyone who came
as a spectator was caught in the current of devotion and began to sing and
dance. This marked the beginning of the sankirtana movement of Sri
Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the prophesied mission of His appearance.
Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu was soon joined by His principal
associates, Nityananda, Gadadhara, Sri Advaita and Srivasa Pandit. Many
thousands of people became influenced by the sankirtana movement. In the
courtyard of Srivasa Thakura He held nightly sankirt ana with His very
close associates. There He revealed His Divine Forms to His followers and
indicated that His mission was to deliver all the fallen souls of
Kali-yuga.
The courtyard in the house of Srivasa Pandit became the regular
meeting place for the Vaisnavas but soon there was organized sankirtana
parties and processions of which thousands upon thousands of people
participated, parading through the streets of Nava dwip, singing and
dancing and surcharging the whole atmosphere with this unique spiritual
fervour.
Once, a small but influencial group, proud of their learning and
maintaining an inimical attitude towards the sankirtana movement, placed a
complaint before the Chand Kazi, the Mohamedan governor of the town. The
Kazi tried to crush the movement, breakin g mrdangas and stopping the
processions. But due to the overwelming influence of the huge
congregational gathering organized by Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, in a
defiant display of peaceful civil disobedience, the Kazi not only came to
his senses, but joined the movement of Mahaprabhu and declared to the
world that this movement will never be impeded.
At the age of twenty-four Nimai Pandit decided to take to the
renounced order of life. He accepted sannyasa initiation from Kesava
Bharati and received the name Sri Krsna Caitanya. Soon after He journeyed
to Puri where he converted Sarvabhauma Bhattacary a, a veteran scholar of
Nyaya and Vedanta. The Bhattacarya recognized Him to be the Supreme
Personality of Godhead Himself and became so attached to Him that he could
bear anything in the world but seperation from Him.
Sri Krsna Caitanya Mahaprabhu soon embarked on an extensive
journey through the south of India to the tip of Cape Comorin. Then He
turned northwards and after visiting many of the important temples and
holy rivers, returned to Puri.
His influence on the people of Orissa was epitimized when He
captured the heart of the Orian King, Pratparudra. Yearly the devotees
from Bengal would come to visit Him and this became and annual pilgrimage
for the Bengalis.
In the year 1514 Sri Caitanya started on a pilgimage to Vrindaban.
Travelling through Bengal, Sri Caitanya met two brothers who were
ministers in the court of the Mohamedan king Hussain Shah of Bengal. They
were known by the Mohamedan names of Saker Mali k and Dabir Khas. Won over
by Sri Caitanya they became his disciples and given the names Sanatana and
Rupa. These two brothers along with their nephew Jiva are the great
pillars of faith, upon whose writings rests the theological and
philosophical foundat ions of the Gaudiya sampradaya.
Sri Caitanya had tried going to Vrindaban a few times before with
a large accompaniment of followers. This time however He went with only
two people and travelled through the forests in order to be unnoticed by
the masses. In Vrindaban He was always over welmed in ecstacy and absorbed
in the mood of Radha and Krsna. He uncovered the sites of the divine Radha
Kund and Syama Kund. Everyone He met on His travels He induced to chant
the holy name of Krsna merely by the sight of Him.
Returning from Vrindaban He stayed at Allahabad for some time
during the Kumba Mela. Here he met a Vaidika brahmana named Vallabha
Bhatta, who is also known as Sri Vallabhacarya, the founder of the
Vaisnava sect of that name.
Here He also met Rupa and his younger brother Anupama, who had
renounced the world for His sake and come all the way from Bengal to
receive His instructions. Mahaprabhu gave them detailed instuctions on
Bhakti for ten days and sent them to Vrindaban comm issioning Rupa to
devote himself to the preparation of foundational literature for the
propogation of Bhakti. Proceeding to Varanasi He met Sanatana, the elder
brother of Rupa. Sanatana had been imprisoned by the king, because his
meeting with Sri Caitany a had brought a complete change in his state of
mind, and he was not able to attend to the duties of his ministerial
office. He managed, however, to escape from prison and go in disguise to
Varanasi to surrender himself completely at the feet of his maste r. Sri
Caitanya gave him elaborate discourses on Bhakti and commissioned him as
well with the task of laying more secure foundations of Vaisnavism by
rediscovering the holy places in Vrindaban, building temples and producing
canonical literature.
An important event at Varanasi was his triumph in theological
discussions over the Mayavadi Sannyasis, who followed the path of Jnana
and deprecated Bhakti as pure sentimentalism. The result was the
conversion of Prakasananda Sarasvati, the head of the M ayavadi Sannyasis
of Varanasi, along with many of his followers.
Sri Caitanya returned to Puri. For six years after taking to the
sannyasa order He travelled all over the country, broadcasting the seeds
of Bhakti. These seeds having sprouted and taken root meant He could now
leave the plants to the care of His able le iutenants, and pass the
remaining eighteen years of His life in monastic seclusion at Puri. He
settled permanently in the house of Kasi Misra and all His days were spent
in deep communion with the Lord, interupted only by the occasional
conversations with a few of His most intimate disciples.
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