The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna-Chaitanya

(Continued from P. 279, May, 1928.)

When Sri Chaitanya came to learn from the lips of the towns-people, who were in a great dismay about the occurrence of the khol being broken, He became indignant and told them to continue the kirtan in every house with full vigour. But as the people were very much afraid of the Kazi He decided to lead a processional kirtan of all the citizens to the door of the Kazi’s house to reassure the people. Three huge kirtan-processions of all the citizens, each of whom carried two lighted torches, were accordingly formed on that ever memorable evening and made their way to the residence of the Kazi, who hid himself inside his house on its approach. But the people made the Kazi come out. Whereupon Sri Chaitanya had a long conversation with the Kazi on the subject of the practice of Islamic religion. The Kazi was silenced by the argument of Sri Chaitanya and admitted the insufficiency of the scriptures on which he had relied. He further confessed to Sri Chaitanya that he had been put into a great fear by a series of most extraordinary occurrences. After he had returned from the house of the citizen, whose ‘khol’ he caused to be broken, in the night he was all but killed by a most terrible form with human body and the face of a lion which sprang upon him and grinding its teeth threatened to tear up his heart and kill his whole family for his offence of having broken the mrdanga. The Kazi showed Sri Chaitanya the very marks of the lion’s paw on his chest in corroboration of his statement. He also described the experience of the peon whom he had sent to forbid kirtan. That man complained that his face was struck by a meteor-like substance which burnt his beard and scarred his cheeks. The man also reported that from the moment that he had told the Hindus that they should not shout ‘Hari, Hari’, as the words meant ‘I steal, I steal’ and it would prove their purpose of stealing other people’s property, his lips had been automatically uttering ‘Hari, Hari’ against his own inclinations. The Kazi also said that complaints had been made to him by a number of Hindus charging Sri Chaitanya with practices that were new and contrary to their religion and likely to destroy it if they were not stopped; that the loud kirtan in and out of season broke the peace of the town and prevented their sleep; that it was against their religion to utter with a loud voice the mantra of the Name of God; that, therefore, as ruler of the place, the Kazi should order Sri Chaitanya to leave the town. Sri Chaitanya was delighted on hearing the words ‘Hari’, ‘Krishna’, ‘Narayan’ from the mouth of the Kazi and told him that all his ills had left him as he had uttered those holy Names of God. The Kazi then touched the feet of Sri Chaitanya and prayed for devotion to His feet. Sri Chaitanya then begged this as alms from the Kazi that there might be no further molestation of kirtan at Navadwip. The Kazi promised that he would leave an order to his family and descendents that none of them must offer any opposition to kirtan at any time in the future. Even to this day at Sri Mayapur on the occasion of the annual perambulation of Sridham the descendents of the Kazi have always willingly joined in the kirtan of Krishna.

One night while Sri Chaitanya was chanting the kirtan of Hari with His companions in the yard of Sribash, a son of Sribash chanced to breathe his last. Sribash ordered the females of the house not to make any noise or other demonstration of their grief as it might interfere with the joy of Sri Chaitanya in the chanting of kirtan. After the kirtan was finished Sri Chaitanya learnt of what had happened and expressed His regret that the news of it had been kept from Him for such a long time. He then made the dead child tell the bereaved family the truth regarding what had happened to him and this relieved them of all grief on his account. Sri Chaitanya said to Sribash, ‘The son that was once yours has left you; but Myself and Nityananda are your eternal Sons. We can never leave you.’

A certain tailor who lived close to Sribash’s house and sewed the clothes of Sribash was charmed by witnessing with faith the dance of Sri Chaitanya. Thereupon the Lord showed that fortunate tailor His own Form; the tailor smitten with holy love at once began to dance crying ‘I have seen, I have seen’.

One night the Lord took part in a dramatic exhibition of certain sacred episodes at the house of Chandra-Sekhar Acharyya. Sri Chaitanya Himself appeared in the garb of Rukmini, and Sri Advaita, Sri Nityananda, Sribash, Sri Haridas and other devotees put on dresses in keeping with other parts. This was the first theatrical performance staged in Bengal. Sri Chaitanya Math, the source of the numerous Maths that are the centers of propaganda of the movement of un-alloyed devotion in the present age, stands on the site of the house of Chandra-Sekhar Acharyya.

One day a Brahman woman having touched the feet of the Lord on the conclusion of kirtan, Sri Chaitanya, as Teacher of the world, in order to warn those so-called Sahajiyas who follow sensuous inclinations, threw Himself into the Ganges to do away with His body for allowing itself to be touched by a woman, but was rescued by the exertions of Nityananda, Haridas and other devotees.

On a certain day as Sri Goursundar, the embodiment of grief at separation from Krishna, was articulating the word ‘gopi’ with a heart broken with the pang of separation, a student, a scoffer of God, happened by accident to come to the presence of the Lord and intruded with the remark, ‘Why are you repeating in vain the word ‘gopi’ which is the name of a woman, instead of taking the Name of Krishna?’ The Lord hearing this began to blame Krishna in the mood of the gopi. The luckless student showing no disposition to catch the sense of His words the Lord, in His exclusive mood, as milkmaid of Braja, taking the student to be a partisan of Krishna, ran after him stick in hand with an appearance of anger threatening to beat him. The student fled outright. On hearing of the so-called Brahmans, addicted to mechanical ceremonials for gaining worldly ends and wholly averse to God, in their infatuation, began to conspire for beating the Lord Himself. In order to reclaim those professors, students, religionists, elevationists, ascetics and other impious persons from the offence of their inveterate hostility against Vishnu and Vaishnavas, the Lord now wished to accept the fourth asrama, that of sannyas, which in the estimation of the society of those worldly people conferred on a sannyasin the status of the teacher of even those who were proud of being the possessors of the highest varna and social position. If He accepted sannyas all would, therefore, bow to Him as a sannyasin. By such deference to Him even those Brahmans who vilified Him might be aroused to the impropriety of such conduct. Having formed this decision, on the last day of the north-ward course of the sun of the bright fortnight of the month of Magh, in the closing hours of the wintry night, Sri Chaitanya, having just completed the twenty-fourth year of His pastimes, left the home of His father and having swum the Ganges at the point that has since been called the ‘unkind bathing ghat’ (nidayar ghat), arrived at Katwa. There Sri Chaitanya showed his mercy to Keshav Bharati under the guise of receiving back the same mantra of sannyas from him which He Himself first spoke into his ear, and also received the staff of sannyas. Inspired by Sri Chaitanya Keshav Bharati declared ‘Sri Krishna Chaitanya’ as the Name which the Lord was to bear thence-forward as a sannyasin. The explanation offered that Bharati offered for his choice of the Name was that Sri Chaitanya would arouse the spiritual consciousness of the inert world by the kirtan of Krishna. By the desire of Sri Chaitanya Chandra-Sekhar Archaryya performed, on His behalf, the necessary rites that had to be gone through on the occasion. The shaving of the head was finished amidst the cries of His devotees towards the close of a day which had been spent in constant kirtan. On the next day Sri Krishna Chaitanya started on His wanderings in Rahr chanting all the way the song in quest of the Infinite that has such a strange power of inclining the hearer to the paths of devotion, of the mendicant of Avanti, which we find in the Bhagavat.

(To be continued.)

The Special Characteristics of the Acharyya
[BY PROF. NISHI KANTA SANYAL, M.A.,]

(Continued from P.-234, March, 1928.)

The power of the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Deva has opened up a vast store-house of considerations regarding philanthropy or kindness to others so unique in character that they have literally transported us to quite a new age in the very midst of the old. Sri Chaitanya-Chandra’s own words are these – ‘Let him who has been born as man in this land of Bharata do good to others after realising the significance of such birth.’

The power of the mercy of Sri Chaitanya Deva becoming manifest in this age has caused to be thrown open the portals of an eternal mansion-house of never-ceasing hospitality opposite the row of shops of so-called charity that are straitly squeezed each within the narrow enclosure of its particular vendor. This immense mansion-house of perfectly open-handed charity instead of doing harm to jiva in the guise of temporary kindness makes a free gift to him of the right of offering as bounteously to others of the deliciously cool shade of the purpose-tree of eternal well-being and its ripe fruitage. This philanthropy does not limit its kindness to this gross and subtle physical body but extends its anxious concern to the soul. It is the function of his non-harm-producing kindness to arouse in every one the consciousness of one’s own eternal nature by destroying ignorance, the root of the disease to which he has been subject from time immemorial. The kirtan of Krishna, Who draws to Himself the minds of all jivas of the three worlds, the surging ocean of Divine pastimes, the Embodiment of the elixir of infinite deliciousness, is alone the only food given away freely that causes the ocean of bliss thus to swell and overflow, and the water that bathes the feet of Krishna and the feet of those who belong to Krishna, the Divinity waited upon by all His manifest powers, is the only drink offered which has the quality of quenching the otherwise insatiable worldly thirst and infuse life and vigour into spiritual striving.

The words of the song of the great Muni, Alabandru Srimad Jamunacharyya, have been rendered by Srila Kaviraj Goswami in the following manner, ‘we actually witness the visible manifestations of the manifold display of the Divine Power, supernatural acts, supernatural indications. The race of disbelievers do not see them although they are enacted before their eyes, as the owl does not see the light of the Sun.’

In this age of speculative and so-called ‘spiritual’ explanations the reader is requested to be on his guard against mis-understanding such expressions as ‘visible manifestation of the Divine Power’ ‘super-natural acts and supernatural indications’. He should not suppose them to mean either the quackeries of the hallucinative imagination, the performances of the magician or the illusive powers of the pervert Yogi, etc. etc. As a matter of fact in this particular instance these manifestations, acts and indications are nothing but those activities and preachings so obviously beneficial to the world that are issuing in a bounteous stream from this transcendental Acharyya. Those practices and preachings are not something that astonishes, bewilders or deceives the people like the deeds of a magician. It is merely the pure samkirtan (chanting together in company of kirtan) of Krishna.

This kirtan of Krishna is the only weapon, that never fails, possessed by the Teachers sent by God. Those who are able to understand this are alone endowed with goodness of judgement, all the rest are of a perverted understanding. This has been put into the language of the soul by those who realised its significance. ‘Nityananda and Advaita, the two commanders, at the head of an army of followers the foremost of whom is Sribash, are constantly on the move chanting the kirtan in company. The standards of Nityananda-Rai trample down all the atheists. The evil-minded pashandis scatter in a fright at the very sound of the thundering voice of the Acharyya. Sri Krishna-Chaitanya has instituted the chanting of the Name of God in company. He is worthy of all praise who serves God by the sacrifice of the samkirtan. Such a person alone possesses a sound judgement, all the others are of a perverted understanding. Of all sacrifices the sacrifice of the Name of Krishna is the one that is alone essential.

Sriman Mahaprabhu, Sri Damodar Swarup, Sri Rai Ramananda, Sri Nityananda Prabhu, Sri Haridas Thakur, the Six Goswamins, Sri Bakreswar Pandit Prabhu, Sri Krishnadas Kaviraj Goswamin Prabhu, Sri Srinibash Acharyya, Sri Narottam Thakur, Sri Shyamanandeva Thakur, Srimad Rasikananda, Murari Prabhu and after them, Sri Biswanath Chakravarti Thakur, Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusan Prabhu and their successors are the teachers of the age,—the world teachers. The supernatural deeds and super-human indications that these teachers have manifested, the ideal of practice and preaching that they have held up before the world, are not an artificial and a strange path, neither is it something that is diligently concocted, nor is it the use of any physical or brutal force. It is not the endeavour of the heroic man of action, brandishing of the sword, the display of the powers of the pervert Yogi or the delusive art of the magician. It is merely the practice and preaching of the exceedingly easy, simple, natural, eternal, old religion of all the servants of God, viz. the pure samkirtan of Krishna.

The worship of the Holy Name, or the Divine Logos or samkirtan by the scriptural method for the purpose of bringing about the descent of the Image of the Divine Logos, Sri Radha-Govinda, has been adopted by all of them by common consent as the only means of effecting the real good of the world.

They have not considered as efficacious any of the methods that have been imagined, made, or newly discovered by any mortals. The devotion to God that bears the name of kirtan alone possesses the highest potency. It is possible to conquer the world with this supernatural weapon. This conquest is no ordinary conquest. It is not a conquest that remains effective only for a few days. It is not the conquest of the body or the mind of men. It is the supreme victory. By this method it is not man only but the souls of all the jivas of all the worlds can be won. The soul of the jiva cannot be conquered by any worldly weapons. It can be conquered only by the supernatural, un-ambigious kirtan of Krishna. The victory over the body and mind that lasts only for a few days has no value unless the soul is won. The paths of material activity, of yoga, of the pursuit of the Brahman as un-differentiated knowledge, can, indeed, lead to the conquest of the body and the mind, but the soul can be conquered only by the greatest of all weapons viz. the power of the kirtan of Krishna Who is the Soul of all souls. He alone is fit to occupy the seat of the world-teacher, the seat of the Acharyya of the Age, who has adopted as his only weapon the un-alloyed kirtan of Krishna. He alone possesses the strength to unfurl the banner of victory of Sri Krishna Chaitanya Who instituted the samkirtan, and proclaim to the four quarters the trumpet-call of the mercy of Sri Chaitanya.

(To be continued.)