ART-1205 The Life of Chaitanya
Word document download: ART-1205
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in Navadwip, situated on the bank of the holy Ganges River in Bengal, on February 18th 1486. The moon was eclipsed at the time, and the people were then engaged, as was usual on such occasions, in bathing in the River Bhagirathi with loud cheers of ‘Haribol’ (praise be to Krishna). This portended his mission of spreading the chanting of the holy names of Krishna throughout the world. His father, Jagannatha Mishra and mother, Sachi, were both from pious and scholarly brahmana families. As a baby, Chaitanya would often cry and could not be consoled until the people around him began to chant Hare Krishna. He was nicknamed Nimai and would was very fond of singing and dancing..
Nimai studied under Ganga Dasa Pandit, the most learned scholar in Navadwip. Although there were many students in his school, some of whom 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 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 imbued with scholastic spirit and indulged in dialectical bouts with the scholars of Nadia. In one such bout he defeated a famous scholar and became the leading pandit in the district
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 snakebite. Later, at the request of His mother, he was remarried to Vishnupriya.
About one year after His tour of East Bengal he went to Gaya. There he met Ishvara Puri, a disciple of Madhavendra Puri of the Madhva sampradaya. He took initiation from Ishvara Puri and from that moment on He began to show spiritual ecstasy at every moment. He returned to Navadwip a different person. His pride of learning and aggressive spirit were gone. He was immersed in the thought of Krishna. Tears incessantly flowed from his eyes and at the very name of Krishna sent him into trance. It became impossible for Him to teach his pupils and he closed his school.
He started the process of sankirtan, the congregational chanting of the names of God and attracted a huge following. Soon there were organized sankirtan parties and processions in which thousands upon thousands of people participated, parading through the streets of Navadwip and chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. Some local people placed a complaint before the governor of the town, and he tried to crush the movement, breaking the drums and stopping the processions. But due to the overwhelming influence of the huge gathering, a defiant display of peaceful civil disobedience, the local magistrate came to his senses and joined Chaitanya’s movement. Chaitanya also met opposition because of his defiance of the rigid caste system, and his acceptance of untouchables into his movement..
At the age of twenty-four Nimai Pandit decided to take sannyasa, and received the name Krishna Chaitanya. Soon after He journeyed to Puri where he converted Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya, a veteran scholar of Nyaya and Vedanta.
Krishna Chaitanya soon embarked on an extensive journey through the south of India right down to the tip of Cape Commorin. 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 epitomised when He captured the heart of the Orissan King, Prataparudra. Yearly the devotees from Bengal would come to visit Him in Puri at the famous Ratha Yatra festival. Chaitanya would daily visit the famous temple of Jagannatha.
In the year 1514 Shri Chaitanya started on a pilgrimage to Vrindavan. Traveling through Bengal, he met two brothers who were ministers in the court of King Hussain Shah of Bengal. Won over by Shri Chaitanya they became his disciples and he gave them the names Sanatana and Rupa. These two brothers, along with their nephew Jiva, became the leading theologians of the Gaudiya sampradaya. They developed the theology that became the branch of Vedanta known as Achintya-beda-beda-tattva (inconceivable simultaneous oneness and difference). Although Chaitanya came in the line of Madhva, his teachings appear to be more consistent with the doctrine of Ramanuja.
Sri Chaitanya had tried going to Vrindavan a few times before with a large accompaniment of followers. This time however he went with only two people and traveled through the forests in order to be unnoticed by the masses. In Vrindavan he was always overwhelmed in ecstasy and absorbed in the mood of Radha and Krishna. He uncovered many holy sites in the town, which were later excavated by his leading disciples. Vrindavan remains today an important holy site for the Bengali Vaishnavas.
Chaitanya returned to Puri, where he passed the last eighteen years of his life in monastic seclusion. He became internally absorbed in ecstasy – so much that his body would change shape and colour. His days were spent in deep communion with the Lord, interrupted only by the occasional conversations with a few of his most intimate disciples. He displayed all the symptoms of intense love of God in separation, and glorified the love of the gopis for Krishna. At the same time, he was extremely strict about his sannyasi followers having no inappropriate contact with the opposite sex. He thus demonstrated that the divine love between Krishna and the cowherd girls transcend mundane affairs. His followers consider him a dual incarnation of Radha and Krishna.
Chaitanya was the founding figure of Gaudiya Vaishnavism, which is still prevalent in Bengal. Many holy sites are now in Bangladesh. Chaitanya’s influence is exhibited in the West through the Hare Krishna movement, whose headquarters are close to Chaitanya’s birthplace. Every year, thousands of pilgrims converge on Navadwip to celebrate Chaitanya’s birthday through singing and dancing.