At the age of 25, he renounced his home and gave up teaching, became a sanyasi and took up the new name of ‘Chaitanya’, writes MEERA S. SASHITAL.
Engrossed in singing his kirtans and unmindful of his surroundings and himself, a half-crazed devotee goes about. When he looks up he sees his in the clouds his dark-coloured Cowherd adorned in a garment of pitambar, with a peacock crown and playing the flute. This supposed crazy person is none other than Sri Chaitanya and the image in which he is completely lost is Lord Krishna.
Chaitanya was born in Nadia in 1485 in a Brahmin family. He was the tenth child in a family which had lost eight children before him. He was extremely beautiful to look at, hence he was called Gaur (beautiful). Owing to the earlier loss of children and to nullify future such recurrence, he was also given the nick-name Namai (half-dead). Chaitanya was the name given to him after he became a Sanyasi. His father’s name was Sri Jagannath and his mother’s Sachiji whom he loved very much.
It is learnt Chaitanya was very mischievous when he was a child but his horoscope indicated a great future for him. He would fight against anything that he found unjust. He studied Sanskrit at Nadia which was the great seat of learning in those days. He became a Sanskrit scholar and took to teaching children. Being a great lover from the beginning, he married a girl whom he loved. On her death he took another wife.
There came a change in his life when he met Sri Iswar Puri who made him realize the futility of scholarly life and after this he became a keen votary of Bhakti – love for Lord Krishna. This was the starting point of his going into ecstasies and at Gaya he went into Samadhi (trance). He longed to go to Vrindavan to look for his Lord Krishna and the lord of the Universe. His love for Lord Krishna was so intense that he would very often go into ecstasies and people would mock and ridicule him. But this did not affect him and he did not care. Again Chaitanya made no distinctions against caste and creed and this incited the anger of the orthodox Brahmins more.
Sri Chaitanya renounced his home and gave up teaching at the age of twenty-five and became a sanyasi and took up the new name of ‘Chaitanya’. He left on his divine mission and holy pilgrimage to various religious centres and lasted till the close of his union with the Lord perennially at the age of 48. At Puri he won victory over the Vedantists. He attracted many disciples from all ranks including a Shudra and King Pratap Rudra.
He travelled as far as Cape Comorin visiting Dwarka, Mathura and Vrindavan his Krishna’s cities. He would lose himself in the divine love of Lord Krishna and in ecstasy he would sing and dance and enact like Krishna which appealed immensely to spectators as well as his followers.. Even the subtlest thing of beauty like a flower, cloud or even the sound of ripple of water was enough to send him into ecstacy as he saw divinity of Lord Krishna in them. To him the whole world was the scene of Divine Love.
Disciples of Chaitanya worshipped him like God. Special mention can be made of Sri Adwaita, Sri Haridas and Sri Nityananda who came in his life. Chaitanya’s motto it seems was that even a chandal should be honoured more than a Brahmin if the former has attained the knowledge of God. His followers were, therefore, from both sexes and included monks and householders. It is said, he lived according to what he preached. He followed the duties of a Householder and as sanyasi left his home and his relations. At Puri and Jagannath he experienced God realization and, it is learnt, at the temple of Jagannath he lay for eight hours lost in ecstasy, unconscious and immobile in union with the Lord.
It is said, Chaitanya was a great artist and delighted people with his Kirtans and drama describing episodes from Krishna’s life. He took part in dramas and was careful to see that the highest spiritual effect was maintained throughout the play. He was afraid that the love of Sri Radha-Krishna might be interpreted as sensual love. Therefore, he had said “Only those who have entirely subdued the passions of the flesh should be entitled to witness the play of ours!” He was a great disciplinarian and strictly adhered to shastras. Once a disciple served him with rice but, when Chaitanya came to know that the disciple had talked to the woman who had given him alms, although she was a devotee of the Lord, he refused to eat.
Sri Chaitanya’s expositions of the cult of Bhakti were marvels of erudition and sincerity. In Chaitanya Charitramrita, the various stages of the Bhakti cult are discussed with various citations from the Bhagwat, the Puranas and other Sastras. On the love of the Gopies for Krishna, Sri Chaitanya saw the highest devotion through their self-surrender. But he was against the romantic relationship, the miscalled love which was wrongly misinterpreted by many. “True love”, he said will dawn only when the hearts have risen above sexual cravings.” He preached renunciation. In order to nourish the spiritual body he advised his followers to live on a meagre diet and to wear simple clothing.
The ecstasies of Sri Chaitanya inspired his devotees. It was a proof of pure Divine expectation. He would always chant: “Make me the prisoner of love. O Lord of Brindaban.” He would always cling to his heart the image of Lord Krishna.
Sri Chaitanya, we learn, did not elaborate commentary on any Upanishad or on the Gita like other saints. He only gave us the cream or the nectar from the Shastras in his memorable Shiksha-Ashtak (Symposium of Instructions). For example, he expressed “O Darling of Nanda! I, Thy slave, am steeped in the ocean of worldliness. I pray Thee keep me in Thy Lotus Feet as a particle of dust (that I may thereby attain the joy of my life). 2) O Lord! I crave not for wealth, or high relationships nor is it my wish to be a poet O Sri Krishna: I cherish but one desire, to Love you with single-hearted devotion through countless lives. 3) O Lord! Without Thee, a moment of separation hangs upon me like countless ages and my eyes shed tears incessantly while the whole world appears to be a veritable desert, O Govinda!! 4) Perform at all times the Kirtan of Hari with due humility like that of the grass which you tread underfoot, giving honour to the meek, and bearing up with all humiliation like unto a tree.
Sri Chaitanya preached that Krishna’s name alone washed away all sins. Amongst many Pauranic books, Bhagwad Purana was, it seems, his favourite book. By many devotees he was also regarded as the incarnation of Lord Krishna. Sri Chaitanya, however, saw his Lord Krishna, the Cowherd with his flute in every particle, colour or beauty of Nature that resembled his Krishna. Sri Chaitanya was one of the highest amongst Vaishnavite Bhaktas and a great Kirtan Evangelist of Bengal.
