Talk:Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa Blesses his Bhakta Puṇḍalika:Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu

By Vishal Agarwal

Caitanya Mahāprabhu

is regarded as an avatāra of Kṛṣṇa in Kaliyuga by his followers. He was born in the village of Māyāpura in the district of Nadia (today in the Indian state of Paścima Baṅga or West Bengal). He lived in the 15th–16th centuries, mainly in eastern India (states of Paścima Baṅga and Odisha) and also toured the northern and southern parts of India extensively. He inspired many Hindus to become bhakta-s of Kṛṣṇa at a time when the Muslim rulers were often very cruel towards them. Inspired by him, a group of six scholars known as the Ṣaṭ Gosvāmi-s settled in Vṛndāvana, where Kṛṣṇa spent his childhood. Partly due to their efforts, Vṛndāvana is a great center of pilgrimage for people even today.

A group of Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s devotees founded an organization named the International Society for Kṛṣṇa Consciousness (ISKCON), popularly known as the Hare Kṛṣṇas, which continues to spread his message, as well as the message of the Bhagavad Gītā, all over the world. Below are some inspiring stories from the lives of Caitanya Mahāprabhu and his disciples.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Harmony with All Creatures

Rediscovery of Vṛndāvana

The glories of Vṛndāvana were forgotten as a result of several centuries of Islamic rule. This sacred region lay between Delhi and Agra, two seats of Muslim political power in North India. The Sultans utterly destroyed the region and allowed it to become a desolate forest of scrub and thorny thickets. They even used the region as a hunting ground, killing animals there, which was the ultimate sacrilege to the sensibilities of Vaiṣṇava Hindus.

A great saint arose in Bengal named Caitanya Mahāprabhu. When he visited the desolate region, he was able to see with his spiritual eyes the former associations of different spots with Bhagavān Kṛṣṇa. Back in eastern India, he blessed Śrī Rūpa Gosvāmi and Śrī Sanātana Gosvāmi and tasked them with going north to Vṛndāvana and reviving its former spiritual glory.

Nimai Throwing His Treatise into the Ganga

Blessed by Caitanya, the two saints spent several decades in that area, devotedly and persistently unearthing numerous sacred sites associated with the early life of Kṛṣṇa. Times turned favorable for Hindus during the reign of two Mughal emperors Akbar and his son Jahāṅgīr who ruled together from 1556–1628 CE. In those roughly seventy-five years, the followers of Caitanya Mahāprabhu attracted several Hindu princes and traders who sponsored the construction of beautiful temples to Kṛṣṇa in that region.

Although many of these temples were razed just two generations later by the bigoted Muslim emperor Aurangzeb, the grandson of Jahāṅgīr, the glory of Vṛndāvana could not be completely extinguished this time.

Everything for the Sake of Pleasing Bhagavān

Raghunātha Paṇḍita was one of the greatest scholars of his times and lived in 15th–16th century Bengal. One day, he was crossing the river in a boat with his dear friend, the saintly Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The Paṇḍita said that he had written a scholarly book on Nyāya, the philosophy of Hindu logic. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that it was a coincidence, as he too had written a book on the same topic and was carrying its manuscript with him at that moment. He offered to read out a few passages.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Jagannath Rath Yatra

As Mahāprabhu did so, he noticed that Raghunātha Paṇḍita shed a tear from his eye. When asked why he was crying, the Paṇḍita replied that he had thought his book would make him famous, but now he realized that Mahāprabhu’s book was superior. He felt no one would be interested in what he had written.

Suddenly, Caitanya threw his own book into the river. He smiled and said to Raghunātha Paṇḍita that he wrote only for the pleasure of Kṛṣṇa, without any desire to acquire wealth or fame, and certainly not by undermining a friend.

Story: Live the Scripture, Not Just Study It Studying the Bhagavad Gītā is not an end in itself. Once, a man came to Svāmī Chinmayānanda and said that he had gone through the Gītā fifteen times. Svāmī-jī asked if the Gītā had gone through him even once. The story below illustrates this message very aptly.

While touring South India, Caitanya encountered a certain brāhmaṇa in the temple of Raṅga-kṣetra. This man sat daily in the temple turning over the pages of the Bhagavad Gītā, but his constant mispronunciation of the Sanskrit made him the object of general mirth and derision. Caitanya, however, observed signs of genuine spiritual ecstasy on the brāhmaṇa’s body and asked what he read in the Gītā that induced such joy.

The brāhmaṇa replied that he did not actually read anything, as he was illiterate and could not understand Sanskrit. Nevertheless, his guru had ordered him to read the Gītā daily, and he complied as best he could. He simply pictured Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna together on the chariot, and this image of Kṛṣṇa’s merciful dealings with his devotee caused the ecstasy. Caitanya embraced the brāhmaṇa and declared that he was an authority on reading the Bhagavad Gītā.

Another time, during his South India tour, a group of young boys became deeply attracted to Caitanya’s chanting of Kṛṣṇa’s names. They began following him, chanting “Hari, Hari.” When the father of one of the boys saw this, he became very angry. He began beating Caitanya Mahāprabhu and said that he was a madman trying to make madmen out of the children. Caitanya Mahāprabhu said that the man could beat him as much as he wished, but he should never stop the little children from chanting the names of Kṛṣṇa.

The True Bhakta

One day, it was the time of the Ārati in the Jagannātha Temple. A huge crowd of bhaktas stood in the maṇḍira and outside it, singing the ārati with devotion, waving lamps, and throwing flowers at the mūrti.

Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Meets the Devotee on the Pillar

A woman devotee came late and was unable to make her way through the crowd to get a darśana of Bhagavān Jagannātha. She climbed the Garuḍa-stambha and began chanting the ārati with great devotion. She was so lost in singing the devotional songs that she did not realize she had placed her other foot on the shoulder of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, who was also standing next to the pillar and singing the ārati.

The saint stood still so that the lady would not be disturbed. However, his student Govinda became very upset at what he regarded as an insult to his guru. He said to the lady that she should be ashamed of placing her foot on the shoulder of a saint.

When the lady realized this, she immediately came down from the pillar and fell at the feet of Caitanya Mahāprabhu, asking for forgiveness with tears in her eyes.

But the saint replied that she should not fall at his feet. Instead, he said that he should fall at her feet. One should learn true devotion, faith, and dedication from her. In her eagerness to worship Bhagavān, she did not even realize what else was around her because her entire attention was focused on Bhagavān. Indeed, this is how a true bhakta is his or her entire focus is on Bhagavān and not on anything else. He expressed the hope that one day even he would be able to focus all his attention towards Bhagavān just like her.