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Twilight of the Sultanate c18.s5: Chaitanya

Twilight of the Sultanate c18.s5

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Chaitanya

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The emotional land of Bengal is perhaps the natural ground for the worship of Krishna as the God of love. Here flourished Jayadēva (twelfth century),⁴⁷ Chandi Dās (A. D. 1417-78) and Vidyāpatī (A. D. 1433-81). Their passionate poetry had prepared the way for the passionate lover-beloved Chaitanya. Since Chaitanya was undoubtedly a child of his Age, a word about the social life of those times would not be out of place here.

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⁴⁷ The author of *Gīta Govind*.

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Muslim conquest was not without its blessings in Bengal. There, as elsewhere, developed an understanding between Hindus and Muslims. Hindus offered sweets at Muslims shrines; consulted and kept copies of the Quran. Musalmans responded with similar acts.⁴⁸ Vidyāpatī dedicated his songs to Nāsir Shāh, and Sultan Husain Shāh of Gauda is supposed to have been the originator of the cult of Satya Pir to which both Hindus and Muslims were attracted. But the state of Hindu religion was far from satisfactory. On the one hand there was the worship of Chandī with all its concomitant sacrifices and tantrism of a debased and sensuous nature, on the other society was suffering from the harmful pride of pedigree, caste and religious narrowness. Everywhere in Bengal the power of the Brahmans was in the ascendant, and the lower strata of society groaned under the tyranny of the higher.⁴⁹

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⁴⁸ Tarachand, 217.

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⁴⁹ D. C. Sen, *History of Bengali Language and Literature*, 413-14.

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Such was the background in which Chaitanya appeared on the scene.⁵⁰ He was born at Nawadwīp or Nadia in March, 1486, to Jagannath Misra and his wife Sachi Debi. Nimaī (for that was Chaitanya's pet name in childhood) was a handsome child with expressive eyes and sonorous voice.⁵¹

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⁵⁰ J. N. Sarkar, *Chaitanya's Pilgrimages and Teachings*, 226.

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⁵¹ Ind. Ant., II, 1873, 2; Havell, *Aryan Rule in India*, 415 n. and 30.

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Born in a high class Brahman family, Nimaī shaped well as a boy and was renowned for his love of learning. When eighteen he got married and settled down as a teacher in a *tol* (school) established by himself on the banks of the Bhagīrathī. Nadia at this time was a famous educational centre.⁵² The chief interest of Nadia society was debates on philosophical subjects, and Chaitanya is said to have defeated many famous scholars of the day in intellectual bouts. Soon the call from within did not let him continue in his profession for long. Even as a boy he seems to have been eccentric and used to swoon at the name of Krishna. He left his school and went to east Bengal, where he added to his scholastic reputation. At Gaya he met Ishwar Purī, a Vaishnav devotee and preacher, who initiated him into the Bhakti cult.

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⁵² D. C. Sen, *op. cit.*, 410.

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When he returned home, at twenty-three, he was a completely changed man. He was now known as Chaitanya, which literally means "the soul, the intellect". He was saturated with love of Krishna. He felt that Krishna, the everlasting Being and Radha, the ceaseless Becoming, had attained a mystical identity with him. Everything Krishna did, Chaitanya must do too. Thus *Sankīrtans* (singing in worship) were held and dances done in which Chaitanya and Murārī Gupta and many others used to swoon and foam at the mouth. The new religionists met with some opposition and a good deal of mockery.⁵³ But ultimately all opposition died out. Chaitanya's sincere and emotional *Kīrtans* won him hundreds of adherents from all sections of society, castes, creeds and religions. Their common meeting ground was the *nāma Sankīrtan* (singing the name of the Lord).

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⁵³ Ind. Ant., II, 1873, 3.

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At the age of twenty-five Chaitanya took to Sanyās. Like any other Sanyāsī he started on a round of travels. He first went to the shrine of Jagannāth at Puri and thence for six years he roamed all over India preaching Vaishnavism or the cult of Bhakti. In the north he went up to Vrindāvan, passing through Varanasi and Prayag, and in the south up to Rameshwaram. During his travels he came in touch with many Faqīrs and Sādhūs. He was impressed by the simple and democratic ideas of the Muslim Saints.⁵⁴ At Kashi he won over the Vedantic Sanyāsī Prakāshānand Saraswati to his doctrine of Bhakti. On his way from Vrindāvan to Kashi, he converted by his love ten “Pathan Vairāgīs”.⁵⁵ He returned at last to Puri where he passed the remaining eighteen years of his life. He died in 1534 at the early age of forty-eight. After him, his work was carried on by the Goswamīs, an order of the Vaishnava monks founded by him.

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⁵⁴ As indicated in his biography *Chaitanya Charitamrita* of Krishna Dās Kavirāj, translated by J. N. Sarkar. Also Jadu Bhattacharya, *Hindu Castes and Sects*, 464.

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⁵⁵ *Chaitanya Charitamrita*, Sarkar's translation, 226. Also “His Pilgrimage in Upper India”—*Amrit Bazar Patrika*, Allahabad, Supplement, March 16, 1957.

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Chaitanya’s leading principle is Bhakti or devotion. Like all Vedāntists he speaks of Brahma, the Supreme Being, with the highest esteem, but his Brahma is possessed of attributes which are best manifested in the charming personality of Sri Krishna. His God was a personal being, full of grace and love for His creation and endowed with qualities of unequalled excellence. He calls Him Bhagwān or more frequently Harī. Krishna is a loving God. He inspires love and feels affection for His devotees. According to Chaitanya, Bhakti and love are best exemplified and illustrated by the mutual love of Rādhā and Krishna. In his ideas Chaitanya seems to have been deeply influenced by the *Bhagavad Gītā*, the *Bhāgwat Purāna* and the teachings of Rāmānuja.

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For Chaitanya to strive to be near Him and to completely surrender to Him (*prapatti*) was the way to salvation. In relation to God, reason was useless. The Bhakta passes through five successive stages in his goal of salvation. The first is *Santī*, or resigned contemplation; the second *Dasya* or service and servitude to Him. In the third the devotee reaches a stage of *Sākhya* or friendship which warms into the fourth stage of *Vātsalya* or love like that of a child for its parents. The last stage is of *Mādhurya*, earnest and all-engrossing love, love of a woman for her lover. Chaitanya’s biographers claim that he had experienced this last stage of love and combined in himself the unique blending of the two aspects of God—God the lover and God the beloved—represented in Vaishnava literature as Krishna and Radha.

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Chaitanya was an optimist. Existence to him is not *Māyā*. In existence there is no misery, there is a definite and positive joy. It is the play (*Līlā*) and the playground of God. Like Rāmānuja, Chaitanya also felt that “God needed man as man needed God”.⁵⁶

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⁵⁶ Basham, *op. cit.*, 332.

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Each and every devotee has a place in this *Līlā*. Viewed from this angle, the world is an abode of His play and we are participants in His Divine *Līlā*. Once the devotee feels that everything is a part of His sport, he will actually experience the joy of Krishna's company. His attachment to worldly objects would slacken and his soul will be liberated. Chaitanya thought that even repetition of His name with sincerity and devotion was enough for the people of Kalyug (Kālī Age). This is exactly what Nānak⁵⁷ and Rāmānuja also said.

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⁵⁷ Macauliffe, I, 177.

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Like Rāmānuja and the thinkers of the fifteenth century, Chaitanya gives the Gurū a very prominent place in the life of the devotee. "If a creature adores Krishna and serves his Gurū, he is released from the meshes of illusion and attains to Krishna's feet."⁵⁸ He condemns the ritualistic system of the Brahmans. He is against all distinctions of caste. He accepted disciples from all classes of people. From king Pratap Rudra of Orissa to villains and miscreants like Jagai Madhai and Chalgōpāl, all sorts of people were his disciples and their spiritual regeneration was exemplary. Of his Muslim disciples the names of Rūp, Haridās and Sanatan are prominent.

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⁵⁸ Sarkar, *op. cit.*, 278; Tarachand, 219.

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Again like other contemporary thinkers, Chaitanya was against asceticism or renunciation. Though he became a Sanyāsī himself, he did not like people to renounce their duties in the world. In fact he induced Nityānand, a mendicant, to give up Sanyās, marry and be a house-holder. He also tried his best to persuade Raghunāth, the only heir of a rich family, not to become a Sanyāsī, and only initiated him into Sanyās after giving a number of strict, gruelling tests.

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Thus by attacking the evils of the day and in giving a simple religion of Bhakti to the people, Chaitanya contributed much to the regeneration of the Bengali people. His religion of emotional love, unlike that of Vallabha, retained its chaste form. He severely punished any delinquents and Haridās, a beloved disciple of his, was turned out from his order for behaving indiscreetly in matters of sex. In the beginning Chaitanya had permitted women to join the *Sankīrtans*; later this practice was discouraged.

Cites (7)