Twilight of the Sultanate c18.s5.11

c18.s5.11

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).