Twilight of the Sultanate c18.s5.13

c18.s5.13

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.