History of Bengali Language and Literature c9.s2.87

c9.s2.87

There is yet another side of his character which requires prominent notice and which inspired the Vaiṣṇava poets with new ideals in their love-poems. The vision of God was always before him. It was Kṛṣṇa's lovely complexion that he found painted in the newly formed clouds—and it was Kṛṣṇa's divine flute that he heard in the songs of birds. When conversing with learned scholars and the devotees of the type of Rām Rāy, he would explain the meaning of this love; this was a concrete way of thinking of the universal spirit—the great soul attracting the lesser souls as the sun attracts the planets. Even in the Vedas we find a Risi praying to God that He may come to him as a husband comes to his wife. This idea was taken up and developed in the faith of the Vaiṣṇavas God, according to them, is the Lord of love. This Chaitanya explained with many learned quotations from Sanskrit works on theology. But when the God-vision possessed him, he yielded to the fine frenzy of a poet and a lover. Whenever he would see the Kadamva flower blooming into beauty, freshened by the rains, he would fall into a trance, remembering that it was the favourite of Kṛṣṇa; when the clouds appeared on the clear horizon, with the crown of the rain-bow fixed above, his eyes would not move from the lovely sight and he shed profuse tears, stretching out his arms heaven-wards and calling on his beloved Kṛṣṇa to come to him. Wherever he saw a shady grove of flowering trees, he took it for the Vrinda groves where Kṛṣṇa sported; and wherever he saw a river flow before him, he heard in it, the soft mumers of the river Jumna, associated with Kṛṣṇa. It was a beautiful sight to see him in fits of ecstacy. The Tāmāl tree with its dark-blue foliage created an illusion in him and he ran to embrace it,—there with tears in his eyes he would chant hymns and quote verses on love. He had the highest poetical vision vouchsafed only to those who are endowed with the power to realise the presence of that primeval Poet whose creation of fancy this world is. If a great Emperor all unexpectedly calls at the lowly cottage of his poorest subject, what tribute can he offer to the monarch except the gratitude of his whole soul expressed in tears! Even so it was the case with Chaitanya; he saw the God-vision and became completely lost in it; his life was a course of thanks-giving, tears, hymns and praises offerd to God.