Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Minor Religious Systems v2.c13.41
Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism and Minor Religious Systems v2.c13.41
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v2.c13.41.1
§ 67. Caitanya's original name was Bisambhar (Viśvambhara) Miśra, and his father's name was Jagannātha Miśra and mother's Sacī Debī. The father lived originally in Sylhet in Eastern Bengal, but had emigrated to Nadiya (Nabadvīpa) before the birth of Bisambhar, his youngest son. The eldest son's name was Bisvarūpa, who is called Nityānanda in the history of Caitanya. These were the only two sons of Jagannātha, and between these were eight daughters, who died young. Caitanya was born on the full-moon day of Phālguna in the year 1407 of the Śaka era, corresponding to 1485 A. D. He was afterwards called Kṛṣṇa Caitanya and was considered by his disciples an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa himself. As such he is reported to have played pranks with the women of the village, which, however, cannot be considered as historically true. Caitanya is also known by the name of Gaurāṅga, i. e. possessed of a fair and not a dark body, and Gauracandra, or fair moon. When he was eighteen years of age, he married a wife of the name of Lachmī Debī and began to live the life of a householder, taking pupils and giving them secular instruction. Soon after he took to a wandering life and visited many places in Eastern Bengal. Begging and singing were his occupation, and he is said to have collected a great deal of money. During his peregrinations his wife died, and on his return home he married another.
v2.c13.41.2
When he was about twenty-three years of age, he went to Gayā to make offerings to his manes and on his return he began the mission of his life. He condemned the ritualistic system of the Brāhmaṇas and preached faith in Hari and the love of him as well as singing his name as the only effectual ways to salvation. He also preached the doctrine of the brotherhood of men, denouncing the system of castes. It is stated that the doctrine of faith and love had been preached before Caitanya by a person of the name of Advaitācārya, whose practice it was, after the performance of the usual Brāhmanic rites, to go to the banks of the Ganges and call out for the appearance of God to substitute the doctrine of faith and love for that of the performance of various rites. It is also said that this Ācārya was at first the instructor of Caitanya and afterwards became his pupil. Whatever it may have been, the new doctrine was first publicly proclaimed to the exclusion of others by Kṛṣṇa Caitanya. He was assisted by his brother Nityānanda, who was regarded as an incarnation of Balarāma, the brother of the god Kṛṣṇa. Caitanya now began to hold meetings for the singing and glorification of the name of Hari. These were at first private and held in the house of a pupil named Srībāsa.
v2.c13.41.3
The doings of these devotees met with scorn and ridicule, especially at the hands of the worshippers of Kālī, one of whom put red flowers and goat's blood on the steps of the door of the house in which the Vaiṣṇava meetings were held. The fervour displayed at these Kīrtanas, or singing of the name of Hari, gradually increased in intensity, until the loud singers and principally Caitanya himself swooned away and dropped senseless on the ground. In the year 1510 Caitanya became a Saṃnyāsin, or an ascetic, and was initiated into the order by Keśab Bhāratī of Katva. After this he first went to Purī to visit the shrine of Jagannātha, and thence wandered about the country for six years preaching his new faith ¹). On one occasion he went to Benares, where he is reported to have held a disputation with Prakāśānanda, a teacher of the monistic Vedānta of Saṃkarācārya. Caitanya condemned Saṃkara's commentary on the Vedāntasūtras and said that it mystified the sense of the original. Saṃkarācārya did not give the plain ordinary sense of the words of Bādarāyaṇa, but forced his own views into them. The doctrine of development (Pariṇāmavāda) was held by the author of the Sūtras, while Saṃkarācārya rejects it and brings in his doctrine of illusion (Vivartavāda). The former alone is true according to Caitanya. After these wanderings he returned to Purī, where he spent the last eighteen years of his life, and died in Śaka 1455, corresponding to 1533 A. D.