Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c6.s2.82

c6.s2.82

had by chance come to the temple and witnessed the scene, had the unconscious youth carried to his house, where he must have been interested to learn that the charming young man belonged to Navadvīpa and was a grandson of Nilāmbara Cakravartin, a friend of his own father Viśārada. The story of the interview, which followed, is shrouded in the pious accounts by a cloud of miraculous and theological legends, but the facts are fairly obvious. Struck by Caitanya's youth and personality, the compassionate old scholar sought at first to dissuade him from the difficult path of renunciation and tried to make him a Vedāntist. After listening to his learned discourse for seven days (the entire episode in one account lasting at least for twelve days!), Caitanya observed that the Vedānta-sūtra, like the Upaniṣads, was clear to him, but the views of Śaṃkara, as expounded by Sārvabhauma, obscured the real meaning of the Sūtras. A learned discussion followed in which Caitanya advanced a series of abstruse exposition of dualistic Vaiṣṇava tenets, diametrically opposed to Advaita Vedānta. The result of the disputation was that Sārvabhauma became a convert to Caitanyaism. In the course of the debate, however, as described in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta, quotations are freely made and interpreted, with an evident theological relish, from the Bhāgavata, as well as from such works as Rūpa's Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu which, as we shall see presently, was not composed till several years after Caitanya's death¹ In the orthodox account, however, it appears that the great Vedāntist was not fully convinced by the metaphysics of the young enthusiast, but that he was finally overpowered when Caitanya revealed himself to his vision as the divine Kṛṣṇa. Apart from miracles, what probably happened was that Sārvabhauma was finally won over from the path of dry doctrines to that of passionate devotion, not so much by theological arguments as by the irresistible appeal of Caitanya's impassioned religious personality.¹