Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c6.s2.85

c6.s2.85

The conversion of the great scholar from his confirmed Vedāntic convictions of a life-time must have been a notable and significant triumph for the young religious revivalist. Nothing like this had been achieved before. It is not difficult to understand the impression he had made on the rank and file of his Navadvīpa followers and their exuberant adoration of him. After he had accepted the traditional sanctity of the ascetic ideal and turned his face towards Puri, this adoration naturally deepened. Both distance and cherished memories of his wonderful devotion actually deified him in their eyes, and created a mass of pious legends which to-day obscure his real religious personality. But in a veteran logician and philosopher like Sārvabhauma one would expect a less susceptible and more alert mind, although it must be admitted that the renowned scholar was at that time already much advanced in years. There can be no doubt that his rationalistic mind must have found something real and arresting in the religious attitude of Caitanya, and recognising its intensity and power he quickly fell under its mystic spell. It was an important achievement, not only for Caitanya himself at the outset of his life as a Saṃnyāsin, but also for the movement which he represented and which in this way made its first deep impression in Orissa. It was this conversion of Sārvabhauma, who was held in high respect, as well as the actual sight of Caitanya's rapturous devotion, which first awakened the curiosity and homage of Gajapati Pratāparudra of Orissa, that assured the future of Caitanyaism in Orissa, although there is no satisfactory evidence to show that Pratāparudra was actually converted into the new faith.¹