Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c7.s1.11

c7.s1.11

nothing, he transferred his own energy into his disciples like Rūpa and inspired them to reveal the doctrines.¹ The attribution to him, therefore, of any specific work or specific doctrine is more a matter of pious belief than a positive historical fact. It is indeed difficult to say how much of the elaborate theologising, which is piously put in his mouth, was actually uttered by him; for his reported utterances are in fact faithful summaries of the highly scholastic texts of the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins themselves, who, as leisured recluses, could devote their keenly trained minds to the construction of elaborate system. In chapter after chapter of the Caitanya-caritāmṛta of Kṛṣṇadāsa, Caitanya is credited with stupendous Śāstric learning, highly philosophical discourses, great scholastic ingenuity, marvels of interpretation in expounding finely finished theological and rhetorical systems of Bhakti; but the general impression, given by the orthodox accounts themselves, of Caitanya's life of continuous and absorbing devotional ecstasies, as well as his own disclaimer (explained as the result of his humility) of all such pretensions, certainly throw considerable doubt upon his personal responsibility in such scholastic pursuits. It is not clear, therefore, how far these tenets of a later time actually represent Caitanya's own views. No doubt, Caitanya is represented as commissioning Rūpa and Sanātana to prepare these learned texts as the doctrinal foundations of the faith, and suggesting to them elaborate outlines and schemes; but these outlines and schemes are so suspiciously faithful to the actual and much later products of the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins themselves that they take away whatever truth there might have been in the representation. That some such relation existed between Caitanya and his Vṛndāvana followers is highly probable, but excessive zeal has represented it in a distorted perspective. It is also noteworthy in this connexion that the actual personal contact of Rūpa and Sanātana with Caitanya was indeed very brief,¹ while there is no evidence to show that Jīva ever had this good fortune. It is almost unbelievable that within the period of a few months at most they could have been instructed in the whole range and depth of the Bhakti-śāstra and in every such detail of doctrine as they set it forth in their elaborate and voluminous works. It is certainly true that Caitanya inspired these men of great talent with a life-long zeal for the task, which made them scorn delight and live laborious days; he might have also suggested to them his own ideas of devotion, born out of his own religious realisation; and above all, his life itself must have furnished them a vivid text to enlarge and comment upon,² But to hold him