Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s1.6

c9.s1.6

Except the usual obeisance and homage to Caitanya and general passages testifying to his identity with the supreme deity, there is nowhere in the extensive works of Sanātana, Rūpa and Jiva any direct reference to his personal views and teachings. These theologians and philosophers are chiefly concerned with the godhead of Kṛṣṇa and his Līlā as revealed in their older scriptures, and Kṛṣṇa in their theory is not an Avatāra but is alone the supreme deity himself (svayam bhagavat). They are almost entirely silent about Caitanya-līlā and its place in their devotional scheme, and it is somewhat strange that in presenting a system of religion in his name they rely upon older sources and do not refer at all to his direct realisation of spiritual truths. The divinity of Kṛṣṇa as the exclusive object of worship is elaborately established, but the divinity of Caitanya, which is implicitly acknowledged in Namaskriyās and other devotional verses, is hardly ever discussed. If Jiva Gosvāmin wrote a Kṛṣṇa-samdarbha, he never wrote a Caitanya-samdarbha. It is said in the Bengali biography of Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja that these works of the Gosvāmins were not only inspired but were directly communicated to these disciples by Caitanya himself; but even then there is no direct acknowledgment of this fact by the Gosvāmins themselves¹. There cannot be any doubt that the devout life of Caitanya inspired these faithful disciples, but in the building up of their systems of theology and philosophy there is no reference to the life, personality or views of Caitanya himself. There is, on the other hand, an entire dependence upon a complicated system of text-interpretation, rather than upon any direct and vivid spiritual illumination. It must be admitted that in these treatises we reach a high level of the emotional Bhakti-doctrine in the setting of a vital and practical system of religious beliefs, and