Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s5.23

c9.s5.23

Rūpa in this attitude appears to follow the views of Sanātana whom in more than one verse he reverently addresses as his master or Prabhu. The third Namaskriyā verse of Sanātana's Bṛhad-Bhāgavatāmṛta makes it clear that Sanātana, like Rūpa, regarded Caitanya not so much as the supreme deity of the faith as the ideal devotee-incarnation, the Bhakta-Avatāra of Kṛṣṇa, who incarnated as the fair-hued ascetic son of Śacī for the purpose of himself relishing his own sweetness as it was relished by Rādhā, his own greatest devotee. It says:²