Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s5.26

c9.s5.26

It should be noted that by the word ‘greed’ (lobha) employed in this verse is probably meant, as the *Bhakti-rasāmṛta-sindhu* shows,¹ that Sanātana regarded Caitanya’s rapture as an example of the Rāgātmikā or Rāgānugā Bhakti. If the nameless running commentary to this work is by Sanātana himself, he speaks, in his own explanation of this verse, of Caitanya as the Bhakta-rūpa Avatāra,² the Parama Guru, the dearest Avatāra of Śrī-bhagavat (*śrī-bhagavat-priyatamā-vatāra*), who spread the sentiment of Bhakti consisting for the most part of the Saṃkīrtana of his own name (*nija-nāma-saṃkīrtanaprāya - bhakti - rasa - vistāraka*). Elsewhere in the same commentary he makes his views quite clear by saying³ that the Gopi-bhāva was admitted in this particular Avatāra for the purpose of revealing the special excellence of Prema-bhakti. The belief is further indicated briefly in the Namaskriyā⁴ to Sanātana’s *Vaiṣṇava-toṣaṇī* commentary on the *Śrīmad-bhāgavata*, where he pays homage in almost similar phraseology to the Bhagavat Śrī-kṛṣṇa-caitanya, who is full of compassion and who became an Avatāra in Gauḍa for the purpose of propagating Prema-bhakti. It is also noteworthy that these passages appear to accept the implications of the theory of dual incarnation of Caitanya, even if they do not expressly state it. But Ānandin in his commentary on Prabodhānanda's *Caitanya-candrāmṛta* attributes an eulogistic verse to Sanātana, which distinctly gives expression to this idea by saying that since the love of Rādhā and Kṛṣṇa is an expression of the blissful divine attribute (Hlādinī Śakti), it divided itself formerly in this world, in spite of its essential identity, into two forms, but the two have now attained a unity, called Caitanya, which is identical with Kṛṣṇa but which is diversified by the brightness of the state of Rādhā.¹