Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s5.3

c9.s5.3

It must not, however, be supposed that there is no reference at all to the divine personality of Caitanya or homage paid to it, but these passages, occurring mostly in the poetical works or in the Namaskriyās only of the more learned treatises of the Gosvāmins, do not make the position clear. Nor do they inculcate any such worship of Caitanya as obtained at Navadvīpa or Purī in his life-time or in the later history of the sect. Caitanya himself probably deprecated the natural tendency of his followers to deify him; and even his most orthodox biography records in one place¹ (but explains it away) that Caitanya on one occasion disclaimed his identity with Kṛṣṇa. But, at the same time, there can be no doubt that the belief that he was an incarnation of Kṛṣṇa or even Kṛṣṇa himself certainly took form in his life-time among the Gosvāmins, who were his immediate disciples, even though the strictly theological position involved in this belief was never discussed by them.