Early History of the Vaishnava Faith and Movement in Bengal, from Sanskrit and Bengali Sources c9.s5.63

c9.s5.63

So much about the views of the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins and their disciple Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja. When we turn, however, to the Bengali writings of the followers of the Navadvipa circle, which (with the exception of a few Padas apparently composed in Caitanya's life-time) were contemporaneous with the theological and poetical productions of the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins, we find that they regard Caitanya as the Parama Tattva of the Bengal faith. We have already indicated their attitude briefly above¹; but the Gaura-pāramya-vāda, though implicitly accepted without question, is hardly discussed from the theological point of view, in the same way as the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins discuss the Kṛṣṇa-pāramya-tattva. The Bengal writers are concerned more with practical faith than with theological exposition, more with Līlā than with Tattva; and they scarcely think it necessary to examine a question critically which was devotionally or intuitively accepted as a matter of unquestioned faith. The records, however, reveal that the divinity of Caitanya was only gradually established. Murāri-gupta tells us that Caitanya revealed himself as an Āveśa of the supreme deity, not consistently from his birth (as Vṛndāvana-dāsa, Locana and others believe) but occasionally (ii. 4. 4 ; ii. 5. 14, etc.) before his pilgrimage to Gayā ; but after his return and transformation into an ecstatic Bhakta (ii. 12. 5-26), he became the acknowledged centre of devotion of the Navadvīpa circle. Nityānanda saw him as the six-handed (Ṣaḍ-bhuja) Viṣṇu (ii. 8. 27), and one day Caitanya, in divine inspiration, sat on the throne in Śrīvāsa's chapel (ii. 9. 18). Murāri, Kavikarṇapūra (Drama Act i ; Kāvya vii. 30-35) and Vṛndāvana-dāsa (ii. 6) record the incident and describe how Advaita and others worshipped Caitanya, for the first time, as the Bhagavat himself. The second declaration of Caitanya's divinity is set forth in the description of what is called the Mahāprakāśābhiṣeka incident in Śrīvāsa's house before a large assembly of his Navadvīpa followers (Murāri ii. 12. 12-17 ; Vṛndāvana-dāsa ii. 9 ; Kavikarṇapūra, Kāvya v. 38-125). But it was after his Saṃnyāsa that his followers looked upon him as the supreme deity ; and it is interesting to note that such Āveśas became rare thereafter, and he himself deprecated such ascription of divinity to himself on many occasions. One such occasion was the public Saṃkīrtana of the name of Caitanya (and not Kṛṣṇa) organised by the followers at Puri, which is apparently the first more public and wider declaration of Caitanya's divinity ; and Advaita appears to have been, here also, the most prominent figure (Vṛndāvana-dāsa iii. 10. 504 f ; iv. 10. 16-20). All this the Vṛndāvana-Gosvāmins did not witness ; but the descriptions would indicate how Caitanya appeared in the eyes of his Navadvīpa followers, and how their adoration and worship of him as the supreme reality of the faith was implicitly accepted and widely declared. The Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins saw Caitanya for the first time as a Saṃnyāsin, in what they extol as his Yati-veśa (garb of an ascetic) ; but his Navadvīpa followers hailed him as the centre of their devotion even before his Saṃnyāsa. The respective differences of tradition and attitude, therefore, are intelligible. It is only among Caitanya's Navadvīpa devotees that views like Gaura-nāgara-vāda or Gaura-pāramya-vāda could develop; and Caitanya worship as a cult (along with Kṛṣṇa-worship which the Vṛndāvana Gosvāmins encouraged) could establish itself in a highly devotional environment, which led to a rapid deification even during Caitanya's lifetime, even before he left Navadvīpa for Puri.¹