Chaitanya's Life And Teachings: From his contemporary Begali biography the Chaitanya-charit-amritaKṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmi
Religion
Chaitanya's Life And Teachings: From his contemporary Begali biography the Chaitanya-charit-amrita
Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Gosvāmi
Chaitanya, 1486-1534; Hinduism
The Master continued, "Listen, Sanátan! Krishna is very kind, the
saviour of the fallen. He has delivered you from the worst hell
(_rauraba_). Limitless and profound is the ocean of his mercy." Sanátan
objected, "I know not Krishna. I recognize your grace as having effected
my deliverance." Then at the Master's request he told the whole story of
his flight. The Master told him, "I met both your brothers, Rup and
Anupam, at Prayág. They have gone to Brindában." Then He introduced
Sanátan to Tapan Mishra and Chandra Shekhar. Tapan Mishra invited him,
the Master adding, "Go, Sanátan, shave yourself," and telling Chandra
Shekhar to take away the rags of Sanátan. They made him bathe in the
Ganges, and Chandra Shekhar gave him a new garment, which he refused to
accept. At this the Master was delighted exceedingly.
After His noon-day prayer, the Master went with Sanátan to dine at Tapan
Mishra's house. As He sat down to His meal He ordered the Mishra to
serve Sanátan also, but he replied, "Sanátan has some rites to perform.
You dine first. I shall give him your _prasád_." After dinner the
Master rested. The Mishra gave Sanátan His leavings and offered him a
new cloth, which Sanátan declined to accept, asking instead for one of
the Mishra's old clothes. So the Mishra gave him an old cloth, which he
cut into a waist-band and wrapper.
Sanátan was introduced by the Master to the Maratha Brahman, who gave
him a general invitation to dinner during the whole of his stay at
Kashi. But Sanátan declined saying, "I shall rove (begging alms) like
the bee. Why should I procure all my food from one Brahman's house."
Exceedingly pleased was the Master at Sanátan's detachment from the
world, and He often cast glances at the Bhutia blanket, from which
Sanátan guessed that He disapproved of it. So Sanátan planned to get rid
of the blanket. When he went to the Ganges to perform his noon-day
rites, he met a Bengali drying his quilt, and asked him to exchange it
for his blanket, as a favour. The man retorted, "Why are you, a
venerable man, mocking me? Why should you exchange your costly blanket
for a quilt?" Sanátan replied, "I am not joking but am in earnest. Do
make the exchange." So saying he gave up the blanket, placed the quilt
on his shoulders and came to Chaitanya. At the Master's query he told
the whole tale. The Master remarked, "I have thought of it. Krishna, who
has delivered you from attachment to earthly goods, cannot have left a
remnant of that attachment in you. No good physician leaves even a trace
of the disease unremoved. You were living on alms from door to door, and
yet there was a three Rupee blanket on your back! It spoiled your virtue
and made you a mock unto the beholders." Sanátan replied, "He who has
released me from worldly ties has also cured this last remnant of
worldliness in me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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