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
This sight of Him made the _bhaktas_ very life go out of their bodies.
Then Swarup with all the disciples loudly dinned the name of Krishna
into the Master's ears. After a long while the name entered His heart,
and He shouted _Hari-bol!_ He became conscious and His limbs were
joined to His trunk again, as before. This miracle of the Master has
been reported by Raghunath-das in his _Chaitanya-staba-kalpa-briksha_.
As Raghunath-das always lived with the Master, I accept as true and
write here what I have heard from him.
One day the Master, on the way to the sea, suddenly looked at the Chatak
hillock, and taking it to be the Govardhan hill, He ran towards it in
rapture with the speed of the wind. Govinda could not overtake Him.
A hue and cry was raised and there was a great bustle. Everyone ran up
from where he was,--Swarup, Jagadananda, Gadadhar, Rámái, Nandái, Nilái
Pandit, Shankar Puri, Bhárati Goswámi, all went to the sea-shore. The
lame Bhagabán Achárya hobbled slowly behind.
After running at first like the wind, the Master suddenly became stiff
on the way, unable to move further. Every pore of His skin swelled like
a boil, the hair stood on end on them like the _kadamba_ flower. Blood
ran out of His pores like sweat. His throat gurgled, not a syllable
could He utter. Ceaseless tears ran down both His cheeks He lost colour
and became death-pale like a conch-shell. Then a quivering burst over
His frame like a tempest on the bosom of the sea. Trembling, He fell
down on the ground, and then Govinda came up with Him, sprinkled Him
with water from the flask, and fanned Him with his sheet. Swarup and the
rest now arrived and all began to weep at the Master's plight. They
loudly sang the _kirtan_ in His hearing and sprinkled Him with cold
water. After they had done so many times, He rose up with the cry of
_Hari-bol!_ The Vaishnavs in delight shouted _Hari! Hari!_ The sound
of joy rose up from all sides. Half-conscious again, the Master
addressed Swarup, "You have brought me back from Govardhan to here. You
have snatched me away from viewing Krishna's lilá among the herds of
cows and calves, Radha and her handmaids, on Govardhan hill Why have you
brought me away thence, only to cause me grief?" So saying, He wept, and
the Vaishnavs wept at His plight.
Thus did the Master live at Niláchal, plunging day and night in the
ocean of grief at separation from Krishna. In the early autumn nights
radiant with the moon in a cloudless sky, He roamed up and down with His
disciples, visiting garden after garden in delight and reciting or
listening to the songs of _rása lilá_. At times, overcome with love, He
danced and sang; at other times He imitated the _rása lilá_ in that
mood; at times in a transport of passion He ran hither and thither, at
others He rolled on the ground in a faint. As soon as He recollected a
verse of the _rása lilá_ He expounded it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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