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
As He spoke He was filled with growing meekness of spirit and began to
beg for pure _bhakti_ at Krishna's hands. The true devotee, as is the
law of love, holds that he has not even a particle of faith in Krishna!
_"Lord! I ask not for wealth or followers or the gift of poesy. Give me
in birth after birth only unreasoning instinctive devotion to God."_
In utter lowliness of spirit He proclaimed Himself a worldly-minded
creature and prayed to be inspired with a slave's devotion (_dásya
bhakti_). _"O Nanda's son! Have pity on this thy servant sunk in the
dread ocean (of the World)! Look on me as a particle of dust on thy
lotus-feet!"_ Next, He was seized with the anxiety of humility and
begged of Krishna, "Without the wealth of thy love my life is poor and
futile. Make me thy slave and give me the treasure of thy love as my
wages."
Then came the mood of melancholy-humility: _"My eyes are running with
tears like the rainy sky. A moment is as long to me as an aeon. The
absence of Govinda (Krishna) has made the universe empty to me!"_
In this way He recited His own eight Sanskrit verses on the different
moods of _bhakti_ and expounded them all. For twelve years He thus
tasted the sweets of Krishna-love day and night with His two friends.
These acts of His are endless, even a thousand narratives cannot arrive
at their end. Therefore, I bow my head and conclude His _lilás_ here. I
bow at the feet of all my Vaishnav hearers and end my history of
Chaitanya's acts.
The last scene (translated from the _Chaitanya-mangal_ of Jayananda, p.
150):
When dancing at the Bijayá of the Car festival in the month of Ashárh,
His left toe was suddenly pierced by a brick [lying on the road]. When
Adwaita left for Bengal, the Master secretly told him [of His coming
disappearance]. With all His followers He sported in the water of the
Narendra tank [for the last time]. On the sixth day of the moon, the
pain in His toe grew severer, and He was forced to take to His bed in
the garden. Here He told the Pandit Goswámi that He would leave the
earth next night at 10 o clock. Celestial garlands of many-coloured
flowers were thrown on Him from the unseen. Celestial singers
(_vidyádhar_) began to dance on the highway. The gods began to cry out,
"Bring the heavenly chariot!" The Master mounted into Vishnu's car with
the figure of Garuda on its spire. His material body lay behind on the
earth, while He went to Vaikuntha (Vishnu's heaven). Many of His
servants killed themselves by serpent-bite. Meteors and thunderbolts
fell on the earth. At the news Nityánanda and Adwaita Acharya,
Vishnupriya and Shachi swooned away. Purushottam and other servitors of
the Master grew speechless at His departure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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