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
Next morning the Master rubbed His followers over with sandal-paste,
gave each a broom and went with them to the Gundicha temple to clean it.
First He swept and cleaned the inside, the roof, and the throne. The two
temples, large and small, were swept and washed, and then the
dancing-hall in front. The hundred _bhaktas_ plied their brooms, the
Master in the middle guiding them by His own manner of sweeping.
Following Him they gleefully chanted Krishna's name while at work. The
dust covered His fair form; now and then His tears washed the ground.
The god's dining-hall was swept and then the court-yard. At last all the
rooms were cleaned. He made a bundle of the collection of straw, dust
and pebbles in His outer clothing and threw them outside. So did His
followers, too. The Master said, "I shall learn the amount of the labour
done by each from the size of his bundle of sweepings." So their bundles
were heaped together, but the Master's own bundle was seen to exceed the
entire heap.
After cleansing the interior, He divided the work again among them,
telling them to make the place thoroughly tidy by removing all the fine
dust, small straws and gravel. He rejoiced to see the cleansing finished
a second time by His party of Vaishnavs. A hundred other followers had
been waiting with a hundred pitchers of water from the outset, for their
turn. As soon as the Master called for water they placed the hundred
pots before Him. He first washed the temple, top-floor, wall, and the
throne in the interior. The water was dashed in earthen cups on to the
top, and thus the upper walls were washed. He Himself washed the throne,
while the _bhaktas_ washed the inner shrine, and scrubbed it with their
own hands. Some poured water on the Master's hands, some on His feet,
and some covertly drank up the water (so consecrated). Some begged this
water from others. After the temple had been cleansed they poured water
into the drain and thus the court-yard was submerged. With His own cloth
the Master wiped the building and the throne. It took a hundred pitchers
of water to wash the temple.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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