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
Then the Master with His own hands gave to the _bhaktas_ sandal paste
and garlands Then He divided the chanters (_kirtaniás_) into four
parties, consisting in all of 24 singers and eight men playing on the
_khol_, their chiefs being Swarup and Shribas. Then He bade Nityánanda,
Adwaita, Haridas, and Vakreshwar dance. In the first party Swarup was
the leading singer, while the other five were Damodar, Náráyan, Govinda
Datta, Raghav Pandit and Shri Govindananda; with them danced Adwaita. Of
the second party the spokesman was Shribas, his followers being
Gangadas, Haridas, Shriman, Shuvananda, and Shri Ram Pandit. Here danced
Nityánanda. Mukunda led the third party, consisting of Vásudev,
Gopinath, Murari, Shrikánta, and Vallabh Sen, with Haridas Thákur as the
dancer. The fourth party was composed of Haridas, Vishnudas, Raghav,
Madhav Ghosh and his brother Vásudev Ghosh, their leader being Govinda
Ghosh, and their dancer Vakreshwar Pandit. Other parties of _kirtan_
singers were formed by the pilgrims from the Kulin village, (with
Rámánanda and Satyaraj as their dancers), the Acharyas of Shantipur
(with Achyutánanda as their dancer), the men of Khand (with Narahari and
Shri Raghunandan as their dancers). In short four parties preceded the
car of Jagannáth, two walked on the flanks, and one in the rear. These
seven parties played on 14 _khols_ in all, the music of which maddened
the Vaishnavs present. The cloud of Vaishnav enthusiasm melted in
showers, their eyes dropped tears along with the nectar of _kirtan_.
The shout of _kirtan_ filled the three worlds and drowned all other
sounds. The Master visited the seven positions shouting "Hari" and
"Glory to Jagannáth!" with uplifted arms.
Another miracle did He manifest: at the same moment He was present with
all the seven parties, so that each cried out, "The Master is with us.
Out of His grace for us He has not gone elsewhere." No one can describe
the inscrutable power of the Master, only the pure-souled esoteric
_bhakta_ can know it.
Jagannáth, pleased with the _sankirtan_, stopped his car. At this
Pratap Rudra marvelled exceedingly and became overcome with excess of
devotion. He spoke of the Master's greatness to Kashi Mishra, who
replied, "You are, O King, fortunate beyond limit." The king and
Sárvabhauma exchanged glances, as none else knew the secret manipulation
of Chaitanya;--only those whom He favours can know Him; without His
grace even Brahmá cannot recognize Him. He had been delighted with the
lowly service done by the king, and for that reason had revealed His
mystery to him. True, He had shown Himself to the king only indirectly;
but who can pierce through this illusion of Chaitanya? Sárvabhauma and
Kashi Mishra were amazed at the grace shown to the king.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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