The Supreme Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya.
(Continued from P.259 April 1929.)
ONE day the Supreme Lord having taken His meal after a short rest on the conclusion of Kirtan laid Himself down alongside the entrance to His sleeping chamber. Govinda who used to attend on the person of the Lord at the time when He retired to bed finding the Lord lying against the door, spread the piece of cloth worn by him as outer covering over the body of the Lord and in that manner crossed over to the inside of the chamber and engaged in tending the feet of Lord.
Considering it a grave offence to come out of the room of his own meal by crossing the body of the Lord a second time and minding a specially the excessive exertion in Kirtan of that day of the Lord, Govinda continued tending the Lord's person delaying to take his food. After exhibiting the pastime awaking from sleep the Lord asked Govinda the reason for having stayed there without food up till then. Although the Lord Himself demanded to know, Govinda without mentioning at all that he had been employed in tending His person simply replied that he had not crossed the body of the Lord through fear of committing offence. By means of this conduct of Govinda, the Supreme Lord made manifest to the world the ideal of the devotee who is free from all guile. The gratification of the senses of Krishna is the only object that the ideal devotee has in view. The pure devotee has a repugnance for and an apprehension of offence by the least lurking wish for the gratification of his own senses in promoting the gratification of the senses of Krishna. The food that already have been offered to the Supreme Lord is part and parcel of the Supreme essence and such food is honoured by the devotee by reason of its connection with the Lord. But the sincere devotee is afraid of being guilty of desiring the gratification of his own senses in the performance of the service of honouring Mahaprasad as it happens to be apparently a personal affair. The devotee who is free from guile is never anxious to advertise his devotion to the Lord by proclaiming the tiding of his own services to the object of service. The Supreme Lord taught these principles by means of the conduct of that eternal devotee of Guru, Sree Govinda. Govinda used with great care to make the Lord partake of the numerous varieties of basketfuls of delicacies supplied regularly by Raghav Pandit and Damayanti.
Thakur Haridas left this world in the act of beholding the Lord and chanting His Name. The Supreme Lord taking up the transcendental body of the Haridas into His own Holy arms, chanted the Kirtan and danced in the company of His devotees. The Lord then conveyed Thakur Haridas, accompanied by the congregational chant of Kirtan, to the sea-shore and bathed his body in the sea, and having washed the feet of Haridas, made the devotees drink the purified by the touch of his feet. Thereafter the Supreme Lord placed Haridas into his final resting place covering with sand with His own hand, the function being preceded by the congregational chanting of Kirtan. The Supreme Lord caused a memorial to be built over his resting place. The Lord having Himself begged alms from the shop-keepers at the Lion-Gate of the Temple of Sri Sri Jagannath Deva celebrated the festivity of his disappearance with great pomp to the accompaniment of singing the glories of Haridas.
During one of these years, after the arrival of the Gaudiya devotees at Puri, Paramaswera Modak of Sree Mayapur , introducing himself as the person who supplied the Lord during His lila as a child with milk-puddings etc., informed him that his wife had come with himself to Puri. The Lord exhibiting the lila of a sannyasi who is Guru of the whole world and Teacher of the people, displayed the ideal of experiencing a sense of hesitancy on hearing the mention of the name of a woman, although in this case of the lady in question happened to be of the age of His mother. Sri Jagadananda having procured with great care a pitcherful of sweet-scented Chandanadi oil from the home of Sree Sivananda Sen presented the same for the use of the Supreme Lord. The Lord exhibiting the lila of Teacher of the people said that the oil might be used for lighting the lamp of Sree Sree Jagannath Deva. It is not proper for sannyasi to anoint himself. On hearing this Pandit Jagadananda in a fit of loving pique broke to pieces to the vessel containing the oil in the view of the Lord and having bolted the door of his own room lay down without tasting any food. On the third day the Lord, who is subdued by the love of His devotees, with the object of breaking the mood of loving estrangement of His devotee, proceeding to the house of Jagadananda and persuading the Pandit as a personal favour to Himself to cook with his own hand, accepted the food prepared by him and made the Pandit honour the prasad. By means of this lila The Supreme Lord enacting the Pastime of Teacher of the people, impressed upon all the duty of passionately loving service of the Lord, Who is the sole Enjoyer of everything, by means of the very best offerings and taught that is a duty of the spiritual novice to avoid all sensuous enjoyment and cultivate the practice of detachment from the world.
Aware of the fact that the Supreme Lord experienced great discomfort for having to lie on a mat made of bands stripped of plantain bark Jagadananda having prepared quilt, pillow etc., the Supreme Lord did not accept them. Sri Swarup Goswami Prabhu having made strips of plantain bark into likenesses of quilt and pillow and offering the same to Him, the Supreme Lord accepted them after much objection. By means of this lila the lord warned those Sannyasis who were in the stage of neophytes. On hearing the sound of song of Gitagobinda from the lips of female attendants at the temple of the Supreme Lord, in the state of semiexternal consciousness. Forgetting Himself under the influence of love was making headlong towards a female attendant through wild growths of prickly plants, and Gobinda having intervened, the Lord hearing the word 'woman' uttered by Gobinda thanked him very much. By this lila the Lord forbade by all means the opinions held by psilanthropists under the pretext of an attempt to listen to Krishna-song from the lips of unknown females on the part of a sannyasi or Vashnaiba. When Sri Raghunath Bhatta came to Purushottama from Kashi he brought with him a certain Pandit of the name of Ramdas Biswas, belonging to the community of Ramananda. The Lord showed indifference towards Ramdas Who cherised in his heart the desire for salvation and vanity of learning although enacting outward humanity and an aptitude for serving Vaishnabas.Having forbidden Raghunath Bhatta to marry, the Lord sent him back to Kashi for the service of the Vaishnabas.
One day the Lord standing near the Garuda pillar in the temple of Sri Jagannathdeva, was engaged in beholding the Holy figure of Jagannath. A certain aged Oriya woman putting her feet unconsciously on the shoulder of the Lord, was gazing at Jagannatha with great eagerness. Gobinda having made the woman alight , the Lord manifested great love while praising the earnestness of the woman. One day the Lord manifested the lila of lying down in the inner chamber at night bolting all its three doors. After a short while Gobinda and Swarup saw that all the doors remained bolted but the Lord had disappeared. Seeing this Swarup and the other devotees began to search and found the Lord to the north of the Lion-Gate in an unconscious state, His body greatly enlarged on account of relaxation of the joints of the bones. The Lord regaining His consciousness as the result of the chanting of the name of Krishna by the devotees they brought Him back to His chamber. On another occasion while the Supreme Lord was moving fast towards sandhills considering them to be Gobardhan Mount perturbations reducing Him to the fixed condition of a marble pillar and a wonderful state due to the presence of the highest love illustrated by horripilation and other signs which made Him look like the Kadamba flower were manifested to the view of the devotees.
The Lord descending to the external state by the loud chanting of the Name of Hari by Gobinda and other devotees was thereupon conducted by them to His residence.
Under the influence of great love the Supreme Lord used to give vent to His lamentations clasping the necks of Swarup and Ramanada, in the mood of handmaid of Gopi and, entering the garden of flowers considering it to be Brindaban, would enquire about Krishna from all the trees, creepers, shrubs and animals.
By bestowing on Kalidas, who fed on the leavings of the meals Jharuthakur who made his appearance in a family of scavengers, the mercy of permission of drinking water touched by His own feet the Supreme Lord did away with the objection to honour the leavings of the meal of a Vaisnava on the ground of birth and proclaimed the infinite power of Mahaprasad in helping the spiritual novice to success. Paramanandapuridas, the seven years old son of Shivananda, came to the Supreme Lord, obtained the Mahamantra of the Name of Hari and gave proofs of his transcendental poetical power.
One day in the midst of diverse activities of delirium due to love the Lord was discovered at midnight lying in the form of a tortoise in the midst of Tailangi cows having crossed to the place over three separate lines of walls without opening the gates.
Another day on a moonlit night the Lord beholding the sea from Aitota jumped into it considering it to be the Jamuna. A certain fisherman taking Him to be a large fish dragged the Lord ashore in an unconscious state by means of his fishing net. The fisherman was overpowered by love as soon as he touched the Lord. The fisherman suspected that he was possessed with an evil spirit and was going in search of an exorciser when he was found in that condition by the devotees led by Sree Swarup Goswami who were coming along the sea-shore after having searched for the lord at different places by different methods. Being informed of the fact that the very fisherman had raised the Supreme Lord from the sea the devotees made their way to the place where the Lord lay and having slowly brought Him back to the external state by means of loud Kirtan of the Name and having learnt from the lord's own holy mouth the narrative of His great love brought Him back to His house.
On one occasion Sri Jagadananda brought from Sri Nabadwip a certain riddle in rhyme composed by Sri Advaita Acharya. After reading it the mood of separation of the Supreme Lord increased in intensity. The confidential devotees were enabled to understand that the Supreme Lord would shortly manifest the lila of disappearance. In the delirium of separation the Lord began to exhibit the lila of divine madness in the form of rubbing the face against the wall of the sanctum. One day in the garden of Jagannath Ballav under the over-powering influence of great love He manifested ten varieties of speaking strange gossip. Sometimes the Lord passed the night tasting the octade of teaching composed by Himself in the company of Sri Swarup and Ramananda in the mood of anxious concern in the forms of humility, apprehension etc.; or again sometimes the ocean of deep love of separation welled up in ever-new forms as the result of tasting the verses of Sri Geeta Gobinda, Karnamrita, the drama of Sri Jagannatha Ballav, Srimad Bhagabata, etc.
In this manner the Supreme Lord manifested the first part of His Divine activities by enacting the during the first twenty-four years of His life the lila of a householder. During the concluding twenty-four years of His career the first six years were employed in preaching pure devotion over all India as crest-jewel of Sannyasis enacting the lila of Acharya. Of the closing eighteen years the first six were occupied by the activities as Acharya resident at Puri, in the company of his devotees; and the last twelve years were passed in tasting constantly the mellow quality of transcendence in association with His intimate devotees. After elaborating the lila of His appearance for forty-eight years the Lord manifested the lila of disappearance by means of His own power of voluntary withdrawal from the view of this world.
