Meeting
480 years ago, Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was traveling from Vrindavan to Prayag along the banks of the river Ganges with four associates.
Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born in Mayapur in the town of Nadia on the evening of the 18th of February, 1486. In those days in India, Navadvipa was a center of learning rival to Benares. Mahaprabhu was a beautiful child with a golden complexion, and the ladies of the town came to welcome his birth by offering presents. His grandfather, Pandita Nilambara Chakravarti, a renowned astrologer, foretold that the child would be a great personage in time. By his tenth year, Shree Chaitanya was an outstanding scholar in logic, grammar, rhetoric, and the scriptures. Hence his name Nimai Pandit. The designation pandit signifies profound erudition. All the great scholars of Nadia recognized his scholarship, which became renowned when he defeated Keshava Mishra of Kashmire, one of the greatest scholars of his time, in public debate. Shree Chaitanya had one very distinguished characteristic – he always chanted God’s name. The people of Nadia said, “Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is not only a great genius, but he is certainly a missionary from God Almighty.” This turned out to be true.
Mahaprabhu launched forth the worship and congregational chanting of the holy names of God, proclaiming that there is but one God of whom everyone else is a servant. He urged everyone to chant the holy names of and worship that sole supreme God, asserting that the performance of such spiritual activities will surely award one the highest form of salvation. Incensed at Mahaprabhu’s preaching activities, some of the Hindus, who were attached to worshipping many gods, lodged a complaint against his sacred mission to the magistrate of Navadvipa. They accused Mahaprabhu of ruining their age-old tradition of worshipping many gods by vigorously preaching that there is only one God. The then magistrate was a true Muslim whose name was Chand Kazi. As a magistrate, he was duty-bound to take action. So he tried to stop this movement. As a result Mahaprabhu came to the magistrate’s house where he held a long discussion on the Holy Qur’an and the sacred Vedas with the latter. This discussion in itself is so profoundly significant that it merits separate treatment; therefore, it is but proper that we reserve it for a future book. As the discussion was drawing to a close, Chand Kazi understood that Mahaprabhu championed the concept of the existence of a supreme God who is one without a second. The discussion over, Mahaprabhu, who was a pure devotee of God, touched Kazi’s body whereupon the magistrate was elevated to the exalted position of a sincere devotee of the Supreme Lord. The Chand Kazi wept and admitted that he had felt a deep spiritual influence which had cleared his previous doubts. He now had spiritual feelings which gave him the highest ecstasy. The Chand Kazi then supported Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s movement. (49) The people were astonished at the spiritual power of Mahaprabhu, for he had changed a man strongly opposed to Shree Chaitanya’s practice of public chanting of God’s holy names. Mahaprabhu attracted hundreds of thousands of people, irrespective of their social status, to his spiritual activities and provided them shelter under the banner of his glorious movement after this incident.
When the Muslim King of Bengal, Nawab Hussein Shah Badasaha, heard of Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s influence in attracting innumerable people, he became very astonished and said, “Such a person, who is followed by so many people without giving them charity, must be a holy preceptor. I can surely understand this fact.” The Muslim King ordered the magistrate: “Do not disturb this holy preceptor out of jealousy. Let him do as he likes under his own will.” In private, the King inquired from his minister, Dabir Khas, who began to speak about the glories of Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Dabir Khas said: “Why are you questioning me? Better that you question your own mind. Because you are the King of the people, you are the representative of Allah. Therefore you can understand this better than I.” (49) Nawab Hussein Shah could see how the power of Allah acted through Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and, thus, he was convinced of his divine nature.
At the age of 24, Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu consecrated his life to the service of one supreme God. He left his hometown and went on a six-year pilgrimage of India. In south India, at Kurmakshetra, he performed a miracle by curing a leper named Vasudeva. Everywhere he went he convinced people of all kinds to dedicate their lives to the chanting of the holy names of God. It was impossible even for learned scholars to oppose him for a long time, for there was some spell in him which touched his opponents hearts causing them to cry for spiritual advancement. When Mahaprabhu went to Puri passing through some jungles in Orissa state with his assistant Balabhadra he performed a wonderful miracle on his way: he made tigers and elephants, and other jungle animals dance in joy on hearing the chanting of the holy name of God. Generally, animals are fearful and envious; even so, after hearing Mahaprabhu’s chanting of the holy name of God, they were overwhelmed with ecstatic joy, which supplanted their fearfulness and enviousness.
Mahaprabhu always slept little. His inner spiritual feelings carried him far and wide in the realm of spirituality every day and night. He constantly chanted the holy names of God, took no care of himself, and often lost himself in spiritual ecstasy. Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu always introduced himself as a humble servant of God, but his intimate associates, by seeing his many spiritual symptoms and observing him fulfill many scriptural predictions, realized that he was someone very special. He was most amiable in nature. Humility was personified in him. His sweet appearance gave cheer to all who came in contact with him.
While traveling in North India, along the Ganges, on the Vrindavan-Prayag route, Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, understanding that his four companions were fatigued, took them all beneath a tree to rest. There were many cows grazing near by, and Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was very pleased to see them. Suddenly he heard a cowherd boy playing a flute. The melodious sound of the flute somehow reminded him of God; whereupon, Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, struck with ecstatic love of God, fell unconscious to the ground. He foamed at the mouth, and his breathing stopped. While Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was unconscious, ten cavalry soldiers belonging to the Muslim Pathana military order rode up and dismounted. Seeing him unconscious, the soldiers thought, “This sannyasi (darvish) must have possessed a large quantity of gold and these four rogues must have taken away his riches after killing Him by making Him take the poison dhutura.”
The Pathana soldiers thus arrested the four persons and wanted to kill them. Because of this, the two Bengalis began to tremble, but Krishnadasa, who belonged to the race of warriors, was fearless. The fourth member, a Sanodiya brahmana was also fearless, and spoke very bravely as follows, “You Pathana soldiers are all under the law of your king. Let us go to your commander and get his decision. This sannyasi is my spiritual master. I am a brahmana from Mathura. I know many people in the service of your Muslim king. This sannyasi sometimes falls unconscious due to the influence of a disease. Please sit down. You will see that he will very soon regain his consciousness and his normal condition. Please keep us under arrest until my spiritual master regains his senses. Then you may question him and afterwards, if you like, you can kill us.” The Pathana soldiers said, “You are all rogues. Two of you belong to the district of Mathura, and the other two, who are trembling, belong to Bengal.” Krishnadasa said, “I have my home here, and I also have about two hundred Turkish soldiers and about one hundred cannons. If I call loudly, they will immediately come to kill you and plunder your horses and saddles. The Bengali pilgrims are not rogues. You are the rogues, for you want to kill the pilgrims and plunder them.”
Upon hearing this challenge, the Pathana soldiers became hesitant. Suddenly, Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu regained consciousness. Coming to his senses, he began loudly chanting the holy name of God. He raised his hands and began to dance in the ecstasy of love of God. When he shouted very loudly, it appeared to the Muslim soldiers that their hearts were struck by thunderbolts. Seized by fear, the Pathana soldiers immediately released the four persons. Thus Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not see his personal associates arrested. Balabhadra Bhattacarya went to Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and made him sit down. Noticing the Muslim soldiers around him, he regained his normal senses.
The Muslim soldiers then came before Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and said, “These four rogues tricked you into taking poison dhutura. Having made you mad, they tried to steal all your possessions.”
Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu replied, “These are not rogues, they are my associates. Being a sannyasi beggar, I do not possess anything. Due to epilepsy, I sometimes fall unconscious. Out of their mercy, these four men maintain Me.”
Among the Muslims was a grave person wearing a black dress. He was known to the public as a saintly person. His heart was softened upon seeing Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s ecstatic symptoms. He wanted to discuss topics about God on the basis of the Holy Qur’an. The scholar put points forward to established the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth on the basis of the Holy Qur’an and Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu respectfully presented counter points to establish the personal conception of God. Whatever points the Muslim put forward, Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu presented counter points on the basis of the same Qur’an. The saintly Muslim kept trying to establish, on the basis of the Holy Qur’an, that Allah does not have personal attributes, but Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, by quoting the same Qur’an, presented counter points showing that Allah does, indeed, have personal features. Finally the Muslim scholar overwhelmed by the in-depth knowledge, vision, and clarity exhibited by Mahaprabhu on the Holy Qur’an humbled himself and offered all respects to such a great scholar and saint.
Shree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu ended the discussion saying, “The Qur’an has certainly established impersonalism, but finally it refutes impersonalism and establishes the personal aspect of Allah.” (49, Madhya-lila, 18.189)
During discussion Mahaprabhu gave deliberate explanation and quotations from the Holy Qur’an to support his statements but we have only general statements of his speech. Therefore to scrutinize, analyze and better understand Sree Chaitanya’s presentation we dedicated to each of his statements one chapter. Thus each chapter begins from statement of Mahaprabhu and then we analyze it by quoting relevant verses from the Holy Qur’an and the recognized Muslim scholars.
