The story of Chitanya Mahaparbhu is narrated in the introduction.. I wonder why such quaint words are used to describe divine people. It of course makes them different.
Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, the great apostle of love of God and the father of the congregational chanting of the holy name of the Lord, advented Himself at Sridhama Mayapura ....in 1486 by the Christian Calendar.
It was 500 years ago, a comparatively recent times. He was the youngest and the tenth son of his parents. While all his sisters died at an early age he and his brother survived. He married early but his first wife died at an early age and he married again at the request of his mother. However he took Sanyas at the age of twenty-four and left behind his wife who was barely sixteen and moved to Puri.
He remained in Puri for the next twenty-four years and traveled for six years preaching Srimad Bhagavatam ...... he deemed it as the spotless literature for understanding the Lord..
His childhood proved that he was no ordinary being. As a crawling baby he played with a snake and confused a thief who tried to steal ornaments from him. He was a naughty boy and played pranks on orthodox brahmins and girls who were offering prayers to Siva in the hope of getting good husbands. He would tell them that Lord Siva was his devotee and Parvati his maid servant and asked them worship him instead. ......
Soon after his marriage Caitanaya began to preach the congregational chanting of the Lord and the brahmanas became jealous of his popularity and complained to a Muslim magistrate and were stopped by the Kazi, but Caitanaya asked his followers to disobey . The magistrate then sent his constables to the place, who interrupted the chanting and broke a few of the mridangams. Not one to cowed down Caitanya organised a civil disobedience movement and took one hundred thousand men who chanted and beat drums all the way to the house of the Kazi, who worried ran upstairs. The crowd displayed a violent temper, but Caitanya calmed them down and the Kazi came down and addressed Caitanya as his nephew and they both had a long discussion on the Koran and the Hindu sastras. ... Caitanya then convinced the Kazi and was allowed continue with his sankirtana movement.
An interesting story and as I scanned the introduction this caught my eye......All yagnas are forbidden because they are useless attempts by foolish men. There is also a story about two brahmin brothers who were saved. They were not only drunkards, but also meat eaters, woman-hunters, dacoits and sinners... ninety percent of population of this age resembles these brothers, despite high birth........But Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu...followed the verdict of the sastras in the matter of one's swarupa or real identity.
When I began I felt I could follow the structure of the book, but the number of pages I need to read and specially its style made me rethink. The introduction deals with Caitanya's life in detail and while impressive it took me away from my intentions of blogging about Srimad Bhagavatam. The introduction discusses the relative merits of 'Mayavada' vs 'Bhakti' which Caitanya propagated with lot of energy and simplicity. There are only eight slokas to his name!
There is also a mystery about his disappearance and there are many stories!
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