Bake, A. - Çri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (in English)

8/7/2019 Bake, A. - ri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (in English)

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ORI CHAIT ANY AMAHAPRABHU

BY

A. A . BAKE

. MEDEDELINGEN DER KONINKLI]KE NEDERLANDSCHEAKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN, AFD. LETTERKUNDE

NIEUWE REEKS, DEEL 11, N.8

1948V. NOORD-HOLLANDSCHE UITGEVERS MAATSCHAPPI]

AMSTERDAM


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QRI CH AIT ANYA MAH APRABH UBY

A . A. BAKE.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.Diacritical marks have not been used in the text, except where anactual transliteration of Sanskrit or special Bengali words was intended.r ; : , however, has been used to render the palatal sibilant with the soleexception of the name Shiva, which has 'been spelt with sh throughoutin accordance with the generally accepted spelling.Indications for the pronunciation of the Bengali text of the songs ofthe appendix:The Bengali text has been transcribed as far as possible phonetically.For instance the Sanskrit word smarana is represented by the transcrip-tion of the modern Bengali pronunciation "shshoron".The vowels are pronounced as in Italian, a, e, i,0, u; e is representedby ae, the short 0 by o .The t and d are the soft dental consonants, not the English sounds witha cerebral tendency. The cerebral Bengali t and d are marked with adot underneath, t and d.The c is pronounced as the ch in cheese.The j as in joy.The y as in yea.The different sibilants of the Sanskrit alphabet have lost their

difference in pronunciation and are all pronounced sh as in shot. Henceno differentiation has been made in the transcription of the text.The r is slightly rolled. .r is a cerebral r against the ridge behind the teeth.In the consonants with aspiration like kh, the h is definitely audibleafter the basic consonant has been pronounced.In the prayer "Rama Raghava" one can either use the Sanskritpronunciation and sing "raksha" or the modern Bengali "rokhkho".

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3anthropologically the religion of E. Bengal has no importancewhatsoever. The Muslims of East Bengal are the same people as theHindus of West Bengal. Racially the land is one.Of the culture of this immense country we in the West know deplora-bly little. We may have become conscious of its existence to some extentthrough the ,personality of Rabindranath Tagore whose characteristicswere typically Bengali, but we hardly know anything of what precededhim.

I remember clearly how, on our way to Santiniketan in the year 1925,we spent some time in London and the late professor of Bengali at theSchool of Oriental Studies, Sutton Page, asked me whether I had everheard of Ohaitanya. I had to confess my ignorance, whereupon heremarked that it was impossible to understand the culture of Bengal oreven Rabindranath Tagore without Chaitanya.The longer one stays in Bengal the more strongly one perceives thetruth of that statement. Evidently one notices his influence strongestamong the Vaishnavas who form a considerable percentage of the popu-lation of the province, but even among the Shaivas - not in their gorysacrifices, of course, but, for instance, in their religious literature - onerepeatedly notices Chaitanya's influence.One hears even the term "Kali-Kirtan" applied to songs in which theGoddess Kali is worshipped in a mystical way. The whole body of theRam Prasadi songs, - belonging to this division of religious poetry,called after the poet-singer Ram Prasad - is unthinkable without theVaishnava tradition of Kirtan.Originally Kirtan means especially the worship of Krishna in song,

and Kirtan as we know it to-day in Bengal has undoubtedly been shapedand developed under the influence of Chaitanya. His personality cannotbe separated from this most important cultural and religious phenomenon.As I hope to explain to you in the course of this lecture, Kirtan is linkedwith the life and personality of this religious reformer- in a remarkableand inextricable way.

Chaitanya was not only a human being whose whole life was steepedin the love and the ideal of Krishna, but also a person whom his fol-lowers began to identify with Krishna, already during his life-time. Itdoes not matter in the least how we consider his personality, his lifeand the historical happenings connected with him, or whether weconsider that he really was mad, as some modern writers maintain. Whatreally matters is, that for the Vaishnavas of Bengal he is identical withthe central object of their worship, Krishna, that for them lie is a newincarnation of the same divine principle that former ages had known inthe shape of Krishna, the shepherd, beloved of Radha, in the groves ofBrindavan, and the king of Mathura. Symbolically speaking the latter

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4aspect means God, t.he Ruler of the Universe, the former the beloved ofthe human soul, Radha.The only thing an outsider can attempt, when coming face to facewith this belief of the Vaishnavas of Bengal, a belief that has thestrength of a dogma, is to try to understand it and accept it as a fact.Since it is - widely and commonly accepted in India that in times ofgreat misery and stress the Divine Essence takes on an incarnation tobring succour and help to humanity, there is nothing strange in a re-incarnation of Krishna at a time when the world badly needed aSaviour. On the basis of this generally accepted tenet the gradualdeification of Chaitanya was a natural development.It cannot be doubted that at the time of Chaitanya's birth, towardsthe end of the 15th century (1486), the country was in a very unhappystate. The Muslim rule was oppressive and the authorities despised andobstructed the Hindu religion to which, in one form or another, cer-tainly 90 % of their subjects belonged. Hinduism itself was not in a veryflourishing condition in those days either. In its struggle with Buddhismfor supremacy it had adopted the most rigid formalism imaginable, asystem in which the Brahmins had assumed absolute power in thespiritual as well as in the worldly sense of the word. Their position was

strengthened by the strictest maintainance of the rules of caste whichdid not leave any hope of salvation to a non-Brahmin.On the other hand Hinduism had borrowed freely from all sorts ofpopular beliefs with innumerable gods and goddesses worshipped in thevillages from times immemoriaL It had slightly altered those old deities,enough to fit them into the hospitable Hindu Pantheon, for instance bydescribing them as one or the other aspect of one of the principal HinduGods. There is little doubt that, among others, the Goddess Kali withher ritual of sanguinary offerings originally was one of those village ortribal deities.

During the later and last centuries of the existence of Buddhism inIndia we see furthermore the development of various rather depravedreligious forms which remained alive well after the disappearance ofBuddhism as such from Indian soiL

So the end of the 15th century shows on the one hand the stiflingtyranny of the Brahmin class, denying progress to all other strata ofsociety, and on the other hand a welter of popular beliefs, in which astriving soul also did not find much encouragement. Some of the schoolsof the so-called left-hand of Tantrism, which extolled the female energyof Shiva, often in a most realistic fashion, found a great many adherents.This does not mean to say that Tantrism as such does not contain highand great ideas and ideals, because the opposite is true, both from thephilosophical and from the mystical point of view. Still, coarse and

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5sensuous rites were very prominent and had a depraving influence onthe spiritual life of the people., In the intellectual field the scholars - that is to say the Brahmins ofthe different schools - amused themselves with hairsplitting discussionson philosophical and grammatical questions, a real scholastic orgy.Navadvip, the birthplace of the future reformer of the religious life ofBengal, situated on the banks of the Ganges some 60 odd miles upstreamfrom where we now find Calcutta, was a great centre of learning andespecially of a very flourishing school of logic and grammar. The studieswere, of course, conducted in Sanskrit, and the fame of the city was sogreat that students from all over India used ,to take their courses thereand it was considered to be an honour to teach in one of its schools. Onemay thus safely say Navadvip, at the time of Chaintanya's birth, was areal cultural centre in the sense of the strictly orthodox Hinduism of thetime.

From this short sketch it will be clear that there was not much hopefor the ordinary man in any direction. Scholarship and the posts ofhonour and social importance that went with it, were the prerogative ofthe Brahmin caste. For the non-Brahmin there remained the choicebetween one of the more or less depraved popular religions, or Islam, areligion which seemed to promise at least freedom from spiritual serfdomand liberation from social stigmata. .

I often wonder to what extent the central dogma of Islam, namelythe absolute equality of each individual before the Face of God, hasinfluenced the very widespread religious renaissance of Hinduism,especially in Northern India, in the course of the 15th and 16th cen-tury. It seems remarkable that the majority of these movements werestrongly monotheistic and that all of them had a pronouncedly mysticalas well as a democratic character, insofar as the human soul, indepedent-ly from the social position of its mundane vehicle, had direct access to itsMaker, to the one and only and eternal Divine Principle.

It is true, no doubt, that one finds monotheistic tendencies in Hin-duism, centuries before the advent of Islam, and that, after the absolutemonism of


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6from caste or social position. Mira Bai forgets her royal privileges inorder to sing and dance with the other devotees; Guru Nanak abolishescaste distinctions in his mystical brotherhood; Kabir Das, Hindu bybirth - according to the legend - but Muslim by education, caresnothing for caste; Ramananda, whom Kabir acknowledged as his precep-tor, had strong lin.ks with the teachings of Ramanuja, and was originallytied hand and foot to the caste-prejudices of Southern India. Still he tearshimself away from all those limitations and embraces a sweeper whomhe encounters on the way back from his holy ablutions in the Gangesand accepts him as his disciple.The reason why Chaitanya is considered as a Saviour among hisfollowers is largely that he considered each human being unconditionallyworthy of God and able to aproach Him without an intricate and una-voidable ritual with innumerable ceremonies, sacrifices and offerings.Among his followers we find men and women of high and low birth,Hindus and converted Muslims, and finally, owing to the unrelentingefforts of his most beloved disciple Nitay - or, officially, Nityananda- even the whole community of despised and destitute descendants ofthe former Buddhist monks and nuns, the Bhikshus and Bhikshukis.

His preaching that it is sufficient to approach God with loving sur-render in one's heart - with Bhakti in short - was a blessing and asalvation to millions who never would have found God otherwise. Andhis words were not addressed to indifferent ears. The common man inIndia has a very strong religious sense. The masses felt that their wayto God was barred and that the best they could hope for was that theycould be saved from the miseries of this earthly existence after a longsuccession of future births, if they conformed to the strict injunctions ofthe Brahmins. Chaitanya offered them hope and support in this life andimmediately: the never diminishing strength of contact with the source ofDivine Energy, the source of happiness.

In the course of his life - of which I hope to give you a short outlinein a minute - Chaitanya gained the conviction that the singing of theName of Krishn.a with complete surrender, with Bhakti, was the way toSalvation. To this way of Salvation he turned with ever increasing de-votion and intensity.It seems to me that this singing has two aspects. To begin with thedevotion itself and the fervour of surrender have a purifying andinvigorating influence which one may call the subjective aspect. Secondlywe find what one may call the objective aspect, namely the immanentpower of the Name, independent of the use one makes of it, whethersinging or otherwise. This power of the Name as such we do not perhapsrecognise immediately, but it is abundantly present all the same in ourChristian religion and in the Jewish religion in which it has its roots.

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7The name is not just a word, but stands for the thing that is named,

it is that thing.Vishnu says:

"Naham vasami vaikunthe na yogihrdaye ravaumadbhakta yatra gayanti tatra tisthami Narada""I dwell not in Vaikuntha, nor in the hearts of Yogis or in the sun,Where my bhaktas sing, there dwell I, oh Narada".(motto of the Journal of the Music Academy of Madras)Pronouncements in the same spirit are also put in Shiva's mouth.

When one sings the name in the right way and with the right attitudeof mind, one is in the presence of the power designated by that name.There is consequently nothing strange in the fact that a man who be-Iieved perfectly and without hesitation in the God whose name hepreached, maintained that the singing of the name of that God wouldbring salvation to the singers and that that was true not only for thepresent and the future, but that that had been the case from the -begin-ning of Time.

Allow me to illustrate this principle, the pivot of the teachings ofChaitanaya, with a song composed by a sadhu of our own days, whofollows the footsteps of Chaitanya by preaching the singing of the HolyName as the way to salvation.

He says:Oh mindDance and spread your armsAnd sing the Name of GodSing Hari once.The birds and beasts wake up and singOnce ev'ry watchHow then should. you, created human,Yet still remain unconscious?The Gods themselvesYea Brahma, Shiva, NaradaCeaselessly fill their mind with Hari's NameOf which the power heals all illness of the world.Prahlad - you know it - thus was saved from the fireAnd Vicvanath escaped his deathWhen swallowing the poison of the worldIf you neglect the NameStark danger looms

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8When the great crossing comesand you stand all alone.Remember well the NameAnd dance and spread your armsSing Hari, oh, sing Hari. (Sadhu Baba 1943)

You will have noticed that in this poem not only human beings, butalso animals and birds are portrayed as having perception of the Divinepower. "The birds and beasts wake up and sing once ev'ry watch". Thismirrors a popular belief in Bengal that animals do not sleep uninter-ruptedly, even .during the night, but stir and call out at least once duringevery period of three hours in which the 24 hours of the day aredivided.Quite in accordance with the monotheistic trend of the faith we aretreating, is the recognition of the several outward manifestations of theOne Divine Principle in the different Gods of the Hindu pantheon, withthe understanding that each of them is dependent on it. The adherentsof this sect call the Divine Principle "Hari" (or Vishnu, or Krishna).Shiva in his aspect of Vicvanath, the Protector of the Universe, hadconsequently to identify himself with this Principle (Hari) by remem-bering the Name, in order to escape destruction when he swallowed thepoison of the world which had appeared in the process of the churningof the world-ocean by Gods and Demons to obtain the food of Immor-tality (Amrtamanthana).

Prahlad - or, as it is pronounced, Pralhad - was a young devotee ofHari who suffered endless persecution from his family in their attemptsto deflect him from the course of his steadfast worship .. . . . nece nece bahu tule .... see appendix, noted down as sung

by S. S. Chatterji.One should, however, not think that Chaitanya was the first to preach

the worship of Krishna and Radha or the singing of the Name. Hisprincipal function was to give direction to the latent urge of the people,to' express their longings for them and, above all, to inspire them tobring forth the best that was in them.

This he achieved mainly through the strength of his personality, for,strange to say, he himself was neither poet nor author. It is almost un-believable that he inspired his own and the subsequent generations mere-ly through his personality and the atmosphere it created. He fructifiedthe capacities of scholars, poets and musicians, so that they produced thevery best that was in them. He could direct and change the lives ofcountless people in every stratum of society and all this without being

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9a preacher, a law-giver or even the founder of a sect. As a matter offact he was averse to all these activities.Let me give you two examples of religious music attributed to Chai-tanya and certainly dating back to his days.The first is a prayer in very simple words:

"Rama Raghava raksa mamKrsna Kecava trahi mam"

"Ram a of Raghu's race protect me, Krishna with the abundant lockssave me".It could not be simpler. According to tradition these words wereusually sung by the faithful when they were gathered together beforestarting out on a procession through the streets of Navadvip. These"nagar kirtan" processions were something new and special, inauguratedby Ohaitanya, which won many new adherents for his movement, butalso excited most violent opposition.Before starting out all the participants used to stand up and sing aprayer such as the one just mentioned. This singing when standing upis called "utthanda Kirtan" .

. . . .Rama Raghava,see appendix, noted down as sung by S. S. Chatterji.Another example of a tradition dating back to Chaitanya himself is acertain arrangement of the names of Krishna, Rama and Hari, frequentlysung nowadays. It is, for instance, the one exclusively used by the sadhuwhose song on the power of the Name you have heard. In the deepestsense the words Krishna, Rama and Hari are synonyms. Hari - as Isaid before - represents the Divine Principle non-incarnate. Rama andKrishna are incarnations of the same essence in this world; Rama, theideal of manly virtue, the slayer of the demon-king Ravana and thebringer of an era of perfect justice; Krishna, of course, the divineshepherd, sporting in the groves of Brindavan whom it is easy to take ina mystical sense. Hence the importance of the combination of these threenames, Hari is connected with both Rama and Krishna separately to

indicate either their dependence on the Divine Principle or the factthat they are manifestations of it.The sequence is:Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare,Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

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This sequence can be sung to any raga or to any time, according to theinspiration of the singer and be continued as long as the inspirationlasts, or as long as he has undertaken to sing, which, under certain con-


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10ditions, may be as long as 72 hours uninterruptedly. Great importanceis attached to the singing being uninterrupted. In the case of a period of72 hours it is, of course, done in relays, each successive group taking overwithout causing any hiatus at all.

.... Hare Krishna, in Raga Khambaj,see appendix, noted down as sung by S. S. Chatterji.It is high time now to tell you something about the life of this manwho exercises such immense power over the lives of the people of Ben-

gal, even to-day. It is not easy for an outsider to gauge how deep thisinfluence is in the villages and also in the cities. It was a revelation tous, when we were invited, one afternoon, to a play that treated anepisode of the life of Chaitanya. The performance was to he held in adismal industrial suburb of Calcutta, called Howrah, and the play wasentitled "Nodyer Nimay". Nodyer means from Navadvip and Nimaywas the name the neighbours gave to the 'beautiful child Chaitanya whenhe played in their midst. It means "the shortlived" a name given to himproba:bly to ward off the cruel fate that had dragged his six or eightinfant sisters to the grave in early childhood before he was born 1). Hisparents had just him and an elder brother. It is under the name Nimaythat he is lovingly known among his followers.Nodyer Nimay is of course a piece that stretches over several days,each successive episode dealing with another chapter of his life. Theremarkable feature about the performance to which we were invited was,that the whole cast were amateurs for whom the performance was anact of faith. The piece was scheduled to last six or seven hours. One hadthe feeling of being transported back a few centuries. The performancehad been arranged in the centre of a courtyard of a big house in aside-lane. The audience sat all around in the yard and in front of everywindow and on every scrap of balcony giving on it, certainly severalthousands of men, women and children, leaving barely sufficient spacein the middle for the musicians to sit and certainly not for the actors toact. There were no properties at all and the actors had to force theirway through the packed spectators to reach the few square feet in themiddle that had to serve as a stage. Their costumes were on traditionalline's and certainly not beautiful, but the acting took one's breath away.The chapter that was being performed treated the period of Chai-tanya's life in which he says good-bye to the world and leaves his wife,

1) This is the explanation given by Melville T. Kennedy, M.A. in 'TheChaitanya Movement", Oxford Univ. Press 1925, page 14. The dictionaryderives the name from the word "nim" of Persian origin which means half,and records that it was the naine .given to Chaitanyadev by his mother.

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IImother and friends in order to become a sannyasi, never more to tastethe comforts and the pleasure of home, - a man possessed by God, aptto fall into a religious trance at any moment.The man who portrayed Nimay, in daily life a clerk in a Calcuttaprinting press, did not act his part, he lived it. After one of his tranceshe had to be carried away: a trembling human soul in all its nakedness.

His friend and follower Nitay, or Nityananda, the great propagatorof Chaitanya's Nam Kirtan, was blessed with a strong and melodiousvoice and increased the emotions of the audience by his lyrical songswhich fitted quite naturally into the whole structure. The audience swamin waves of emotion and ecstasy and it was then we became aware howabsolutely Chaitanya embodies the inexhaustible capacity for emotionand the deeply devotional character of the people of Bengal.The era in which he was born must have known great spiritual needsand thus it is very natural that his birth came to be considered as adivine act of Mercy, or rather as an act of mercy of God Himself inbecoming incarnate to save the souls of suffering humanity.All the incidents of the play were strictly in accordance with thelegend that grew up around Chaitanya and most probably also with thereal history of his life which is fairly well known, even from contem-porary sources.He was born of Brahmin parents on the day of the full moon of themonth of February 1486. His father is not very prominent in the storyof his life. He died when the boy was still fairly young. On the otherhand, the part which his mother


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12find a school of thought which accepts Chaitanya as an incarnation ofboth Krishna and Radha. The word Chaitanya itself means intelligenceor perception, or designates God as the source of all sensation or percep-tion. It also means knowledge. Thus it refers to the person of the refor-mer in his aspect of possessor of divine perception and knowledge of theessence of God.

He is always portrayed as a playful and healthy child, perhaps partlyon account of the necessary parallelism with Krishna and his pranksin the house of his fostermother and the villages Gokul and Brindavan.In addition to these qualities he is said to have been possessed by athirst for learning and to have had a more than normal intelligence.He soon acquired all that was to be learnt in the field of Sanskrit phi-losophy and grammar and so became a leading scholar in the city of hisbirth which prided itself with so much justification on its high standardsof learning. He did not give signs of any special religious inclination inspite of the fact that he was in constant touch with religion and de-votion in the house of his parents who were both truly religious andhospitable, keeping open house for wandering teachers and preachers ofthe Vaishnava school.His education was soon complete and he opened a school of his own,in spite of his tender age: he was only fifteen years old. He also marriedand thus began the life of a normal householder and scholar with allthe resulting honour.About that time he undertook his first journey to Assam - Sylhet andother places - the land whence his parents had come to settle in Na-vadvip and where his grandfather and several other relatives were stillliving. During his absence his wife died, but he married again and thissecond wife, Vishnupriya, is very prominent in the story of his laterlife, when we find her 'sharing the sorrow of his mother at his becominga sannyasi. Her unfailing devotion to the man who had been her husbandand the active part she played in the subsequent forming of the sect arerelated in detail.For a few years, till 1508, that is to say when he was about twentyyears of age, he devoted himself entirely to what the world demandedof him, recognised as one of the most prominent scholars of the city. Hewas strikingly beautiful with his fair skin and his wavy long black hair.People loved him as much for his beauty as for his intelligence. Alreadyduring this period he seems to have had a great influence over people,owing to his strong personality. His parental home was - as I indicatedabove - always open to all kinds of religious visitors and we may safelyassume that these different teachers tried hard to win the promisingyoung man for their respective schools and to deflect him from hispurely worldly and intellectual pursuits. But they had no success. It istold that a certain Vaishnava ascetic, called Icvara Puri, admonished

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13him, but that he amused himself by picking holes III the grammar andsyntax of the sentences of the old holy man.His conversion, the religious shock that changed his whole life, tookplace in the above mentioned year 1508, during a visit to Gaya, a holycity higher up the Ganges which he visited in connection with a cere-mony to the memory of his deceased father. While there he met againthe same Icvara Puri, whom he had ridiculed some time previously. It isnot known what exactly happened, but it is sure that he came back anentirely changed man. The "Caitanya Caritamrta" which contains adetailed biography based on contemporary data, gives the followingdescription of him at his return from Gaya P ): "He is thoroughly chan-ged; he no longer cares to comb his beautiful curling hair; his motherfollows him with wistful eyes but he talks not with her and cries "OhGod", and sees visions of Him in the clouds; he runs with his handsoutstretched and eyes full of tears to catch the Unseen; despising hissoft couch and white bed he sleeps on the bare earth; he no longer wearshis gold chains, earrings and lockets nor the fine Krishnakeli cloth ofsilk with black borders; he neither takes his bath nor does he eat hisusual meals; he no longer worships gods and goddesses nor does he recitethe sacred hymns as prescribed by the castras, but he weeps and cries;"Oh God, do not hide your face from me". (C.C. pp 52-53)

Still it was not then that he said good-bye to the world just yet. Heonly took that decision two years later, in 1510. Between this suddenchange and the final breaking with the world lie two short years, which,however, are of the utmost importance to the religious life of Bengal.During this period he especially cherished the singing of Kirtan, thesinging of the Name during the processions through the city and duringthe nightly gatherings in the courtyard of a certain rich Brahmin andfollower of his, Crivasa. At these gatherings it was not only the Namethat was sung, but also lyrical poems composed 'by worshippers of Krish-na and Radha from bygone ages, such as Jayadeva whose Gitagovindais still one of the most famous products of the later Sanskrit literature,(If Vidyapati and Chandidas, who had lived and sung during the gen-erations immediately preceding that of Chaintanya himself and had usedthe popular language for their poems, not Sanskrit. Singing the Nameand these poems himself and listening to them being sung was Chaita-nya's only solace and happiness in those days. Very soon songs wereadded that had been composed in his own immediate surroundings whichmarked the beginnings of the strong new life that was to flower underhis inspiration.Sometimes pieces were performed containing episodes of the love ofKrishna and Radha in which he took part. He used to identify himself

2) Melville T. Kennedy, M.A. 'The Chaitanya Movement", page 19.291


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14to such an extent with the character he portrayed that not even his ownmother could recognise him.It seems quite certain that all these activities laid the foundation forthe later development of the Lila Kirtan to which Bengal owes the bestof her lyrical poems and which, even in our days, gives an outlet to arefined and intricate, but most certainly very deep, religious feeling, notequalled in any other part of India.

The compelling urge to go and visit Brindavan grew ever morestrongly in the heart of Chaitanya, the urge to see and touch the soilwhere his God had lived and played. But the ties of family and friends.kept him back. Those ties became more and more irksome and finally hebroke them all and took the vow of sannyasa, which meant a completebreak with the world. H e shaved his beautiful black hair and remaineda wandering ascetic without home or hearth for the twenty-four yearsthat remained of his earthly life. .But even then he was unable to fulfil the wish of his heart, to go andlive in Brindavan. True to a promise his mother had exacted from himsome time previously, he even renounced that wish and took Puri inOrissa as his headquarters, near the great temple of Krishna Jagannatha.There it was at least possible for the people of his city to come and visithim once a year and console themselves for the loss of his presence by ashort contact with his radiant personality.

Brindavan, however, was never out of his thoughts. At that time ithad practically disappeared from the face of the earth and the spot.where it was said to have been was covered with thick jungle. Sometimeeven before he had said farewell to the world, he had prevailed upona great friend and follower of his, called Lokanath Goswami, to gothere and start the great work of reclaiming the site of Brindavan itselfand other holy places connected with theIegend-of Krishna and Radha.Some time later 'he gave the same command to two other devoted disci-ples, Rup and Sanatan, two Brahmins of Mahratta descent who hadoccupied very high 'positions at the court of the Muslim rulers of Bengaland had even become Muslims themselves. Then they fell under Chaita-nya's spell and renounced posts, riches and their new religion, to be-come. wandering ascetics like their chosen Master. They, obeyed his com-.mand, however, and settled in Brindavan where they were joined laterby their nephew, Jiv Goswami, and some other devoted, scholarly andpious men. This small group gave their whole lives to the task that had. been allotted to them and by dint of hard work and never failing re-search and zeal made Brindavan what it is now, the centre of the Vaish-nava cult of the whole of North and even of South India, attracting tensof thousands of pilgrims every year, with hundreds of large and smalltemples and a safe haven for those who have lost everything in this life,the old and the widows, whose one hope it is to find there solace and alast resting place.

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Only once during his whole lifetime Chaitanya succeeded in reachingthe place of his dreams. But the emotion of joy to be at last on the spotwhere Krishna and Radha had met, proved too much for his alreadyweakened body and his condition became so critical that his friends fin-ally prevailed on him to leave the place. The thought of separationwas so unbearable that he fell down unconscious and his friends had tocarry him away. He did not regain consciousness before they had pro-gressed a great many miles on the way to Allahabad.This was, however, by no means the only journey the saint undertookafter he had chosen the neighbourhood of the temple of Puri as head-- quarters. He always returned there until his death in 1534. Meanwhile,with the progress of the years" the thread that tied him to this world becamethinner and thinner, until he passed the narrow line that separated himfrom the next world almost imperceptibly, - a being completely ab-sorbed in heavenly visions in which he saw and heard Krishna. Thejourneys he undertook covered the greater part of India. It is certainthat his presence exercised great influence in Malabar, and not impro-bable that the custom which we find even in our days, of the singing,mostly :by women, of verses from the Gitagovinda (astapadis) at thetime of the evening prayer, dates from the days of his visit to thatcountry. He also made a great impression in the Kanarese lands and hecontributed materially to the Vaishnava renaissance in South India. It isalso very probable that he influenced the work of the much later Mah-ratta saint, Tukaram, through a succession of teachers.His influence has been strongest, however, in Bengal, Assam andOrissa. These three provinces each claim him as their own. Orissa doesso in the first place on the ground of his ancestry and it is true that hisgrandfather came from Orissa before settling in Sylhet. In addition tothis, much of Chaitanya's later life centred round Puri, Orissa's holycity, and its 'king, Pratapa Rudra, held him in the highest esteem. Ben-gal is, of course, the land of his 'birth and the greater proportion of hisfollowers belonged to that country. The renaissance he inspired in thefield of poetry and philosophy used mainly Bengali as its means ofexpression and - as I indicated above - he is before anything else theembodiment of the deepest and most characteristic traits of the people ofBengal.Assam can claim him through the presence of his grandfather and hisparents and through the fact that he visited the country at least twice.One finds many songs celebrating him, also outside the field of Kirtanproper. One of them starts:

"Gaur shonar manush, rnoner mon chura"Oh Gaur, golden Man, crownjuwel of the innermost heart".The song as a whole is an expression of the deification and worship

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16and of the identification with Krishna which started already during hislifetime and has become a dogma among the Vaishnavas of Bengal. Itwould be difficult to overrate this special aspect, quite apart from the'inspiration he was in general. Chaitanya, or to give him his full name,- (:ri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu - is uppermost in the conscience of thefaithful in Bengal and one refers to him in exactly the same terms asone uses in describing Krishna. For one thing it is impossible to sing LilaKirtan without introducing the songs in praise of Krishna and Radhawith a Gaurcandrika, which contains an invocation of (:ri Chaitanya, asone can see from the word Gaur, one of the loving appellations ofthe Saint.I did mention the tendency to draw parallels between the life of thesaint as represented 'by tradition and that of Krishna. The same tendencywe find in the field of the mystical Kirtan songs. The Gaurcandrikagives expression to exactly the shade of feeling which is going to beillustrated in the subsequent Krishna songs.Let me give you an example. There is one chapter, or pala, which oneperforms at one Kirtan session, called prarthana 'or prayer, in whichKrishna's love is implored. One of the Gaurcandrikas one can chose topreface it starts with the words "When will, at the invocation of Gau-ranga the body be flooded with the feeling of bliss and when will, whencalling "Hari, Hari", the tears stream from the eyes?" (this, betweenbrackets, is no empty figure of speech, the cleansing streams of tears arevery frequent when singing Kirtan) "when will Nitay take pity on me(Nitay as the shower of the way) and when will the taint of this worldbe washed away from me? When shall I be pure and clean? When shallI be able to understand the heavenly couple, Krishna and Radha?"This hymn is then followed by others which demonstrate the develop-ment of the pala in which Krishna is the deity invoked and which includesprayers like the following, inspired by the consciousness of a wastedlife. It closes with the singer imploring Krishna not to forsake him butshow him mercy just this once. Both the Gaurcandrika I mentioned andthis prayer were composed by Narottam Das, one of the most prominentand important poets of the end of the 16th and the beginning of the17th century 3 ). The middle stanza of this prayer gives in a few lines theprocess of identification of Chaitanya and the principal characters ofhis surroundings with Krishna and the persons around him. Krishnahimself is, of course, Chaitanya, born in Navadvip to preach the mercy. of the holy Name from house to house. Balarama, Krishna's elder

3) Narottam Das was instrumental in organising the famous Kheturi Mela,>a religious gathering at Kheturi in Rajshahi, in the year 1615, at which thefirst attempts were made at codifying the varying and sometimes conflictingtraditions of the sect, also with regard to Kirtan music and the style of singing.

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brother, is re-incarnated in Nitay, Chaitanya's disciple who did morethan anyone else to lift up the poor and destitute through the power ofthe Name.The last strophe contains the prayer: "0 Lord, Nanda's son, unitedwith the daughter of Vrsabhanu, have pity this once. Narottam Das says:do not withdraw Thy lovely red feet from me. Outside Thee what isthere for us?"This example illustrates how the personality of Chaitanya, by intro-ducing each separate performance of Kirtan, serves as a filter for thefeelings of the devotees. In this way it prevents, or at least diminishes. the danger of a sensuous explanation of the love of Krishna and Radha.This protection against the intrusion of the senses into the field of mys-tical symbols and experiences we owe to Chaitanya. That this is not animaginary danger anyone knows who has but cast an occasional eye inthe poems - especially those of Chandidas and Vidyapati, Chaitanya'spredecessors. The dividing Iine between sensual and mystical lovebecomes extremely thin from time to time. Chaitanya and his personalityhave the puwer to lift the ordinary human being above his senses. Whenthe spirit approaches the material of the songs of Kirtan through Chai-tanya as he is depicted in the Gaurcandrika, it prepares itself for thethings that are to follow, away from the world of the senses and sen-suousness.

Let me finish by giving you a short folksong which will show youhow deeply he lives in the mind of the people:"I know it is Gaur who goes there, oh my girlfriends.I had never seen him before but I had heard his virtues described.Tell me, why has he stolen my mind?Seeing his beauty I forgot joy and sorrowI lost myself and I brought shame on my familyI was as bereft of my senses.I had never seen him before


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18The book mentioned in the footnotes: 'The Chaitanya Movement, a study of

the Vaishnavism of Bengal" by Melville T. Kennedy, M.A. Oxford UniversityPress, 1925, contains, apart from its impartial account of the history of thesaint and the movement, a very useful bibliography which opens the way forfurther penetration into the field to students in the West.

TEXT OF SONGS.nece nece bahu tule Hori bol re mondancing dancing arms uplifting Hari sing, oh Mind.Hori bol re mon aek bar Hori bol re monHari sing, oh Mind, once, Hari sing, OhMind.Poshu pakhi tara 0 shobe priihore prohore jagebeasts birds they too all in watch after watch wake up.o tui manob hoye kaemon kore roile ocetonoh Thou, human having become, how wouldst remain unconscious.Bromha Shibo Nariidadi, oi nam jope nirobodhiBrahma, Shiva, Narada and so on, that Name recite without stopping,bh6bo roger mohaushudhi -Hori namo dhonOf world-illness great remedy Hari's Name's riches. ,Jano na re namer gune Prolhad na morloti) aguneYou know, dont you, through Name's virtue Prahl ad not died III fire.Bishshonather bishopane na holo moronat Vicvanath's poison drinking not there was death.Name jodi koro haela thaekbi re mon parer baelaName if you neglect you will he deluded, Oh Mind, at crossing time.Shonger shongi keu hebe naOf thine own with you none will benam koro shshoron Hori bol re monName do recall in mind, Hari say, on Mind.

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Rama Ragha va raksa mamRama of Raghu's race protect me.Krishna Kecava trahi marn.Krishna with abundant locks, save me.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare HareHare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.

Oi bujhi jay Gora 010 shokhiThere, I understand, goes Gaur, 0 my girl-friendsO tar rup daekhini gun shunechiloOh, his beauty not I have seen, his virtues I have heardbol she kaeno mor mon choraSay, he how mind mine has stolen?oi rupete noyon diyeOn his beauty eyes having setshukho dukho pashoriyejoy and sorrow having forgottenami apna khaelam kul mojalamI myself ate and family disgracedholam go pagolparaI was indeed mad

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21

I U ~A l i o n Ho- ri bol n--~4 fit r r D . J p r r I a l l P J E ! !J J I . o - n aek bar Horibo l re 10- n Ho-ri bol-re 0 I( 1 1 e -c. n e - c e b a - u ~ .. I e-~t i 1J ' j J I 0 1 1 = ( J J a l a c k i r r 1 J t t =

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22

De-c. ni-ci bl-bl- ta-lt Ho-d bolr. a o n~~& r J r alft r a b l 4 f t 10 1 r r r r 1BrolhaShlbo Na-ro-da-- - - dl,o ia8ll jope

_Ho- r l n a - I O ' dho n Ho-ri bo l - r .a J _ t m i J l J J J J I r a t c k ( - -

bi-sho -pa-ne -na bo -lo llo -ro -~--

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23

"":"'. Huri bol r. Ii ---. n.-c, n.-c,

bahu -ful. Horibolre hu jo-df,...~& a H I b W r I r P FIrt_Ik;-r,hae- la_tbae'k-bi r onparlrbal - - -

4 . J r r r ( I r [ i 1 c r t r l p r r II a . -~g f k. u I t o - -b I -n8 It a k 0 r 0 5 hIho-ij @ J 1 1 Jm U J J I m _r o o n .H o r l bolre I e ~n

II 8 -c 8 n 8 - C 8 b 'a - h u - t u 1 8 H ~ - rib 1 r,G I I'"Ion

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24

Ra-Ia Ra gha-v8--itt'!mgD W l ! .J1j n l' '"IR a l a . R a . g h a - Y 8& J 1 F e n m u r n : 1 1r QIftt a9 h a - - - b a - - - K r ish na - - - - It.--(far a U E D 1 1 ] F o o m ~ H E ~

sba.-ba tra-hila I$ t i iW _ J 1 t V 2 ,;1) ERa-- la--~Ra--ghaya--302


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Kd shno --_ Ho-re HO '-I'" ------i f } 1 1 ; ; 1 ] E lha ~~n1 1 J J ~ ~' j"I I D - I' , R a - I 0 H 0 - r , . R a - i0 R r f } 1 ~Q R 8 1"0 H 0 r ,t t : 1\ Uf. JI. .271~ S& - H I D Nfl ; f" f 1 rf" iir & 1- H a - r, H .o - r a H 0 - r 8 II ~ - r e K r ish n o ~ H -I"6.

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Folksong; . s IJ f19 , byS.S.Chat 'fez) ! . J t I ! . J (g1/6

- 0 tal" - b 0 I -. r 11 , k 81- n; or i'-.- ' ~ r 1 h m l t 1f , Bilen th & f J III '0 - y 0 ' n d I . ye L shu U ii d . u - k h0 - ... .. ..-I.'r.~ 111 f 1 .i t 0 E i j a lUW [i i i lBf:llfr, t i l :

i-pnakhael k u l" 'l)oJa laa h o -laD 9D P D -

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27

- g o l ,I-r. a . I - g o l p a - r a 0 t a r r u p d d t k ~ f 1 r f W e i F e lfJ _ I

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A . A. BAKE. c Chaitany~Mahapr8bhr.i. 1948,26 p.W. CALAND en A. A. FOKKER, Drie oude Portugeesche verhandelingen

over het Hindoeisme toegelicht en vertesld: met toevoegsels.1915, 216 p. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

P. V. VAN STEIN CALLENFELS. De lnscriptie van Soekeboemi. 1934,16 p. met 1 plaat. .R. ,H. TH. FRIEDRICH, Bemerkungen abel ' Bilder des lndischen Thier-kreises nach elt-ievenischen Monumenten. 1863, 7 p. . . .

J . GRONEMAN en J . P. N. LAND, De Gamelan te Jogjacartit met eenevoorrede over onze kennis del' [eoeensche muziek. 1890, 125 p.met 1 plaat . . . .

H. KERN, Over eenige Dude Senskritopschrilten van 't Meleische schier-eilend. 1884, 8 p, . .De Fidjitaal verqeleken met here ueru/enten in lndonesie enPolunesie, 1886, 242' p.

----, Over de verrnenqinq van Ciwaisme en Buddhisme op Java, naareenleidinq van het oud-leoeensch: Sutesome: 1888, 36 p. .Over den eenhe] eener Buddhistische inscriptie uit Bettembenq.1899, 27 p. . . . . .----, De legende van Kuiijerskeme volqens het oudst bekende hand-schriit; met oud-leveenschen tekst, Nederlendsche oertelinq eneenteekeninqen. 1901, 90 p. met 1plaat .

N, J . KROM, Een Sumetreensche inscriptie van koning Krteneqere. 1916,34 p. . . . . . . . . . . . .' ..

----:," De ondergang van Criwijaya,; avec resume en fran{:ais. 1926,23 p. . .. " .

-;----, Het Karmawibhangga op Bsrebudur. 1933, 69 p.----" De heiligdommen van Pelembenq; 1938, 27 p. . .C. LEEMANS, Over metalen beeldies uit Java. 1857, 16 p,

Over oudheidkundige onderzoekinqen en ontdeTckingen op Java.1865, 46 p. . . . .

----, Opmerkinqeti over de uiiqee] van het wel'k Boro-Boedoer ophet eilend Java. 1874, 11 p. . ...... .

W. H. RASSERS, lnleidinq tot een bestudeerinq van de Javaansche his.1938\ 59 p. met 3 platen . .

J . S. SPEYER. Studies about the KatMsaritsagara. 1908, 180 p. .W. P. STUTTERHEIM, lets over Pree-Hinduistische bijzettinqsqebtuiken

op Java. 1939, 36 p. . . . . . . . .

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Een ceteloqus der nag ooorrediqe publiceties van de Koninklijlr ~Akademie van Wetenschappen is bij de uitqevers ' To _ "'

Bake, A. - Çri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (in English)

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Transcript of Bake, A. - Çri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (in English)