(Chaitanya Charitamrita Class by HH Bhakti Vighna Vinasa Narasimha Swami Maharaja)
On 15th March 2025, a day after Gaura Purnima festival, HH Bhakti Vighna Vinasak Narasimha Swami Maharaj discussed few of the qualities of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Maharaj gave Chaitanya Charitamrita Class in the morning and spoke about the wonderful qualities of Mahaprabhu which attracts the heart of everyone. He spoke on the verse Chaitanya Charitamrita 1.3.49.
suvarṇa-varṇo hemāṅgo
varāṅgaś candanāṅgadī
sannyāsa-kṛc chamaḥ śānto
niṣṭhā–śānti-parāyaṇaḥ
“In His early pastimes He appears as a householder with a golden complexion. His limbs are beautiful, and His body, smeared with the pulp of sandalwood, seems like molten gold. In His later pastimes He accepts the sannyāsa order, and He is equipoised and peaceful. He is the highest abode of peace and devotion, for He silences the impersonalist nondevotees.”
Below is what Maharaj said in his lecture
Today is Jagannath Misra festival. Just like Vasudeva wanted to give charity when Krishna was born, similarly Jagannath Misra gave charity. Although in prison, Vasudev gave 10,000 cows in charity mentally. Similarly, Saci Mata has delivered another son. So, they invited brahmanas, gave charity and had a feast.
This verse (CC 1.3.49) appears 3 times in Chaitanya Charitamrita.
Who can be God?
When we establish a person as an incarnation, we do not do it just by vote. One can canvas to become God but that is not the way to establish incarnation of God.
We need references from scriptures to explain their activities. Like there are references to Lord Buddha, Lord Kalki in the scriptures.
Similarly, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was predicted in the scriptures. There is a very important verse from Mahabharat from Visnu sahastra nama describing activities of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Another verse is in 11th canto of Srimad Bhagavatam which establishes Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as the Supreme Lord.
Mahaprabhu’s colour & exquisite beauty
This verse (CC 1.3.49) talks about his (Supreme Lord) colour which is Suvarna which means gold.
There was a king who was attached to gold, His name was Suvarna Sena, but Narada Muni preached to him, and he became a devotee. He later became Buddhimanta Khan and he paid for the marriage for Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (with Vishnupriya).
Also Radharani has golden colour – tapta kanchana gaurangi radhe vrindavaneshvari vrishabhanu sute devi pranamamai hari priye.
vara–aṅgaḥ means, he is having the most beautiful body. Lord Rama came with bow and arrow; Krishna’s weapon was Sudarshan cakra and sometimes club. But Lord Chaitanya’s weapon was his beauty. His attractive feature captured people’s mind. Everyone who saw him asked who is this personality who is so wonderful! Lord Chaitanya’s exquisite beauty is the weapon to defeat the minds of the materialistic people. In Kali yuga he does not kill demons but changes their heart.
candana–aṅgadī: Lord Chaitanya’s body was smeared with sandalwood. This is the nature of Supreme Lord. Even Srila Prabhupada liked candan and wanted it even in cold weather.
We may say Lord Chaitanya’s beauty is relative. He may be attractive to someone and not to others. But he is the Supreme Lord, he is attractive to everyone. There is no question of people not liking him.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s taking sannyasa is interesting
In his first part of life, he appears as householder.
He was in this world for 48 years. For 24 years he was with family – mother, father and wife.
But he does not remain in household life forever. Vedic culture is like that. If you live 100 years, then half of life means 50 years, and the scriptures say from the age of 50 you should go to the forest, retire from family life. Today we cannot retire to forest, but we can go to the temple.
There are many people in middle east who earn enough and retire and get engaged in full time temple service. In this way they are preparing for next life. Vedic culture is like that. You may be a householder, but you should move on and prepare for next life. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu showed this by his own example. At the age of 24 years, he left home and never came back.
His initiation is interesting. He went to Keshav Bharti because he understood that although in line of Shankaracharya, he was a Vaishnava. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to Keshav Bharti for initiation but before Keshav Bharti initiates Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, the Lord first initiates him. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is Supreme Personality of Godhead; he does not need initiation. But for social etiquette he took sannyasa initiation. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu first said the mantra to Keshav Bharti and Keshav Bharti repeats the same mantra to Chaitanya Mahaprabhu for sannyasa.
Lord Chaitanya accepts sannyasa order. But sometimes people taking sannyasa becomes agitated because after taking sannyasa one has to give up many things.
Srila Prabhupada said sannyasa means walking dead man. There is no more material responsibility, its pain taking experience.
Srila Prabhupada after taking sannyasa faced so many difficulties but remained steady.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is equipoised and peaceful. In the renounced order of life, you want to be equipoised and peaceful. You do not want to feel that I have given up sense gratification, sometimes people regret after taking sannyasa.
If you do not have right mood, then sannyasa danda becomes danda for beating.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was the highest abode of peace and devotion. Srila Prabhupada writes here that nista means rigidly chanting the holy names of Krishna.
Nista comes after anartha nivritii. It’s quite an advanced stage to be at nista. Nista means to be fixed in chanting the names of Krishna and talking only about Krishna.
Mahaprabhu in Benares
In Benares Chaitanya Mahaprabhu met Prakashnanda Saraswati who was in the line of Shankara. Benares is not a good place for Vaishnavas yet.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had gone there because there was Tapan Misra & Chandrashekhar.
Tapan Misra had asked from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu how to attain goal of life and Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had asked him to go to Benares.
In Benares Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not associate with any mayavadi sanyasis. He would go and do sankirtan daily, all alone.
Mahaprabhu loves sankirtan
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would attract others by beautifully singing the names of Krishna like in Jharikhanda forest he was chanting – Krishna, Krishna, Krishna. All the wild animals became gentle by hearing Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Even ferocious animal like tiger became gentle.
Two lines are favourite of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in the hari haraye namah krishna yadavaya namah song. In fact, the first two lines are from Mahaprabhu. Later Narottama Das Thakura added more to this song.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would sing many other songs in the association of Swarup Damodar.
When Maharaj Prataprudra sang gopi geet – tava kathāmṛtaḿ tapta-jīvanaḿ kavibhir īḍitaḿ kalmaṣāpaham śravaṇa-mańgalaḿ śrīmad ātataḿ. – Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was in ecstasy.
When he came to Govardhan, he sang song sung by gopis..
In temple in Simhachalam, there is deity of Lord Narasimhadev. This deity is covered by sandalwood throughout the year except on the day of Akshay Tritiya when they remove sandalwood. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu went there and sang – Ugram Viram Maha Vishnum.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu likes to do sankirtan, chant holy names.
Nilambhara Chakravarti came and saw the child and said that there are 32 auspicious characters on different parts of the body like on palm, sole of feet, some are broad, some are long, some are short. So, we can understand clearly who is the Lord – by his characteristic and also there was markings on the lotus feet of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu.
Also, at the time of his birth, there were no dosas.
What Chaitanya Mahaprabhu asked Ramananda Ray?
He silences the non-devotees. When he met Ramananda Ray, he asks for verses in scriptures about perfection of life.
Ramananda Ray first talks about Varnashrama but Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said that is external. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is preaching pure devotion. Performing duties of particular ashram like brahmachari, grihastha, vanaprastha, sannyasi is fine. Also, it’s not a dress which makes one a sannyasi, so many other duties are required. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu said go on.
And Ramananda Ray said offering foods to the Lord. There is a verse in Bhagavad Gita 9.27 – yat karoṣi yad aśnāsi/ yaj juhoṣi dadāsi yat. But Mahaprabhu said not exactly because to whom we are offering to Shiva, Ganesh etc? It’s very open whom to offer.
And then Ramananda Ray quotes Bhagavad Gita 18.66. But Lord Chaitanya said keep going because for surrender people have different reasons, there intention may not be good.
Like one man in Hong Kong said I want sannyasa because he said he is facing difficulties in family life. He had a wife and 4 children. But Srila Prabhupada did not agree.
Ramananda Raya quoted jnana misra bhakti – Lord Chaitanya was not satisfied.
Ramananda Ray then quoted from Srimad Bhagavatam the verse spoken by Lord Brahma – jnāne prayāsam – then Mahaprabhu said this is devotion because Lord Chaitanya wants to preach pure devotion. Rupa Goswami also describes devotion as anyābhilāṣitā-śūnyaṁ.
“One should hear about Krishna from Krishna’s pure devotees in whatever position u r in.”
As we cannot know Krishna completely, similarly, we cannot completely understand Srimad Bhagavatam. Lord Chaitanya told this to Devananda Pandit.
Why Mahaprabhu associated with Gadadhara Pandit?
Mahaprabhu associated with Gadhadhara Pandit and used to hear from him because he was Radharani. And Mahaprabhu wanted to develop mood of love of separation from Gadhadhara Pandit.
Pure devotional service means hearing about Krishna from pure devotees of Krishna in the association of devotees.
Conclusion
Class helped us go deep into the pastimes of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and understand his divine qualities which many times are difficult to apprehend. One point was clear that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu came to this world from the spiritual world to teach us how to practice pure devotion sincerely so that we can go back to the spiritual world in this lifetime only. Maharaj later always invited questions from the audience and cleared doubts of the devotees.
