126
Śrī Caitanya-caritāmṛta
[Antya-lilā, Ch. 5]
kāṣṭha-pāṣāṇa-sparśe haya yaiche bhāva taruṇī-sparśe rāmānandera taiche ‘svabhāva’
SYNONYMS
kāṣṭha—wood; pāṣāṇa—stone; sparśe—by touching; haya—there is; yaiche—as; bhāva—mental position; taruṇī-sparśe—by touching the young girls; rāmānandera—of Rāmānanda Rāya; taiche—like that; svabhāva—nature.
TRANSLATION
While touching the young girls, he was like a person touching wood or stone, for his body and mind were unaffected.
TEXT 20
সেব্য-বুদ্ধি আরোপিয়া করেন সেবন। আভ্যবিক দাসীভাব করেন আরোপণ ॥ ২০ ॥
sevya-bujhi āropiyā karena sevana svābhāvika dāsī-bhāva karena āropaṇa
SYNONYMS
sevya-bujhi āropiyā—considering worshipable; karena sevana—engages in service; svābhāvika—by his natural position; dāsī-bhāva—as a maidservant; karena āropaṇa—considers.
TRANSLATION
Śrīla Rāmānanda Rāya used to act in that way because he thought of himself in his original position as a maidservant of the gopīs. Thus although externally he appeared to be a man, internally, in his original spiritual position, he considered himself a maidservant and considered the two girls gopīs.
PURPORT
Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Thākura writes in his  Amṛta-pravāha-bhāṣya : “Śrīla Rāmānanda Rāya composed a drama named  Jagannātha-vallabha-nāṭaka , and he engaged two young girls who were professional dancers and singers to demonstrate the ideology of the drama. Such girls, who are called  deva-dāsīs , are still employed in the temple of Jagannātha, where they are called  māhārīs . Śrī Rāmānanda Rāya engaged two such girls, and because they were meant to play the parts of  gopīs , he taught them how to awaken thoughts like those of the  gopīs . Because the  gopīs  are worshipable personalities, Rāmānanda Rāya, who considered the two