XXXIV
Teachings of Lord Chaitanya
mins joined the banners of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He was now twenty-seven years of age. In His 28th year He went to Bengal as far as Gaud in Maldah. There He picked up two great personages named Rupa and Sanatan. Though descended from the lines of the Karnatic Brahmins, these two brothers turned out demi-Moslems by their continual contact with Hossain Shah, the then-Emperor of Gaud. Their names had been changed by the Emperor into Dabirkhash and Saker Mallik, and their master loved them heartily as they were both learned in Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit, and were loyal servants of the state. The two gentlemen had found no way to come back as regular Hindus, and had written to Mahaprabhu while He was at Puri, for spiritual help. Mahaprabhu had written in reply that He would come to them and extricate them out of their spiritual difficulties. Now that He had come to Gaud both the brothers appeared before Him with their longstanding prayer. Mahaprabhu ordered them to go to Vrindaban and meet Him there.
Chaitanya returned to Puri through Santipur, where He again met His dear mother. After a short stay at Puri He left for Vrindaban. This time He was accompanied by one Balabhadra Bhattacharya. He visited Vrindaban and came down to Prayag (Allahabad), converting a large number of Mohamedans to Vaishnavism by argument from the  Koran . The descendants of those converts are still known as Pathan Vaishnavas. Rupa Goswami met Him at Allahabad, and Chaitanya trained him up in spirituality in ten days, and directed him to go to Vrindaban on missions. His first mission was to write theological works explaining scientifically pure  bhakti  and  prema , devotional service, and love of Godhead. The second mission was to revive the places where Krishna Chandra had in the end of Dvapara Yuga, the previous Age, exhibited His  lila , or Pastimes, for the benefit of the religious world. Rupa Goswami left Allahabad for Vrindaban, and Mahaprabhu came down to Benares. There He put up in the house of Chandrasekhar, and accepted His daily  bhiksha  (meal) in the house of Tapan Misra. Here it was that Sanatan Goswami joined Him, and took instruction for two months in spiritual matters.
The biographers, especially Krishnadas Kaviraj, have given us details of Chaitanya's teachings to Rupa and Sanatan. Krishnadas was not a contemporary writer, but he gathered his information from the Goswamins themselves, the direct disciples of Mahaprabhu. Jiva Goswami, who was the nephew of Sanatan and Rupa, and who has left us his invaluable work the  Sad-sandarbha  has philosophized on the precepts of his great leader. We have gathered and summarized the precepts of Chaitanya from the books of those great writers.