30 Sri Caitanya-caritamrta

pleasures. When by the grace of Krsna and the devotees one reaches perfection in
devotional service, he can appreciate Krsna as Gopijana-vallabha , the pleasure Deity
of the damsels of Vraja.

Lord Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu explained this mode of devotional service in three
stages, and therefore these worshipable Deities were installed in Vrndavana by dif-
ferent Gosvamis. They are very dear to the Gaudiya Vaisnavas there, who visit the
temples at least once a day. Besides the temples of these three Deities, many other
temples have been established in Vrndavana, such as the temple of Radha-Damodara
of Jiva Gosvami, the temple of Syamasundara of Syamananda Gosvami, the temple
of Gokulananda of Lokanatha Gosvami, and the temple of Radharamana of Gopala
Bhatta Gosvami. There are seven principal temples over four hundred years old that
are the most important of the 5,000 temples now existing in Vrndavana.

“Gaudfya”’ indicates the part of India between the southern side of the Himalayan
Mountains and the northern part of the Vindhya Hills, which is called Aryavarta, or
the Land of the Aryans. This portion of India is divided into five parts or provinces
(Pafca-gaudadesa): Sarasvata (Kashmir and Punjab), Kanyakubja (Uttar Pradesh,
including the modern city of Lucknow), Madhya-gauda (Madhya Pradesh), Maithila
(Bihar and part of Bengal) and Utkala (part of Bengal and the whole of Orissa).
Bengal is sometimes called Gaudadesa, partly because it forms a portion of Maithila
and partly because the capital of the Hindu king Raja Laksmana Sena was known as
Gauda. This old capital later came to be known as Gaudapura and gradually Mayapur.

The devotees of Orissa are called Udiyas, the devotees of Bengal are called Gaudiyas,
and the devotees of southern India are known as Dravidi devotees. As there are five
provinces in Aryavarta, so Daksinatya, southern India, is also divided into five
provinces, which are called Pajica-dravida. The four Vaisnava dcdryas who are the
great authorities of the four Vaisnava disciplic successions, as well as Sripada
Sankaracarya of the Mayavada school, appeared in the Parica-dravida provinces.
Among the four Vaisnava dcdryas, who are all accepted by the Gaudiya Vaisnavas,
Sri Ramanuja Acarya appeared in the southern part of Andhra Pradesh at Mahabhita-
puri, Sri Madhva Acarya appeared at Pajakam (near Vimanagiri) in the district of °
Myangalora, Sri Visnusvami appeared at Pandya, and Sri Nimbarka appeared at
Mungera-patana in the extreme south.

Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu accepted the chain of disciplic succession from Madhva
Acarya, but the Vaisnavas in His line do not accept the tattva-vadis, who also claim
to belong to the Madhva-sampradaya. To distinguish themselves clearly from the
tattva-vadi branch of Madhva’s descendants, the Vaisnavas of Bengal prefer to call
themselves Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Sri Madhva Acarya is also known as Sri Gauda-
parnananda, and therefore the name Madhva-Gaudiya-sampradaya is quite suitable
for the disciplic succession of the Gaudiya Vaisnavas. Our spiritual master, Om
Visnupada Srimad Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja, accepted initiation
in the Madhva-Gaudiya-sampradaya.

TEXT 20

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