Introduction 37

sannydasis, the popularity of the Lord increased at Varanasi, and thousands
of people assembled to see the Lord in person. The Lord thus established
the primary importance of Srimad-Bhdgavata-dharma, and He defeated all
other systems of spiritual realization. Since then everyone at Varanasi was
overwhelmed with the transcendental sankirtana movement.

While the Lord was camping at Varanasi, Sanatana Gosvami also arrived
after retiring from office. He was formerly one of the state ministers in the
government of Bengal, then under the regime of Nawab Hussain Shah. He
had some difficulty in getting relief from the state service, for the Nawab
was reluctant to let him leave. Nonetheless he came to Varanasi, and the
Lord taught him the principles of devotional service. He taught him about
the constitutional position of the living being, the cause of his bondage
under material conditions, his eternal relation with the Personality of
Godhead, the transcendental position of the Supreme Personality of God-
head, His expansions in different plenary portions of incarnations, His
control of different parts of the universe, the nature of His transcendental
abode, devotional activities, their different stages of development and the
rules and regulations for achieving the gradual stages of spiritual perfection,
the symptoms of different incarnations in different ages and how to
detect them with reference to the context of revealed scriptures.

The Lord’s teachings to Sanatana Gosvami form a big chapter in the
text of Sri Caitanya-caritamyta, and to explain the whole teachings in
minute details will require a volume in itself. These are treated in detail
in our book Teachings of Lord Caitanya.

At Mathura, the Lord visited all the important places; then He reached
Vrndavana. Lord Caitanya appeared in the family of a high caste brah-
mana, and over and above that as sannyasi He was the preceptor for all the
varnas and asramas. But He used to accept meals from all classes of
Vaisnavas. At Mathura the Sanodhia brahmanas are considered to be in
the lower status of society, but the Lord accepted meals in their families
also because His host happened to be a disciple of the Madhavendra Puri
family.

At Vrndavana the Lord took bath in twenty-four important bathing
places and ghats. He travelled to all the twelve important vanas (forests).
In these forests all the cows and birds welcomed Him, as if He were their
very old friend. The Lord also began to embrace all the trees of those
forests, and by doing so He felt the symptoms of transcendetnal ecstasy.
Sometimes He fell unconscious, but He was made to regain consciousness
by the chanting of the holy name of Krsna. The transcendental symptoms
that were visible on the body of the Lord during His travel within the
