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 Mo-
hamedans 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 contem-
porary writer, but he gathered his information from the Goswamins them-
selves, 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.

