Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmrita Ādi 3.34

śesha-līlāya dhare nāma 'śrī-krishna-caitanya'

śrī-krishna jānāye saba viśva kaila dhanya

SYNONYMS

śesha-līlāya — in His final pastimes; dhare — He held; nāma — the name; śrī-krishna-caitanya — Śrī Krishna Caitanya; śrī-krishna — about Lord Krishna; jānāye — He taught; saba — all; viśva — the world; kaila — made; dhanya — fortunate.

TRANSLATION

In His later pastimes He is known as Lord Śrī Krishna Caitanya. He blesses the whole world by teaching about the name and fame of Lord Śrī Krishna.

PURPORT

Lord Caitanya remained a householder only until His twenty-fourth year had passed. Then He entered the renounced order and remained manifest in this material world until His forty-eighth year. Therefore His śesha-līlā, or the final portion of His activities, lasted twenty-four years.

Some so-called Vaishnavas say that the renounced order of life was not accepted in the Vaishnava sampradāya, or disciplic succession, until Lord Caitanya. This is not a very intelligent proposition. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu took the sannyāsa order from Śrīpāda Keśava Bhāratī, who belonged to the Śańkara sect, which approves of only ten names for sannyāsīs. Long before the advent of Śrīpāda Śańkarācārya, however, the sannyāsa order existed in the Vaishnava line of Vishnu Svāmī. In the Vishnu Svāmī Vaishnava sampradāya, there are ten different kinds of sannyāsa names and 108 different names for sannyāsīs who accept the tri-danda, the triple staff of sannyāsa. This is approved by the Vedic rules. Therefore Vaishnava sannyāsa was existent even before the appearance of Śańkarācārya, although those who know nothing about Vaishnava sannyāsa unnecessarily declare that there is no sannyāsa in the Vaishnava sampradāya.

During the time of Lord Caitanya, the influence of Śańkarācārya in society was very strong. People thought that one could accept sannyāsa only in the disciplic succession of Śańkarācārya. Lord Caitanya could have performed His missionary activities as a householder, but He found householder life an obstruction to His mission. Therefore He decided to accept the renounced order, sannyāsa. Since His acceptance of sannyāsa was also designed to attract public attention, Lord Caitanya, not wishing to disturb the social convention, took the renounced order of life from a sannyāsī in the disciplic succession of Śańkarācārya, although sannyāsa was also sanctioned in the Vaishnava sampradāya.

In the Śańkara-sampradāya there are ten different names awarded to sannyāsīs: (1) Tīrtha, (2) Āśrama, (3) Vana, (4) Aranya, (5) Giri, (6) Parvata, (7) Sāgara, (8) Sarasvatī, (9) Bhāratī and (10) Purī. Before one enters sannyāsa, he has one of the various names for a brahmacārī, the assistant to a sannyāsī. Sannyāsīs with the titles Tīrtha and Āśrama generally stay at Dvārakā, and their brahmacārī name is Svarūpa. Those known by the names Vana and Aranya stay at Purushottama, or Jagannātha Purī, and their brahmacārī name is Prakāśa. Those with the names Giri, Parvata and Sāgara generally stay at Badarikāśrama, and their brahmacārī name is Ānanda. Those with the titles Sarasvatī, Bhāratī and Purī usually live at Śrńgerī in South India, and their brahmacārī name is Caitanya.

Śrīpāda Śańkarācārya established four monasteries in India, in the four directions (north, south, east and west), and he entrusted them to four sannyāsīs who were his disciples. Now there are hundreds of branch monasteries under these four principal monasteries, and although there is an official symmetry among them, there are many differences in their dealings. The four different sects of these monasteries are known as Ānandavāra, Bhogavāra, Kītavāra and Bhūmivāra, and in course of time they have developed different ideas and different slogans.

According to the regulation of the disciplic succession, one who wishes to enter the renounced order in Śańkara's sect must first be trained as a brahmacārī under a bona fide sannyāsī, The brahmacārī's name is ascertained according to the group to which the sannyāsī belongs. Lord Caitanya accepted sannyāsa from Keśava Bhāratī. When He first approached Keśava Bhāratī, He was accepted as a brahmacārī with the name Śrī Krishna Caitanya Brahmacārī. After He took sannyāsa, He preferred to keep the name Krishna Caitanya.

The great authorities in the disciplic succession had not offered to explain why Lord Caitanya refused to take the name Bhāratī after He took sannyāsa from a Bhāratī, until Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Gosvāmī Mahārāja volunteered the explanation that because a sannyāsī in the Śańkara-sampradāya thinks that he has become the Supreme, Lord Caitanya, wanting to avoid such a misconception, kept the name Śrī Krishna Caitanya, placing Himself as an eternal servitor. A brahmacārī is supposed to serve the spiritual master; therefore He did not negate that relationship of servitude to His spiritual master. Accepting such a position is favorable for the relationship between the disciple and the spiritual master.

The authentic biographies also mention that Lord Caitanya accepted the danda (rod) and begging pot, symbolic of the sannyāsa order, at the time He took sannyāsa.

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His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda, Founder Ācārya of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness