Bhaktivedanta VedaBase: Śrī Caitanya Caritāmṛta Ādi 10.77

bhāgavatī devānanda vakreśvara-kṛpāte

bhāgavatera bhakti-artha pāila prabhu haite

SYNONYMS

bhāgavatī devānanda — Devānanda, who used to recite Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; vakreśvara-kṛpāte — by the mercy of Vakreśvara; bhāgavatera — of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam; bhakti-artha — the bhakti interpretation; pāila — got; prabhu haite — from the Lord.

TRANSLATION

Devānanda Paṇḍita was a professional reciter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but by the mercy of Vakreśvara Paṇḍita and the grace of the Lord he understood the devotional interpretation of the Bhāgavatam.

PURPORT

In the Caitanya-bhāgavata, Madhya-khaṇḍa, Chapter Twenty-one, it is stated that Devānanda Paṇḍita and Sārvabhauma Bhaṭṭācārya's father, Viśārada, lived in the same village. Devānanda Paṇḍita was a professional reciter of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, but Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu did not like his interpretation of it. In the present town of Navadvīpa, which was formerly known as Kuliyā, Lord Caitanya showed such mercy to him that he gave up the Māyāvādī interpretation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam and learned how to explain Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam in terms of bhakti. Formerly, when Devānanda was expounding the Māyāvādī interpretation, Śrīvāsa Ṭhākura was once present in his meeting, and when he began to cry, Devānanda's students drove him away. Some days later, Caitanya Mahāprabhu passed that way, and when He met Devānanda He chastised him severely because of his Māyāvāda interpretation of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. At that time Devānanda had little faith in Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu as an incarnation of Lord Kṛṣṇa, but one night some time later Vakreśvara Paṇḍita was a guest in his house, and when he explained the science of Kṛṣṇa, Devānanda was convinced about the identity of Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu. Thus he was induced to explain Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam according to the Vaiṣṇava understanding. In the Gaura-gaṇoddeśa-dīpikā (106) it is described that he was formerly Bhāguri Muni, the sabhā-paṇḍita who recited Vedic literatures in the house of Nanda Mahārāja.

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