PART 2 - THE GREAT MISSION OF SRI CAITANYA-BHAGAVATA

January 19, 2001

(XV) IMPORTANCE OF PUBLISHING & READING SRI CAITANYA-BHAGAVATA &

SRI CAITANYA-CARITAMRTA WITH THEIR ORIGINAL BENGALI VERSES

Cc Adi 8.39 purport

Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami wrote Sri Caitanya-caritamrta in his old age, in an

invalid condition, but it is such a sublime literature that Srila

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Maharaja used to say, "The time will come

when the people of the world will learn Bengali to read Sri

Caitanya-caritamrta." We are trying to present Sri Caitanya-caritamrta in

English and do not know how successful it will be, but if one reads the

original Caitanya-caritamrta in Bengali he will relish increasing ecstasy in

devotional service.

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta, Adi-lila 7.1, Mayapur, March 1, 1974

My Guru Maharaja, His Divine Grace Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami

Prabhupada, whenever he got some time he used to read Caitanya-caritamrta. And

he predicted that the whole world like to read Caitanya-caritamrta, and for

this reason they'll learn Bengali. Therefore, following his footsteps, I have

kept the Bengali character and tried to give the literary meaning of each word

of the Bengali poem. This is, of course, Sanskrit. This book is full of

Sanskrit verses. Some of them are composed by the author himself, Kaviraja

Gosvami, and some of them are quoted from various literature, Vedic literature.

Cc Antya Concluding words

In the meantime, I was induced to translate Sri Caitanya-caritamrta and publish

it in an elaborate version. In his leisure time in later life, His Divine Grace

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura would simply read Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. It

was his favorite book. He used to say that there would be a time when

foreigners would learn the Bengali language to read the Caitanya-caritamrta.

Letter to: Kirtiraja, Vrindaban, 15 September, 1975

He has written that people will want to learn Bengali just to read Caitanya

Caritamrta. That was the prediction of my Guru Maharaja. This is very

enlivening.

Professor and the head of the Department of Bengali and the dean of the faculty

of Fine Arts and Music at the University of Calcutta.

I have particularly read some portions of this English translation of Sri

Caitanya-caritamrta, and I think this book is capable of saving mankind from

the clutches of maya. I have no doubt that the ISKCON will lead the world to

the path of divine grace."

(XVI) SRI CAITANYA-BHAGAVATA IS MEANT FOR THE COMMON MAN & CAN BE READ FIRST,

EVEN BEFORE SRIMAD-BHAGAVATAM

Cc Adi 8.36 purport

Srimad-Bhagavatam is the authoritative reference book from which to understand

devotional service, but because it is very elaborate, few men can understand

its purport. Srimad-Bhagavatam is the original commentary on the Vedanta-sutra,

which is called nyaya-prasthana. It was written to enable one to understand the

Absolute Truth through infallible logic and argument, and therefore its natural

commentary, Srimad-Bhagavatam, is extremely elaborate. Professional reciters

have created the impression that Srimad-Bhagavatam deals only with Krsna's

rasa-lila, although Krsna's rasa-lila is described only in chapters 29 through

33 of the Tenth Canto. They have in this way presented Krsna to the Western

world as a great woman-hunter, and therefore we sometimes have to deal with

such misconceptions in preaching. Another difficulty in understanding

Srimad-Bhagavatam is that the professional reciters have introduced

bhagavata-saptaha, or seven-day readings of the Bhagavatam. They want to finish

Srimad-Bhagavatam in a week, although it is so sublime that even one verse of

Srimad-Bhagavatam, if properly explained, cannot be completed in three months.

Under these circumstances, it is a great aid for the common man to read Srila

Vrndavana dasa Thakura's Caitanya-bhagavata, for thus he can actually

understand devotional service, Krsna, Lord Caitanya and Nityananda. Srila Rupa

Gosvami has said:

sruti-smrti-puranadi-pancaratra-vidhim vina

aikantiki harer bhaktir utpatayaiva kalpate [bRS 1.2.101]

"Devotional service to the Lord that ignores the authorized Vedic

literatures-the Upanisads, Puranas, Narada-pancaratra, etc.-is simply an

unnecessary disturbance in society." Due to misunderstanding Srimad-Bhagavatam,

people are misled regarding the science of Krsna. However, by reading Srila

Vrndavana dasa Thakura's book one can very easily understand this science.

>From Bhakti Vikasa Swami's notes on Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura:

Sarasvati Thakura read both Caitanya-bhagavata & Caitanya-caritamrta 108 times

and told others to do likewise, expecting everyone to do that. Of course, it's

doubtful if anyone did, but the idea was meant to read again and again and

absorb the mind in Gauranga just as Mahaprabhu liked to hear the stories of

Dhruva and Prahlada Maharaja. Sarasvati Thakura said to read Caitanya-bhagavata

first then Caitanya-caritamrta, and then Srimad-Bhagavatam. The reason being

that Caitanya-bhagavata is very easy reading for all kinds of people because it

has no difficult philosophy and is mostly lila. Caitanya-caritamrta is also

very attractive with some very difficult sections also. In the Srimad

Bhagavatam the language is difficult Sanskrit.

Once, when Jotisekhara was new in the Math, Sarasvati Thakura asked him if he

was reading Caitanya-bhagavata when he said "No", he told him he should read it

early in the morning, before mangalarati, at 5.00am. Jotisekhara said it would

be difficult for him to read so early, because he had a bad cough. Sarasvati

Thakura said, "Starting from tomorrow, you read from 4.00am - 5.00am. Read it

clearly and loudly and it will clear any cough in your throat." Sarasvati

Thakura said the Caitanya-bhagavata and Caitanya-caritamrta, even though in

Bengali verse, are full of all sastric conclusions, and he recommended them,

along with Srimad-Bhagavatam. (especially the sections on Dhruva Maharaja,

Prahlada-charita, the story of Prahlada, and Kapiladeva's instructions). He

recommended all of these to be read 100 times.

He did not recommend reading the Gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam, but

Caitanya-bhagavata, except learned scholars, whom he would recommend to read

the Gita and Srimad-Bhagavatam. For the ordinary Bengali he recommended

Caitanya-bhagavata and Krsna Prema Tarangini, a Bengali verse edition of

Srimad-Bhagavatam by Bhagavatacarya, a disciple of Lord Caitanya.

Gaudiya Vaisnava scholars generally consider Caitanya-caritamrta to be the most

important biography of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, even more so than Caitanya

Bhagavata, in as much as it deals with: (a) the philosophy of Caitanya

Mahaprabhu in great detail and (b) the highest ecstasies of Caitanya

Mahaprabhu, which are referred to only somewhat in Caitanya Bhagavata.

Sarasvati Thakura himself would generally explain philosophy very deeply, but

he said that Caitanya Bhagavata is more important than Caitanya-caritamrta for

the common man because it is a lila-grantha. Without describing so much about

philosophy, it describes the lila of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and is therefore easy

for the common man to follow and understand the philosophy. Even though

Sarasvati Thakura himself mostly explained philosophy, he said that philosophy

is only for the greatly learned people, and for the common men Caitanya

Bhagavata is more important. So he said, "Read Caitanya Bhagavata from time to

time." If anyone came to him he would ask them if they had read Caitanya

Bhagavata. He often asked people this, including non-devotees. He recommended

that for ordinary people, the first Vaisnava literature they read be Caitanya

Bhagavata. He recommended to everyone to first read Caitanya Bhagavata, then

Prema Bhakti Chandrika, then Srimad Bhagavatam.

O.B.L. Kapoor, being a learned scholar from Allahabad, the Hindi speaking part

of India, was instructed by Sarasvati Thakura to learn Bengali, so as he could

study the original Bengali texts of the Caitanya Bhagavata and the

Caitanya-caritamrta, etc. Sarasvati Thakura liked other Gaudiya Math members

who were also learned and non-Bengalis, to learn Bengali for this reason.

Once, in Dhaka, he told Sundarananda Vidyavinoda to give a series of lectures

on the Gita in colleges. Although generally he would have people go to the

Bhagavatam or Vaisnava literatures immediately (of course the Gita is also a

Vaisnava literature but it is considered to be for beginners) - the books which

deal exclusively with bhakti and which are not used by other schools, as the

Caitanya Bhagavata, Prema Bhakti Chandrika, Srimad Bhagavatam. These books

Sarasvati Thakura recommended to people to go to directly. His understanding

was that the Gita was for the people in varnasrama; karmis, jnanis, yogis; then

they may come to bhakti. But in the case of the people amongst whom he was

preaching, he wanted them to take directly to bhakti (don't get hung-up)

>From the intorduction of Sri Caitanya-carita Mahakavya by Srila Murari Gupta,

translated by Bhaktivedanta Bhagavata Swami:

In order to create another flood of gaura-katha to inundate the dull minds of

Kali-yuga's materialists and water the seeds of bhakti lying dormant in their

hearts, all of Lord Caitanya's biographies must be translated and profusely

distributed in all mediums. Although some of these various texts describe the

same Personality of Gaurahari, and may appear to narrate the same incidents of

the Lord's life, still due to the undiminishing and ever-increasing blissful

nature of transcendental subject matters, nava-navayamana, there is no point of

satiation for the attentive reader of gaura-katha. Even if one hears repeatedly

the same histories of the golden avatara, one's enthusiasm will not wane.

Rather, an ardent longing to exclusively hear, chant and remember gaura-katha

will develop, while simultaneously an aversion to the transitory topics of the

bahir-mukhn (materialists) will arise, and thereby one will surely achieve the

perfectional stage of human life-love of Kndoa. As the Gauinya Vaidoavas sing:

bhaja gaurahga, kaha gaurahga, laha gaurahgera nama re

ye jana gaurahga bhaje, se haya amara praoa re

Worship Gauraga! Speak about Gaurahga! Take Gaurahga's names! Whoever worships

Gaurahga, he is the breath of my life.

(XVII) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q. Can Sri Caitanya-bhagavata be distributed to the common people before they

have read the Gita and Bhagavatam?

A. Yes, Sri Caitanya-bhagavata can be distributed along with the Gita even

before Bhagavatam according to Srila Prabhupada's purport on Cc Adi 8.36. In

the first part of the purport he explains that Srimad-Bhagavatam is difficult

to understand for the common man due to four reasons:

(1) It is very elaborate due to it being the commentary on the the highly

condensed Vedanta-sutra and it is in Sanskrit which is a very difficult

language to understand for the common man thus few men can understand its

purport.

(2) Professional reciters have created the impression that Srimad-Bhagavatam

deals only with Krsna's rasa-lila and thus presented Krsna as a great

woman-hunter.

(3) Professional reciters have introduced bhagavata-saptaha, or seven-day

readings of the Bhagavatam.

Then Prabhupada explains that under these circumstances, it is a great aid for

the common man to read Srila Vrndavana dasa Thakura's Caitanya-bhagavata, for

thus he can actually understand devotional service, Krsna, Lord Caitanya and

Nityananda. Due to misunderstanding Srimad-Bhagavatam, people are misled

regarding the science of Krsna. However, by reading Srila Vrndavana dasa

Thakura's book one can very easily understand this science.

So it is pretty clear that Sri Caitanya-bhagavata is a great book to introduce

to the common people who normally may not have the required intelligence &

patience to understand the most elaborate Srimad-Bhagavatam

Also Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura has said said that Caitanya

Bhagavata is more important than Caitanya-caritamrta for the common man because

it is a lila-grantha. Without describing so much about philosophy, it describes

the lila of Caitanya Mahaprabhu, and is therefore easy for the common man to

follow and understand the philosophy. Even though Sarasvati Thakura himself

mostly explained philosophy, he said that philosophy is only for the greatly

learned people, and for the common men Caitanya Bhagavata is more important. So

he said, "Read Caitanya Bhagavata from time to time." If anyone came to him he

would ask them if they had read Caitanya Bhagavata. He often asked people this,

including non-devotees. He recommended that for ordinary people, the first

Vaisnava literature they read be Caitanya Bhagavata.

Q. Then why did not Srila Prabhupada explicitly tell us to read this book and

distribute it in mass quantities?

A. One immediate amswer is because Srila Prabhupada had not translated the

book. Srila Prabhupada did give great importance to Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu's

pastimes and that is proved by the fact that he left the translation of the

Bhagavatam in middle to complete Sri Caitanya-caritamrta. So actually he did'nt

have time to translate Sri Caitanya-bhagavata. Although Prabhupada has said

that his books are enough, he did say that reading Sri Caitanya-bhagavata will

be a great aid for the common man, that one should read this book if he has to

preach the gospel of Lord Caitanya, that readers will profit much by going

through Sri Caitanya-bhagavata (SB Intro). So I would say that it is not

against the teachings of Prabhupada to introduce this book with the original

Bengali verses & translation to the common people.

Q. But the translation is not done by Prabhupada. So how will we know whether

it is bona-fide?

A. Sri Caitanya-bhagavata is full of very simple but very sweet Bengali verses

which are very easy to translate into any language if the devotee translator is

little intelligent and has a little knowledge of Bengali (which is very easy to

get). There are very few Sanskrit verses in the whole book and some of them are

from the Bhagavatam. For example, translation into Indian languages like Hindi,

Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu etc. is very easy because most of the words used in

the original Bengali verse are same for the other languages also. So there is

no need for searching for other words while translating and also there is not

such a need for the word to word meanings also. The common Indian people can

understand around 60 to 70% of the original Bengali verse itself because it so

much resembles their language. So by regular & repeated reading, the people may

end up learning Bengali which was vision of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati

Thakura as quoted by Srila Prabhupada. Ofcourse for other non-Indian or

different languages word to word meanings may be very helpful for the people to

catch up on the recitation of the transliterated Bengali verses which leads to

increasing ecstasy in devotional according to Srila Prabhupada and which is

bound to happen in the future according to Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati

Thakura.

Q. Can Sri Caitanya-bhagavata be distributed without the purports of Srila

Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura?

A. We can have two editions. One with only the transliterations & the

translations for mass distribution and the other one with all the purports.

The first edition will have a few pages of advertisement about the full

edition. It will generate great interest for buying the full edition with the

purports. Just like companies bring out demo versions which have some features

less than the full versions. But by using the demo version, people like it so

much that they go in for buying the full version.

Also Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura said that a time will come when

all the people of the world will learn Bengali to read Caitanya-caritamrta. And

also that one should read Caitanya-bhagavata & Caitanya-caritamrta 100 times.

So it is clear that people will not read every time with the purports. They may

read the book with the purports one or two times but after that they may just

chant the Bengali verses and read the books more & more times. Also Prabhupada

says that we are not sure how successful the English translation will be, but

if one reads the original Caitanya-caritamrta in Bengali he will relish

increasing ecstasy in devotional service. Also to produce the full edition with

purports in much bigger task.

Considering all this points, I think it is a fairly reasonable decision to

market this book in two editions, one for mass distribution and one with the

purports.

Q. Srila Bhaktisiddhanta introduced this book to one and all because because

he was basically preaching in Bengal & Orissa where people were quite pious and

could understand Bengali very easily. Is it proper for us to do so now for all

over the world?

A. Yes it is most appropriate to distribute this book all over the world. If

you read this whole compilation carefully, the answers are already there. First

of all Srila Bhaktisiddhanta did not advocate this book for Bengali & Oriyas.

O.B.L. Kapoor, being a learned scholar from Allahabad, the Hindi speaking part

of India, was instructed by Sarasvati Thakura to learn Bengali, so as he could

study the original Bengali texts of the Caitanya Bhagavata and the

Caitanya-caritamrta, etc. Sarasvati Thakura also liked other Gaudiya Math

members who were also learned and non-Bengalis, to learn Bengali for this

reason. So he wanted everyone to read this books with their original Bengali

verses.

Secondly Srila Prabhupada says that reading Sri Caitanya-bhagavata will be a

great aid for the common man in general to easily understand Krsna not only for

the Bengalis & Oriyas.

And thirdly, Krsnadas Kaviraja Goswami described in Caitanya-caritamrta Adi

6.38:

'caitanya-mangala' sune yadi pasandi, yavana

seha maha-vaisnava haya tataksana

If even a great atheist hears Sri Caitanya-mangala (previous name for Sri

Caitanya-bhagavata), he immediately becomes a great devotee.

So all the great atheists which comprise of 99.99% of the world's population

can become maha-vaisnavas if they get the supreme good fortune of reading this

book. Thus in my personal opinion that when this book can be published and

distributed in mass quantities all over the world will break open the gates of

the flood of the love of Godhead brought by Lord Caitanya and His associates

and will hasten the advent of the predicted Golden Age in all its glory.

(XVIII) THE GLORIES OF SRI CAITANYA-BHAGAVATA

Cc Adi Chp 8 Text 33

ore mudha loka, suna caitanya-mangala

caitanya-mahima yate janibe sakala

O fools, just read Sri Caitanya-mangala! By reading this book you can

understand all the glories of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.

PURPORT

Sri Vrndavana dasa Thakura's Sri Caitanya-bhagavata was originally entitled Sri

Caitanya-mangala, but when Srila Locana dasa Thakura later wrote another book

named Sri Caitanya-mangala, Srila Vrndavana dasa Thakura changed the name of

his own book, which is now therefore known as Sri Caitanya-bhagavata. The life

of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu is very elaborately described in the

Caitanya-bhagavata, and Krsnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami has already informed us that

in his Sri Caitanya-caritamrta he has described whatever Vrndavana dasa Thakura

has not mentioned. This acceptance of Sri Caitanya-bhagavata by Krsnadasa

Kaviraja Gosvami indicates his acceptance of the disciplic succession. A writer

of transcendental literature never tries to surpass the previous acaryas.

krsna-lila bhagavate kahe veda-vyasa

caitanya-lilara vyasa--vrndavana-dasa 34

As Vyasadeva has compiled all the pastimes of Lord Krsna in Srimad-Bhagavatam,

Thakura Vrndavana dasa has depicted the pastimes of Lord Caitanya.

vrndavana-dasa kaila 'caitanya-mangala'

yanhara sravane nase sarva amangala 35

Thakura Vrndavana dasa has composed Sri Caitanya-mangala. Hearing this book

annihilates all misfortune.

caitanya-nitaira yate janiye mahima

yate jani krsna-bhakti-siddhantera sima 36

By reading Sri Caitanya-mangala one can understand all the glories and truths

of Lord Caitanya and Nityananda and come to the ultimate conclusion of

devotional service to Lord Krsna.