INTRODUCTION. 43 fine frenzies and poetic visions. When, however, he spoke, people would melt into tears and realise the god-vision themselves. Unless Chaitanya's life is fully understood, the import of the Padas—the His relation to the Vaissava songs—will lose much of its force. In the * Kirtan songs, the Head singer begins with preliminary verses in praise of Chaitanya. These verses which are called the Gaura-Chandrikā embody the very essence of devotion and mysticism. The audience follow the spirit of these verses in the Rādhā-Krisnasongs which are subsequently introduced. Rādhā’s love for Krisna with its passionate ecstasies and a hundred delicate shades all arise in the secular but reach the spiritual plane. In the great personality of Chaitanya, these songs, romantic in the highest degree, had their realistic fulfilment. Nowhere else have songs of a high order been found in such perfect harmony with the poetic life that inspired them for the most part. Says M. Sylvain Lévi, “Around the apostle who preached the cult of Kri ga—the new ideal of a religion of love free to all— sprang up a rich growth of hymns, recitations and poems.” The whole country rose like one man in adoration of the The great admiration divine man. Våsudeva Sãrvabhauma, the hoary-headed for Chaitanya. scholar—the greatest logician of India in the 15th century—once said, “If all my property be destroyed and even if my sons die, that can be borne, but not that any one should blaspheme Chaitanya.” “The people gathered sacred dust trodden by the feet of Chaitanya in such quantities that the track of his passage could be followed out over a large stretch of country.” Junior Haridãs committed suicide as Chaitanya refused to admit him to his presence because he had accosted Mādhavi Devi-a beautiful damsel—in a manner inconsistent with the asceticism that he professed. King Rudrapati of Travancore and Pratāpa Rudra of Orissa and many other great chiefs of India paid the same homage of worship to Chaitanya as they did to their tutelary gods. Sākara Mallik and Dabir Khās, two brothers—ministers in the court of Hussain Shāh, the Emperor of Gaura,_deserted the capital and renounced their vast property in order to lead the ascetic's life as followers of Chaitanya. The younger brother left first, and when Hussain Shāh saw that the elder one had also a similar design in his head, he commanded that the minister should be thrown into prison. The latter bribed the Jail Superintendent with a lakh of Rupees, and fled and joined the Holy Order. It is well known how Raghunath Däs, the only son of Gobardhana Das of Satgāon, whose landed property yeilded an annual income of 19 lakhs of Rupees in those days, frustrated all
- Chaitanya Bhāgavata, Madhya Khanda.
