Volume 3 - Prabhupada Books

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta
The subject of Madhya-IT/a, the longest of the three divisions, is a detailed nar­
ration of Lord Caitanya's extensive and eventful travels throughout India as a
renounced mendicant, teacher, philosopher, spiritual preceptor and mystic. Dur­
ing this period of six years, Sri Caitanya transmits his teachings to his principal dis­
ciples. He debates and converts many of the most renowned philosophers and
theologians of his time, including Sarikarites, Buddhists and Muslims, and incor­
porates their many thousands of followers and disciples into his own burgeoning
numbers. A dramatic account of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's miraculous activities at
the giant jagannatha Cart Festival in Orissa is also included in this section.
Antya-/T/a concerns the last eighteen years of Sri Caitanya's manifest presence,
spent in semiseclusion near the famous Jagannatha temple at jagannatha Puri in
Orissa. During these final years, SrT Caitanya drifted deeper and deeper into
trances of spiritual ecstasy unparalleled in all of religious and literary history,
Eastern or Western. Sri Caitanya's perpetual and ever-increasing religious
beatitude, graphically described in the eyewitness accounts of Svan1pa Damodara
Gosvami, his constant companion during this period, clearly defy the investigative
and descriptive abilities of modern psychologists and phenomenologists of
religious experience.
The author of this great classic, Kr�t;�adasa Kaviraja Gosvami, born in the year
1507, was a disciple of Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, a confidential follower of
Caitanya Mahaprabhu. Raghunatha dasa, a renowned ascetic saint, heard and
memorized all the activities of Caitanya Mahaprabhu told to him by Svaropa
Damodara. After the passing away of Sri Caitanya and Svan1pa Damodara,
Raghunatha dasa, unable to bear the pain of separation from these objects of his
complete devotion, traveled to Vrndavana, intending to commit suicide by jump­
ing from Govardhana Hill. In Vrndavana, however, he encountered ROpa Gosvami
and Sanatana Gosvami, the most confidential disciples of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
They convinced him to give up his plan of suicide and impelled him to reveal to
them the spiritually inspiring events of Lord Caitanya's later life. Kr�t;�adasa Kaviraja
Gosvami was also residing in Vrndavana at this time, and Raghunatha dasa
Gosvami endowed him with a full comprehension of the transcendental life of Sri
Caitanya.
By this time, several biographical works had already been written on the life of
Sri Caitanya by contemporary and near-contemporary scholars and devotees.
These included Sri Caitanya-carita by Murari Gupta, Caitanya-mangala by Locana
dasa Thakura and Caitanya-bhagavata. This latter text, a work by Vrndavana dasa
Thakura, who was then considered the principal authority on Sri Caitanya's life,
was highly revered. While composing his important work, Vrndavana dasa, fearing
that it would become too voluminous, avoided elaborately describing many of
the events of Sri Caitanya's life, particulary the later ones. Anxious to hear of these
later pastimes, the devotees of Vrndavana requested Kr�t:�adasa Kaviraja Gosvami,
whom they respected as a great saint, to compose a book to narrate these
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