Caitanya Mahaprabhu — Scriptural Proofs of His Avatarahood and Divinity. Part 1
In 2011, the book Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu — The Original Form of Godhead: An Anthology of Scriptural Evidence was published in English by Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī Mahārāja. Originally the book was published in Hindi by The Ācārya of Śrī Gauḍīya Vedānta Samiti, Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja. The book contains quotes proving both the divinity and predictions of the appearance of Caitanya Mahāprabhu. The book is the most comprehensive compilation of predictions and proofs of Caitanya’s divinity, avatārahood, and his appearance.
Bhaktivedānta Nārāyaṇa Gosvāmī (hereinafter referred to as Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja), was renowned as a powerful preacher. He had many disciples and followers. In the late 1990s, early 2000s, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) saw a large number of followers leave the ISKCON, disillusioned with this religious society. Many of them defected to Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja, which displeased ISKCON leaders around the world.
The proofs of Caitanya’s divinity and the predictions of Caitanya’s appearance are of two categories. Chronologically, the first and earliest were precisely the proofs of Caitanya’s divinity, not the predictions of Caitanya’s appearance.
The book contains 135 quotations, interpreted and, this is very important, interpreted by Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja, and the early gauḍīya-acāryas as evidence of Caitanya’s divinity and predictions of his appearance in kali-yuga. 113 quotations are in Sanskrit, 12 are in Bengali, 5 are in Braja-bhāṣa — a western dialect of Hindi spoken in the Braj region, with the cities of Vṛndāvana and Mathurā. Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja attributes 5 quotations to Mīrābāī, a famous Indian saint and poetess, a representative of Kṛṣṇa poetry. Mīrābāī, a contemporary of Caitanya, composed poetry in the Rājasthānī language.
I have already discussed in detail the main and most important part of the quotations from the Vedas and Upaniṣads offered by Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja in my book “On Some Dogmas of the Caitanya Cult in Light of Madhva’s Teachings” (you can buy it on this site in the “Shop” section).
On page 5 of the preface Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja says:
“In 1952, my most revered spiritual master oṁ viṣṇupāda aṣṭottara- śata Śrī Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja was preaching Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s message of prema very strongly in the Indian state of Assam. He was accompanied by about twenty or twenty-five sannyāsīs and brahmacārīs. In a spacious dharmaśālā (residence for pilgrims) located in the village of Bamsabarī, Śrīla Gurudeva gave a very powerful talk establishing the teachings of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu and His divine identity as Svayam Bhagavān. Some opponents in the audience demanded scriptural evidence of these claims, and about twenty-five important verses were immediately cited in reply to their challenge. This completely silenced them. At the time, I wrote those verses down, and in my heart the desire arose to publish them as a collection.
Soon after this incident, my godbrother parivrajakācārya tridaṇḍi- svāmī Śrī Śrīmad Bhaktivedānta Vāmana Gosvāmī Mahārāja published a book in the Bengali language, which contained about forty verses, proving Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s svayaṁ-bhagavattā (Godhead). Then in November 1970, the great poet Śrī Vanamālī Śāstrī, who bears the title kāvya-vedānta-tīrtha [literally one whose poetic works mirror the Vedantic philosophy], gave me his translation of a more complete collection of scriptural evidence, compiled by Śrīpāda Puruṣottama dāsa, a resident of Vṛndāvana and disciple of jagad-guru oṁ viṣṇupāda Śrī Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī. I am especially grateful to these two devotees.
Furthermore, the pramāṇa-khaṇda section of Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura’s Śrī Navadvīpa-dhāma-māhātmya, printed in Bengali by our most worshipful spiritual master oṁ visnupada Śrīla Bhakti Prajñāna Keśava Gosvāmī Mahārāja, has also been of great help. References were taken from these three books in making this new presentation.
The new book was first printed in Śrī Bhāgavata-patrikā magazine in installments (sixteenth year, journals seven to ten) and was published as a separate book in 1972. The third edition has now been printed, as all copies had sold out, and at the request of sincere devotees and venerated vaiṣṇavas.
This insignificant effort of mine is intended for the pleasure of my worshipful Śrīla Gurupāda-padma and the vaiṣṇavas. My only desire is that the revered readers shower blessings upon me as they read this book. (Swami B.V. Narayan)”
Well, I believe Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja not only collected all possible proofs of the divinity and appearance of Caitanya Mahāprabhu from previous books and magazins, but also checked them, read them, analyzed them, approached the matter responsibly.
I don’t know whether Nārāyaṇa Mahārāja knew Sanskrit (most of the proofs is Sanskrit), but we can judge his level of language proficiency precisely from this book, which I will discuss separately at the end of the series of articles about it.
It is worth noting the general level of Sanskrit proficiency among gurus from different organizations of the Caitanya tradition: literally only a few of them know this language. In general, in the Gauḍīya Sampradāya, Sanskrit is treated as something archaic and vague, and sometimes even unnecessary. However, most of the religious literature of prominent Gauḍīya acāryas is written in Sanskrit and remains inaccessible to the understanding of most adherents. This state of affairs forces followers to blindly believe the words of the guru and senior devotees, who are often at the same level themselves.
The ‘scriptural proofs’ themselves begin on page 14 of the book and are numbered to help navigate through them. First I show a scan of the page with the proof/quotation, then I give my commentary. At the end of the series I summarize.
