(From The Harmonist or Sree Sajjana Toshani No.6. June 1932 VOL.XXX, page 171)
Sri Rupa and Sanatana met Sree Chaitanya for the first time at the village of Ramkeli near Gauda, in the modern District of Malda. When the Lord left Ramkeli the two brothers hit upon a plan of renouncing the world. They begged two good Brahmanas to perform on their behalf the ceremony of purascharana as the means of obtaining the shelter of the Feet of Sree Chaitanya without further delay.
Sree Rupa, who bore the designation of Dabirkhas, then repaired to his native village, Bakla-chandradwip (Fatehabad) by boat in which he conveyed a great quantity of treasure. He made a gift of a moiety of it to the Brahmanas and Vaishnavas. He applied a fourth part of his wealth in making the necessary provision for his relations reserving the remaining fourth part for emergency. This last was deposited with good Brahmanas except ten thousand coins which were sent to Gauda and placed with a banker to be at the disposal of Sanatana.
After making the above dispositions Sree Rupa heard that the Lord had returned to Puri with the intention of proceeding to Sree Vrindavana by the forest route. Sree Rupa sent two persons to Puri who were to bring back to him the message as soon as the Lord started on his journey to Vrindavana. His further procedure would depend on the nature of the tidings. The two messengers duly brought the information of the departure of the Lord for Vrindavana. Sree Rupa informed Sanatana by letter of this fact asking him, under some plea or other, to leave Gauda and join the Company of the Lord. He also intimated to him the fact that he himself with his younger brother Anupam was going to join Sree Chaitanya, and that he might make use of the ten thousand coins with the banker of Gauda for effecting his own release and coining to Vrindavana at once, by any means.
Sree Rupa and Anupam came up with Sree Chaitanya at Prayag. The Lord was staying in the house of a Brahmana of South India. The two brothers met the Lord on his way to visit Bindumadhab. They found that countless persons followed the Lord with the cry of “Krishna” in a state of great ecstacy. The two brothers followed the Lord to the temple of Bindumadhab and from there back to the house of the Brahmana. They now introduced themselves to the Lord.
Holding between, their teeth two blades of grass the two brothers fell prostrate on the ground as soon as they caught sight of the Lord from a distance. They continued to recite many a sloka and lifted themselves from the ground and fell again many a time. They were saturated with love by the sight of the Lord. The Lord was pleased in his mind on seeing Rupa and said, “Get up, Rupa I am glad that you have come. Krishna’s Mercy cannot be described. He has snatched you two from the sink of the world”. The Lord embraced both of them repeating the sloka “the Brahmana Versed in the four Vedas is not My devotee. The chandala, who is My devotee, is dear to Me ; to him it is fit to give and from him it is fit to receive anything. He also is verily as much an object of worship as Myself. He mercifully placed His Foot on the heads of both. On obtaining the Mercy of the Lord the two brothers with folded hands in order to express their sense of unworthiness humbly articulated the following hymns of praise :—
“Obeisance to the most Magnanimous, the Giver of the Love of Krishna, the Own Self of Krishna, the Lord bearing the Name Krishna Chaitanya and possessed of the From of golden hue”. “I submit myself to Sree Krishna-Chaitanya, that Merciful Person of wonderful! Deeds Who by the nectar of the treasure of His Own Love intoxicated the world, delirious with ignorance, by freeing it from the malady of Nescience.”
The two brothers stayed in the house of the Brahmana for that day. Bhattacharyya invited the two brothers who received the favour of the remains of the Lord’s tasted food. The house in which the Lord resided stood on the confluence of the Tribeni. The two brothers put up in a house close to the Lord. In order to avoid the crowd the Lord betook Himself to Dasaswamedha ghat and it was here that He taught Rupa Goswami by infusing Power.
The Lord stayed at Prayag for ten days during which he taught Sree Rupa by imparting to him the power of understanding His teaching. The author of Sree Chaitanya Charitamrita has handed down a summary of the teaching of the Lord which may be rendered as follows.
The Lord said, “Listen, Rupa, to the characteristics of the rasa (crisp matured mellowness) of Shakti (responsive service). I shall speak in a condensed form. It is not susceptible of elaborate description. The ocean of the mellowness of bhakti is profound and devoid of bounding shores. I shall speak one particle of the same in order to make you taste it.
In this world the number of jivas is infinite. They form the content of this world by their wanderings through eighty four lacs of generating organs. The specific individual nature of the jiva is infinitesimal in magnitude like the hundredth part of a hundredth part of the tip of the hair. They are divided into two distinct groups, viz., (l) stationary and (2) moving. The moving are again divided into those who live (1) on land (2) in water, (3) in the air.
Man is a very small part of the total number of the jivas that live on land. Among men are also to be found the Mlechchhas, Pulindas, Baudhas, Sabaras, etc. Among those who practise the Religion of the Veda one half profess to follow the Veda only with their lips, but as a matter of fact they only commit sins forbidden by the Veda and do not care at all for the Religion. Among those who really act in accordance with the Religion most persons are addicted to fruitive activities.
It is hardly possible to find even a single seeker of knowledge (jnanin) among a crore of karmins (utilitarians). There is one person who is truly mukta (liberated) among a crore of jnanins. It is hardly possible to find a single bhakta of Krishna among a crore of muktas. The bhakta of Krishna is free from all selfish hankerings and is, therefore, of a really equable disposition (shanta). All those who desire enjoyment, liberation or power are discontented (ashanta). “It is rarely that any fortunate jiva, in course of his wanderings in this mundane world, may obtain the seed of the creeper of bhakti by the favour of Guru and Krishna. By turning gardener he sows the seed and splashes the same with the nourishing water of hearing and chanting. The creeper of bhakti springs into shoot and growing apace, piercing through this mundane sphere and passing the stream of the Biraja as well as the lighted sphere of the Brahman, attains to her resting-place in the transcendental sphere (Parabyoma). The creeper continuing to grow in Parabyoma reaches the limits of the higher sphere of Goloka. Vrindavana where she climbs the Purpose-Tree of the Feet of Krishna. “The fruit in the form of Prema grows on the creeper of bhakti only when she attains the Feet of Krishna.
All this time the gardener continues to splash the creeper with the water of hearing and chanting. At this stage there is also a second function towards the creeper, besides watering.
As the creeper begins to grow after being watered for some time, hostile animals make their appearance and tear the leaves, or the tender leaves begin to dry up by excessive heat, etc. In these occurrences offence against the Vaishnavas is the entity corresponding to the vicious animals. It is such offence against the Vaishnavas that effects all those damages resembling the depredations A wrought by mad elephants. In such circumstances the gardener, by means of erecting fences or devising other protective methods, tends the creeper with special care so that there may be no occasion for the depredations of the mad elephant of offence against the Vaishnavas. Offence against the Vaishnavas, which is identical with offence against the Name, is ten-fold.
“There is yet another possible disturbance at this stage. As the creeper of bhakti begins to grow, if there is luxuriant growth of the secondary branches, such growth also does mischief. The secondary branches are desire for enjoyment, longing for liberation, addiction to forbidden conduct, over attention to small points of conscience, cruelty to or slaughter of living things, desire of pecuniary gain, expectation of one’s own worldly honour or fame. If special care is not practised these secondary branches are apt to grow vigorously, to the detriment on the principal stem of the creeper, by the sprinkling of the life giving water of hearing and chanting, with the result that the main stem is stunted and cannot grow. Therefore, it is the duty of the gardener to prune these mischievous tendencies in the form of secondary branches from the moment of their appearance while applying the water of hearing and chanting. If this is done the principal stem, continuing to grow, attains to Vrindavana. “The fruit of prema then ripens and drops on the ground. The gardener now tastes the same. By the help of the creeper the gardener is also enabled to reach the Purpose-Tree. He is then in a position to serve in Vrindavana the same Purpose. Tree and enjoy the bliss of tasting the luscious juice of the fruit of love. This prema is the supreme desideratum, the final fruit of all activity of the soul. The four-fold objects of desire viz., dharma ( virtue), artha (worldly possession), kama (objects of worldly desire) and moksha (liberation), are as straw in comparison with it.
Gaura Hari Haribol