Volume 7 - Prabhupada

Sri Caitanya-caritamrtaThe subject of Madhya-lila, the longest of the three divisions, is a detailed narrationof Lord Caitanya's extensive and eventful travels throughout India as arenounced mendicant, teacher, philosopher, spiritual preceptor and mystic. Duringthis period of six years, Sri Caitanya transmits his teachings to his principal disciples.He debates and converts many of the most renowned philosophers andtheologians of his time, including Sarikarites, Buddhists and Muslims, and incorporatestheir many thousands of followers and disciples into his own burgeoningnumbers. A dramatic account of Caitanya Mahaprabhu's miraculous activities atthe giant Jagannatha Cart Festival in Orissa is also included in this section.Antya-lila concerns the last eighteen years of Sri Caitanya's manifest presence,spent in semiseclusion near the famous Jagannatha temple at jagannatha Purr inOrissa. During these final years, Sri Caitanya drifted deeper and deeper intotrances of spiritual ecstasy unparalleled in all of religious and literary history,Eastern or Western. Sri Caitanya's perpetual and ever-increasing religiousbeatitude, graphically described in the eyewitness accounts of Svarupa DamodaraGosvamT, his constant companion during this period, clearly defy the investigativeand descriptive abilities of modern psychologists and phenomenologists ofreligious experience.The author of this great classic, Krr:tadasa Kaviraja Gosvami, born in the year1507, was a disciple of Raghunatha dasa Gosvami, a confidential follower ofCaitanya Mahaprabhu. Raghunatha dasa, a renowned ascetic saint, heard andmemorized all the activities of Caitanya Mahaprabhu told to him by SvarOpaDamodara. After the passing away of Sri Caitanya and Svarupa Damodara,Raghunatha dasa, unable to bear the pain of separation from these objects of hiscomplete devotion, traveled to Vrndavana, intending to commit suicide by jumpingfrom Govardhana Hill. In Vrndavana, however, he encountered ROpa Gosvamrand Sanatana Gosvami, the most confidential disciples of Caitanya Mahaprabhu.They convinced him to give up his plan of suicide and impelled him to reveal tothem the spiritually inspiring events of Lord Caitanya's later life. Krr:tadasa KavirajaGosvamr was also residing in Vrndavana at this time, and Raghunatha dasaGosvamr endowed him with a full comprehension of the transcendental life of SriCaitanyaBy this time, several biographical works had already been written on the life ofSri Caitanya by contemporary and near-contemporary scholars and devotees.These included Sri Caitanya-carita by Murari Gupta, Caitanya-mangala by Locanadasa Thakura and Caitanya-bhagavata. This latter text, a work by Vrndavana dasaThakura, who was then considered the principal authority on Sri Caitanya's life,was highly revered. While composing his important work, Vrndavana dasa, fearingthat it would become too voluminous, avoided elaborately describing many ofthe events of Sri Caitanya's life, particulary the later ones. Anxious to hear of theselater pastimes, the devotees of Vrndavana requested Krr:tadasa Kaviraja Gosvamr,whom they respected as a great saint, to compose a book to narrate thesevii