Spiritual Messages about Chaitanya Mahaprabhu
Vishvambhar or chaitanya Mahaprabhu as he was later known was born at a time when a very large area of northern and eastern india had come
under Muslim rule. He showed the people a simple path to reach God, which later came to be known as Gautama Vaishnavism. chaitanya not only stemmed the tide of conversion to Islam, but also provided a new life force to Hinduism. Of the many ways by which
devotees can reach Him, krishna highlights this simple one in the Gita. “Sarvadharman Parityajya Mamekam Sharanam Vraja”, which means
forsaking all dogmas of religion, takes refuge in me. This complete surrender to God, known to Vishnavites as “Prapattivada”, leads to krishna or Rama. To attain completes surrender, chaitanya emphadata-sized the gopibhava, the method of worship adopted by the gopis of Vraja. They loved krishna deeply, expecting nothing in return. chaitanya also shunned casteism and preached that all men were equal. “Don’t ask a vaishnava what his caste is”, said the vaishnavites, because he who worships vishnu is His.
But even when preaching love and brotherhood, chaitanya taught people not to yield to injustice and untruth. Perhaps the first ever
non-cooperation movement Sathyagraha was launched by Chaitanya. When the kazi of Nabadwib forbade the singing of bhajans in the open,
Chaitanya ordered peaceful mass singing, leading a peaceful procession of hundreds who sang all the way to the house of the Kazi. So strong
was his influence, that the Kazi, it is said, was converted to Hinduism.