Tag: samadhi

Recorded 19 02 2018

Lord Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s Feelings of Separation from Kṛṣṇa

Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura gives the following summary of the fourteenth chapter. Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu’s feelings of separation from Kṛṣṇa resulted in highly elevated transcendental madness. When He was standing near the Garuḍa-stambha and praying to Lord Jagannātha, a woman from Orissa put her foot on the Lord’s shoulder in her great eagerness to see Lord Jagannātha. Govinda chastised her for this, but Caitanya Mahāprabhu praised her eagerness. When Caitanya Mahāprabhu went to the temple of Lord Jagannātha, He was absorbed in ecstatic love and saw only Kṛṣṇa. As soon as He perceived this woman, however, His external consciousness immediately returned, and He saw Jagannātha, Baladeva and Subhadrā. Caitanya Mahāprabhu also saw Kṛṣṇa in a dream, and He was overwhelmed with ecstatic love. When He could no longer see Kṛṣṇa, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu compared Himself to a yogī and described how that yogī was seeing Vṛndāvana. Sometimes all the transcendental ecstatic symptoms were manifest in Him. One night, Govinda and Svarūpa Dāmodara noticed that although the three doors to the Lord’s room were closed and locked, the Lord was not present inside. Seeing this, Svarūpa Dāmodara and the other devotees went outside and saw the Lord lying unconscious by the gate known as Siṁha-dvāra. His body had become unusually long, and the joints of His bones were loose. The devotees gradually brought Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu back to His senses by chanting the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra, and then they took Him back to His residence. Once Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu mistook a sand dune known as Caṭaka-parvata for Govardhana Hill. As He ran toward it, He became stunned, and then the eight ecstatic transformations appeared in His body due to great love for Kṛṣṇa. At that time all the devotees chanted the Hare Kṛṣṇa mantra to pacify Him.

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