The Modern Revival
In spite of the eclipse of these centuries, some life remained in the sect:
With the 19th century there must have come a renewal of vigour, although there is little material by which to judge of this.
As early as 1851, an acute observer speaks of the Vaishnavas as being the most active of the Hindu sects in Bengal. An awakening of interest generally in Chaitanya and in his Vaishnavism began in the third quarter of the 19th century.
A very definite influence in this respect was the partiality shown by the rising Brāhmo Samaj, at the height of its vigour, for the type of religious devotion peculiarly associated with the Chaitanya Vaishnavas.
The introduction, by Keshab Chandra Sen, of many of the characteristic features of Chaitanya’s bhakti into Brāhmo Samaj practices
and the evident Vaishnava influence upon his own religious experience at this period, form one of the most interesting chapters in the history of the Brāhmo Samaj.
Keshab was doubtless influenced in this direction by one of his followers, Bijoy Krishna Gosvāmī, who, although himself a Gosvāmī in the Chaitanya sect, had been won to the Brāhmo movement.
Keshab himself, however, belonged to an old Vaishnava family, and had, as it were, the taste for Vaishnava ways in his very blood.
An increasing emphasis on bhakti, the use of the rustic drum and cymbals, the institution of sankirtan and nagarkīrtan, all showed the influence of Vaishnava ideas.
The chief of the Brāhmo festivals, the Maghotsab, celebrated with great emotional fervour at least in earlier days, had its origin in this period of Vaishnava influence.
A well-known historian of the Samaj wrote thus of this period:
The character of this devotional or bhakti movement is not only Hindu, but of that peculiar type of Hinduism known as the religion of the Vaishnavas.
The previous history of the Brāhmo Samaj was noted for nothing so much as a cold colourless rationalism and anti-idolatrous contemptuousness, which sneered at every sect showing any definite spiritual type.
And the Vaishnavas were noted for nothing so much as grotesque personal habits, intense wild devotional excitement leading sometimes to unconsciousness.
The Vaishnavas were neither socially high nor distinguished by modern education. The Brāhmo Sama was the resort of the learned, the brilliant, the aspiring, the well-to-do.
It is difficult to say what induced the leaders of the Brāhmo Samaj to borrow the old-fashioned plebeian forms of Vaishnava music and musical appurtenances.
The unfashionable khole and kartāl were suddenly adopted, although not without protest on the part of some. The unscientific popular tunes of the Vaishnavas came into vogue. In fact, the Brāhmo Samaj seemed to incorporate into itself the entire spirit of Vaishnavism.
Chaitanya undoubtedly had a place of peculiar influence in Keshub’s mind and heart:
He included the Bengal saint in the list of those great figures of religion to whom he led his Samaj in spirit pilgrimage from time to time. His biographer says:
Keshub's tenderest relations, after those with Christ, were with Chaitanya, the prophet of divine love in Bengal.
The emotional development of his religion was very greatly indebted to this sweet character... It meant the opening up of a new world of religious feeling, it laid the foundation of a new spiritual relationship with ... the apostle of bhakti.
The prominence thus given in the cultured circles of the Brāhmo Samaj to Chaitanya and his religious experience must have helped very materially to arouse new interest in his cult.
Indeed, one writer of our day goes so far as to say that,
"except for Keshab Chandra Sen, the educated community of Bengal would not be in a position to understand and appreciate the teachings of Śrī Gaurāṅga.”
The neo-Krishna movement, which sprang up in the 80-ies of the 19th century, was the most direct cause of the revival of Vaishnavism. It was largely a literary movement, flowering in a large number of books on Krishna and the Gītā.
This movement led to the study of the old Vaishnava literature of Bengal, and to the rediscovery of the stores of religious inspiration in the beginnings of the Chaitanya movement.
Two works on Chaitanya, among others, resulted from this study, both the product of the facile pen of the late Shishir Kumar Ghose, of the well-known Calcutta newspaper, Amrita Bazar Patrikā:
The Amiya Nimāi Charit, a biography of Chaitanya in Bengali, has been very widely read, and is one of the best known books of modern Bengal.
His Lord Gaurānga, a two-volume work in English, is an extraordinary production and has also had considerable influence.
The personality of the author of these books, and the interests represented by the newspaper which he and his brother, Motilal Ghose, made famous, were factors of great potency in stirring up new life and activity in the sect.
The influence emanating from this Patrikā group was by far the most energetic single influence working for the revival of Chaitanya Vaishnavism.
Two emphases were evident in all their work:
The social aspect of Chaitanya's life and teaching was put to the fore. He was hailed as a great social reformer who had risen up against the caste system and heralded a new day.
The writings of this group also taught a clear-cut incarnation doctrine: Chaitanya was the Lord Gaurānga, deity incarnate, the counterpart in Bengal of the Lord Jesus Christ in Palestine.
The revival of interest in Chaitanya revealed itself in various ways. Efforts to interest the educated classes were evident.
The production of literature was stimulated, vernacular magazines sprang up, informal organisations were formed in many places for weekly sankirtan and the study of Vaishnava teaching,
lecturers went about preaching on bhakti and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, the loose organisation of the district and provincial sammilanī (associations) was revived, and it was sought to make the celebration of Chaitanya's birthday a popular affair.
For some years in Calcutta this was celebrated in one of the public squares of the city, with massed nagarkīrtans and a popular programme.
One interesting feature of the revival was the development of what has been termed neo-Vaishnavism, the creed of some latter-day adherents attracted by certain phases of Vaishnavism, but having no connection with the sect.
Prominent among such might be named men like Bepin Chandra Pal and C. R. Das,
the former of whom has written voluminously on Vaishnava philosophy, but whose interpretations, indebted at times to Christian theology, are not wholly acceptable to orthodox pandits.
A marked increase in the temples and sacred sites at Navadvīpa is one result of the modern revival.
A Chaitanya temple has also been erected in Benares in recent years, in the hope of getting a foothold for Gaurāṅga in that hoary centre of Śaivism.
Efforts are being made to found at Navadvīpa a new Sanskrit tol, which shall serve as a centre for the study and propagation of the philosophy of the Bengal Vaishnavas.
A commodious site has been secured through the generosity of a stalwart adherent of Vaishnavism, the Mahārājā of Cossimbazar, but so far the scheme has not been completed.