The Generation Following Chaitanya
The generation immediately following Chaitanya's death was in some ways a time of reaction. Chaitanya’s going was a blow that stunned his followers, and left them incapable of the emotional exercises that marked the sect.
"The sankirtan parties lost all heart, and their great music, which had taken the country by surprise and flooded it with poetry, broke in the midst of their enthusiastic performances and sounded no more on the banks of the Ganges.”
However, the stream of literature which later rose to such volume and power had its origin at this time.
Many songs were written during this first generation after Chaitanya, and the earliest of the biographical notes on his life were put together then.
The most important feature of this period, however, is the way in which the sect continued to absorb the outcaste elements of the social order. Nityānanda's work in this respect was carried on by his son, Vīrabhadra, or Vīrachandra, as it is also given:
This man was evidently a leader of great influence in the growing community, not only because of his being the son of the great Nityānanda, but also because of the position he held in his own right as the innovator of measures of supreme importance for the future of the sect.
We have noted that for some time before the death of Chaitanya there was more or less of a division in the sect,
Nityānanda being the leader of the party which was chiefly concerned with extending the sway of Vaishnavism among the masses of the population, regardless of caste rule and prejudices.
Virabhadra evidently continued in his father's footsteps until there was danger of a split:
He was even threatened with excommunication by the Gosvāmīs of Vrindāvan, after which the differences were patched up after a fashion.
In the Bhaktiratnākara, a historical work written in the early part of the 18th century, there is mentioned a letter from the six Gosvāmīs of Vrindāvan, expressing their pleasure over the return of Virabhadra to the fold.
The most important development connected with his name has to do with the admittance into Vaishnavism of the Neṛā-Neṛīs, i.e. the shaven:
These were members of the Buddhist mendicant orders. They were a sadly degraded community, living in promiscuity, and utterly outcaste in the midst of the Hindu social order.
These bhikshus and bhikshunis of a decayed Buddhism were doubtless attracted to the faith preached by Chaitanya and his followers because of its likeness in many ways to the faith which had been theirs.
But not even Nityānanda, so far as we know, ventured to throw open the gates of the sect to them. It was reserved for Virabhadra to take this step.
Under what circumstances, or with just what purpose, we cannot say:
But the fact is definitely stated, and referred to in more than one book, that 1,200 bhikshus and 1,300 bhikshunis were admitted into the fold of Vaishnavism by Virabhadra at Khardaha.
In commemoration of the event, an annual mela was held at Khardaha until recent years.
It is doubtful how much of an effort, if any, was made to reform these new disciples and improve their moral standards. At least, marriage was instituted among them, to give some semblance of propriety to the promiscuous relations that prevailed.
Just what relation, if any, these Buddhist mendicants bore to the ascetic order of vairāgīs and vairāgīnīs which grew up in the sect is not at all clear:
It would seem as though this might be the beginning of mendicancy in the sect,
and such a guess is strengthened by the fact that both these groups trace back their origins in the sect either to Nityānanda or his son.
But the facts do not bear out this supposition very well.
Chaitanyas have never recognized the Neṛā-Neṛīs as an integral part of the sect, and to this day they are not classed among the ordinary vairāgīs of the sect, although there can be little difference between them now. They still persist as a separate class, in name at least.
We cannot say for what purpose they were admitted. In the eyes of many of the leaders it must have been an unpopular step.
It is probable that Virabhadra saw, in this forlorn and degraded class, the opportunity of creating a propagandist body who could spread the doctrines of the sect effectively among the lowest ranks of society.
Historically, this episode presents very clear evidence of the influence of tile widespread Tantrism of the day upon the new movement.
These Buddhist remnants represented a blend of Tantrism and Buddhism at its worst, and their admission into the Chaitanya movement seems to indicate a tantric leaning on the part of Nityānanda and his son.
It is of interest to remember, in this connection, that tantric symbols are to be found in one of the temples of Khardaha built by Nityānanda and Virabhadra.
Somewhere in this period is to he placed the beginnings of the mendicant order mentioned above.
How it began, by whom, and when, are all wrapped in obscurity. Tradition couples the name of Nityānanda with the initiation of the simple form of bhek, by which it is known.
There was nothing new in this development:
It meant simply that the new movement was following the course of its elder sister sects in Vaishnavism. That it arose quite apart from the Neṛā-Neṛīs invasion is the likeliest supposition.