The Long Pilgrimage
After several months spent in Purī, Chaitanya started southward on a journey, ostensibly to search for his brother, but really to visit the shrines of the south.
The record of this tour through southern and western India consists largely of descriptions of Chaitanya’s devotions at the various temples visited, and their effect upon the temple crowds.
Miraculous incidents are frequently narrated, and a sectarian desire to enhance the wonder of his name is more in evidence than the effort to produce a clear and straightforward account of the pilgrimage.
Many of the well-known temples of the present day appear in the record, the absence of others being due to the fact that they date from a later period.
Not all of the places mentioned can be exactly identified.
The record as it is given in the chief biography is confessedly not an accurate account kept during the pilgrimage, but represents the recollections of Chaitanya and his companion secured from them by his disciples afterward.
In general, however, it is possible to trace the route followed.
Leaving Purī, Chaitanya visited the shrine of the Kūrmāvatāra, at Śrī Kūrman, in the Telugu country, near Chicacole, and the temple of Narasimha, at Jiyad, near Narasapatnam Road, 46 miles south of Waltair.
At Rājamundry, on the Godāvarī river, he bathed at a spot associated with the Buddha, and had a notable encounter with a high official:
This was a gifted and pious man, Rāmānanda Rāy by name, who was Governor of Rājamundry under the king of Orissa, and a devout and scholarly Vaishnava.
In him Chaitanya discovered a kindred spirit, and the two were drawn to each other by instant attraction.
Sārvabhauma had whetted Chaitanya's interest by his praises of this unusual official, so that when the governor and the sannyāsī met at the bathing ghāṭ on the river bank, a remarkable scene ensued. The narrative thus describes it:
The Master knew at first sight that it was Rāmānanda Rāy. His mind sprang forth to meet him, but restraining himself, he remained seated.
Rāmānanda Rāy, seeing the sannyāsī, came forward.
Chaitanya was lustrous like a hundred suns in the saffron cloth, his body handsome and well built, his eyes like the lotus.
Rāmānanda was wonder-struck as he gazed, and approaching, be prostrated himself in lowly obeisance.
The Master rose and said: Stand up and cry 'Krishna, Krishna’.
In his heart the Master was thirsting to embrace him, still he asked,
"You are Rāmānanda Rāy, are you not?"
“Yes”, Rāmānanda answered, “I am a low Śūdra, a slave."
Then the Master clasped him tightly to him as spontaneous love arose in both alike; in excess of feeling, Master and slave became unconscious:
The two fell on the ground in each other's embrace, stupefied, perspiring, weeping, trembling, with hair on end, colourless; from the mouth of each, thickly muttered, was heard "Krishna!”
Truly here was a meeting of devotees worthy even of Chaitanya' s remarkable standards of emotion!
One of the most celebrated chapters in the Caritamṛta is the account of the converse between these two as they sat on the banks of the Godāvarī:
The theme was bhakti - Krishna Bhakti -and the types, stages, qualities and passions of the love developed by the devotee in his adoration of the Lord.
The peculiar tenets of the Bengal Vaishnavas are here set forth with a theological relish and precision that suggests more of the systematic theologian than the eager dialogue between two devotees.
However that be, the two men became warmly attached to each other, and found unfailing delight in each other's piety.
Thus was added another to the circle of able men who came to look upon Chaitanya as their guru, and who remained faithful disciples all their lives.
Among the very few works which Chaitanya had read to him daily in later years was a Sanskrit drama by this Rāmānanda Rāy.
After this refreshing experience, Chaitanya proceeded on his way.
He touched at shrines near Bezwada, and others about Cuddapah (Kadapa now), visited various sacred sites in the Arcot district, and came to Conjeeveram (Kānchīpuram), where he paid his devotions at Śaivite as well as Vaishnava shrines.
Chingleput (Chengalpattu now), Chidambaram, the Cauvery river, Kumbakonam, the Tanjore neighbourhood, and the Śrīraṅgam temple near Trichinopoly were all visited.
At Śrīraṅgam he spent 4 months consorting with Śrī Vaishnava Brahmans.
From there he proceeded to the temple city of Madura, touching several points on the way, thence to Ramnad (Ramanathapuram) and the ancient shrine at Rāmeśvaram.
Returning to Madura, he then sought out many sites in the Tinnevelly (Tirunelveli now) district and came across to Trivandrum, visiting all the sacred places in the region of the extreme south.
Through Travancore and Malabar he made his way up the west coast into the present Mysore State, where he visited the famous Śringerī maṭha founded by Śankarāchārya.
Continuing through the Kanarese (Kannada) country he came to Udipi, famous as the home of Mādhva, founder of the system called by his name. The image of Krishna there had been installed by Mādhva himself.
Here Chaitanya spent many days, worshipping at this shrine and discoursing with the Mādhvas over the essential Vaishnava doctrines.
Pushing on up the coast he came to Kolhapur, and then to Paṇḍharpur, the great centre of Vaishnava devotion in the Maratha country:
Here he was rejoiced to meet a disciple of a guru of the same order as his own gurus, an ascetic who had been in Navadvīpa and had grateful memories of the pious hospitality of Chaitanya's own parents.
Going on from Paṇḍharpur, he went north beyond Bombay as far as the Narbada river, and then turned and struck directly across central India, across what is now Hyderabad, following the Godavari and its tributaries until he came within the jurisdiction of the Governor of Rājamundry once more.
After renewing his delightful converse with Rāmānanda Rāy for several days, he returned to Purī amid the general rejoicing of his disciples after some 20 months of wandering.