CHAPTER V
The History of the Sect
The foregoing chapters have made clear Chaitanya's relation to the sect:
Although he did not seek to build up a cult around his own person, yet he was manifestly responsible for the initial steps in the spread of the clearly marked type of Vaishnavism which had gathered about himself as its expounder and exemplar.
It has been thought by some that Chaitanya was merely an instrument in the hands of his leading disciples, and that the development of the movement was entirely due to them.
The contemporary records certainly do not bear out the first part of this theory.
Whatever may be the truth as to later developments, Chaitanya unmistakeably set his impress upon the origin of the movement. In its main lines and characteristics it was the creation of his own life and thought.
The initiation of the Vrindāvan settlement, the conversion of the men who were to be the theologians of the sect, the institution of the sankirtan, the commissioning of Nityānanda as chief agent of the movement
- all these facts from his life show how clearly the origin of the movement was the result of his own experience and purpose.
Having said this much, however, we have said about all that can be said:
Beyond the influence of his name and personality, Chaitanya had nothing to do with the development of the sect.
There is no evidence that he concerned himself with active propaganda, at least in the later years of his life, and as for organising his followers, it is clear that he had no concern with such things.