Opposition and the Final Step
In spite of the popular appeal of Chaitanya's revivalism and the success with which it swept large numbers into the Vaishnava ranks in Navadvīpa, there was still a large and influential section of the population untouched:
These were the scholars and pandits, the elite of the city. Indeed, the success of the movement drew them from their attitude of scorn into active opposition.
Various means were employed to hinder the work. One of the best known incidents in the life of Chaitanya has to do with a form of this opposition.
It seems that while singing and preaching in the streets of Navadvīpa, Nityānanda was set upon by two young rajas of the city, who, though of noble family and great wealth, were leading wild and profligate lives.
Nityānanda received a wound in the face, and was standing with blood flowing down upon his clothes, still urging the drunken men to sing the name of Hari, when Chaitanya arrived.
He gently reproved the rajas, and asked why they had not attacked him instead of his beloved friend.
The absence of anger and the loving spirit of the two Vaishnava leaders deeply touched the young ruffians; for we read that, overcome with remorse, they became devout and faithful disciples of the new faith.
The sankirtan drew the particular wrath of the opposition:
When it was transferred from Śrīvāsa’s courtyard to the streets of the city, an appeal was made to the Muhammadan governor to suppress it as a public nuisance.
He issued some sort of order against the Vaishnavas, forbidding the uproar they were causing in the streets.
In answer to this, tradition has it, Chaitanya organised a monster nagarkīrtan, and, dividing his forces into fourteen groups, paraded through the city, finally massing his singers before the Governor's residence.
There the emotional influence emanating from the singing and dancing of hundreds of excited men, led by Chaitanya himself, proved too much for the Moslem magistrate:
He was constrained to recognise the spiritual nature of the Vaishnava activities, and, it is alleged, even joined the sankirtan himself!
The opposition continued, however, and the scoffing Brahman scholars yielded no converts to the despised revivalism of Chaitanya.
It was the recognition, reluctantly arrived at, of the chasm which intervened between the fervent bhakti of his followers and the scornful self-satisfaction of the scholars that undoubtedly influenced Chaitanya to take the final step.
There must have been something more, surely, some deeper spiritual reason, some imperious inner bg-sky compulsion rising out of his passionate devotion, and driving him on to complete abandonment of everything but the service of Krishna.
But of these motives we are not told, the Caritamṛta mentioning only his desire to win his fellow townsmen. Declaring his purpose to become a sannyāsī, he says,
Then, considering me a sannyāsī, they will bow down to me, and in bowing, their guilt will be removed and I shall rouse faith in their purified hearts. Then will these godless men be saved.
The desire was strong in Chaitanya's heart to convert his fellow-pandits. This step was but a final expression of that zealous spirit which had created the movement.
As long as he remained a man of Navadvīpa, one among others, his cause could be but a party; to sever all local ties and become one of that great body of India's holy men, might give his movement an impetus that should carry it forward over all opposition.
With some such expectation, and hoping that his action might be the means of finally touching the hearts and winning the allegiance of those with whom he had once been associated,
he at last decided to break life's dearest ties, and, abandoning everything, to set out upon the way of the homeless wanderer.