CHAPTER IV
Chaitanya's Contribution to the Sect
It will be helpful at this point, before we pass on to consider the development of the sect, to gather up and enumerate those influences which made Chaitanya's distinctive contribution to the movement which bears his name.
We shall not attempt to determine exactly or exhaustively the full extent of that contribution; but we can indicate at least the main lines of influence, and thus gain a clearer understanding' of his relation to the sect.
The Impress of His Character and Personality
In the potent influences emanating from Chaitanya's personality we have already seen the real origin of the sect. The materials, indeed, were not of his making; they had existed for generations in Bengal in the persons of Vaishnava adherents.
But his was the spirit that took these elements of a common faith and fused them in the fire of his own burning-devotion, until they came out a new creation-a living movement full of his own energy.
Others took and organised what the master spirit had evolved, and gave it a form by which to perpetuate itself. But nothing in all the subsequent years of the movement has been able to efface the stamp put upon it in its origin by the personality of Chaitanya.
The marks of that initial influence are to be seen in various ways. It is clearly evident, first, in the leadership with which the movement started.
We have seen how it was Chaitanya’s magnetism that drew to himself and his cause strong men who gave themselves to its faith and fortune:
Such were the Vrindāvan Gosvāmīs, who created the theology of the sect with such outstanding power.
Such were the Vedāntist scholar, Vāsudeva Sārvabhauma, Rāmānanda Rāy, the minister of state, and the powerful king, Pratāpa Rudra himself, whose adherence to Chaitanya gave the movement standing throughout Orissa.
Such an one was Nityānanda, sannyāsi and devotee of another sect, until he came under the master influence that fired his mind and set him at the task that has made his name a power in Bengal ever since.
The influence of Chaitanya is further seen in the fact that the greatest development of the sect followed the lines of his own deepest interests.
The zealous spirit which carried it throughout Bengal and Orissa within two generations of his death was no other than the spirit which he infused into the little group of followers in Nadia.
Similarly, it was his fixed idea about Vrindāvan and his earnestness in inspiring others with his own vision, that gave that great chapter to the history of the sect.
Had it not been for his enthusiasm on the subject of the recovery of the sacred sites, it is hardly likely that Bengal Vaishnavism would have had any connection whatsoever with the modern development of Vrindāvan.
The Vaishnava character is still another fact in evidence of Chaitanya's influence. A certain type has characterised the best spirits of the sect all through the years.
Its standard is the character of Chaitanya himself, whose outstanding qualities were humility, passion for God, joyousness and devotion.
There are a few Sanskrit ślokas which are quoted in the chief biography as Chaitanya's own writing. The best known of these, oft quoted by Vaishnavas, is to this effect:
Humbler than the grass, more patient than a tree, honouring others yet without honour oneself - such a one is ever worthy to take the name of Hari.
This bears the hall-mark of Chaitanya’s spirit and may well be his own verse. The inculcation of this spirit of humility bas marked the sect at all times.
The common use by a large number of Vaiṣṇava writers of the term Das (servant) instead of their own names, thus effectually obliterating their own individualities, is an illustration of the reality of this teaching and its practice.
With the other distinctive traits of the Vaishnava character as well, it is true to say that they have been cultivated after the likeness of the character of Chaitanya.
Finally, Chaitanya's influence is manifested in the persistence of the most characteristic feature of the sect:
It is precisely the same today as that which sprang up in that spontaneous outpouring of song in the Navadvīpa courtyard under the magic touch of the young Gaurāṅga:
The sankirtan was the natural expression of that group.
So it remains today the natural expression of any Vaishnava gathering. Indeed, a gathering of Vaishnavas without the sankirtan is unthinkable. It would not be itself.
The plaintive refrain, the swinging chorus, the shouting, the clangour of the familiar drum and cymbal, the swaying bodies and uplifted hands,
who does not connect these things with Chaitanya Vaishnavism?