Caitanya Caritamrta Madhya Lila 20.66-96

Caitanya Sends Gosvamis to Excavate Vrindavana

📅 November 27, 1966 📍 New York ⏱ 30 min
True renunciation means complete independence from all material attachment, bringing unlimited joy to the spiritual master.
Listen — Srila Prabhupada Uvaca

Transcript Preview

Prabhupāda: prabhu kahe—'tomāra dui-bhāi prayāge mililā rūpa, anupama-duìhe vṛndāvana gelā' [Cc Madhya 20.66] [Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu said, ”I met your two brothers, Rūpa and Anupama, at Prayāga. They have now gone to Vṛndāvana.”] So Lord Caitanya informed Sanātana Gosvāmī that "Your two other brothers, I met them at Prayāga, and they have started for Vṛndāvana." Lord Caitanya deputed the Sanātana Gosvāmī and Rūpa Gosvāmī to excavate the glories of Vṛndāvana. Before Lord Caitanya, the Vṛndāvana city was not there. The present Vṛndāvana city was not there.

It was all forgotten practically. But when Lord Caitanya visited this land He first of all pointed out Radha-kunda and then He made a survey, and His assistants, these Gosvāmīs, they went there, and this present Vṛndāvana was constructed by the disciples of Lord Caitanya. So He said that "I have instructed your two brothers, Rūpa Gosvāmī, to go to Vṛndāvana, and I have met them." tapana-miśrere āra candraśekharere prabhu-ājñāya sanātana mililā doìhāre [Cc Madhya 20.67] [By the order of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, Sanātana Gosvāmī met both Tapana Miśra and Candraśekhara.] And He was guest in the house of Tapana Miśra. So He introduced Tapana Miśra with Sanātana Gosvāmī. tapana-miśra tabe tāìre kailā nimantraṇa prabhu kahe—'kṣaura karāha, yāha, sanātana' [Cc Madhya 20.68] [Tapana Miśra then extended an invitation to Sanātana, and Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu asked Sanātana to go get a shave.] The Tapana Miśra invited him that "Please accept your bhikṣā at my place." It is the system when a sannyāsī, or renounced order of life, is in the village or in the vicinity of a...

So it is the Hindu system that somebody will invite. So Tapana Miśra invited him to take..., accept prasādam at his place, and Lord Caitanya said that "First of all you get him to a barber and have him cleansed of, of his beard and hairs which has grown for so many days. Let him become a gentleman." The Lord said that "Let him become a gentleman." candraśekharere prabhu kahe bolāñā 'ei veṣa dūra kara, yāha iìhāre lañā' [Cc Madhya 20.69] [After this, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu called Candraśekhara and asked him to take Sanātana Gosvāmī with him. He also asked him to take away Sanātana’s present dress.] "Just get him to a barber and clean, clean-shaving." According to the Caitanya Mahāprabhu's sampradāya, they keep themself clean-shaving.

And only single instance is there, Advaita Prabhu. He had His beard. And Caitanya Mahāprabhu never asked Him to cleanse. Because one reason is that Advaita Prabhu was just contemporary to His father, so He did not like to dictate.

But otherwise, all His disciples, they were clean-shaved. bhadra karāñā tāìre gaìgā-snāna karāila śekhara āniyā tāìre nūtana vastra dila [Cc Madhya 20.70] [Candraśekhara then made Sanātana Gosvāmī look like a gentleman. He took him to bathe in the Ganges, and afterwards he brought him a new set of clothes.] Then, after getting him washed in the Ganges and cleansed by a barber, Candraśekhara offered him a new pair of clothing and... sei vastra sanātana nā kaila aìgīkāra [Cc Madhya 20.71]. [Candraśekhara offered a new set of garments to Sanātana Gosvāmī, but Sanātana did not accept them. When Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu heard news of this, He became unlimitedly happy.] And Sanātana Gosvāmī did not accept that new clothing. Śuniyā prabhura mane ānanda apāra. And when Lord Caitanya Mahāprabhu heard it that Sanātana Gosvāmī, after renouncement, he's not going to accept any new clothing... So for a really renounced person is that whatever clothing is thrown in the street, he'll collect and he'll wear it.

He would not purchase any new clothing. That is the order of strictly one who follows... Cīrāṇi. Sanātana...

Svarūpa... Śukadeva Gosvāmī, in the Bhāgavata, he said that "Whether old clothings and torn clothings cannot be had on the street? Whether trees are not giving fruits? Whether the rivers are dried up? Whether the caves in the mountain, they are closed?

DetachmentSpiritual MasterRenunciationBhaktiAssociation of DevoteesDevotional Service
← All Srila Prabhupada lectures