Lord Chaitanya’s “Manjari-Swarupa”

By: Babhru Dasa

Since time immemorial, unscrupulous persons have believed Sri Radha and Sri Krsna to be nothing more than mere “archetypes,” for invoking religious ideals of “love.” Generally speaking, such persons think that everyone is actually God and that nobody is truly the servant of God. In their mind, one is only the “servant of God” until they come to a high enough level to realize they are “factually God.” And even further, they generally believe that such practice is only a vehicle to attain complete dissolution in the impersonal brahman. Such groups of people are known by several names, most prominently as adwaitavadis and mayavadis. But there are also “offshoot” sects of gaudiya-vaishnavism that are considered to be deviant due to preaching similarly disturbing philosophical conclusions. 

Such people even use the life of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu as a piece of evidence for their own concocted philosophy. They say, “See, He is teaching all that they should try and become Radha to experience their inner “Krsna-ness.” Although one could write an entire book on the precepts and teachings of Mahaprabhu, and why they absolutely do not align with impersonal philosophies, we will try to stick to one piece of evidence, which comes near the end of Sri Chaitanya-charitamrta. That will be brought out later in the essay.

First off, we will provide some evidence of the fact that Sriman Mahaprabhu is indeed Krsna Himself (Vishnu-tattva), and not just an ordinary conditioned soul “tatashta-jiva” like the rest of us. It is important to understand this because not everything about Mahaprabhu’s example is applicable to our own sadhana journey. 

In the Atharva Veda (Purusha-bodini Upanishad) it is said:

 “In the seventh manvantara, the Supreme Lord will, accompanied by His own associates, descend in a golden form. He will teach the chanting of His own Holy Names.”

In the eleventh canto of Srimad Bhagavatam the following verse is found:

 “In the age of Kali, intelligent persons perform congregational chanting to worship the incarnation of Godhead, who constantly sings the name of Krishna. Although His complexion is not blackish, He is Krishna Himself. He is accompanied by His associates, servants, weapons, and confidential companions.”

In the Garuda Purana the Lord Himself states:

 “To deliver the conditioned souls burning in the troubles of Kali-yuga, in the first sandhya of that age I will take birth among the brahmanas.”

“In My original spiritual form, perfect and complete, I will become the son of Shachi-devi in Navadwipa Mayapura at the beginning of Kali-yuga.”

By these statements it is indeed easily ascertained that Mahaprabhu is non-different from Krsna. Actually, there are many such evidences, but the above few are good enough for this essay. As an aside, we should understand, are there prophecies written about us? Claiming we are avatars of Vishnu? Of course not, therefore any sober person realizes this distinction between Vishnu and the conditioned jiva. That being said, there are several reasons why Krsna descended as Sriman Mahaprabhu in this age, but in this essay we will just briefly touch up on them. 

As the scriptural statements above prove, one of the main reasons he appeared was to establish the process for attaining love for Himself (uttama-bhakti via nama-kirtana).  That external campaign has proven very successful. Yet, it is known that in other kali-yuga’s the Lord simply sent one of His own dear associates to spread this “yuga-dharma” of chanting Lord Hari’s names. 

So why did He Himself come this time? There was indeed an internal reason for this. In short, Sri Krsna was thrown into an existential crisis over seeing the sublime love of Srimati Radhika for Himself. He saw that His divine feminine counterpart (Sri Radha) tasted a higher and more concentrated type of bliss as the supreme possessor of love (ashraya-alambana) than the bliss He Himself tasted as the supreme object of love (vishaya-alambana.) 

Thus Krsna was thrown into a frenzy and became desperate to taste that most precious love for Himself that Srimati Radharani is the storehouse of. Thus becoming a thief (a usual thing for Him), He stole the bhava (emotional makeup) of Sri Radha and descended into kali-yuga. Therefore he is seen as a combined avatar of Radha and Krsna. He is Krsna, but in the mood of selfless devotion personified (Sri Radha.) This is why he is golden (that is the color of Sri Radha) and not black (the color of Krsna.) He also (for all practical purposes) never really played the role as Krsna within the pastimes of the Golden Avatar. He deeply wanted to teach the “method of his madness” to all living entities (bhakti-sadhana,) and that could not really have been done if he was assuming the role of Krsna (vishaya-alambana.)

Hearing all this, one without proper philosophical orientation may think, “we are all Krsna, and also Radha. So now seeing Mahaprabhu’s example, I will also experience my inner Radha-ness as a means to taste my inner Krsna-ness.”  Of course such ideas are fabricated and never true. 

The following is an excerpt from Sri Caitanya-Caritamrita and in essence is an experience that Mahaprabhu had in the invisible realm of Vraja (aprakata-lila,) while he was in samadhi. When His followers saw him in this “unconscious” state of samadhi, they became worried and “woke” him up by chanting. The following is what he told them immediately upon becoming externally conscious.

“Today I went from here to Govardhana Hill to find out if Kṛṣṇa was tending His cows there. I saw Lord Kṛṣṇa climbing Govardhana Hill and playing His flute, surrounded on all sides by grazing cows. Hearing the vibration of Krsna’s flute, Śrīmati Rādhārāṇī and all Her gopī friends came there to meet Him (Krsna.) They were all very nicely dressed. When Kṛṣṇa and Śrīmatī Rādhārāṇī entered a cave together, the other gopīs asked Me to pick some flowers.”- Sri Caitanya Caritamrita Antya 14.106-9

This is a very peculiar statement by Mahaprabhu, considering that he is speaking from the vantage point of a “third person.” Normally, He was speaking from and experiencing the position of Srimati Radhika. To understand this statement, we must keep in mind, that factually Mahaprabhu came to taste the love of Sri Radha for Krsna, yet he also wanted to show the ideal practice, precept, and eventually perfection of a “conditioned” sadhaka like us. This idea is clearly evident of his external life as a sanyassi, and now through the above passage (and others like it) in Sri Chaitanya-Charitamrta, it has become evident in an internal way as well.

So in this passage we see He was clearly not in the position of Radha, so who was He? We must understand, Mahaprabhu was not in the Vraja-lila via his sadhaka-rupa (golden male form.) In the Vraja-lila, one needs a siddha-rupa (eternal identity as a gopi or gopa) for interacting with Sri Krsna. In this case, Mahaprabhu seems to have manifested a form in this lila as a gopi maidservant (manjari.)

Thus following Mahaprabhu’s direct example as the supreme acharya, cultivating madhurya-bhava and eventually attaining perfection as a manjari are both rather common and even emphasized in gaudiya-vaishnavism. Yet madhurya-rasa/manjari-prema are not the only perfections available for a vraja-bhakta. One could also find perfection in Vrindavan as a servant, friend, or parent of Krsna.

Another interesting aspect of this passage and those similar to it, are that they all appear towards the end of Chaitanya-charitamrta. It seems that Sriman Mahaprabhu wanted these final pastimes to specifically showcase the perfection of sadhana for a conditioned jiva, and thus be deeply engrained into the minds and hearts of all to come.

So in this way Mahaprabhu gave a simple yet bold example to all sadhakas, that perfection for a sadhaka is to be an eternal servant of Sri Sri Radha-Krsna, and to never think one “becomes Radha and Krsna.”