Personality of Sri Caitanya

Chapter 2: Personality of Sri Caitanya

(Lecture delivered at the ‘’Guild of the Young Clergy’’ at Bolton near Manchester in England, in December, 1933. Swamiji was accompanied by Hon'ble Marshall Brooks of Tarporley in Barkshire, England, brother-in-law of Earl of Willingdon, the Viceroy of India. The Bishop of Manchester presided):

Friends,

The career of Śrī Caitanya may be identified with his teachings, in conformity with his own dictum that no one can be a preacher of religion who does not act up to his own teaching. His career is a constant search for God in the overwhelming anguish of separation from his Divine Beloved. This is the basic note and it becomes explicit from the time of his initiation into spiritual life in his eighteenth year. It reaches its climax in the twelve concluding years of his career. His career is considered by his followers to be identical with Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The doctrine to which this consideration leads is that God alone confers his own distinctive service in the process of serving Himself. This also constitutes the personality of the All-pervasive God-Visnu-in concrete form. In other words, the activities of Śrī Caitanya are realised as belonging to the plane of positive transcendence. His career cannot be correctly described, nor fully understood, by those who have not transcended the physical and mental planes by submitting to a regular course of spiritual training under the expert guidance of a true Guru. As the real significance of his career becomes apparent to the enlightened soul, it is necessary and important to make a scientific study of the accounts of his career penned by his inspired followers.

The personality and career of all prophets are regarded by their followers as the concrete criterion of their respective teachings. This imparts to their teaching a quality of living interest by bringing them within the scope of historical treatment. In the case of the career of Śrī Caitanya this interest is fully retained in its original essence by the literary labours of a group of enlightened writers who strictly adhere to their realisation of the transcendental, and help their readers to check any tendency towards a wrong historical judgment. The teaching of Śrī Caitanya should, therefore, be approached from the point of view of his personality and career. By following this method the reader will avoid the supposition that Śrī Caitanya's teachings refer to the experience of an unspiritual life led by the people of this world. This is the only way to understand the spiritual meaning of his career and teaching. It is not possible to have any conscious dealings with God on our own terms. There is a body of opinion that it is not, therefore, necessary to seek for such communion, that the Quest of God is useless. The absence of harmony in this world is thus accepted as an immutable fact by those who are opposed on principle to the Personality and initiative of God. It is also feared that this world ceases to function if its discords were completely eliminated. The Non-absolutist is a mundane Positivist. The modern scientific mind is practically in sympathy with him.

But it is not practicable to shut our eyes to the existence of evils in this world and to refrain from all attempts to cure them effectively. This ethical need is not satisfied with the “status quo". The ethical instinct is in favour of purposeful activity in the higher sense, and ethics in its turn leads to the quest of the Absolute. Unless a person is deeply ethical he has no need to think comprehensively about the problem of evil. He can also never be fully interested in the establishment of a state of real harmony. It is possible to seek for harmony without being a dreamer or idealist. Plato and Aristotle do not exhaust between them the resources of human endeavour. The Scriptures of India present us with a definite conception of the personality of God with an eternal active initiative in the affairs of men. The Greek idea did not rise to the necessity of this conception. Neither Plato nor Aristotle ever suspected the possibility of a method of quest that is neither positive in the worldly sense, nor idealistic. If the Absolute is always taking the initiative it becomes necessary to take cognisance of this basic fact of our existence.

The path of the Srutis ( the path of listening to ) of the Indo-Aryan theology has not yet been adequately considered by the scientific thinkers of the West. It is so different from all current methods that it is liable to be regarded as almost puerile unless one is prepared to undergo a complete reversal of one's accustomed mode of thinking on the subject of the Absolute. It is often heard even of cultured persons that they talk slightly of the doctrine of the Descent of transcendence by relying on the wrong views of the worldly scholars. It is, therefore, necessary to take the subject out of the hands of persons who are by temperament and training prejudiced against its very necessity. The Absolute is self-contained. He does not stand in need of any help from His exponents even for His descent to the mundane plane. The whole credit of the process belongs entirely to the Absolute. His so-called exponents receive from Him their power of becoming the medium of communication. This is the root of the process. All literary exponents of the Scriptures of India, especially in these days, do not always possess the humility of spirit that is necessary to accept mediums of divine communication. The personality of Śrī Caitanya reveals to us the Medium as identical with the Word. God is ultimately his own Medium of Appearance. The Samskrta language is a product of the deluding potency of God in the same way as any other language of The Word. The Word is not any language of this world. In this sense the Samskritists are not in a better position than those who are entirely ignorant of that language, for understanding the subject-matter of the Scriptures of India. The misinformed Samskritist is in a worse position in this respect than the others, because he may be more disposed to rely on the resources of mundane scholarship for arriving at the Truth, but this is not the path of the Sruties or the Upanisads, which lies in the preceptorial order. The only path is that of listening to the discourses about God that have been recorded in the scriptural literature. It is, however, also forbidden by the scriptures of the Hindus, to listen to those discourses from the lips of any person who is not a Sādhu. We are enjoined to listen to the words of a Sādhu by the method of unconditional submission to the word of a Sādhu as well as to medium of His descent. The medium is not less divine than the Word. But this part of the doctrine was never before given to the world in its elaborate form as we have it now. The personality of Śrī Caitanya has revealed the Divinity of the function of the Medium.

The complaint is sometimes heard from otherwise well-informed quarters that Caitanya has not left to us any detailed exposition of his doctrine written by himself as has been done by almost all the famous Teachers of the eternal function of the soul. There is a very good reason why Śrī Caitanya did not write any book. He put all stress on the personality of the Sādhu or the Medium. The Sadhu is the only reality accessible to the people of this world. The Scriptures themselves possess at best a derivative spiritual value. Śrī Caitanya, although he was reputed to be the greatest scholar of his time, did not place any great emphasis on the study of the Scriptures as the method to be followed in the quest of God. The method that he promulgated is known as Samkirtana, which means literally “singing the Word or Name of Kṛṣṇa in the company of Sādhus,"

The form of worship of God that is available to the people of this world is that of Sankirtana. God is to be served in the form of the Word. The Word manifests its appearance on the lips of the Sādhu. The Word manifests its descent in the form of mundane language into the fleshly ear of persons whose soul's ear is shut against it. The perforation of the fleshly ear has to be effected before a person is in a position to listen with his soul's ear to the transcendental Name as God is. This perforation is effected also by the power of the Word appearing on the lips of the Sadhu. The method of Sankirtana, therefore, reveals the function of the Sadhu in its least ambiguous and only accessible form. The Scriptures have not escaped their exploitation by non-sādhus for non-spiritual purposes. They are intended to be studied by those who are afflicted with the mistaken hankering for mundane scholarship. In order to cure this evil propensity the study of the Scriptures at the feet of the Sādhu was prescribed as a punitive but remedial activity. It is not necessary for any person to study the Šāstras separately in the manner analogous to that the students of this world for attaining a knowledge of the Truth. The chanting of the Word is accompanied by the automatic manifestation of the perfect knowledge of God that is declared in a symbolic form by the Scriptures. Śrī Caitanya acted the part of the greatest of Sādhus, viz, the part of Śrī Rādhā. The greatness of the Spiritual Masters have no literary or other forms of worldly ambition. It is not empty words that have been written by the followers of Śrī Caitanya when they apologise for recording the activities of Śrī Caitanya, lest those records might be misunderstood. They wrote by the express Command of God. They accordingly always write only in praise of the Word. According to Śrī Caitanya, that Word, as object of worship, is Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The records of the Scriptures in their living form are the Body of the Divinity. They are simultaneously the Object of worship as well as the worshipper or teacher of worship. As teacher of worship the word is nearer to humanity. The scriptural records are only a part of the Whole. Śrī Caitanya is not merely the living form of the records of the Scriptures, but he also exceeds all records. It is very difficult for the literary pedant to open his heart fully to receive the Whole Truth in preference to his mistaken views imbibed by the study of the scriptural literature in the light of cramped and perverted understanding,

The scriptural records enŚrīne the Arcā or symbolic Image of the Word as spoken Sound. The Sound is the Absolute Entity. The record is the symbol of the transcendental Sound. Listening to and chanting of the Name are direct service of God. The service is not available except by the causeless grace of the pure devotee on whose lips alone the Word manifests its appearance. The spiritual nature of this process is also entirely hidden from the understanding of persons who are not blessed by the mercy of the Sadhu. The transcendental epistemological circle is completed by the personality of the Sadhu. The scriptures have to be studied at the feet of the Sadhu. They can be studied only by those who are permitted to study them. This raises the interesting point as to the relationship of our dedicated mundane activities to the substantive spiritual service that is performed by the soul in the unconditioned state. The study of the Scriptures may be practiced as dedicated activity, or for the satisfaction of our mental and physical needs. The result obtained by the former method will be spiritual. The latter method will lead to wrong views about spiritual entities treated in the scriptures. It is very difficult to get rid of one's wrong impressions when they have once been formed by a study of the scriptures in the ordinary way.

It is very difficult for a person who is, mundanely speaking, well versed in the scriptural literature to admit even to himself his complete ignorance of the subject-matter treated in the Scriptures. But unless a person is willing to learn everything from the lips of the Sādhu, he is not eligible by the scriptural tests for spiritual enlightenment. Even when this principle is intellectually admitted by a scriptural scholar he cannot in practice avoid being prejudiced in favour of his previously formed literary conclusions. He has to go through the process of unlearning for the attainment of that perfect openness of submissive judgment that is the prerequisite of spiritual pupilage. The pupilage can only begin thereafter.

The conclusions reached by a person who studies the Scriptures by the method of complete submission at the feet of the Spiritual Teachers point to “Sambandha Jñāna” or knowledge of one's relationship with God. The actual realization of this relationship is accompanied by the true knowledge of such relationship. As a matter of fact there is no such difference, as between cause and effect, between the knowledge of relationship and practice of the same. In proportion as such relationship is actually practiced, the knowledge is perfected. Such is the nature of the positive spiritual function which is indivisible. The study of the Scriptures cannot lead to the realization of one’s spiritual relationship with God. There is no reason why it should do so. But if this relationship is not realised, nothing has been really gained by such study. If the Scriptures are studied under instructions of the Spiritual Preceptor, such study becomes thereby the practice of service by the devotee to God. As the devotee is a perfect medium the study permitted by him is permitted by God. It is for this reason that the result of such study tends to spiritual enlightenment as its concomitant included aspect.

When Śrī Kṛṣṇa manifested his Birth in the prison of King Kamsa in his Four-armed Form, Śrī Devaki, His Mother, confessed to the Divine Baby that all people of this world would scoff at the idea that the Absolute Śrī Kṛṣṇa has been born as her Son; and she, therefore, prayed that He should not disclose his Divine Form to any other person for her sake. The Scriptures forbid us to divulge our individual spiritual experience to those who are sure to receive such communication with suspicion. The Scriptures, i. e., the Vedas, the Brāhmaṇas, the Upanişads, Purānas do not teach us to conceal the Truth but to preach Him, with due consideration for the status of the congregation. Those who are vain enough to imagine that they can measure the greatness of Śrī Caitanya by comparing Him with the famous Ācāryas or Teachers who have recorded their teaching in their priceless works for the good of humanity are likely to be disappointed on making the discovery that he wrote no books of any description. But his career was the subject-matter of a large body of records that were penned in his time and subsequently by a group of his devotees.

Śrī Rūpa and Śrī Sanātana Goswāmins, who were living in Vrndavana, indeed, wrote almost exclusively about Śrī Kṛṣṇa. They were employed to record the teaching of the Supreme Lord. Śrī Caitanya taught the people of this world how Śrī Kṛṣṇa is served by Śrī Rādha, His Divine Counterpart or Consort. The Vrndavana Goswāmins have accordingly treated of the personality of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. They devoted themselves to treat the Divine Personality of Śrī Kṛṣṇa as the object of relationship as practice of relationship and as love. They described the personality of Śrī Rādhā in greater detail than even that of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The Goswāmins were associated counterparts of Śrī Caitanya, through whom he manifested his teaching of the service of Śrī Kṛṣṇa, in the form of literary compositions.

Another group of his associates put into writing his own personality. These records are no less important than the books written by the Goswāmins about Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The personality of Śrī Caitanya can alone give us the real clue to that of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The personality of Śrī Caitanya is identical with his teaching, and his teaching reveals the personality of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. But it is nevertheless possible for even conditioned soul to understand the personality of Śrī Caitanya. It is never possible for any conditioned soul not to misunderstand the personality of Śrī Caitanya. Therefore, the subject-matter of the second group of writers is alone really accessible to the conditioned souls of this world. But the personality of Śrī Caitanya has also been unnecessarily misunderstood and misrepresented by both professed and misguided opponents of his teaching. It is impossible for any person really to misunderstand the career of Śrī Caitanya as narrated by his associates and genuine followers. But although it is not possible to misunderstand the account of Śrī Caitanya's activities preserved in the genuine records, it is nevertheless very rarely, indeed, that any person is truly inclined to follow the life of devotion that is exemplified by the career of Śrī Caitanya and his associates.

This serving inclination can also be produced only by listening to the narrative of his career from the lips of pure devotees by the method of submission. The career of Śrī Caitanya has been comprehensibly described in two complementary works, viz., Śrī Caitanya-Bhāgavata by Thākur Vrndāvanadāsa and Śrī Caitanya-Caritāmrta by Śrīla Kṛṣṇadāsa Kavirāja Goswāmi. So far I have attempted to show that Śrī Caitanya should not be classed with the intellectual heroes of this world. Intellectualism represents a department of the perverse activity of the soul in the conditioned state. The career of Śrī Caitanya provides the only remedy for this delusion of ineffectualism. But Śrī Caitanya was also not subject to emotionalism. He displayed the acme of the true aesthetic activity. But those activities have no relation to objects or experience of this world which are the source of the aesthetic inspiration of poets and artists of this world. It is for this reason that the ordinary artistic temperament fails utterly to appreciate the truly aesthetic performances of the Supreme Lord. That which ministers to the gratification of the senses of Kṛṣṇa lies beyond the scope of the sensuous range of conditioned souls. The transcendental aesthetics of the conduct of Śrī Caitanya is the cure for the malady of mundane emotionalism of every description. Mundane intellectualism and mundane emotionalism are, however, perversions of the corresponding spiritual aptitudes. Mere abstention from intellectualism and emotionalism does not cure one of these weaknesses by annihilating the corresponding spiritual aptitudes. Yet this suicidal goal is the ideal of deluded asceticism. Neither the epicure nor the stoic nor any admixture of the two can satisfy the yearning of the pure soul. Pleasure and pain, knowledge and ignorance of this world are alike useless for the purpose of the soul. These experiences belong to the mudane plane which is foreign to the essence of the soul.

We have been put in our present unnatural position by our utter forgetfulness of the personality of God. In the attempt to get back to our normal state we sometimes profess to follow the teachings of the Scriptures. But our want of knowledge of the nature of the personality of God makes it impossible for us to understand the spiritual contents of the Scriptures. We nevertheless often choose to suppose that we really understand the message. It is only the sādhu who is in a position to disabuse us of our so-called religious views by enabling us to approach the Divine Personality as He is. But we are also liable to misunderstand the personality of the sādhu even when we are afforded the opportunity of actually listening to his words. Unless, however, it is possible for us to understand the attitude that must be adopted by us for learning the Truth from the lips of the sādhu we can have no other way of regaining our unalloyed spiritual state. We cannot present the right attitude towards the genuine Spiritual Teacher until we have a true knowledge of his spiritual personality. The career of Śrī Caitanya can help us to understand the spiritual personality of the pure devotee. The narratives of his career, indeed, concentrate on this vital issue.

It is really a question of being enabled to know ourselves. Our souls are not physical or mental entities. But we have at present apparently no available means of understanding what we really are. The nature of the soul passes all human understanding. It is not possible to understand the spiritual nature of the soul except as the personality of the sādhu. The personality of Śrī Caitanya is the divine archetype of the personality of the devotee of God in his fullest and unambiguous manifestation. The personality of Śrī Caitanya thus supplies ultimate clue to the meaning of the Scriptures which teach us to realise the eternal function of our souls by serving the sādhus. The service of the sādhus is not practicable if we willfully ignore or misunderstand the personality of the sādhu. All misunderstandings on the subject could fully be removed if we could realise that to serve the sādhu is identical with serving the Absolute. The identity of the Absolute Personality with that of His servitors is represented by the Personality of Śrī Caitanya. In describing the personality of Caitanya the sādhu is really employed in supplying us with an account of the spiritual personality of ourselves at the source. As a matter of fact the principles of personality is the one abiding verity in every position. Everything else is futile.

It is necessary to grasp this fact in some detail. The personality of God is not devoid of the relative reference to Himself. This is the principle of quality in the One Indivisible Person. The reciprocity inside the single personality is, however, the exclusive nature of the Absolute. The reciprocal side of His personality is both Medium as well as the Reciprocals of His Manifestation to Himself Śrī Caitanya, the Reciprocal side, does not appear in the individualistic position. The Reciprocal side in his case is the whole entity turned inside out, if one may use such an expression in regard to the integer. The reciprocal divine personality also eternally appears as an individual alongside the Integer. This does not make the Integer lose his reciprocal side. The Manifestation to his reciprocals through his reciprocals is simultaneously an identity and a projection of the divine personality. This is nothing trivial except the absence of the conscious realization of our reciprocal relationship to the Absolute Integer. Every detail of the Absolute in His Manifestation of the principles of incorporated but real reciprocity to Himself must, therefore, be only means of self-revelation of all individual reciprocals, through this reference of identity with the Absolute. The personality of Śrī Caitanya is the source of all entitative individual existence. His name, form, qualities and entourage are pervertedly reflected to our deluded understanding in the forms of the entities of this world as perceived by us through our senses. The question of triviality is relevant only if it is applied to the whole of this mundane experience. The quarrels between the learned and the ignorant, the trivial and the valuable of this world are the hollow, unintelligible shadows of the perfect activities of God in the subjective reciprocation with Himself and objectively in reciprocation with the infinity of his real individual reciprocals in the realm of God.

The spoken transcendental Sound is the Divine Medium of communication between conditioned and unconditioned souls. In the form of the Word, God communicates Himself most unambiguously to the individual soul. God is, of course, free to appear as Name, Form, Quality, Activities or Servitor. But the Name is the declared mode of His appearance in this world. It does not follow that it is the only truly accessible mode to persons of all conditions. Accordingly the Form, Quality and Entourage of God, even when They make their appearance in this world, can also be properly approached only through the Word, and in the word. If we cannot approach the personality of God through His name, by what other method is it feasible for us to realize him? The gross body can, indeed, be approached by the senses of sight and touch. But the personality of God has no physical body. The mind of a person can be approached neither by the mind nor by the physical senses. The physical ear cannot approach the Name of Kṛṣṇa. The Name of Kṛṣṇa is a spiritual Entity. It is identical with the personality of Kṛṣṇa. The impersonal conception of personality makes a distinction between the mind and body of a person and the principle that underlies the activities of both without sharing their entities; but the defect of such a conception consists in its intangibility. If the mind and the body are taken away from a person, it is not possible for us to understand in any definite manner what is left of that person. It is, of course, possible and easy to change the name of a person in this world without interfering with him in any way. The name is, thus, an unconnected part of a person in this world. Why then should we suppose that the name is identical with the person on the spiritual plane? This is no doubt the reason of our great unwillingness to accept a doctrine that is wholly opposed to our ordinary experience. If we were allowed to act in accordance with our experience we would certainly prefer to approach the divine mentally in an abstract way. The method of the higher mathematics would be considered as most suitable for such a purpose. By symbolisation and generalization we succeed in getting rid of obstacles of name, form, quality, activity and environment of any thing of this world that we wish to examine thoroughly. It is not possible for us to try to get at the truth of a thing of this world only by concentrating on its isolated aspects. If the thing in itself is neither name, form, etc. it becomes necessary to isolate it from these accidentals in order to examine the substratum by the method of concentration. In the Yoga of Patañjali we accordingly find that the student who is willing to realize the nature of the underlying substance is required to cultivate the exclusive state (samādhi) in which the mind is rendered perfectly inactive, the assumption being that if the soul or substance is not interfered with by the accidentals, he can find his own nature automatically. But as a matter of fact it is not possible to put aside our mental activity in such an artificial manner. It can only apparently be made to cease. But it continues to operate all the while with increasing vigor on the sub-conscious plane. The exclusiveness that is thus produced resembles the state of intoxication, and the experiences gained during such state of enforced exclusiveness are of the nature of hallucinations that are produced by intoxications. The soul has to be approached by the resources of the soul. The starting point in the process is the awakening of the soul against the obstructive activities of the body and mind. This is possible with the help of a really awakened soul. The initiative must lie with the awakened soul if the experiment is to be successful. The difficulty is that it may not be possible for the dormant soul to recognise or accept the help of the awakened soul on the spiritual plane. But this difficulty also can be removed by the causeless active help of the awakened soul becoming available to the dormant soul.

But if the substratum or the soul is really uncontaminated with the physical and mental ingredients, how is it possible to approach him positively with one's body and mind while one's soul continues to be dormant? The activity of the body and the mind coincides with the dormant state of the soul. The inhibition of mental activity, that is sought to be affected by physical and mental methods, is itself a negative form of physical and mental activity. It can, therefore, never lead to natural awakening of the soul in and through such activities. The soul can be awakened only by the positive activity of itself, or even of another soul towards him. The accidents of body and mind, and the accident of these accidents in the form of the name, must also have their counterparts in the eternal substance or the reality. This is so because there can be nothing outside Reality. The body and mind are not wholly unconnected with the substratum, as is assumed by the impersonalist view. Neither can we accept any practical guidance from the thorough-going negative thinker in our endeavor to discover the positive spiritual method. We should not, therefore, attach more importance to the negative guesses of impersonalists regarding the actual nature of the soul, than to be statements of persons who possess positive knowledge of the Reality. Our knowledge of this phenomenal world is accumulated and extended with the help of language. The kinder-garten-system, that follows the method of propagating knowledge with the help of all the senses, does not aim at abolishing the traditional method of learning from books. The linguistic method takes the help of the articulated sound as well as visual representation of the form of sound by means of the written line. But sound is not dependent on line which forms only subordinate illustrative and conservating functions, The living factor in the process is language. It is, therefore, no reversal of the traditional method to have recourse to the medium of language in our endeavour to realize transcendence. The words of the sadhu communicate to us in symbolic form his realized experience of transcendence. It is the best of all available methods for such communication. The process in this case is not wholly negative. The words of the sādhu even in their negative aspect must always point to the positive, although to us inconceivable, entities. For this reason they cannot be wholly untrue. The sādhu speaks about the name, form, qualities, activities and realm of God. It is not possible for us to understand their meaning in the positive sense until we have been equipped with the requisite spiritual faculties. For such resuscitation of our dormant spiritual faculties also cannot rely on any better method than listening to his words. In this world language is used in the way that leads to untruth. The proper names of the entities in this world do not convey any real meaning. The general is not contained in the particular. But if we merely continue to move away from the particular, how can we hope to come back to it with increased knowledge? The relation of unity to plurality is not such that residual individual aspect should be counted as of less importance. Such a view destroys all possibility of bringing the general under the particular. Yet this must be the ultimate object of all converging generalizations.

The use of language by the sādhu is accordingly different both in its method and purpose, from that of the people of this world. The sādhu starts with the proper name and seeks to derive other particulars from this particular. He does not try to take a partial view of his function to the letters and words of his language. He does not look upon sound as a dead instrument. This is the initial blunder of the linguists of the world. Their neglect of particulars is exemplified by their neglect of sound which is to give them there knowledge of the world and all other knowledge, in this fullest measure. All the revealed scriptures propose that the word is both instrument for communication and acquisition of the knowledge of things, as well as the entity of the things themselves, the knowledge of which is thus communicated and realized. Why should it be considered so impossible to believe this doctrine? Why do we assume that the word and the entity signified by the word must be unconnected by any substantive bond. Transcendental epistemology, as we find in the Scriptures, makes a distinction of Sound. It tells us to approach things by submitting to the initiative of the enlightening potency of living Sound. The eclipsing function leads to the experience of dead material existence. The name of God should be allowed to draw the visual Form of God. This Form is also audible to the ear that does not want to dominate and thereby to deaden itself against the initiative of God in the form of the word. The scriptures distinguish between mundane sound and transcendental sound. The dominating ear can receive only mundane sound. The dominating voice can utter only dead words. These functions take place on the plane of the eclipsing potency. They are off the plane of Reality. But never-theless Reality is also only one. The eclipsing potency does not exist apart from the Reality. It is a particular function of the enlightening, i, e, the substantive or Real Potency. But the two things are also incompatible from our point of view. It is not possible to follow all these details in the proper manner by the negative method of exposition that alone is at our disposal. The name alone can help us to obtain a footing on the positive plane of Reality. It will cost us nothing to agree to accept the method. It does not involve the sacrifice or curtailment of any rival principle. As a matter of fact there is no really rival principle to truth. This will be realized if we agree to serve the Truth in the positive manner. The Scriptures in the form of the Word draw the personality of God, Who reserves the right of not being exposed to the piece-meal dominating activity of the human senses and mind. It is for this reason that the office of the sādhu as medium of communication for bringing about the Descent of the word in the form of the Sound, who can also be properly served only by sādhu is absolutely necessary to save us from depriving ourselves of the study of the Scriptures by the unskilful use of our faculties.

The personality of Śrī Caitanya has been depicted by his devotees. There is nothing ambiguous in their delineation of the activities of Caitanya. The only difficulty is that we are not fully prepared to study the narrative in the light supplied by the writers. We always suppose that we are better judges of the subject-matter for our purpose than any body else. But this is not so in the case of the conditioned soul. He can not possess the true purpose in studying such a narrative. He must, therefore, submit to drive his purpose also from the narrative itself. If he sincerely tries to do so, he should find that it is impossible for him to understand most things. He should not, therefore, the mistaken conclusion that it is not possible or necessary to try to understand the whole position. This kind of despair is responsible for the currency of imperfect and misleading versions of the narrative. The sādhu who is on the plane of the absolute does not feel helpless in the same way as the non-devotee. The helplessness of the sādhu in the presence of God is not an exhibition of his ignorance of the Truth. It is a part of the process of his central progressive realization of God in and through His service. It is the substantive nature of true humility. The helplessness of the non-devotee is only his unsubmissiveness and perversity. Śrī Caitanya is described as having the form which exactly resembles that of a human being. His form is described in minute detail. The method of these writers is to record everything about Śrī Caitanya that comes within their recollection. The personal appearance has very much to do with the personality of God. Certain things about the Name has already been told here. The name is identical with His Form in the case of God. The Form implies contour of body, width and height of the body, colour of the body, limbs of the body, substance of the body, expression of the eyes, face etc. These can be perceived directly only by the eye. These particulars are described in the narrative by means of language. When therefore it is said that the Name is identical with the form, it means that the ear which can hear the Name, can also perceive the Form. It also means that the ear can see the Form only by trying to hear the form of God by looking at Him even when He appears in His apparently visible Form in this world. Such statements should not be considered as opposed to all ordinary experience. What is our ordinary conception of personality? Do we leave out all reference to the physical appearance from our idea of personality? There would than be no personality if it were also properly applicable only to personality. Individuality has, however, reference to the difference between one entity and another. But personality has reference to the whole position of the individual. But in this world personality is mainly connected with conduct and character. It is by no means completely identified with the name. Thus the whole of an individual entity is not equally brought under the principle of personality. Emphasis is laid not only upon the possession of conscious initiative but of a clear purpose in every respect. The scriptures of declare that the Name of God is identical with the Personality of God and is also more easily approachable than even the visible Form of God. But the name of God is also the possessor of power. It never appears unattended by. power The power of the Name is also a person. The sādhu is such a person. Therefore the Name always appears on the lips of the sādhu. The name also appears in the records of the scriptures. But in the scriptures the Name does not possess the Form of the Sound. In the records the symbol of His Form is visible to the eye. The eye cannot see the Form of God nor communicate Him to the ear. The proper sequence of the process is reversed when we try to approach God by the study of the records instead of by listening to the Word in the Form of Sound from the lips of the sādhu.

The name of Śrī-Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya is identical with His personality. It is possible for one to approach the Name of Śrī Caitanya even in one's conditioned state. The Name of Kṛṣṇa can be approached through the Name of Śrī Caitanya This is possible because Śrī Caitanya is the same person as Śrī Kṛṣṇa. But the personality of Śrī Caitanya corresponds aIso to his function as the servant of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The personality of Śrī Caitanya is not separate entity different from the entity of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. The personality of Śrī Caitanya is the complementary factor of the same person. Śrī Kṛṣṇa includes His servant. The Form of God as Master includes that of His servant. God is also never servant of any person. But He is the only Master of all other persons. It is therefore necessary to be cautious in approaching the personality of Śrī Caitanya. He must not be regarded as an individual soul. He should not also be considered to be anything else than Kṛṣṇa. The role of His servant belongs eternally to Kṛṣṇa as the Absolute. In Him, the servant is identical with the master, and in approaching Him as the servant we must not cease to remember that He is also the master. If one tries to approach Him only as the servant of Kṛṣṇa, he commits the mistakes of ignoring his personality as Master. This is the only caution that it is necessary to practise by those who wish to follow the teachings of Śrī Caitanya as recorded by His associates and followers. The objection to our acceptance of an historical personage is not insurmountable. Why should not one object to be instructed by any one else except God? When we approach the devotee of God, to be instructed about God, we do so with the conviction that God Himself teaches us through the mouth of His devotee. But at the same time we do not consider the devotee to be the same person as God. We regard the devotee as the medium of the divine message to us. But the question as to the nature of the personality of the devotee should also engage our most serious attention. It is necessary to be acquainted with the nature of the personality of the devotee for the reason that every person is not a transparent medium of communication of the Truth to conditioned souls. But it is also impossible to recognise the transparent medium by the resources of one's conditioned state. In order that all conditioned souls may be eligible to distinguish rightly between the transparent and opaque mediums Śrī Caitanya himself appeared in this world in his eternal divine form and role of his own servant or of the perfect devotee. It is never possible for any one to approach God except through His devotees. So that devotee is both distinct and non-different from the personality of the Divinity.

The personality of Śrī Caitanya has accordingly been declared by his devotees as being identical with the teaching of the Scriptures. His personality is nevertheless primarily the personality of the best of His servants. Those, therefore, who see to approach him as the Master who is also not servant commit an offense no less serious than those who regard him as servant who is also not the Master. The proper manner of approaching him is to regard him as the Master revealing his personality of servant, in order to accept our services as his servants in his own form of servant. The name of God is the only spiritual entity that can help us in acquiring actual contact with the transcendence. This truth is presented to us as the personality of Śrī Caitanya. His career is a search for the Absolute on the lines of the teachings of the Scriptures. This is no hypothetical search as is practiced with barren philosophies by a misapplication of the scientific method. The Supreme Lord reveals to us the spiritual personality of His devotee who is the eternal seeker of His Service. This function can be understood only in terms of personality in its all-inclusive sense. We must not, however, try to whittle down the very principle of personality by impersonal predilections engendered by our long experience of the unwholesome perverted shadow of the Real personality of God. The personality of Śrī Caitanya is the combination of the Real Personality of God and His dearest servant.